NORTH SAILS BLOG

North Sails J/111 expert Jeremy Smart re-caps the recent world championship regatta on the Solent. The Pre-Worlds were hosted by the Royal Southern Yacht Club in Hamble on the mainland side of the Solent. Six races were sailed over two days with breezy conditions on Friday and calmer conditions on Saturday. Peter Wagner and the crew on Skeleton Key made their mark, winning five of the races and discarding a second. In second overall were Martin Dent’s JElvis on 10 points and in third Stuart Sawyer’s Black Dog on 22 points. All of the top three used North Sails 3Di RAW upwind sails. On Sunday 31st July the 14-boat fleet moved across the Solent to Cowes for a day of weighing in and race briefings. North Sails was a sponsor for the Pre-Worlds and Worlds and provided weather forecasting each day with Libby Greenhalgh, who has forecast for the British Olympic Sailing Team and Team SCA in the Volvo Ocean Race. North also donated daily prizes and had planned some drone filming but the weather proved too windy to allow this. North representatives at the event were myself on McFly, Ruairidh Scott on JElvis, Seadon Wijsen from North Sails San Francisco on Skeleton Key, Aaron Cole from North Sails Melbourne on Kestrel and Wouter Kollman from North Sails Holland on Lällekönigl. The first day of the championship proved to be the light wind day of the regatta, with the breeze between 8 -15 knots. Three races were sailed. JElvis were the winners of the day followed by Skeleton Key and McFly. For the remaining three days the wind rarely dropped below 18 knots and topped at around 30. Day Two proved to be the windiest and was to be dubbed ‘Big Tuesday’! It was the Dutch boat Sweeny who showed their form in the windy conditions taking two firsts. Video footage from the day can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3nThVJc-1M By the evening of the third day a gap was opening up between the top three boats and the rest of the fleet. In first place was Skeleton Key with 11pts, followed by JElvis with 13pts and McFly with 19pts; while the next placed boat was Sweeny at 27pts and then Kashmir with a total of 29pts. On the morning of the final day, with two races to go, these three had it all to play for! Skeleton Key didn’t get off to a good start in the first race and then struggled to fight their way back. This gave JElvis a five point lead going into the last race, and Skeleton Key nine points ahead of McFly. Skeleton Key made a good start in this race and led most of the way around. Behind them places were changing rapidly meaning the final result wasn’t certain until the second run of the race when JElvis fought back from 6th to 2nd. The final race win for Skeleton Key, however, was not enough for them to take the overall title. JElvis had sailed incredibly consistent and were counting all top three scores, securing the win by four points from Skeleton Key. McFly was third, Kashmir fourth, Sweeny fifth and Black Dog sixth overall and first Corinthian boat. North Sails is proud to have outfit 13 of the 14 boats in the fleet with a complete sail inventory for the Worlds. Martin Dent’s winning team on JElvis began sailing the J/111 in 2014 and, during their short time in the class, have shown massive improvement. Martin commented that whilst the sails are undoubtedly fast, it’s the support and advice that they have received from North Sails that has enabled them to improve so quickly. Congratulations to the crews of JElvis, Skeleton Key, and McFly; and to all the fantastic sailors throughout the J/111 fleet, on a week of exceptional racing. Full results READ MORE

WHAT WE LEARNED AT THE 2016 THISTLE NATIONALS Tuning Tips from Mike Ingham Eugene Yacht Club is a special place both on and off the water. We have raced the last two Nationals there, so we immediately signed up again this year, barely consulting our calendars. Everything else could take a back seat. When I’m asked what it is like, I say “The wind comes in like clockwork (no foulies required), the RC is spot on, the club members are gracious hosts, the camping is perfect, the scenery beautiful and there is never a drop of rain.” Fortunately, the 2016 Nationals lived up to those expectations. We got all seven races off in Northerly winds 12-15 kts out of the north: the thermal direction. This is the long direction on the lake, so the legs were full Nationals length, meaning a lot of hiking. The water was relatively flat, and the shifts pretty big. The high end of the puffs blew into the low 20’s and the low end was light where we had to sit in. Tricky stuff! The reaches were full-on planing. It was good, fun racing! The challenge to going fast was shifting gears. Those who shifted well usually finished well. It was one of the keys to our win. Here are some of the things we did: Constantly looking out for puffs and lulls and communicating. Delia counted down the puffs and lulls: “puff in 3, 2, 1 puff on”, or just as important “big lull in 3, 2, 1, lull”. She was relentlessly observant. I was clear about what mode we were in. If it was marginally overpowering, I would say: “full hike” and I would balance the helm by easing just the right amount. But if it got lighter I would say; “I am fully trimmed” so Dan and Delia would know to balance the boat by moving their body weight and I would trim to the top telltale. Dan played the vang a lot with the increased wind. The more it blew, the more he would put it down to match my easing the mainsheet to keep the mast bent. He would make his best guess at where he thought it should be and then we would talk to fine tune it. Same with the jib. If I eased the main enough to get a big bubble up front, or even flog it, Dan would crack the jib just enough to get that bubble down a little. We found if we eased too much, we would lose height, so the ease was subtle. In the lulls, when we were in that mode where Dan and Delia balanced the boat, I was very careful to trim to the top mainsail telltale. It was easy to sheet too hard because having just come off a puff, I would trim in as it got lighter. So I kept looking up at that telltale and Dan would too. He would take a quick look every time the wind changed significantly and we would talk about how much trim was right. In the flat water, I could stall it a good amount and still keep the boat moving. We adjusted the cunningham and outhaul a little, but not much. Things happened quickly and getting the “big lines” (main sheet, jib sheet, vang) and boat balance right was more important than fine tuning of the “little lines” (like the cunningham). Most of the fleet camped together, enjoying the perfect weather. The yacht club served dinner every evening. Afterward we hung out by the fire and “karate chop” sailed through the evenings. Then we started it all over again breakfast together in the morning. There was no reason to leave the grounds. We all are looking forward to the Nationals in NY next year. Those making the trek: keep in mind that there are two other regattas in NY, one in late August and one the first weekend of September. Feel free to leave your boat at Rochester Canoe Club and stick around or fly back for those. Let me know in you’re interested and I will set you up! Learn more about North Sails’ fast Thistle designs.Learn more about North Sails fast Thistle designs. NORTH NOTES: 1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9,10 Powered by North Sails! READ MORE

Doug Newhouse and his team on the J/88 Yonder won the 2016 New York Yacht Club Race Week, posting three firsts and three seconds over the eight race series. We caught up with Doug to collect some words of wisdom and reflection on racing. What conditions did you encounter at this event and how prepared were you and your team? The Race Committee really gave us the full range of sailing experiences—a stadium course, round the island, racing up the bay, and racing in the open ocean. The breeze was strong for most races, including a driving rainstorm—but in the strangest race, the breeze changed from a 10-12 knot southerly on the first four legs to zero on the fifth leg, and then to an 8-10 knot northerly in about five minutes! Our tactician wisely realized that even though we had just dropped the kite we needed to hoist it again; his quick thinking plus great crew work allowed us to win that crazy race. What was the biggest contributor to your success in winning this regatta? It all starts with the team. We have a good core group and almost everyone is a twenty-something ex-college racer. They provide energy and are excited to have fun on a new boat like the J/88. Importantly, we participated in the Sail Newport one design regatta the weekend before Race Week, and we were able to work out some issues. Everyone is talking about your incredible downwind speed. How did you guys go so fast downwind? We need to give a salute here to North Sails. Last year we had a first generation kite, and when we switched to the newest North design it made a huge difference. The shape and overall performance was a game changer. Also the crew works the weight aggressively, like a dinghy, which allows me to keep a calm tiller and focus on keeping the boat balanced. How did you set up the boat? North tuning guide all the way. Can you give us three things that you and your team would do to make your boat go fast? It’s important to keep a balanced boat—heel angle makes a big difference. Crew consistency. Practice, practice, practice… Tell us about your team; they always looked to be well positioned on the boat. Most of the crew comes from smaller boats. They are always trying to give us the best boat balance. Hopefully everyone is choreographed and can handle every situation. As the owner, driver and skipper; can you tell us how you interact with the crew during a race? No yelling—it adds stress and is counterproductive. Before we go out every day, we have a team meeting to discuss every issue that might come up. I ask everyone their opinion, starting with the youngest. After each race, we debrief if time permits. Also everyone has a defined role and mine is to drive—I don’t call tactics, I don’t trim sails, I only try to focus on moving the boat forward in the most efficient manner. What do you and your team plan to work on for future events? We need to get better. Our competitors are really great sailors and every race is up for grabs. We need to go faster—great tactics are easy with great speed. We want better sail shapes—always working to refine the sails. Crew work is always ongoing. Lastly, better starts—we were never over early but seldom first. The playbook is never finished. READ MORE

SADLER & SAULT ENTERPRISE NATIONAL CHAMPS Winners Tim Sadler & Richard Sault with Commodore David Faithfull © Gareth Fudge Congratulations to Tim Sadler & Richard Sault who have retained their title – winning the Enterprise UK National Championship for 2016! Well done also to Alice Allen and Sharky who took the prize for first Lady’s helm. Our ‪North Sails‬ powered boats dominated the top 20 coming in at 1,2,5,6,7,8,9,11,12,15,17,19. Enterprise Fleet Nationals 2016 © Gareth Fudge Johnny Allen & James Hobson © Gareth Fudge Ladies National Champion Alice Allen & Sharky with Commodore David Faithfull © Graham Fudge READ MORE

Christopher Sheehan purchased Warrior Won, a new XP-44, in 2014 with the express goal of competing in the the 2016 Newport Bermuda Race. Warrior Won took the St. David’s Lighthouse Trophy in the historic race, and we caught up with her skipper after he returned to the east coast. Approximately one third of the fleet dropped out of this year’s Newport – Bermuda Race because of the forecast (upwards of 40 knots and an especially rough sea state in the Gulf Stream). What was your thought process before leaving the dock? The decision to race was never in question. We are all seasoned offshore racers and the boat was extremely well prepared. The fact is the conditions were near perfect. I respect the owners who did withdraw out of concern for crew who may have not been prepared for even thirty knot winds, or because they had boats that may be prone to expensive breakage in sustained high winds and seas. Who was on the crew? I have always felt that the individuals with small one design racing experience are the best crew on a big boat. The final 11 were: Skipper Christopher Sheehan; Watch Captains Paul van Dyke and Doug Lynn; Navigator H.L. DeVore; Bowmen, Ryan Zupon and Chris Simon; additional crew, Peter Carpenter, Roland Schulz, Andres de Lasa, Joost-Olan Sheehan, and Carter Holliday. Collectively we had extensive ocean racing experience on board. Reviewing the tracker, it looked like Warrior Won worked hard to get east on Saturday morning, and then stayed relatively close to Rhumbline through to the finish. Was working the eastern edge your game plan from the beginning or did you improvise? Between 36 and 12 hours before the start of the race, Commanders Weather and many others suggested going S-SW to capture breeze and avoid a huge high pressure system forming over Canada and northern New England. That was sound advice, however, by Saturday morning a few very astute navigators noticed that the wind was crashing to the SW and all boats were getting severely lifted. We and a few others gybed out crossing the back of half the fleet for 25 miles heading perpendicular to the course due east, giving up a top five position to be middle of the fleet. It paid off tremendously to get east of Rhumbline and send it 161 degrees to Bermuda. Thirty miles from the finish the wind got very light but our position favored us as we stayed on Rhumbline and found ourselves in a small rain squall that carried us to the finish. In the words of our navigator, it was a “slow motion knife fight” with the four boats ahead of us. We gybed dozens of times and picked up three spots passing Siren, Maximizer and Crazy Horse. Only High Noon crossed the line before us in the St. David’s Lighthouse Division. Many boats finished under very light conditions. What was the discussion like onboard when making the decision to gybe east? Ultimately every course heading for the entire 89 hours was determined by H.L. He deliberated methodically with the watch captains and bowmen based on data gathered from various weather sources and would put Expedition Software to use to come up with an optimal course based on the data. I would say that a mere 30% of the time the computer models were right. H.L. would therefore constantly observe, with his own eyes from on deck, the condition on the water and ahead and finally would reconcile the two to make his own decision which ultimately was the winning decision. “We raced one boat length—44 feet— at a time, despite 635 miles to Bermuda. Each person would focus intensely on his role every minute whether driving, trimming, navigating, calling tactics, or observing the weather.” Which sails did you use the most and why? Once H.L would determine our course, the on-duty watch captain (Doug or Paul) would decide exactly which sails we should use. We were sailing downwind or broad reaching probably 60-65% of the race. Percentage wise we used the Jib Top and Genoa Staysail and the A1 the most amount of time. In addition we used the A0 and Staysail quite frequently as well as the A4. We had the mainsail double-reefed any time winds exceeded 18 knots, which was for a solid third of the race. The boat and sails performed fantastically under these conditions. Any other secrets to success? We raced one boat length—44 feet— at a time, despite 635 miles to Bermuda. Each person would focus intensely on his role every minute whether driving, trimming, navigating, calling tactics, or observing the weather. Even when off watch, we’d concentrate on eating, hydrating and sleeping in order to be fresh and strong in four hours. Our navigator focused intensely for the hundreds of hours before and during the race to stay on top of the ever evolving conditions and make hundreds of brilliant decisions. Unnecessary chatter is a huge distraction which slows the boat down almost immediately. A lost half a knot over 100-150 miles potentially means the difference between 1st or 4th. It’s not a cruise we are on. We all wanted to win. Our definition of fun is doing our absolute best every time we leave the dock, and winning is the only satisfactory result when you put in maximum effort. Finally, were there any stand-out heroes among the crew? I am extremely appreciative of Chris Simon who looks after Warrior Won twelve months of the year, and H.L DeVore for the thousands of hours of preparation that he put into setting us up for victory. Additionally my son Joost-Olan, age 16, deserves a great deal of credit for having the courage to race in any conditions and the mental focus to commit to the program, all while playing spring sports and attending to his school work. They are the stand-out heroes. READ MORE

Silver medal 470 sailors Saskia Clark and Hannah Mills are ready for their most challenging venue yet in Rio de Janeiro. “We use North Sails from Japan for our full suit and have found the reliability and attention to detail of the product better than anything else out there.” For those not familiar with dinghy sailing, what are the characteristics of 470 racing? The 470 is a great mix of what sailing is all about. At the lighter end, the racing is a close, tactical battle. The boats are moving quite slowly, so there is time to think through your strategy and tactics like a game of chess. As the wind increases the boats get planing, becoming more physical. You need a more dynamic technique through the waves and the decisions on strategy need to be made faster as you react to the wind and your competitors. Going in with good form must give you some confidence? We are pleased with the process we have gone through this four years and feel we are a better, more competitive team than in 2012. Winning the final two World Cups in the run-up to the Games has given us a clear indication of the areas we have improved on and what still needs to be done, but at this point in time, we are pleased with where we are. What are the biggest challenges with Guanabara Bay concerning tide, the wind, etc.? It’s a hugely tricky venue, surrounded by high land which the wind has to find a way through and lots of bays and headlands for the tide to flow and eddy around, which is massively affected by the amount of rainfall. So lots to think about! What changes have you had to make to your boat set-up to account for the conditions? It’s a hugely varied venue from the flatter water inside the harbor to ocean swell outside so learning how to adapt and optimize our equipment over this range has been critical as we only measure in one set of equipment. Have you had to change anything else significant, for example in your training program? We have changed hulls this cycle from the Mackay to the Zeiglemayer. Programme wise, it varies as to where you are in the cycle and the priorities but this cycle we have spent a significant amount of time on breaking down and rebuilding our race observations and communications, so they are robust under the stress of the Olympic competition and venue. Who do you see as your biggest competition? Are there any dark horses in the fleet? There are obviously a few key contenders that have a good track record either in Rio or at the big events. However, Rio is an opportunistic venue and the Olympics inspire and stress people out in different ways so we expect that any number of people could get themselves into contention. What is the dynamic like between helm and crew and therefore you and Hannah? Hannah and I are lucky that from the beginning we just got on well and enjoyed the challenge and journey of an Olympic campaign together. We’ve managed to drag each other through some lows and enjoyed the highs together and will go into this Olympics with a great understanding of how we both enjoy working as individuals and how this feeds our team dynamic. What were the key factors behind your decision to be powered with North Sails? What products are you working with? We use North Sails from Japan for our full suit and have found the reliability and attention to detail of the product better than anything else out there. In that sailing will be much closer this time, do you expect to see any other events or hang out with any other members of British team? Ironically now that sailing is in the heart of the city, most of the action is happening at the Olympic village which could be up to a two-hour drive away with traffic (even though it’s not that far)! Until we have finished our racing, I expect it will be much the same as the other Olympics I have been to. Hopefully, afterward, we can get a taste of all the excitement of being in the center. What is your final run-in plan to Rio? We leave for Rio on Sunday (7/24) and have the potential for 15 days training before we begin racing. So there is still a lot of time to refine things. We are pretty clear on what we need to get done in that time. It will focus around short course boathandling and set pieces which are easier to do in a confined space when all the race courses are occupied around us. How do you think this Games will be different from the others you have done? Rio is the hardest venue of all so dealing with that under pressure will be key. Most of the course areas are very tricky and even if you are out in front you can’t relax and think that you’ve got that race in the bag. It really won’t be over until the finish line of the medal race. Finally, what are you looking forward to the most about the Rio Olympics? We just LOVE the Olympics! I love watching it, love competing in it, it’s just so exciting! It’s an absolute privilege to represent Team GB, so we’re looking forward to getting out there, racing and delivering. READ MORE

I think this ACWS Portsmouth will go into the books as an all-around style regatta – it has had a little bit of everything. A bit of light air, medium air and then some breeze- on yesterday. I wouldn’t say that we got to ‘heavy air’ per se yesterday but certainly we got into a good fun foiling day. And you know what, the best team won with the second best team coming in second. Its not actually often that you can say that in a regatta format like this but there is no doubt Land Rover BAR looked smooth. They get themselves out of jams when things weren’t going their way or they had a not-so–perfect start and they just didn’t make mistakes… Jimmy Spithill will be kicking himself for one race on Saturday which was held in quite light air and they made a series of mistakes at the bottom gate that turned into a 6th place, they are going to look back on that race and think what could have been. But also, what is it going to take to win one of these regattas? Its not that they aren’t trying but they just aren’t converting to wins. Britain and specifically Portsmouth came out for this event, there were literally tens of thousands of people there, the grandstands were packed, the waterfront full and you could hear the cheers when Land Rover BAR did something well, went into the lead or won! This was crowd noise and cheering in a condensed space that made stadium sailing real. It was impressive. The roar of the crowd was really something else – you did have to stop and remind yourself that we were at a sailing regatta not a hockey or football game. It was really fun. There were a few other notable things from this regatta – Groupama showed incredibly improved form in the light air but as soon as it went to foiling with a bit more breeze on they weren’t to be seen. They are the dark horses and certainly have potential but not up to the consistency and pace of the other top teams at the moment. Artemis and Emirates Team New Zealand were being steered by people who have never steered a foiling catamaran in a regatta like this before – their number one helmsmen are on Olympic ‘duty’ so their tactics were a bit different. Emirates Team New Zealand tried to cling to a podium position in order to keep their overall series lead and got nipped in the end at this regatta. They have never not been in first since the start of this years ACWS so it is not a natural place or feeling for them. Glenn Ashby said many times during this event (as he was lowering expectations) that they were here to ‘survive it’ and in a way they did but they lost a full 20 points to Land Rover BAR and Oracle which is a fair chunk of points. So they are still on the podium for the overall series but with two (or maybe three) regattas to go, its a shame for those guys to lose quite so much. With regards to Artemis, Francesco Bruni is an amazing sailor, one of the best in the world but he was thrown into the hot seat. At least Glenn Ashby, as the Olympian replacement, has been sailing on the boat nonstop for three years and is quite possibly the most heralded multihull sailor in the world. I’d say officially there is no better stand in than that right there! But for Artemis, Francesco sailed these boats when they are non foiling in the lead up to the last AC and of course, he was then Prada’s tactician, but he is new back into the game with these foiling machines so its not really a shock that they found it harder going. Oracle must be just really, really annoyed now. Listening to Jimmy’s interview at the end of the regatta he was putting a good spin on it and they didn’t do badly, don’t get me wrong. But they didn’t win and I have sailed with, and against, Jimmy enough to know that he wants to win. He will be downright angry. It will be interested to see the rebound into France. They are just sick of coming second or third so they need to find that extra gear somehow. But from a sporting perspective it was great to see the home team win, it just lifts an event and it certainly was the icing on the cake for Portsmouth. The energy, enthusiasm and wild scenes on the waterfront were expanded dramatically as the home town hero won again. There was a great vibe that couldn’t be matched if any other team won. And as a final moment, the royals were out on the water yesterday which was great. Anytime the royals show up at a regatta, sailing is doing something right! It is exposure that is amazing for the sport. It was a awesome to see. And also the Duke of Edinburgh was out on the water on Saturday – at 90, he looked in his element! William and Kate looked very comfortable out there yesterday and there is no doubt it was pretty bouncy! Anyone with a slightly weaker constitution might have not enjoyed the experience so much but they were in the right boat in the chase boat with Land Rover BAR, the winning team in their home port. Its an exciting and interesting time in the history of the Americas Cup and Im looking forward to seeing what happens next. READ MORE

US Paralympics Sonar coach, Mike Ingham, is leading Doerr, Kendell, and Freund off a World Championship win into the highly anticipated Rio Games. Tell us about your role with the US Paralympic Sonar team? I am the team’s coach. I started a few years ago helping US Sailing with some clinics, and it grew from there. Now I am full time focused on the team of Ricky Doerr, Brad Kendell, and Hugh Freund. I help organize their training, and have been with them every step of the way for the year leading up to and including the Paralympic Games in September. The US team must feel confident going into the Rio games after their recent world championship victory and a strong run of results. What are the success factors for the team within such a competitive Sonar fleet? Yes, we have had a good run and, with that, confidence. The team is talented, and their strengths diverse. Ricky Doerr has the ability to focus on driving fast for long periods of time. Brad Kendell is a highly competitive guy with a knack for seat-of-the-pants tactics. Hugh Freund is more methodical and is the glue that organizes the team both on and off the water. That combo is pretty powerful. My job is to be the objective observer that focuses them on the most important things. That’s usually reinforcing what they do well already, and constantly working on just a few of the key things that need improvement. For those people not familiar with the Sonar, can you give us an insight into the racing, boat characteristics and Paralympic classification? The Sonar is a small keelboat with a lot of cockpit room – perfect for the Paralympics. There are minor modifications based on the disability. For example, in our boat, Ricky is a Paraplegic so we have a bench that spans from seat to seat in the cockpit and a stainless bar that goes from rail to rail so Ricky can pull himself across. Brad is a double leg amputee above the knee and wears “stubby” legs to get across the boat with no additional equipment. Hugh is a single leg amputee below the knee and wears a giant eraser-like cover to his leg. He has an additional set of purchase on the jib so he can trim without the stability of two legs. The Paralympic Sonar has no spinnaker, and instead uses a pole mounted on the boom to hold out the jib downwind. Other than the bench, extra purchase on the jib sheets, and no spinnaker, the boats are standard Sonars. A team of international doctors runs classification. Each sailor is given a classification from 1 (Quadriplegic) to 7 (an 8 would be able bodies if there were such a classification). The max number is 14 total for the 3 athletes. On our team, Hugh is classified as a 7, Brad as a 4, and Ricky as a 3. How has north sails worked with the leading teams in the class and what cloth materials are you working with to deliver optimal performance? As a strict one design class, we can’t use North Sails 3Di, mylar, or anything else like that, so we are “stuck” with standard polyester cloth. That is a good thing for the class as it limits the arms race. There are two mainsail cuts for the Sonar. We have chosen the flatter version because the Paralympic athletes sail with three people and only two are allowed on the rail, so we don’t have a lot of righting moment. We can measure in two jibs; one flatter and the other fuller and we switch depending on the conditions. A couple of the teams have worked with North for special designs, most notably using North Sails Radian TM cloth in a radial design. Most of the fleet uses the standard crosscut North Sails. All but one of the Paralympic teams at the games will be using North Sails. We have not modified these cuts,. We use the standard off-the-shelf designs because they are solid and it is more important to learn to use what we have than develop something. Part of our “secret” to success is that we spent much of 2015 learning the subtleties of tuning so we can go fast. Hard to do well without going fast! The Paralympics has a unique and inspirational atmosphere – what do you find special about working with these athletes? I have done a lot of coaching in other classes, but before this, almost no Paralympic. Most of the time it is just the same as coaching anyone else. Sure there are some equipment differences like Ricky’s bench, but that is really no different than coaching say hiking vs. trapeze. Those are just details that need to be sorted. What IS different though is that these guys have a broader view on life than most sailors. I was told when I first started coaching Paralympic athletes that, for most athletes, chasing the Olympic dream is the hardest thing they have ever done – not so for Paralympians, many have already been through something much harder. That perspective is hard to put a finger on, but I can say they enjoy life, and don’t get rattled easily. To coach them, you have to show them that it matters; you can’t just go the tough love route! How has training been going in rio? what insights can you give us to racing in Guanabara Bay? I have to start with all the negative publicity because the press has made it on top of everyone’s mind. Sure it is not perfect there, but it is pretty cool in Rio. The scenery is spectacular, the people could not be friendlier, and we have yet to miss a day of sailing due to weather. It’s a pretty nice place to sail. The bay itself is tricky, the most likely courses for us are “Naval” and “Pao”, each near the mouth of the Bay. The tide can come in on Naval really hard. I just last week measured 10 boat lengths a minute before one of the starts. There is an island just upwind of the course that looks like something out of a James Bond movie, and it offers some current relief –but it is not always clear exactly where. On Pao, there is current too, but not as much. It is just to the West of Naval with the windward mark often tucked under the huge rock known as Sugarloaf. So the start is in current and relatively steady wind, but by the top 1/3 of the course it is shifty like a small Midwest US lake. We need to study the course more so are heading back down to spend time on the water, get used to the ripping currents, and the fluky winds. That all said, it is really nice sailing. Mountains surround the bay blocking all but the strongest systems, so there is a reliable thermal that comes in early afternoon almost every day. What are you most excited about for the Rio Games? Lots can happen in sailboat racing, but we are in the hunt to do well and are proud to represent our country as a legitimate competitor! Some will argue that a World Championship is just as hard and should be treated the same, but having just won the Sonar Disabled World’s last month I can tell you first hand that yes, it is just as hard, but the Games are different because the non-sailing world watches. You are part of something bigger – nothing can match representing your country in the same place and time as all the other sports. Catch up and stay in touch with Team USA One: Follow US Sailing Team Sperry on Facebook Ricky Doerr, Brad Kendell & Hugh Freund – UNCHARTED WATERS: https://youtu.be/GT5r1fbgfVo World Championship Title for USA Sonar, Medemblik 2016: https://youtu.be/PO15rct-Z-k READ MORE

The most unpredictable event yet in the America’s Cup World Series. Why? An interruption of Olympic proportion. A few of the America’s Cup teams will temporarily lose key players as we build up to the Olympic Summer Games next month in Rio de Janeiro. Many of the young America’s Cup studs will compete for medals – Peter Burling and Blair Tuke from Emirates Team New Zealand, as well as Nathan Outteridge and Ian Jensen from Artemis Racing, will all compete in the Men’s 49er. Competing in the Finn class will be Giles Scott, tactician on Land Rover BAR. Scott has missed the past two ACWS events for Olympics practice, however, making his absence less of a shock to Ainslie and the BAR crew in Portsmouth. With these sailors chasing Olympic glory, new talent will step onboard the boats. It makes sense the teams have put Veteran leaders in crucial on-deck positions – making the crew arguably as strong as before, now with an added element of surprise. When Glenn Ashby (ETNZ) is your stand-in skipper, a 15-time multihull world champion, you are in pretty good hands! The same for Francesco Bruni, filling for Outteridge on Artemis Racing. Bruni was the tactician on Prada for the last cup, he is one of the most talented sailors on the planet! Even outside of the Olympics commitments, there are interesting crew rotations happening with all of the teams. Lets see how they play out before we make any judgements. In addition, Portsmouth itself provides an interesting twist for this weekend’s event. Last July we witnessed a fantastic show from the town, region and wider nation. Huge support, massive crowds. Of course there will always be home town pressure, and interestingly for some reason it always seems enhanced with Ainslie and England. Ainslie’s sailing success has built up a super human quality – he can’t loose. But in the past few events he was not first – he did lose. I know his supporters and the amount of passion among English sailing fans. They all mean exceptionally well. I have to ask, is it too strong a praise that they expect him to win? Does the expectation rule anything else a failure? The pressure was on after New York, their poorest finish to date, from which they retaliated in Chicago. It will be interesting to see how Portsmouth plays out for the home team. Plenty of intrigue, plenty of mystery. Portsmouth will be different, but the million-dollar question is: How different? READ MORE

NORTH SAILS CLIENTS DOMINATE MELGES 32 RACING IN EUROPE Congratulations to North Sails Melges 32 clients for sailing exceptionally well in the European circuit. North Sails powered every overall podium position in the 2016 Sailing Series®. The fourth and final act in the Series also served as the Melges 32 Europeans, with North outfitting the top three boats. 2016 Sailing Series Results 1. Richard Goransson – Inga From Sweden 2. Matteo Balestrero – Giogi 3. Vincenzo Onorato – Mascalzone Latino 2016 European Championship Results 1. Vincenzo Onorato/Cameron Appleton – Mascalzone Latino 2. Matteo Balestrero/Andrea Casale – Giogi 3. Richard Goransson/Vasco Vascotto – Inga From Sweden The North Sails class leaders for the Melges 32 are Cameron Appleton, Daniele Cassinari, Chris Larson and Federico Michetti. Class leaders are committed to increasing performance through sail design and tuning. Feel free to reach out to them if you have questions on the recent Melges 32 results or the North Sails Melges 32 sail inventory. Inga From Sweden – Federico Michetti, Giovanni Cassinari, Marco Capitani Giogi – Andrea Casale, Danielle Cassinari Mascalsone Latino – Cameron Appleton 3Di RAW™ was the sail of choice for all winning teams. The recent Melges 32 results are another testament that RAW’s speed without compromise is the choice of champions. Next up for the Melges 32 class is the US Nationals in August followed by the Worlds in September. READ MORE

Richard Dodson, two-time America’s Cup Winner and former owner of North Sails in New Zealand, was forced to stop competitive sailing due to MS. Here he tells us of his journey into Paralympic sailing, and the motivation to claim New Zealand’s first-ever Paralympic gold. Richard, please tell us about your journey from the America’s Cup to the Paralympics? I progressed from AC sailing to the J boats which was a good progression for the changes MS was having on my sight and balance (my two worst symptoms). Sailing with MS got a little tricky especially at the top level. One World was my last AC Campaign. It took a little convincing to try Para-sailing, as I didn’t appreciate the high level Para-sailing was at. David Abercrombie, CEO of Yachting NZ, suggested David Barnes (my previous team mate who is also ex AC and has MS. David’s MS has progressed to the stage he had to pull out of the campaign) and I give Para-sailing a go as they felt it was not recognized enough in NZ and having two well known yachties involved would heighten the profile of Para-sailing in NZ. NZ is top in the world at sailing and blind sailing, but has never really been recognized in Para-sailing. After our first Para-sailing regatta in Ireland three years ago we realized the incredibly high caliber of the sailors we were to start competing against. After that first regatta I was blown away by the positive, happy, upbeat attitude of the Para sailors. However, they are still highly competitive and as tough as any in the protest room. At this regatta, which was the Para-Worlds in Ireland, I thought we would either come first or second. We finished eighth. The competition was so much higher than first anticipated. That wiped the grin off our faces, and got the competitive juices flowing again. How has Paralympic sailing influenced your life after such a successful sailing career before you were diagnosed with MS? You either embrace it and take it on or you don’t, and you let life pass you by. How does it feel to represent your country once again at the highest level? It feels great to be representing New Zealand at this level again. There has been a massive amount of interest and support for our team. Quite mind blowing, and makes us feel extremely humbled. For instance, last night we had a meeting with Russell Coutts, Joey Allen, Matthew Mason and my brother Tom Dodson. Amazing line-up of talent coming out on a wet winter night to debrief our Rio test event and give us words of support and advice for Rio. As we told them, the support from the NZ yachting community and NZ AC yachties is astounding. Once we had to wet sand the bottom of the boat and Matty Mason said he would rally some guys to help us. This was shortly after the AC in San Fran. We had Simon Daubney, Warwick Fleury and Matthew Mason from Oracle sanding alongside Richard Meacham and James Dagg from Team NZ. We also often will have mixed crew from different AC teams on our number two boat. The New Zealand Sonar crew looks to be a very strong team. What are your goals, who are the big threats and where do you see your strengths on the water? We have a fast boat. North Sails New Zealand, with technical advice from our coach Don Cowie, have built us FAST sails. Dimension Polyant has kindly supplied cloth free of charge during the whole campaign. Until very recently we had our office at North Sails in the Auckland Viaduct which they gave us at no charge. We have had the top sailors in the world to train against. However, being on the other side of the world means we have not competed in many overseas regattas. So whilst we have tough opposition here it is still only the two Sonars to line up and start against. So we really miss not having one design fleet racing. We sail against the RNZYS Youth fleet in their Elliot 7ms and they like nothing better than to give the “old boys” a hard time. Our goal is the same as the whole fleet. To podium. It’s in the lap of the Gods (or Christ the Redeemer statue overlooking Rio :). The difference is we are the new kids on the block. Almost the whole fleet is capable of winning Gold. And they have all competed in Paralympics at least once. We have a great team around us. Between them and Paralympic NZ team they have everything in place we could possibly need to take any stress or unexpected issues out of play. Have you had a chance to train in the bay in Rio? What are your expectations for the racing conditions and will this play to your strengths? We have just returned from Rio where we had 14 races in 7 days. The Paras will be 11 races over 6 days. The tides are extremely tricky and frustrating, but it’s the same for everyone. We are lucky that our coach has spent a great deal of time in Rio coaching Torben Grael’s kids so knows the area well. On the start line you can have one end of the line with the tide going out and on the other end the tide coming in. Takes a bit of getting used to. It’s a beautiful venue to sail, and we’re really looking forward to September. We know it’s going to be light, which suits us as we are a light crew. The winds are quite fluky which we are OK with. The Paralympics has a unique and inspirational atmosphere – what are you most excited about for Rio 2016? We’re staying at the village which sounds amazing and will be great to get involved in the atmosphere and see all the other teams and NZ Paralympians who have achieved so much. I’m looking forward to the opening Ceremony which should be exciting. New Zealand has a proud sailing heritage and has huge support. What will it mean to claim Gold in Rio? I couldn’t begin to tell you how many people have supported our team, not only financially but also morally. It would be great to be able to pay this back and be the first ever NZ Para-Sailing team to win a medal. We are extremely disappointed that Para-sailing has been dropped from Tokyo, as there is a very large disabled sailing community in NZ. We just hope this doesn’t make anyone drop the sport for another. It is always great to have a goal to work toward and it will be hard for those that don’t have the pinnacle of all sport, the Olympics or in this case the Paralympics to work toward. It’s a hard road being disabled but this is just another unnecessary hurdle. You have had a long relationship with North Sails in New Zealand, which boasts some of the best sailors in the world and brightest minds in the sport. What makes North Sails stand out and attract such talent? I have been involved with the North Sails family since I was 27 sailing Finns against my brother Tom. We became involved when Tom Schnackenberg was in Perth working with Alan Bond’s Australian AC campaign, and he needed someone here in NZ as his partner to run the loft, so brother Tom and I bought half off him. That’s approximately 30 years with the company. There is no doubt North Sails is the leading sailmaker in the world which makes me proud to be involved. For any sailor or sailmaker it is the most prestigious company to work for. We imagine you still follow the Cup closely – what do you make of the current state of the oldest trophy in sport? I love the fact they are sailing cats now, it’s extremely exciting to watch. Just because we’re getting old and a little fragile and can’t stay involved, that’s fine. We can be armchair admirals. Follow Rick, Andrew and Chris via their website, kiwigoldsailing.co.nz All images © Ainhoa Sanchez / courtesy of Kiwi Gold Sailing READ MORE

US Men’s 470 Olympic contenders Stu McNay and Dave Hughes take up final preparations for the Rio Games. Hear from Dave on the importance of training, drawing from experience, and setting goals for the Big Event. With your first Olympics as an athlete just around the corner, how are you feeling? After an impressive run of podium finishes over the last few seasons, you must be approaching the Games with a certain level of confidence? Those medals do hold importance. They prove to ourselves and our competitors that we have what it takes to win big events. More importantly, repeat medalling shows it’s not just a fluke. That said, you can never rest on past successes. Yes, they give confidence, but the real confidence comes with focused training and processes, and the calmness with which you can execute on game day. What are your goals for the Games? Which other teams will be pushing you hard? Our goal has always been the same — race a solid regatta at the standard we expect from ourselves. If we do that, we will be rewarded with an Olympic medal. Every team will be pushing hard. That’s what makes the Games so special. We are looking forward to competing within that vibe of excellence. You’ll be racing with an experienced Olympian in Stu McNay, tell us how important this is. Stu is a true champion. Being a veteran of the Olympic experience is an irreplaceable asset. Even now during our final preparations, Stu clearly has the mature perspective that can only come from having danced the Olympic dance before. You were part of the coaching team for US Sailing at London 2012 – what were you able to learn and take away from this experience? It must have given you an insight into the scale of the games? Yes, I was the US Olympic Team coach for the 49er. Similar to Stu’s Olympic experience, having been on the coaching side also gives awesome insight into the entire Olympic experience and, specifically, managing the Olympic regatta as a stand-alone event. Coaching forces you to take a holistic approach to the regatta. I lean on that experience almost daily. Give us an update on your final training? We’ve just completed two longer stints in Rio during May and June. Each training block culminated with a coaches’ regatta (“Acts”) with all or most of the Olympic players on the water. These were excellent formats for testing final equipment, learning more about the courses, and executing against teams at their best. We were fortunate enough to win both Act-1 and Act-2. In July, we are back in Rio for two weeks for Act-3. Final US Olympic Team processing takes place in Houston at the end of July, after which we’ll fly down for the Big Event. For those not familiar with dinghy sailing, what are the characteristics of 470 racing? Frankly, I love the 470. It’s a lively boat. I’m constantly learning new ways to make it sail faster. It performs in 5 knots to 30+ knots. It races well as a light-air displacement boat or heavy-air planing dinghy. There are so many technique modes both upwind and down, so it’s never one-dimensional. The overall level of the fleet is extremely high, ensuring tight racing at every regatta. Sail the 470 in a Mistral in Southern France and you’ll be hooked! What were the key factors behind your decision to be powered with North Sails to give you a competitive advantage? What products are you working with? Our entire inventory is North Sails – main, jib, spinnaker. It has been that way throughout our campaign. The sails are smooth and consistent. The finish work is superb. We’ve taken on a variety of special projects and testing, and the North team has always been a pleasure to work with. Their knowledge and technology are second to none. We love the products and saw no reason to go elsewhere. The US Sailing Team for the Olympics looks one of the strongest rosters in recent memory – do you think dinghy sailing in the States is in good shape? Do you get to hang out with the wider team in the build up to the Games? Most of us have been traveling together to the same World Cup events for years. The same has been true with our training in Rio, although each fleet might hold slightly different schedules. As we lead into the Games, the entire team is logging time down in Rio. Bigger picture, dinghy sailing in the States is in fine shape, particularly with youth classes and established classes, like the Snipe. Even with all the foiling options out there these days, one design dinghy sailing is still by far the best bang-for-your-buck racing available. I’d love to see more college graduates find their way into local fleets. I wish the 470 would make a comeback as a local, non-Olympic-path, racer in the US. Dinghy sailing enthusiasts, like myself, always want to see more growth. Finally, what are you looking forward to the most about the Rio Olympics? Being at my personal best and attacking the Olympic Regatta with my good friend, Stu!! Images (c) Sailing Energy/ Jesus Renedo READ MORE

North Sails is pleased to announce that Vince Brun has accepted the role of Director of Offshore One Design (previously called Class Sail Development-CSD). Brun, a renowned Brazilian-American Olympic sailor, brings a lifetime of one design experience to the position including a 35 year career as President of North Sails Small Boat One Design division. North Sails President Ken Read said: “Class Sail Development has always been a focus for our company and this will mark a fresh start for the division now called Offshore One Design. From Farr 40s to J/109s, we consider all One Design Keelboats a major part of our sail development and customer service here at North Sails. Having a leader like Vince, who will focus 100% on creating class sails that can win at every single level, is imperative for our company and our clients. It is great to have Vince back full time. He is exactly the right person for the job.” North Sails Offshore One Design division will support teams in the following classes: BENETEAU 36.7 C&C 30 BENETEAU 40.7 FARR 280 FARR 30 FARR 40 J/30 J/88 J/105 J/109 J/111 M-32 MC 38 MELGES 32 SOTO 40 SWAN 42 Vince will work hand in hand with current Offshore One Design leaders at North Sails such as Chris Larson and Cam Appleton, two of the world’s best sailors who have helped raise the level of design and tuning in a large number of classes. “In my 38 years of sailmaking experience with North Sails, my focus was small dinghies and keelboats in the one design market,” said Brun. “Moving to larger classes is a natural progression and I’m honored to be asked to lead North Sails’ Offshore One Design division. Because I have worked for North Sails for nearly four decades, I am familiar with the people, product line, and company culture, which will be a tremendous help in my new position,” said Brun, whose tenure as Small Boat One Design President culminated in a record year of client regatta wins in 2013. In addition to his proven business leadership, Brun’s on-the-water success includes nine collective world champion titles in the Soling, Star, J/24, Melges 24, and Etchells classes. “For the last 15+ years, North Sails has been the sailmaker of choice for the majority of the Offshore One Design classes. We will continue using our experience, design knowledge and technology to further our position with both product and sail care for all classes,” Brun concluded. Managing the confluence of sail design with market trends, the outflow of information on tuning and technical trim to clients, and coordinating regatta and organizational support for key classes will be central to the new role. Brun will work with a team of hand-picked “class leaders” to monitor activity and effectively manage designs, ensuring North Sails products are consistently on the cutting edge. READ MORE

HAVING TROUBLE POINTING? Tim Healy’s Tips to Help You Get More Height When You Need It There are times where you may find yourself struggling to either keep your upwind lane, or just can’t get that height to pinch off a boat to weather. We all know that speed creates point, so the faster you go the more lift your keel or centerboard will create giving you better height, point and VMG. That said, there are still times when you think you are doing it all correctly and still aren’t matching your competitors. Here are a few “tips” that Tim Healy has picked up sailing a variety of boats through the years that he found has helped him. Try one or more of the following tips on your boat next time you are looking for better pointing. TIM’S QUICK TIPS: Check your backstay Is it pulled on in light air? If so make sure it is loose. Also, check to see if you may have too much pre-bend in the mast. Prebend helps your mainsail match it’s designed shape in lighter air but a mast that is set with a lot of prebend will make for a sail that may end up too flat for your sailing style. Less prebend will make your mast straighter which will make the main deeper and can help create the power needed to point higher so try a slightly straighter mast to push some depth into your main and create a more powerful shape. Did you pull your outhaul too tight? Try easing it some to get some depth in the bottom of the main. A “slightly” looser outhaul will add depth to the lower ⅓ of the main and and create more depth in the back of the sail down low which will add a little “kick” and help with some height. Just be careful not to ease it too much as the sail can get too deep quickly and add a lot of drag. Less than an inch can make a difference.. Where is your traveler set? Try moving the traveler a little higher on the track and concentrate more on where the end of the boom is and not where the traveler car or block are on the track. Most sloop rigged boats can sail upwind with the boom on centered, or even a few degrees higher, in light to moderate wind without creating too much drag. Setting the traveler so the end of the boom is as much as a “boom width” above centerline can help balance the boat and make it want to sail closer to the wind. Are your jib leads too far back? Sometimes we don’t think of the jib lead position as helping to point higher but it certainly can keep you from pointing higher so making certain that the leads are set far enough forward will make for a fuller jib and can help create the power needed, especially in choppy conditions, to increase forward drive and allow you to sail closer to the wind. These are simple tips that can make a big difference. Feel free to e-mail Tim Healy or any member of the North Sails One Design Team if you have other questions on how to make your one-design boat GO BEYOND. READ MORE

DRAGON LINKERS IINTERNATIOANL DE DEAUVILLE Last weekend twenty five Dragons from five countries raced at the Linkers International de Deauville. After 6 races, in varied weather conditions, Paul Hoj Jensen won the regatta. North Sails powered boats dominated the top 10 scores. North Sails Results: 1, 2*, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 © Michel Tréhet © Michel Tréhet READ MORE

2016 420 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP Portuguese Costa brothers win Last week the 420 Championship was held in San Remo, Italy, with the attendance of 262 boats from 23 countries. In the Open class, Portuguese brothers Diogo and Pedro Costa won the Championship using a full inventory of North Sails. Besides the Open class, North Sails achieved outstanding results in other classes taking first in the U17 category with the Greek sailors Athanasopoulos Yogo and Dimitris Tassion, and second position in the Ladies class with the Spanish sailors Maria Bover and Clara Llabrés. All of them used North Sails full inventories during the regatta. Congratulations to all and we wish you good luck in the next international event – the European Championship in Hungry. Results 420 Open 1. Costa/ Costa 2. Rogers/ Parkin 3. Gourgiotis / Batsis 420 Ladies 1. Russo Cririllo / Linussi 2. Maria Bover/ Clara Llabrés 3. Marchesini / Fedel U17 1. Telis Athanasopoulos Yogo / Dimitris Tassios 2. Eduard Ferrer / Carlos De Maqua 3. Enzo Balanger / Gaultier Tallieu For more information about the Championship see the event website. READ MORE

After 100 nautical miles and almost exactly 23 hours at sea, Moon struck Too, Gordon Lawson’s J122, took victory at the inaugural St Kilda Challenge. Organized by North Uist’s Comann Na Mara, the challenge brought together 27 yachts from all corners of the UK and beyond to a far nook of the Western Isles with a long-held and shared common goal – to reach the alluring, mysterious, rugged cliffs of St Kilda. Of those 27 boats, 15 of them went in the racing fleet and the remaining 12 cruised in company. Despite having been at sea for such a prolonged period, it was a nail-biting finish between Grant Kinsman’s Sigma 400 Thalia and Port Edgar Yacht Club’s Moonstruck. The fastest boat on handicap, Moonstruck was the only one of the racing fleet to make the return journey in under 24 hours – 22 hours and 59 minutes to be precise. Dublin Bay-based Thalia, meanwhile, sailed in after 24 hours and 31 minutes. Thus ensued several hours of nervous waiting for the final yachts to arrive and the much-anticipated results – and when they came, they were exceptionally close. In the end, Moonstruck prevailed with a tiny corrected time margin of five minutes and 50 seconds over her rival. An astonishingly tight result after such distance, and so many vagaries of tide, swell and fickle breeze; a real testament to a very long night of grit and determination in some very difficult conditions. And Fraser Gray’s First 40.7 Pippa VI from Helensburgh rounded off the top three with a respectable time of 24 hours and 57 minutes. In all of the hundreds and hundreds of hours of planning which had gone into this short 24 hour race, it had been expected that the yachts would probably have to dig deep to overcome some perilous seas and howling wind – so typical of even summer weather in this notoriously exposed and blasted outpost of the UK. There were strict guidelines in place about how much wind could actually thwart even a start. Inclement weather could have seen the flotilla shorebound while the racers were set free to pit their wits against the elements. They could all have made the journey for nought. What had not been expected was yachts peaking at a mere seven knots, struggling against a sometimes unpleasant swell, crews toiling from fatigue and occasional seasickness as windless conditions made pacey progress impossible. “Sailing in conditions like that is much harder than racing hard in heavy weather,” said race officer John Readman. “It is very hard work to keep morale up and attention span lively when you are wallowing in the sea like that with barely a breath of air and no real sign of any to come.” Of the 15 racing yachts which started, seven of them judged that discretion was the better part of valour and joined the cruising flotilla – allowing the luxury of switching on the engine. Of the cruisers, just a single one – Sea Fever – actually made the determined journey to St Kilda under sail. And yet, despite a voyage which had clearly taken its toll and after a well-earned nap, there was universal praise ashore from the participants – both the racers and the cruisers. Phrases like ‘a mission accomplished’ and ‘a real sense of pleasure and achievement’ pervaded across Lochmaddy’s packed marina. It was an epic in ways few had considered, but an epic nonetheless. Most regattas are run by yacht clubs or sailing organisations – the St Kilda Challenge, however, was run not only by sailing experts, but by a whole community. A community which had a vision many years ago and has worked tirelessly to bring it to fruition. “We are exhausted but thrilled,” said Comann Na Mara chairman Gus MacAulay. “The intention is to make this a biennial event, so we will start planning for 2018 shortly. “There was great camaraderie among the sailors and a tremendous buzz on North Uist. We simply could not have asked for more and I would like to thank all those who helped and collaborated to make it happen.” Perhaps the greatest achievement of the St Kilda Challenge was for a small community in what cannot be described as anything other than a remote area, to pull together a dream so fascinating that the rest of the country (and a few more besides) wanted to join them. This content has been shortened from its original version. To read the full-length article, please visit the St. Kilda Challenge webpage. READ MORE

Gautier Sergent, North Sails designer, recently met up with the Transat bakerly fleet as it finished in New York City. Sergent had helped design new 3Di sails for several teams, helping each singlehanded sailor pick the best possible inventory based on the type of boat, skipper’s experience and preferred modes, predicted routing, and of course computer-aided design and VPP analysis. And with eighteen boats in four classes (Ultime, IMOCA 60, Multi 50, and Class 40) sailing over 3,000 miles from England, it was a great opportunity to see how the new sails lived up to durability and performance expectations. “It is always best to debrief right upon arrival to get unbiased first impressions,” Sergent said during a recent interview. “Rewind and redo the race with all the key moments: where the boat performed and where it did not, compared to others.” Sergent also wanted to assist with any service that might be required, since many of the boats were quickly heading back across the Atlantic, either as part of the New York-Vendée Race or to attempt a North Atlantic record. And with the start of the ultimate solo race, the Vendée Globe, less than five months away, “the Transat bakerly is one of the last big events before the Vendée Globe for the IMOCA and the Jules Verne for some Ultimes.” Overall, Sergent was happy with the feedback he received. “The new sails we made matched expectations—how the sailors were hoping they would use them and how they would perform. Our upcoming downwind product 3Di FORCE has made a very strong impact on the maxi tris and IMOCAs. It retains deeper angle performance, while offering better acceleration and more potential to sail tighter angles.” And now Sergent will take this data back to the drawing board and share with the rest of the design team, material engineers, and R&D lab. “Interpret the results, project this onto the next race, etc…” At the end of the day, client impressions help create and improve these designs and each is tailor made to suit. “The latest layout updates seem a good improvement, thanks to field feedback.” It’s important to be involved from the start of each project, Sergent explains. “The teams enjoy our expertise and our involvement right from the beginning of the design of the boat, giving us a unique understanding of how the boat works and what the skipper expects.” And the sailors appreciate the proven track record in performance and durability that North 3Di offers. “We have powered every single major IMOCA race win since 2011: Barcelona, Vendée Globe, Route du Rhum, Transat Jacques Vabres… Same with the Ultime.” Of the Ultimes, Coville on Sodebo recently broke the 24 hour solo sailing distance record: 714 nautical miles. The Ultime MACIF is on stand by for a North Atlantic/24 hour record attempt, while the IMOCA 60s have just finished their return sprint across the Atlantic as part of the inaugural New York-Vendee Race, their last chance to qualify for the Vendée Globe. The Class 40 and Multi 50 will do the Quebec / St Malo race next. Then, Sergent says, “We will have more debrief and analysis before the sprint to the start of the Vendée Globe or Jules Verne, to confirm the choices and final sail inspection.” Records may fall, but for this sail designer, the learning never ends. READ MORE

FIRST HOIST When summer arrived in Newport, RI, Onne and his family were excited for their first hoist of the sailing season Onne van der Wal and his family spent the winter restoring their 1972 Pearson 36, Snoek. And then came summer, and their reward: the first sail. The skies opened up for their first day with the new sails. Onne and his daughter, Read, teamed up with North Sails’ Bill Fortenberry to rig up and sail the boat, and together they captured the day through Onne’s lens. Following are some highlights with their remarks. READ MORE

This Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series has been snake-bit like I have never seen. They’ve lost more days due to too much wind or lack of wind, to a point that is really unprecedented. Usually it happens once in a blue moon, but in the past year it has become all too common. The America’s Cup solution is the Substitute Race. So, if there are good conditions on the practice day, they put a race in the can and use it on a day where there potentially is no racing. On Saturday in Chicago the first race ended up being counted as the substitute race from Friday. I haven’t talked to the teams, but if I was a competitor I would say put three substitute races in the can on Friday. Television and promotion of our sport is a huge part of what the America’s Cup is trying to do, so it’s simply being a bit more creative and open-minded about how to pull it all off in less than ideal situations. “The enthusiasm of not just Mid-West sailors but sports fanatics was out there on the Navy Pier. Anyone who was out there Sunday walked away going “Woah, that is not the sailing I’ve seen before”. That’s good for sailing.” The other thing that sailors don’t realize is that every time you go out on a race course, in your local bay for example, and conditions are too light or windy in the morning, you just delay and wait for the conditions to get better. So essentially you have an all day window to pick the right conditions. Well, because of television and when the racing goes live around the world, you don’t have that luxury. You go when you go. That’s it, whether it’s the best or worst conditions of the day. It’s one of the drawbacks of modern, televised sailboat racing. The substitute race buys a little bit of broadcast time. And the great thing in Chicago was that after the race period expired for live television, they kept the boats out and the wind filled in to deliver a terrific race that afternoon, and that became a substitute race for Sunday. But what it also did was offer a sailboat race to the thousands and thousands of spectators on Navy Pier. Too put it perspective, it’s tough to hold a crowd during a rain delay in baseball, but on Saturday in Chicago, nobody left the pier. The boats put on a great show in a good breeze later in the day, and everyone went home happy. Then Sunday doesn’t even compare: on schedule, three race day, drama, upsets, cool passes and great sailing by Artemis. Although they did try pretty hard to lose it at the end of the final race! It was great to see some of the new blood thriving. I felt really happy for Soft Bank Team Japan finishing off the regatta with a win, and getting on the podium. I’m also happy that Artemis pulled together a string of consistent races. And some of the big guns like Ainslie figured out how not to sail his best but at the same time come within a couple of points of winning the regatta. And Oracle Team USA and Emirates Team New Zealand did not have their best regatta. You can really see how the breaks come your way from time to time. They didn’t get any breaks and they didn’t sail perfectly. All of a sudden the overall series is really tight. Chicago was great: the venue was unbelievable. The enthusiasm of not just Mid-West sailors but sports fanatics was out there on the Navy Pier. Anyone who was out there Sunday walked away going “woah, that’s not the sailing I’ve ever seen before”. That’s good for sailing. But venues, and venue times, are becoming more and more critical with televised sailing. Everyone is really learning that you have to consider the time and place based on historical wind and weather data. But I’m really proud of Chicago – the VIP experience through to the fan experience was especially well done. Next is Portsmouth – the first time for me that I’ll be returning to a venue for the second time. The first event was terrific, heaps of people. But it was only a one day regatta. So let’s all root for two good race days. And we know the British are enthusiastic not only for their team but also for sailing and for the America’s Cup. I have no doubt that what they have learnt across all the events since last time, it should be a great experience and a heck of an event. READ MORE

North Sails 3Di ENDURANCE powers Coville to another offshore milestone Thomas Coville has broken the 24 hour solo distance record by sailing 714 nautical miles in a single day. The record was broken at roughly 2000 UTC on June 8th after departing New York City on a record attempt onboard the 100’ trimaran Sodebo Ultim. Coville was racing with one reef in Sodebo’s North Sails 3Di ENDURANCE mainsail and a 3Di RAW J1 when he set the record, averaging just under 30 knots. This whopping 714nm beats Armel Lecleach’s 2014 record on Banque Populaire VII (now IDEC Sport) of 682 miles in 24 hours. Coville’s record marks the first time a single-handed sailor has broken the 700 mile mark in 24 hours. The record was announced this morning by Team Sodebo, and must still be ratified by the World Sailing Speed Record Council. North Sails is proud to supply Sodebo Ultim with a full inventory of offshore sails including North Sails 3Di ENDURANCETM and 3Di RAWTM: North Sails 3Di ENDURANCE Mainsail (built in 2014) North Sails RAW J1 North Sails Endurance J2 North Sails Endurance J3 North Sails Panel Laminate (NPL) J0 North Sails 3Di composite sailmaking technology is proprietary and exclusive to North. Launched in 2010, the 3Di product has now sailed around the world multiple times on varied platforms and applications. In addition, 3Di has powered the following sailing speed or distance records: Sodebo Ultim: 24 hour solo distance record with Thomas Coville | 714 nautical miles Spindrift 2: Ushant to the Equator | 4 days 21 hours 29 minutes Spindrift 2: Ushant to the South of Tasmania, the entrance to the Pacific | 20 days 04 hours 37 minutes IDEC Sport: Crossing the Indian Ocean Spindrift 2: Ushant-Cape Horn | 30 days 04 hours 07 minutes Dona Bertarelli: Fastest circumnavigation by a female sailor | 47 days 10 hours 59 minutes Comanche: 24 hour monohull distance record (fully crewed) | 618 nautical miles Phaedo 3: Bermuda to Plymouth | 2870 nautical miles Phaedo 3: Rolex Fastnet Race original course | 595 nautical miles IMOCA Macif: 24 hour solo distance record on a monohull with Francois Gabart | @550 miles “I am sat(sic) at the nav table on Sodebo and as I looked up out of my window at my mainsail I was thinking: this is the most beautiful mainsail I have ever had.” – Thomas Coville describes his 3Di Mainsail just before finishing the 2015 Transat Jacques Vabre We congratulate Coville on his third time setting the 24 hour solo distance record, this time surpassing his previous record by nearly 100 nautical miles! READ MORE

Jean-Philippe, could you describe what you do at north sails and why you enjoy it? At the base level I work as a Salesman to improve the experiences of our local customer on and off the water, and to support various local events. I also work to discover new prospects and I enjoy collaborating with them to optimize their boat and onboard performance. As a Technical Consultant I contribute to racing teams with sail plan optimization, sail charts, rating and often assist as a sail trimmer or tactician. I would love to design the sails but I’m not good enough with the software (laughs…), so I leave this to the real designers and try to give precise, useful feedback on behalf of me, the owner and crew. I like my job first of all because it is a passion and without passion you cannot do a good job, especially when striving to push the limits, be as precise as possible and go beyond the status quo as we do at North. It is very exciting to work in a company where the goal is to give to the customer the best product with the best service. North Sails is considered a luxury brand in the yachting field, often compared to Formula 1 for the high level of products we deliver. I’m also lucky to have met very interesting people. It helps me to grow and continually improve. Now 16 years have passed since I entered the company and I have the same motivation because each project is unique. I started from the bottom of the ladder and I intend to continue to growing within the company. Most recently you have completed a re-configuration for the Volvo Open 70 SFS. Can you tell us about this process and the end results you are experiencing? The objective for SFS was to move from the Volvo Ocean Race (VOR) box rule to a true IRC plan, where we know the rating is a big part of the equation. It was not an easy job. On SFS we have been running a Pro-Am system with six different guests on board during racing. We wanted to adjust the sail inventory in order to be quicker in maneuvers, reduce effort for the crew and increase performance inshore and offshore. In March 2015, a new spinnaker staysail, A2, and a North Sails 3Di RAWTM IRC Code 0 were added. The Code 0 replaced the original Masthead Code 0 with equal area and 48kg weight savings. More recently, we switched from overlapping genoas to small jibs and added some padeyes to play more with the in-hauler and up & down system. The new configuration gives us more ability to manage the sails. Other notable sailplan modifications included a larger and lighter #4 Jib; increased apparent wind angle in the new #2 Jib. The #1 Jib (largest Jib) was switched from a standard overlapping genoa on hanks to a furling masthead genoa with equal area (191m²). The inshore mainsail was built with three full battens instead of 6-7 in the previous main, plus one reef. This new configuration give us more flexibility managing the sails. In total we saved more than 200kg in comparison to the Volvo inventory and experienced even, or faster, speeds and a higher angle. Today the boat handles more like a TP52. Overall we have experienced even or faster speeds and a higher angle. We have two certificates for IRC: one with and one without the spinnaker. On the Offshore Side, we still use the original Masthead Genoa and we had a new furling Cuben Fibre A3 for IRC racing. What advice do you have for a young person with big aspirations in sailing? This question makes me smile because it means I am passing to the other side of the barrier, even if I am still 18 years old in spirit (smiles). To someone with aspirations in sailing, I will advise them to tell the truth and not be afraid to say “I don’t know, but I can find out” instead of saying something wrong, as I hear too often in this business. Stay humble. Because we are fortunate to sail on such prestigious boats does not permit us to forget where we come from (by instance, I still sail on 7m boats with friends / customers. Sometimes it is good to trim a sail you can bring in with two fingers). In the end don’t hesitate to share and smile. I am convinced the more you give, the more you will receive. But this is more a way of spirit and a philosophy than a piece of advice, so you may take it or leave it! Images © Gilles Martin Raget READ MORE

INSIGHTS FROM J/30 ANNAPOLIS NOOD WINNER BOB RUTSCH After Bob Rutsch won the J/30 class by one point at the 2016 Annapolis NOOD with two firsts on the final day, Jonathan Bartlett from North Sails Chesapeake asked him a few questions about his program. How do you fit successful resutls into such a busy life? There’s never enough time. An injury this winter didn’t allow me to get to the boat put away properly or get winter upgrades done so it was a struggle to get the boat ready on time. Not sure how we would do it without Bobby Muller. His crew had the bottom ready as always and installed a new hatch that we broke at the end of last year. Then our crew all pitched in to get us ready before Annapolis Yacht Club One Design event, which we used as a shake down for the NOOD. Good thing as we broke the topping lift. Who is on your crew? What are their responsibilities? Do you always sail with the same people? My boat partner and brother-in-law Mike Costello handles tactics and main. After 20+ years he can do it all and we always have fun. But he’s so busy with three kids playing baseball and soccer that I only get him out for a couple events a year: NOOD, Race Week and NA’s. Daughter Poncie Rutsch, now 25, trimmed spinnaker. Matthew Wienold was bow and has been my most dependable crew since he joined us ten years ago. Barry Deren did mast. He’s been on the boat since we bought it in 1984. Brad Blash is our primary jib trimmer. He’s been with us five years and is good for jokes and morale. Janie Gittleman was our floater/squirrel. I also have a couple of new people I can call on who are still learning. After that it’s friends, neighbors, and crew on loan from boats in the fleet that are not sailing a particular event. How critical is rig tune through the range of conditions? For many years we used a median setting with Class maximum headstay and only cranked on turns when it blew over 15. We had to up our game when John White joined the fleet. Since we don’t have wind instruments after every race I download ten-minute wind and sea conditions from NOAA and log it with our tune and sail usage. I also look at our GPS track to see what we did right or wrong. We can generally hit our desired tune on the water by adding or subtracting turns for wind speeds from 6-20 at two-knot intervals. If you have to give three pointers to other teams on how to get the best performance out of the J/30 what would these be? Only three? After thirty-two years in this boat there’s more but I’ll try to keep it short. Boat prep is a necessity–a smooth and clean bottom, good sails, and up-to-date rigging. Sail inventory So far the 3DI Genoa has been everything I hoped for. It has maintained its shape through two years—52 races and counting. No apparent material deterioration. Normally after 50 races I would be planning on a new genoa for the NA’s this fall. A typical laminated genoa would be getting brittle, starting to delaminate at this point. The J/30 with a 162% overlap takes a beating during the tacks from the mast, the halyard turning blocks, spin pole ring and stanchions. The extra thickness built in for this down low and wear patches seem to have helped. After a year the #3 3DI has only been up to see if it fit and an couple tacks while warming up on opening day this year. Looking forward to using that next time it blows. As for care, we try to rinse it off occasionally if it gets salty and give it time to dry. It probably helps that we take our sails off the boat and store them inside when we are not out sailing. Crew work I like to sail with people I enjoy spending time with, who are willing to commit to our program. Talk about or show your crew how you want to handle maneuvers, and cross-train so everyone is at least able to step in and help if needed. There are good crew guides for the J/30 available online but adapt them to your needs. Get the sails up before the first race of the day and practice at least a few tacks to get your compass numbers. Then do a set, some jibes and a douse. Use time between races or on the way in to the dock to work out any problems and find solutions. Change gears with the conditions Keep making adjustments as wind and sea conditions change–crew weight, sail trim, and settings like outhaul, halyard tension, traveler and backstay. Compare speed and angle to competitors around you: always speed first, then angle. There’s lots more but that will do for now. READ MORE

New York was more than slightly crazy, it was fully fledged crazy! Even with all of the insanity on the water, the same couple of teams keep coming out ahead. If I were a competitor I’d be saying “That was a fluke! It was crazy! That was luck of the draw!” And isn’t it strange that Emirates Team New Zealand and Oracle Team USA are consistently right there. Land Rover BAR has certainly had their moments. Chicago will be difficult, but things are possibly becoming more predictable… I was quite nervous that New York was going to be just another event happening in the biggest city in the world. I was very, very surprised and thankfully wrong! Good for New York! Even on Saturday, which was a complete washout breeze-wise, there was an incredible number of people. The Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series always puts itself in a bit of a tough spot with its time restrictions for television and its location restrictions for helicopters, security and everything else. Some people complained, but they couldn’t just move the race course around the island, it’s not possible. We’re committed to time and space because there are so many other variables that none of us can ever imagine. But even without the perfect race track and with a flukey wind blowing across the channel, the same teams keep winning. Chicago, as a venue, will potentially impress and surprise people. Some of the diagrams I’ve seen of the race locations show that it could be really fun for spectators right off the Long Docks. That said, the most wind I have ever seen in my whole life on a sailboat has been in Chicago: 70 knots. To think that you’re going to a cute little lake to zip around and have fun, like your grandparents, is not necessarily the case! You can get really steep waves there, it can be windy and rough – it can be nasty. But hopefully the weather prevails and we’ll finally get a series with the races and schedule going off on time. We’re due for a good weekend! It’s interesting to see how each team has its own level of expectation. For example, I think Groupama Team France were thrilled to come in third in New York, whereas Oracle Team USA were devastated, in a way, to come in second. There’s no question that Ben Ainslie and his supporters have very high expectations. But if you follow America’s Cup tradition and history, expectations from your most avid supporters tend to be far overblown, almost unreachable. So it’s a big job for skippers and CEOs of these projects to manage those expectations. And I think they have to be managed, because if you just come out every other day and say “We’re going to win the America’s Cup, we’re going to win all the regattas, we’re the best, look at us” – OK, maybe it helps raise money in the short term – but for the long term, you’re setting yourself up to be in the serious hot seat given any little hiccup. So I’m sure all these guys are figuring out how to manage expectations as they go, and they’ll have to keep that high on their list of daily priorities. Bring on Chicago! READ MORE

SOLO UK SOUTHERN CHAMPIONSHIP Won by Pete Mitchell Congratulations to North Sails Pete Mitchell who won the Solo UK Southern Championship at the weekend. Pete won 3 of the 4 races and sailed using an ST-2K design. Well done! READ MORE

INTERVIEW WITH C&C30 OWNER ANGUS DAVIS Angus Davis took time out of his busy day job to answer some questions, after winning the 12 boat Annapolis NOOD on Nyabinghi in this hot new one design class. YOU ARE AN EXTREMELY BUSY GUY, HOW DO YOU ORGANIZE YOUR PROGRAM TO HAVE SUCH A SUCCESSFUL RESULT? Racing the C&C 30 is a “mind clearing event” … during my time on the water, I am in control of boat speed and the maneuvers, and everything else fades away. The key is being able to focus on sailing—and this is what attracts me. For a busy business person, competitive sailing is an oasis. WE UNDERSTAND YOU COME FROM A WOODEN BOAT BACKGROUND. HAS IT BEEN DIFFICULT LEARNING A NEW PLATFORM? I grew up sailing Herreshoff S Boats with my dad, in Narragansett Bay. They were the C&C 30 of their day: 28 feet long, high performance for their time, and most importantly, one design. The Narragansett Bay fleet is the oldest one design fleet in America still racing in their original boats. I thought my lack of planing keelboat experience would be a disadvantage, but I picked it up quickly thanks to good teachers. And my experience one design racing is an advantage over those with backgrounds in IRC or other handicap racing. WHO IS ON YOUR CREW? WHAT ARE THEIR RESPONSIBILITIES? DO YOU ALWAYS SAIL WITH THE SAME PEOPLE? We have some “steady” folks on the crew, like our runner guy. We call him Bobcat but his real name is Nick Campagna. When he drops the winch handle overboard, usually once every few regattas, we call it a “Bob-splash.” On one occasion, he dropped a VHF overboard, which we refer to as a “Bob-squawk.” In the pit we have a rotation between Leeds Mitchell and Chase Hogoboom. Both are longtime personal friends who would bail me out of jail if afforded the opportunity. (I hope to avoid this.) On bow, we usually have Norm Berge. We have been fortunate to have him aboard… and like all the folks on the boat, he has a positive attitude. Usually on main trim we have Pete Levesque, who is one of our two Cat 3s. His knowledge of rig tune gives us a leg up, and sometimes we share dad advice between starts. In Annapolis, Charlie Enright trimmed main and trimmed the kite downwind. Every day on the water with Charlie I consider a privilege. On headsail trim, we have many “friends and family” helping with different events. In Annapolis, Chuck Swanson did a good job in this position. Sometimes the headsail trimmer becomes the whipping boy for the tactician, but in reality, any boatspeed problems upwind are usually the owner/helmsman’s fault. Over the last year we’ve had a range of folks calling tactics and I have learned different things from each of them. In Annapolis we had Mike Buckley. Mike is able to raise our level of competition without unduly raising our personal stress levels. HOW WAS YOUR SPEED THROUGHOUT THE COURSE OF THE EVENT? On the last day, we had some sort of asymmetry in our rig setup, which hampered our speed on one tack. Otherwise, our upwind boat speed was an effective weapon against the competition. Over the last year, I have really improved with our team in a range of different wind conditions, and also in tight tactical situations where you need to “live in a tight lane.” I feel like we definitely have this gear in all conditions now. Off the breeze, we have moments of greatness for sure, but it’s not yet the strength I know it will be with a bit more work. HOW CRITICAL IS RIG TUNE THROUGH THE RANGE OF CONDITIONS? The boat is highly sensitive to rig tune adjustments. You have to live with your rig tune for the entire race, so part of this means skating to where the puck is going to be. Having the right rig tune won’t win races on its own, but having the wrong tune can lose them. You looked to be consistently in the top group in most of the races, how did you manage to do that in such different conditions? The biggest contributing factors to our success were: competitive boat speed, smart tactics, and not making too many bad boathandling mistakes. WHAT ARE A COUPLE THINGS YOU AND YOUR TEAM DO DIFFERENTLY THAN OTHER BOATS? The name of our boat is a tribute to reggae music, which is full of positive energy. We are serious about winning, but we try to have a lot of laughs. Look forward, let’s go: that’s our team’s attitude, and it has served us well, in both victory and in defeat. Also some of our other close competitors sail with another brand of sails. On Nyabinghi, the focus with our friends at North is always on learning, development and improvement. Working with North Sails gives us a technological edge, which appeals to me as the executive of a software company. NOW THAT YOU HAVE SAILED A COUPLE EVENTS IN THE C&C 30 CLASS, WHAT COMMENTS DO YOU HAVE ON THE BOAT AND CLASS? The boat is a pocket rocket that offers true one-design competition. The class is owner-driver with clear, strict rules that give everyone a chance to win. The racing is close, and the camaraderie off the water is strong. And the sailors are very welcoming of newcomers. IF YOU HAVE TO GIVE THREE POINTERS TO OTHER TEAMS ON HOW TO GET THE BEST PERFORMANCE OUT OF THE C&C 30 WHAT WOULD THESE BE? Manage your heel angle, and get the foils working for you upwind. Don’t get too cute at the start, i.e. don’t strike out at the plate swinging only for home runs. Always remember it is a privilege to be able to go sailing, so have fun on the course and keep a positive attitude. WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE NYABINGHI PROGRAM? We’ll compete in the NYYC Annual Regatta in June, and in the Race Week at Newport in July, which are our North American championships. That event ends on July 16, just 5 days before our third child’s due date! My wife Joanna told me, “With a sufficient outboard motor, you are no more than an hour or so from anywhere the next baby may be born.” In our family, sailing runs deep. Nyabingi races with North Sails 3Di RAW upwind and North Paneled Cloth (NPC) downwind sails. READ MORE

After just over two weeks of exploring Sri Lanka we returned to Mirissa and worked to prepare Adina for her next leg to the Maldives. A break in our preparations involved a trip to the North Sails loft just outside Colombo. It’s not every day you get to see where your sails are made and we had heard a lot of good things about the loft so were quite excited to see it all. During our visit many things stood out giving us a fresh perspective on Adina’s new sails. Scale: North Sails seek to manage everything in-house meaning the sheer scale of the operation immediately impressed us. But more than that, what really stood out was the combination of technology, skilled craftsmanship and quality control. Everything from sails for dinghies to large offshore racing yachts were being made with the same meticulous level of detail. Machines using bobbins of thread that took a week to set up weaved away, plotter machines precision-cut sail panels, yet more machines laminated cloth and carbon using hi-tech adhesive. At the top end, machines followed by a person suspended in the air laid out carbon on huge automated platforms modeled to replicate the exact shape of a sail. Expertise: Alongside the technology, each and every sail was being made with some element of human craft and skill. Spinnaker panels were laid together by ladies with an eye for precision, looking up and down the panel to determine where it needed to be laid before gently but confidently pressing it down. People sat in pits in the midst of huge platforms with sewing machines carefully stitching sails or sewing parts into them. Even top of the range carbon sails were hand finished by a professional with a pair of scissors and an eye for detail. Pride: It was all carried out in a calm focused manner, people going about their jobs, knowing what they needed to do. Stopping to ask any Sri Lankan supervisor a question soon made you realise these people took pride in their job – quite often they would lose us as they leapt into intricate detail! Quality: And then there was the quality control. Each sail is accompanied by a ‘ticket’, essentially a number of pages explaining the make-up of that individual sail, what needed to be done, what parts would accompany it and a list of checks to make sure it was delivered as it was designed. The name of the yacht was given and the sail’s destination – literally sails being made for the world! Chamini Kanchana (left) and Nadisha Liyanarachchi (right) measure the placement of reinforcement panels on a 3Di sail. Dilki Kumari lays nylon spinnaker panels on a small-boat downwind sail in building eight. A loom sits loaded in Building 2 at North Sails in Sri Lanka. North Cloth takes up one of nine buildings at the North Sails complex in Sri Lanka. As an owner of a set of North Sails sails, it really did give us the assurance that our sail had been made to a very high standard by a factory well equipped, by talented people and that it had all been quality checked. We now look at our sails with a different eye. On our sail is a little label that has the North Sail logo and states ‘Made in Sri Lanka’. It should read ‘Made with Pride in Sri Lanka’. Adina’s time in Sri Lanka was up far too quickly. We had thoroughly enjoyed this land of variety, its people kind, warm and welcoming – it certainly sits high on our list of countries that should be visited. Next…Adina visits the many atolls of the Maldives before heading to the remote British Indian Ocean Territory islands, azure blue seas are promised. At Top: Chanika Panapitiya stitches the leech tape on a 3DL RACE sail. READ MORE

You are an extremely busy guy, how do you organize your program to have such a successful result? Racing the C&C 30 is a “mind clearing event” … during my time on the water, I am in control of boat speed and the maneuvers, and everything else fades away. The key is being able to focus on sailing—and this is what attracts me. For a busy business person, competitive sailing is an oasis. We understand you come from a wooden boat background. Has it been difficult learning a new platform? I grew up sailing Herreshoff S Boats with my dad, in Narragansett Bay. They were the C&C 30 of their day: 28 feet long, high performance for their time, and most importantly, one design. The Narragansett Bay fleet is the oldest one design fleet in America still racing in their original boats. I thought my lack of planing keelboat experience would be a disadvantage, but I picked it up quickly thanks to good teachers. And my experience one design racing is an advantage over those with backgrounds in IRC or other handicap racing. Who is on your crew? What are their responsibilities? We have some “steady” folks on the crew, like our runner guy. We call him Bobcat but his real name is Nick Campagna. When he drops the winch handle overboard, usually once every few regattas, we call it a “Bob-splash.” On one occasion, he dropped a VHF overboard, which we refer to as a “Bob-squawk.” In the pit we have a rotation between Leeds Mitchell and Chase Hogoboom. Both are longtime personal friends who would bail me out of jail if afforded the opportunity. (I hope to avoid this.) On bow, we usually have Norm Berge. We have been fortunate to have him aboard… and like all the folks on the boat, he has a positive attitude. Usually on main trim we have Pete Levesque, who is one of our two Cat 3s. His knowledge of rig tune gives us a leg up, and sometimes we share dad advice between starts. In Annapolis, Charlie Enright trimmed main and trimmed the kite downwind. Every day on the water with Charlie I consider a privilege. On headsail trim, we have many “friends and family” helping with different events. In Annapolis, Chuck Swanson did a good job in this position. Sometimes the headsail trimmer becomes the whipping boy for the tactician, but in reality, any boatspeed problems upwind are usually the owner/helmsman’s fault. Over the last year we’ve had a range of folks calling tactics and I have learned different things from each of them. In Annapolis we had Mike Buckley. Mike is able to raise our level of competition without unduly raising our personal stress levels. How was your speed throughout the course of the event? On the last day, we had some sort of asymmetry in our rig setup, which hampered our speed on one tack. Otherwise, our upwind boat speed was an effective weapon against the competition. Over the last year, I have really improved with our team in a range of different wind conditions, and also in tight tactical situations where you need to “live in a tight lane.” I feel like we definitely have this gear in all conditions now. Off the breeze, we have moments of greatness for sure, but it’s not yet the strength I know it will be with a bit more work. How critical is rig tune through the range of conditions? The boat is highly sensitive to rig tune adjustments. You have to live with your rig tune for the entire race, so part of this means skating to where the puck is going to be. Having the right rig tune won’t win races on its own, but having the wrong tune can lose them. You looked to be consistently in the top group in most of the races, how did you manage to do that in such different conditions? The biggest contributing factors to our success were: competitive boat speed, smart tactics, and not making too many bad boathandling mistakes. What are a couple things you and your team do differently than other boats? The name of our boat is a tribute to reggae music, which is full of positive energy. We are serious about winning, but we try to have a lot of laughs. Look forward, let’s go: that’s our team’s attitude, and it has served us well, in both victory and in defeat. Also some of our other close competitors sail with another brand of sails. On Nyabinghi, the focus with our friends at North is always on learning, development and improvement. They have a technological edge, which appeals to me as the executive of a software company. Now that you have sailed a couple events in the C&C 30 class, what comments do you have on the boat and class? The boat is a pocket rocket that offers true one-design competition. The class is owner-driver with clear, strict rules that give everyone a chance to win. The racing is close, and the camaraderie off the water is strong. And the sailors are very welcoming of newcomers. If you have to give three pointers to other teams on how to get the best performance out of the C&C 30 what would these be? Manage your heel angle, and get the foils working for you upwind. Don’t get too cute at the start, i.e. don’t strike out at the plate swinging only for home runs. Always remember it is a privilege to be able to go sailing, so have fun on the course and keep a positive attitude. What’s next for the Nyabinghi program? We’ll compete in the NYYC Annual Regatta in June, and in the Race Week at Newport in July, which are our North American championships. That event ends on July 16, just 5 days before our third child’s due date! My wife Joanna told me, “With a sufficient outboard motor, you are no more than an hour or so from anywhere the next baby may be born.” In our family, sailing runs deep. Nyabinghi races with North Sails 3Di RAW upwind and North Paneled Cloth (NPC) downwind sails, check out the North Sails full offering for the C&C30. READ MORE

Have a question? Ask them here. Never finish an ocean race in a location colder than where you started: this is one of the golden rules of offshore sailing and one which The Atlantic Cup knowingly breaks for all the right reasons. This May, the best Class 40 sailing in the United States is back for its fifth edition and here at North Sails, we are thrilled to be a part, sponsoring the “Ask The Expert” forum throughout the event. The Atlantic Cup, the brainchild of Hugh Piggin and Julianna Barbieri of Manuka Sports, challenges sailors over three weeks of sailing across all disciplines. Starting with two double-handed offshore legs and then switching to fully crewed inshore racing, it is a true test of all around sailing skill. While the Portland inshore series is crucial and weighs heavily on the overall win, it is the two offshore legs which provide the greatest variety in challenges faced. For the twelve competing teams, those who are the most studious and nuanced in their approach will find themselves entering that decisive weekend with a sizable advantage. Here is a quick guide on each of the two offshore legs. CHARLESTON TO NYC New York City is quite familiar to people arriving by boat, but rarely do they arrive on such toys as a Class 40. Small but powerful, and built purely for offshore sailing, the class has been hugely successful due to the boat’s versatility and stability. However, the Class 40 still suffers from the age old problem of being unable to sail when the winds are light, and the opposing current is strong. Many an Atlantic Cup have been decided in the waning moments as boats struggled against the mighty Hudson River in the light springtime breezes and this year a large number of teams and the even skill amongst them could well set us up for another nail-biting finish. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves… Let’s start at the beginning. Read more on Pg. 3 of the Atlantic Cup Race Preview. NYC TO PORTLAND Leaving NYC on June 4 will take our fleet of twelve back out from the city on a route the reverse of how they came in. With a packed schedule of events while in New York, teams will be feeling as though they need some time off following the grueling Leg One. However, that is not the case. They’ll jump right back into it facing the same challenges as when they entered, as the “city that never sleeps” is an accurate description of NYC on the water as well as on land. The sailors will quickly find themselves dodging ferries, barges, and large commercial ships (not to mention one another) on their way back to the open ocean down a narrow channel. From there, turn left and head to Maine. Sounds so simple, right? Read more on Pg. 3 of the Atlantic Cup Race Preview. After teaming up for the last Volvo Ocean Race, Charlie Enright and Anderson Reggio are North Sails’ offshore experts for the Atlantic Cup 2016! Have a question? Ask them here. READ MORE

The French skipper chose North Sails 3Di ENDURANCETM patented composite three-dimensional sailmaking technology to claim unprecedented victory in the four pillars of offshore racing – 2012-2013 Vendée Globe, 2014 Route du Rhum, 2015 Transat Jacques Vabre, 2016 Transat. A winner has emerged from the Transat bakerly fleet after 33 year-old Francois Gabart was first to cross the finish line off of New York City last night at 18:24 EDT (22:24 GMT)! Gabart sailed into the star-lit city skyline accompanied by cheers and celebration from the MACIF team and sailing fans. This is Gabart’s first solo win aboard the giant MACIF Trimaran, a 100’ VPLP design that launched last summer. Although a great initial test for him and the boat, today is only the beginning of the MACIF program as the young, yet experienced, ocean sailor sets his sights on a solo non-stop round-the-world record attempt. “It was a big challenge for me. You should have 10 or 15 people to manage these boats, and it’s just me. It was my first solo race on MACIF, and I didn’t know if I would be able to do it, so I am really proud of what I did… To arrive into New York was perfect. The boat is in good shape. Me? Well, maybe not! I’m very tired, but I’m incredibly proud.” The similarly sized Sodebo was close at his heels, reinforcing the fantastic potential of class competition among the Ultime 100’ trimarans – indeed on a grand scale! Gabart recalled: “The competition with Thomas on Sodebo was wonderful. It made the race incredible for me. We are working together to organize more races for these type of boats, and when we see what happened in The Transat bakerly, and how close the competition was, we know there is a place for it. This is just the beginning of the journey.” Gabart on MACIF and Thomas Coville at the helm of Sodebo spent the first three days within sight of each other after the start in Plymouth, UK. All three Ultime trimarans in the Transat bakerly, including Gabart’s MACIF, Coville’s Sodebo, and Yves Le Blevec’s Team Actual race with North Sails 3Di ENDURANCE. ::: Now, to put this initial success for Gabart and MACIF in perspective, by winning the Transat last night, François has achieved the “Grand Slam of Offshore Sailing”. In just four years he has won: 2012-2013 Vendée Globe (solo nonstop round the world race) on his IMOCA 60 MACIF establishing a new race record at his first participation and, at age 29, the youngest to ever win the race. 2014 Route du Rhum (solo race between France and the Caribbean) on his IMOCA 60 MACIF 2015 Transat Jacques Vabre (double-handed race between France and Brazil) on his new trimaran MACIF, 1st race on this boat. 2016 Transat (solo race between the UK and the US), his 1st solo race on the boat. Only the greatest offshore sailors have achieved this level of success: Loïck Peyron, Michel Desjoyeaux, and Franck Cammas among them. Gabart has won all of his major offshore titles using patented, three-dimensional composite sailmaking technology from North Sails. North Sails 3Di™ is the only sail on the market made with Thermoset adhesive (no delamination), precisely mapped load patterns using CNC laid tapes, three-dimensional molding, and proven durability over 50,000 miles. Patented technology with proven results – North Sails 3Di will perform better and last longer than any other sail on the market. About North Sails North Sails, the largest division of North Technology Group, has become the world’s leading sailmaker through an ongoing commitment to superior performance, technical innovation and elevating the sailing experience of our customers. North Sails holds the patents for 3DiTM, a unique composite construction process resulting in high-performance sails that approach the shape holding of a rigid foil. By competing at the highest levels of our sport, North Sails tests and improves our products in the most demanding environments. The success we enjoy in the America’s Cup, Around-the-World challenges, Grand Prix racing circuit and One-Design Championships translates into sails that perform better, last longer and provide more enjoyment… no matter what and where you sail. That dedication has reshaped modern sailmaking. It is what drives us to push boundaries, pursue adventure, and always #GoBeyond. 87 READ MORE

The 470 Women delivered some dramatic action on the final day of racing at the Hyeres World Cup in France as the countdown to the Olympics reaches its climax. The French pair of Camille Lecointre and Helene Defrance had been leading the regatta, one final big event ahead of Rio, after some tight racing between some of the biggest names in the competitive class. But the home favorites went into the final race only one point ahead of the British duo of Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark, and only two points ahead of Brazilians Fernanda Oliviera and Ana Luisa Barbachan. It was the Brazilians who got off to the superior start in the decisive medal race, leaving Mills and Clark in a dogfight to defend their position against the home favorites. However, Oliviera and Barbachan could not hold their position out front from New Zealand Olympic champions Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie. And when the Kiwis moved into the lead on the second lap, the British girls, the 2012 World Champions, were then able to take advantage of the Kiwi’s work to beat the French team to third and ensure their gold medal. The strong showing from the Brazilian pair saw them claim a silver medal overall, finishing only one point behind the Brits and tied on points with the French. With the British pair aiming to convert their silver medal from London 2012 into more gold this summer, Sunday’s victory could not have come at a better time. “It was exciting – it was absolutely freezing as well,” said Mills. “I think some English weather may have helped us today. It was really exciting and really tight, and all the top boats were right up there in the mix so it was a ‘who beats who’ scenario. We had our eyes on what was going on and we caught the Brazilians up quite a lot on the second beat. Once we saw that the Kiwis had definitely passed them, we relaxed a bit and really wanted to protect the French to make sure we got the win.” North Sails are the sail of choice for all the leading pairs, holding a market share in excess of 90%, and the podium of Britain, Brazil and France all use North Sails mainsails. The North Sails radial-cut offering for the Women’s 470 is designed and produced in Japan. For more results, please visit: http://www.sailing.org/worldcup/regattas/hyeres_2016.php READ MORE

North Sails designer, Guido Cavalazzi speaks about his involvement in the yacht Marga, recently awarded Restoration of the Year by Classic Boat Magazine, as voted by readers for the Classic Boat Awards 2016. I love sailing boats like this and in particular, this boat. I have spent a lot of my sailing career working with modern boats including lots of Americas Cup teams – I was involved with different campaigns over 7 America’s Cups finishing with Luna Rossa in 2014 so this is very different, but a great project. This boat has a very interesting history. When the owners bought it, it needed a lot of attention. The hull had a little house thing built on top of it, which was being lived in. It’s a very sleek boat – it was a metre boat of the first rule when the rigs were gaff riggers in the early 1900’s – and very beautiful. So imagine that hull with a little house thing on top – really horrible! But that was what it was, laying in the boatyard just outside of Rome when the owners bought it and decided to restore it. They basically ripped everything off and started to make everything as it was originally. They did a lot of research into how it looked back then, the sail plan and everything. And now you just have to look at it to see that they did a very good job. For lots of reasons, I actually only came on quite late in the project. I knew one of the owners, he was a friend of my son’s from his sailing days in Sardinia and also, I knew Enrico who was in charge of the restoration. He has restored lots of boats in Italy and I know him, as he is very involved in association of sailing yachts in Tuscany. Anyway, I made a presentation to the owners about the sails and what I thought we could do for them and some time later they asked me to come and start working with the project. I think they liked the work we had done on the NY-40 one design, gaff-rigged boat, Chinook, and on a 15m Int’l, Mariska. I started talking to Enrico about the sail plan and we went on from there. You have to remember about this boat, that there are no winches – everything has to be done by hand, it is all block and tackle and no mechanics. I actually also did some consultancy with them on the deck plan as I was familiar with what this sort of boat needed. The deck plan is also very closely linked to the sails as it matters a lot what the deck layout is when you are working with just rope and nothing mechanical! When it came to making the sails it was very different to modern boats. The modern racing boats we design sails for are done using the technique of one molded piece (whether that be 3Di, 3DL etc) so there is no stretch at all. This delivers very good power but would not work for this sort of boat as everything stretches on this boat – the wood (the hull), the shrouds – everything is moving so we have to make the sails the same. It’s nice actually as I use Dacron for these sails – it is a technique and material that I used to use when I first started in sail making, when racing sails were made in Dacron, and I have now gone back to it. Dacron started as the material of choice for sailmaking but then moved on to being used in cruising sails as racing sails changed to Kevlar and then carbon. In this case, the spars bend and then affect the sail shape and we have to take that into account when we design these sails. In fact, we have to treat the stretch in these boats as part of the design rather than a problem. It’s a bit like the fact that when you sail against a strong tide you take that into account when you work out where you put the bow, you adjust your course a bit. It’s the same for this – we have to aim the shape in a substantially different direction to make sure that with all the stretch factors we end up where we want to be. We delivered the sails in August 2015 and then the owners decided to go to Cannes to race. I went with them and to be honest we didn’t do that well, but that was really because we hadn’t done it before and we were all just learning about how to sail the boat. They are now planning for the 2016 season, which is really like the first racing season for this boat. The boat will go to Antibes for the start of the Panerai series and I am very happy they have asked me to sail with them and do again the mainsail. Like I said at the beginning I really like sailing this boat. Most Classic boats owners have a very nice attitude towards their boat – they don’t really see themselves as owners but instead custodians. Its like the well being of the boat has been assigned to them for a certain period and then it will be passed on to be sailed by someone else and in the meantime it is their duty to make it nice. It is like a 1700 Stradivari violin – its life will go on after you have used it, you would never throw it away. It’s just like that. In modern sailing and modern boats there is not that same feeling so it is very nice to be involved with a project like this. Guido Cavalazzi has been with North Sails for nearly 40 years, the majority of which he spent designing sails. He designed 11 sails for Classic Yacht Marga including a Gaff Mainsail and a Delivery Main (Bermudian), a Jack Yard Top sail, Working Top Sail, Jib and Jib Top, Staysail, Light Reaching Staysail, Yankee, Medium Asymmetrical runner, and a Heavy Asymmetrical reacher. The upwind sails are all made of North Sails NPC COASTAL dacron product and NPC DOWNWIND were used for the runner and reacher. Image credits: © James Robinson Taylor READ MORE

Onne van der Wal and his family have spent the winter restoring their 1972 Pearson 36, Snoek. This summer they will take to the waters of Narragansett Bay to stretch their legs and get to know the boat. One of Snoek’s many upgrades was a new suit of North Sails. A renown nautical photographer, Onne spent some time on the “other” side of the lens for this project! We look forward to hearing more from the van der Wal clan as they set off on various adventures this season. Stay tuned! Onne van der Wal and 17 year old son Adrian recently unpacked their brand new North cruising sails for their 1972 Pearson 36, Snoek. They were closely supervised by Lucy the beagle, who will join the family cruising on Narragansett Bay this summer. While Lucy looked on from a safe distance, Onne gave each of the three sails (mainsail, genoa, and gennaker) a careful inspection, partly to familiarize himself with what state-of-the-art cruising sails look like. “The level of detail and finish work are very impressive,” he said. Telltales have been carefully placed to provide the best trim information for a variety of sailing angles, and the gray sunshade will protect the rest of the sail from UV. The sails are made of North Sails NPC RADIANTM, a patented warp-oriented cloth with superior shapeholding qualities. The blue rope luff reefing pad maintains optimum shape when the sail is reefed. Surrounded by a backyard full of boats, the spring lawn became a sunny sail loft for the afternoon. Adrian, a racing sailor, spotted the batten pocket detail on the main. “I can’t wait to use this genoa,” Onne said. “The leechline and footline have been really well thought out for ease of use, without leaving any loose ends that could catch on something. And the soft clew will really save the mast from getting beat up if our tacks aren’t quite perfect.” The genoa leechline has a purchase and retractor system, making for easy adjustment. “We’re not going racing,” Onne reminded us. “We want these sails to last many years. So it’s nice to see North has thought out how to keep the leech from fluttering, once they’re not quite as new as they are now.” Onne and his family spent much of the winter updating the Pearson 36, so they will proudly display the Pearson logo every time they hoist the mainsail. “It’s a great classic design, so we want people to know what she is as we sail her around Narragansett Bay.” Each sail has a unique number stamped on the logo. The serial number matches Onne’s order number and is used to reference the sail’s history and service record. They saved the best for last: pulling the Gennaker™ out of its turtle. “The boat’s getting repainted at Bristol Marine in Awlgrip’s Stars and Stripes blue,” Onne said. “So this red white and blue kite is going to look really good.” “Family cruising should be easy, but I like to set a kite,” Onne said. “So the gennaker’s a good compromise.” The North SnufferPlus™ will make deploying and dousing a breeze. Once the careful inspection was complete, Adrian and friend Alden Grimes made quick work of packing the Gennaker back into its turtle. Lucy the beagle declared the afternoon a success, though she is still wondering when her own big box of treats is going to be delivered. READ MORE

The purpose of this new base is primarily for after sales & service care. We have chosen to open it in this location in order to support our growing customer base and have feet on the ground in this very active marina setting. Every type of yacht is catered for in Hamble and we recognize the importance of having staff there at key times. The office will be staffed on Mondays and Fridays and any other time by appointment. Please contact Frank Gerber to make an appointment – frank.gerber@northsails.com or 07887 555 779. During opening hours we will also be on hand to quote for new sails, be a source of information for all things North Sails and help answer any questions as they arise. There will be a stock of common items from battens and batten ends to clew straps. Please drop by and say hello if you are in Hamble or the local area and need our assistance. Image credit © Paul Todd / OUTSIDEIMAGES.COM READ MORE

GP14 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2016 BY ALISTAIR IRELAND Back in 2014 I was offered the chance to become a North Sails Jockey by the Dinghy Specialist Sailingfast. Fresh out of the 420 youth class there was no better way to start the next step in my sailing career. For the last two years North Sails powered the Flying Fifteen I was sailing. In 2015 I won the British National Championship on home waters with my Dad with a brand new set of North Sails. This was shortly followed by winning the Scottish Nationals at Loch Lomond with Philippa Benson the following month. I later found out later that both boats powered by North Sails won the Silver/Classic and the Modern class at Loch Lomond. Following this success we decided to take on our next challenge at the 2016 GP14 World Championships in Barbados. North Sails were happy to provide our gear for the event and get behind one of the youngest teams. Turns out we were one of the lightest teams at what was to be a heavy wind event! Thankfully North had provided us with a personalised tuning guide with special recommendations from ex-GP14 sailors. Having a guide that was personally tailored gave us an advantage that was welcomed in such a high standard fleet. Despite the heavy airs myself and Philippa finished the 2nd under 21 boat and 37th overall in a strong fleet of 105. We would like give a big thank you to North Sails and Sailingfast for their on-going support and we look forward to the next big event! READ MORE

Kicking off the first installment of this event, we congratulate the CORW race organizers and share in their excitement to see the regatta grow. Read the full release on the official regatta website. California Offshore Race Week is the exciting grouping of three California coastal races, five yacht clubs and one in-port race under an overall trophy. We’d like to thank SD Boatworks, North Sails, Mount Gay Rum and The Pirates Lair for making this race come to life! Starting on Friday, May 27 in San Francisco Bay, the series takes off under the iconic Golden Gate Bridge on an 88nm trek to Monterey. Here they will spend a day long layover to get rested and ready for the sled ride to Santa Barbara. Picking up on Sunday, May 29, the Coastal Cup starts in Monterey Bay and runs 200nm around Point Conception and into Santa Barbara. A multi-day layover in Santa Barbara will allow racers to recoup, repair and enjoy the local scene. Santa Barbara Yacht Club will be hosting shoreside parties and all will be invited to a ‘just for fun’ in-port race on Wednesday afternoon, which will see the offshore crews link up with the local Beer Can racers for fresh round of buoy racing. The final leg starts on Friday, June 3 with the SoCal 300 sending the fleet through the channel islands on their way to San Diego, a total trip of 254nm. The awards ceremony will be held on Sunday, June 5 at San Diego Yacht Club. California Offshore Race Week has been endorsed by the Offshore Racing Association as the official “California Offshore Championship”, hence the winner will stand as the 2016 California Offshore Champion… until next year! Get your offshore inventory ready to go for this annual event, and remember North Sails is here to help you! 2829 Historic Decatur Rd. San Diego, California 92106-6014, USA | +1 619 224 2424 Lynsi Gibbons (Office Manager) – (T) 619-224-2424 – lynsi.gibbons@northsails.com Eric Heim (Sail Care) – (T) 619-224-2424 – eric.heim@northsails.com Jon Gardner (Sales) – (T) 619-224-2424 – jon.gardner@northsails.com Patrick Murray (Sales) – (T) 619-224-2424 – patrick.murray@northsails.com – (M) +1 619 347 0399 Eric Doyle (Sales/ One Design) – (T) 619-224-2424 – eric.doyle@northsails.com – (M) +1 949 228 7185 Image Credits (top and below): © Sharon Green / Ultimate Sailing READ MORE

NEW SAILS FOR SCARAMOUCHE London’s first inner-city school sailing club fosters on-the-water experiences for the next generation It began approximately two years ago when teacher and program initiator, Jon Holt, began taking groups of 24 students at a time down to Poole Harbour to work toward getting their Level 1 RYA Dinghy Sailing certificates. Over 250 students completed the course. The emerging crew members set their sights on the horizon and, after spreading the word to their peers, salvaged and restored a MacGregor 26 to spend the afternoons sailing out of Poole. Holt spearheaded a fundraising effort to acquire Scaramouche, a 45ft German Frers yacht. Holt and a crew of eight 15 year old students restored and sailed her throughout the summer before they entered and won the ASTO Small Ships Race, a national training regatta. Now, with a gem of a racing boat on their hands, the group has an ultimate goal of entering the 2016 Round the Island Race and next year’s Rolex Fastnet. “The crew have worked very hard, not just sailing but also promoting sailing to others who normally cannot access the sport. They now have delivered their presentation 30 times to 22 primary schools. They were invited twice to speak at the Royal Yacht Squadron and their talk was very well received,” said Holt. The North Sails team in the UK has already built a new jib and are working on a new mainsail for the team with extra support from British sailing legend Lawrie Smith. “Lawrie has been the inspiration behind this and following his input has driven my crew to not just sail when I organize trips, but to buy dinghies off eBay and sail them on King George’s Reservoir in London,” said Holt. Nigel King, former keelboat manager of the RYA and part of the Academy’s initiative to foster experiences on the water, reminds us of the primary individuals creating these opportunities: the teachers. “I gave them a few contacts initially. They have run with them and moved forward. It is really about the youngsters, just really ensuring they get every opportunity possible,” King remarked. “But the bit that stands out for me is that the teachers are really taking a punt. There really are a million reasons why they would not want to do this. It is scary and different. But what they are doing is planting a seed and then, hopefully, we can all help take it forwards.” The crew of Scaramouche spent an afternoon with the North Sails UK team at the new cutting-edge sail loft in Gosport, likely spotting their new mainsail in the works. Regional sales manager, Sam Richmond, reported the young team’s enthusiasm was an inspiration, “It is truly gratifying to see programs like Greig City Academy finding unique opportunities for students to explore outside the classroom. Even more exciting is they have chosen sailing as their platform. Of course we are thrilled to help in any way we can.” Follow the team’s progress on the Greig City Academy website and Facebook page: facebook.com/GreigCityAcademy Images; Top: The Greig City Academy crew were invited to talk with the Duke of Edinburgh at Buckingham Palace, February 2016; Above: Montel at the helm of Scaramouche READ MORE

ADINA EXPLORES SRI LANKA: PART 1 Tom and Susie Partridge explore the natural beauties of Sri Lanka onboard Adina After two months of solid work in Malaysia and Thailand readying Adina for the new sailing season, we were all set to go. Our target this year is Cape Town, South Africa, sailing across the Indian Ocean. Along the way we plan to visit Sri Lanka, the Maldives, British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos), the Seychelles, Comoros and Madagascar, each one promising its own form of adventure. The first leg of 1120 nautical miles from Thailand to Sri Lanka is actually the longest we should undertake on our way to Cape Town. Leaving the creature comforts of South East Asia behind, the initial winds were light and sailing downwind we flew our spinnaker as we eased into our passage. The forecast for the North East trade winds to fill in directly from behind and strengthen with increasing seas soon proved to be accurate. Cruisers by nature will always chase a rhumb line – gybing way off course downwind for more speed is left to our racing brothers and sisters! In this case to keep sailing a downwind rhumb line meant sailing wing-on-wing or goose-winging as it is more eloquently known, flying one sail to port and the other to starboard. On Adina this means we pole our genoa out to the one side and pin the mainsail on the opposite side. The downside to this is that it is without doubt the most uncomfortable point of sail as the boat will roll – no escaping it, we really should learn to sail off course! We’ve spent ages researching how to reduce the roll and at the end of the day it boils down to your boat design – some boats roll more than others. We deploy a few techniques which are largely based around the sea state. In predictable seas it pays to get as much sail up as you safely can, the faster speed making for a smoother ride. In sloppy irregular seas we will bring the mainsail in so that it is trimmed for a beam reach to help reduce the roll. Another tip is to reduce any twist in the top of your genoa by sheeting on or lowering the spinnaker pole. After eight days of exhilarating sailing we made landfall in Galle, a port located in the south-west of Sri Lanka. A night time arrival, we slowly and carefully found ourselves a protected spot to drop the anchor and get some sleep. Lengthy formalities complete, the next afternoon we headed fifteen nautical miles east to the delightful fishing harbour of Mirissa which was to be Adina’s home for four weeks. Sri Lanka represented a new cultural experience on our trip and we were excited to explore the country renowned for its many sights and friendly people. In fact it wouldn’t be wrong to say we took one look, smiled with glee and ran at it, arms waving madly. Tuk-tuks – bring it on; mad local buses – we’ll try them; spicy food – we’ll eat it! Sri Lanka is often referred to as a gentler, calmer version of India and we think that’s an apt description. Except when it comes to the driving. Our tuk-tuk driver, Suranga, took us to visit the old fort at Galle and demonstrated why Formula One racing should seriously consider Sri Lanka as a place to source their drivers. There’s definitely a pecking order on the roads here. Tuk-tuk drivers are bottom of the ladder and to survive they need fast reflexes; buses and vans will happily mow them down but they duck and dive here and there finding gaps, dodging pedestrians and dogs. Next up the pecking order are vans and cars – probably the most comfortable form of travel, they have to keep their eyes on the tuk-tuks and bigger buses. Buses rule, they are bigger and they know it. Through the mountainous interior they tear along, throwing themselves around corners, seemingly determined to run man, dog, stray monkey and tuk-tuk down. A town centre doesn’t mean they slow down – they keep going! It’s a brave man who sits at the front of the bus looking forward. Yet we always felt safe and it made us smile and chuckle as we hurtled and bounced along. The old fort town of Galle where Adina completed formalities Black lake in Mihintale, the birthplace of Buddhism in Sri Lanka Elephant in Yala National Park Spending time with the ladies Sri Lanka has a wide variety of sights to be seen. Temples old and new abound and religion is an important aspect of life with people taking time to pray, reflect and make offerings. There are countless national parks to explore and we were fortunate enough to tick off sightings of leopard, elephant, deer and more crocodiles than we had expected! Up in the hilly interior temperatures are cooler and with Sri Lanka being the world’s third largest tea producer a visit to a tea plantation to learn more about this product we English so enjoy was a must! A highlight for us was walking up Adam’s Peak, a pilgrimage site for the people of Sri Lanka, climbing 5500 steps to see the Buddha footprint that sits at the top of it. We had timed our visit on a weekend – or should we call that planning gone awry? Thousands turned up with us to complete the pilgrimage! The goal is to see the sunrise from the top so we duly set off at 1.30am. What we found most impressive about the pilgrimage is that the entire family comes along, and we mean the entire family; junior, the teenagers, boyfriend, girlfriend, Mum, Dad, Aunty, Uncle and the grandparents too! We saw little ones less than five years old and old ones well into their eighties. After two hours of focused climbing, the mass now five people wide came to a complete halt as far as the eye could see. We saw some teenagers scampering off down a side path and were able to follow them and make it to the summit using a different approach to enjoy a magnificent sunrise. Walking back down we could still see long queues waiting to reach the top. And lots of tired weary bodies slowly going down. We went as fast as we could, fired up by the thought of the tasty local dish of pancake-like hopper, banana and honey waiting for us at the bottom! Travelling around, we opted to stay in local homestays which gave us the chance to meet local people. On Adina we like to cook recipes that we collect from around the world and our hosts were always only too happy and proud to show us how they prepare their curries. Sri Lankan curries take a long time to prepare and the reason quickly becomes obvious. Rice and curry (not curry and rice) always consists of three to five curries (and sometimes ten on special occasions) whereas in most countries it’s just one curry. The individual curry sizes are smaller but three to five curries takes a lot of preparation. And tasty they certainly are. After just over two weeks of travel we returned to Mirissa and worked to prepare Adina for her next leg to the Maldives. A break in our preparations involved a trip to the North Sails loft just outside Colombo. It’s not every day you get to see where your sails are made and we had heard a lot of good things about the loft so were quite excited to see it all. Below: Looking out from the fishing village of Mirissa, on the south end of Sri Lanka READ MORE

A qualified engineer, experienced sailmaker and sail designer, Quentin Ponroy is also a very good sailor. In 2014 he won the J/80 Europeans (tactician) and the Tour de France à Voile (mainsail trimmer). He also enjoys sailing famed French boats such as Multi50, Mini, Figaro Bénéteau II or Open 7.50 with great success. This week you will find him on the Diam 24 course at Spi Ouest. Pictured left with Thomas Coville on the 102ft trimaran Sodebo Ultim’, Quentin is also making great strides in the ocean racing sphere. “At North Sails, I am fortunate to be involved in very different projects from the Mini 6.50 to the Maxi Sodebo, including IRC boats or the Figaro for example,” he said. “My job on the design team is to work fast and perfect sails by using different shapes and materials in the design. I enjoy this job because it’s never finished and I also spend time sailing. When asked for his advice to a young person with big aspirations in sailing, Quentin had the following recommendation: “Spend time on the water no matter the boat. And be conscious that the technical dimension is more and more important to understand modern boats.” Image credit © Jean-Marie Liot READ MORE

To foil, or not to foil? That’s a constant question for the GC32, the newly selected platform for the Extreme Sailing Series. And since the answer depends on conditions, it can change from moment to moment and will definitely vary from one event to the next. Which brings up a word you don’t expect to hear from a sail designer: “forgiveness.” Gautier Sergent designed the sails for the GC32 (mainsail, two jibs, and a gennaker); all are North Sails 3Di. “You have to go from wider apparent wind angles and lower apparent wind speeds to tight angles and high speeds with one sail inventory,” he explains. ”And obviously ESS races are very demanding in terms of maneuvers, which is always hard for the sails. That is why we have a full 3Di inventory.” The sails also have to be forgiving to cover a wide variety of racing formats, since the ESS uses the one design class-legal sails. “The difficulty (and the fun) is that the GC32 are foiling catamarans sailing in a wide variety of racing formats (GC32 circuit, ESS, Bol d’Or long distance sailing) and on many different stretches of water (from lake to ocean). You need to cater to all this with only four sails in total.” So the sails need to be light enough to handle lake sailing, where the boats are often in displacement mode. And those same four sails need to be strong enough for foiling in the roughest ocean conditions. Add to that this fact: since the GC32 is still a relatively young class, sailors are still figuring out the boats. It adds up to a tough challenge in terms of ease of use, durabllity, and lifespan—which fortunately 3Di can handle. This will be the second year North Sails has been involved with the GC32 class, and Sergent (along with class leader Alan Pennaneach) have used their knowledge gained from designing to other strict one design rules. “We’ve been involved from day one,” Sergent says, “taking part in designing the sail plan with Martin Fisher and Southern Spars.” Through sea trials and boat development, the team has also worked closely with the class and Laurent Lenne. “This will be its first year in the ESS and I am sure we will learn a lot on how the teams use the boats and how we can improve,” continues Sergent. “It is also the first year that we have a full 3Di inventory. Up until last year the gennaker was 3DL.” And it will be the first year the ESS incorporates a wide variety of courses into each event. Fortunately, the standard GC32 sails are already geared toward variety, so they can handle it. “The key word is forgiveness,” Sergent reminds us. “3Di really helps in this respect, because they are very reactive and sensitive to trimming and tuning.” And on the eve of the first ESS event, Sergent does have a prediction about who will win—though he admits, “There is such a high level of skill that it is very tricky to predict.” But “if we had to be biased, we would say Alinghi or Spindrift since we have North Sails representatives Pierre Yves Jorand and Arnaud Psarofaghis on Alinghi, and Jacques Guichard on Spindrift…!” Racing begins March 16, more on the event website. For more information about the North Sails GC32 sail offering, contact: Alan Pennaneach +33 2 97 40 90 90 | alan.pennaneach@northsails.com READ MORE

This past Key West Race week I sailed with the newest Farr 280 owner Chris Pesch on Swordfish. The Farr 280 is relatively new to the racing circuit and brand new to me. I had never met Chris before either. I had a few references and after an introductory phone call with him I felt encouraged and grateful to be sailing with him. As it turns out, Chris too had never sailed the Farr 280 other than a short intro sail before buying the boat. Nevertheless, tickets were purchased and off I went to Key West. Swordfish showed up to Truman Annex two days before the event, still wrapped up in its original packaging. After a lot of work we had her in the water and ready to race by day one. We competed in the 8 boat ORC 2 class. Our learning curve was steep and a few adjustments to the boat had to be made but by day three we felt as if we had been sailing the boat all year. Chris’s story is one that, in this new age of small boat one design racing, brings hope and promise to the sport of sailing. He grew up spending his summers in Martha’s Vineyard with his family. Bored with sitting on the beach, he found himself an old Snark and through local sailing literature he taught himself the basics. Not long after, Chris joined his local club and his love for the sport grew. He spent his first two years of college sailing for Arthur Knapp at SUNY Maritime Academy. He enjoyed the structured sailing practices and used the time to really hone his skills as a helmsman. After college he stayed current with the sport, sailing what he could as often as possible. He competed in a range of classes from Farr 40s to one-tonners to a range of IMS boats. Once Chris settled down and started a family his time commitment to the sport was limited. He moved a few times and didn’t own a boat so he wasn’t able to compete. Finally ending up in Fort Lauderdale, he worked his way back into the scene with his brother in a J boat and re-discovered his love for the sport. He decided to invest in a boat and came to Annapolis to test the Farr 280. He was looking for a state-of-the-art small boat that could be left on a trailer and easily packed up for travel, but his main focus was sailing with his son, Patrick. They sailed a small amount when Patrick was younger and as he grew he did a bit of his own sailing as well. But they were searching for something they could both sink their teeth into and enjoy together or individually with limited headache. There is nothing like a high performance sailboat to bring families closer. Sailing with family, although often challenging, can be one of the most rewarding experiences one could hope for. Chris settled on the Farr 280 because he liked the ease and stability of the boat and was pleasantly amazed by the power and the precision at all points of sail. It was both state-of-the-art yet accessible and simple enough to master. Rigging and tuning were made easy by an adjustable mast jack. Most importantly the boat looks amazingly cool! The Farr 280 is a blend of the grand prix racing scene, with its ever-advancing technological aspects, and hyper-competitive one design fleets that are currently attracting sailors from all levels of the sport. The racing community often debates the “trickle down effect” of technology innovation. Are high-end sails such as 3Di™ necessary in these markets? Chris seems to think so. He describes the sails as nothing short of perfection. When you boil it all down it’s a matter of simplicity. 3Di gives us the ability to be exact, to change our margins by such a small amount that when you look up at a sail you think maybe one more click of trim and we’re there. Are high-end sails such as 3Di™ necessary in these markets? Chris seems to think so. He describes the sails as nothing short of perfection. A puff comes and we ease out two inches, let the boat accelerate and bring the sheet back in one or two clicks. But here is the important part, in Key West we could do that for five days straight in heavy air conditions! It’s hard to appreciate the value of that until you’re the one sailing the boat, or more precisely the one trimming. So when undeniably good sail trim is more available to the masses it makes it more fun and exciting for all of us. Every time I looked back Chris was beaming. “We put up the sails and went out to race one and the sails were perfect the first time,” said Chris. “We never had a problem and we didn’t need to adjust which made the whole thing much easier.” I could tell this boat was allowing him the opportunity to have a great time with his son and not punishing him in the high winds and big waves. Sailing with Chris and his family reminded me of why I have come to love this sport. With a great love of sailing comes hard work and commitment and any good sailboat will reward both many times over. The Farr 280 and boats like it serve many purposes – the most important I see is to bring that love back to our sport. These boats combine awe inspiring, cool features with the most basic and fun principles to make competitive boat racing what it needs to be again. It is a lot to handle, even with an experienced crew, but it also allows for flexibility and diversity in the team. As professional and expensive as the sport has become, we can still strive to maintain the enjoyable aspects while advancing technology. If you have found yourself pushed away by huge hyper-competitive one design classes or mismanaged local fleets with under-maintained equipment – take another look. The answer may be where you least expect it to be. READ MORE

The Royal Ocean Racing Club’s UK domestic season fires up with the Easter Challenge, taking place on the Solent over the Bank Holiday weekend of 25-27th March. For many crews, the Easter Challenge marks a key opportunity to get up to speed again as quickly as possible and because of this has become a popular start of season training regatta. To help raise the standard of its racing, the Royal Ocean Racing Club provides coaching for free to participants in the Easter Challenge. The RORC ropes in some of the world’s best to carry out this tuition. The coaching team will once again be led by Jim Saltonstall, MBE. Too modest to admit it, Saltonstall has played a pivotal role in the success of most of Britain’s leading Olympic sailors including Sir Ben Ainslie, Chris Draper, Iain Percy, Nick Rogers and the RORC’s own Principle Race Officer, Stuart Childerley. He will be supported by the RORC’s CEO Eddie Warden Owen, himself a former America’s Cup coach with Team New Zealand and latterly with the Spanish Desafio Espanol team in Valencia in 2007. Once again integral to the coaching will be North U. Regatta Services, with specialists Chuck Allen and Andreas Josenhans flying across to the UK especially for the regatta. Both are well known sailors and highly experienced coaches and sailing performance analysts in the USA. Based out of Rhode Island, Allen was a two-time college all-American champion and is one of North Sails’ one design specialists, currently part of their Class Sails Development team. Josenhans is accomplished enough to get his own Wikipedia page: A two-time Soling and one time Star World Champion (the latter with Buddy Melges), he was also crew on Bill Koch’s America’s Cup winner, America 3, and subsequently on Young America. The team will be supplemented by other luminaries of the North Sails UK team. “The RORC Easter Challenge is a great opportunity to tune up for the season. It’s the first time to line up with top competition, and refresh your knowledge of the complex Solent tides,” said North Sails regional Sales Manager, Sam Richmond. “Our North Sails team looks forward to working closely with sailors both on the water and at post-racing with interactive video debriefs.” READ MORE

You’ve been with North Sails for more than 25 years. What has kept you there for so long? There’s never been a dull day at North Sails. If you’d been in the same job for 25 years and nothing had changed then that would be pretty hard for anyone to stomach. Every year or two there is something really significant which changes in the design world and the job grows. I was meant to be an engineer and qualified in college as such, but then couldn’t face the reality of doing a normal engineering job so I consider myself very lucky to have landed the job at North Sails. But as time has gone on it hasn’t just been about design, there’s been a lot of management, and the company can take you wherever you want to go. Tell us about your experience with the America’s Cup. I’ve done five campaigns with Team New Zealand going all the way back to 1995. It has changed a lot – the first four iterations were developments from where we were with the old IACC Class 80 foot monohulls. Each time you would learn a bit more and the rules would develop, but then of course in the last one it was a complete seismic shift when we went from 25 tonne monohulls with sails to 6 tonne machines with a fixed wing. In the 2013 campaign, I was very much involved with the fixed wing. I was the aero-coordinator and there was a team of four of us who came up with aerodynamic design of the wing. Another team took care of the structural side led by Steve Wilson from Southern Spars. We had to learn a hell of lot very quickly in 2011. None of us had ever been involved in wing design before, not for boats at least. We had some pretty good tools at our disposal to combine the aerodynamics with the structural model which nobody else had at that time. Do you ever see the fixed wing design breaking into the wider sport of sailing? It’s got three problems. The first one is the cost, which is unbelievably high. Maybe if it became a mass market product it might come down a little bit but it’s still very high for entry level. Second problem is getting the wing in and out – what do you do with it at the end of the day? You can’t drop it! And finally, the third problem is it is not reef-able. If you came up with something reef-able you might also solve the second problem of dropping it. Those are the barriers and they’re not insurmountable, there’s lots of smart people in the world, but those are the barriers currently stopping wings dominating sailing. How are North Sails involved in the ACWS and America’s Cup 2017? I can essentially say that I have retired from the America’s Cup as the whole environment has changed. The shape of the wings and the sails are all one design across the entire fleet. JB Braun from North Sails has worked with Oracle to come up with the designs which you buy off the shelf from North Sails. How has the America’s Cup influenced sail technology across the sport? If you take a really broad view, in 1995 it was the first time that 3DL really came through as a major breakthrough product and the next three campaigns were all about refining our understanding to make them work best. Then 3Di was born out of North Sails working with Alinghi in 2007, but we got hold of it and changed it a lot. 2009 to 2012 was a very active time for designers learning about 3Di. And compared to 3DL we had much better structural models trying to predict what was going on and we had a much more scientific approach. When 3Di was first conceived with Alinghi in 2007, the expected lifespan was literally hours. But by 2011 the product was on Volvo boats sailing around the world with them. Do you see 3Di technology being adopted across the sport at all levels? Well it’s happened with pretty much every other development coming out of the top end of the sport. If you go back to the early 1980s, Kevlar or even laminate Mylars were brand new then and only on America’s Cup yachts. But by the end of the 1980s club racers were getting panelled Kevlar sails. The same thing happened with 3DL. You will see it with 3Di for sure. And look at foiling. Prior to 2012, very few boats foiled – the moths did and not much else. Now we see a lot of boats out there foiling. So that area has trickled down pretty well. Whether the fixed wings do, that depends on those barriers that I mentioned earlier. The biggest surprise with 3Di was its durability. The ultimate lifespan and how long it holds shape is incredible. But then 3Di Raw came out of the Artemis campaign in 2013 and took it to a new level. And now 3Di Endurance is coming out really soon and is proving hugely popular with superyachts. We’ve had 3Di on superyachts for 5 years or so now, but if you look at the volume of 3Di sails being ordered for superyachts it’s quite staggering how quickly it’s being adopted by that fleet. And these sails last a long, long time. Take the J Classes. North Sails have worked with quite a few J Class boats since 2006 and every two years we would replace the 3DL mainsail. They would race pretty hard and the sails would get beaten up pretty hard. So it required a pretty constant rate of change. But then in 2012 we put 3Di sails on those J Class boats, and those sails are still on those boats. They’ve raced four seasons with those same sails which is an incredible testament to the product. You have a long connection to superyachts. Didn’t you help develop the inboom furling systems? The boom furling started in the early 1990s on small boats. Then it was a real leap of faith to then take it from 40-50 footers to start putting it on 110-120 footers. One of the nice things we’re doing with 3Di is that it is just so physically thin, because the composite is so integrated, that it furls very nicely inboom. Now the concept of what a Superyacht sail can be is being stretched as people want more out of their Superyachts, so now we’re doing square-top mainsails which furl! So we need to come up with some quite tricky systems with the battens. We have to work really closely with the spar makers to find a solution. What’s the next game-changer trend or technology? I’m too much of an engineer to be a visionary! But I think one thing North Sails does very well as a company is take ideas and develop them, an turn them into a really robust product. For a recent yacht forum presentation I gave, I decided to explore some of the key performance parameters as a theme and see how they’ve changed over 30 or 40 years – records, top speeds, distances. And you find that they’ve all increased by a very similar amount, which is something like 60-70%. Which is just a staggering amount. If you look at any other sport or any other record, they change incrementally. I know that it’s an unfair example to compare humans to machines, but the 100m record has got better by 3%. Sailing is changing and it doesn’t look like flattening out. Tell us about how North’s relationship with their customers drives technology and development. To be honest, it’s another example of trickle-down from the America’s Cup because the integrated relationship between customer and designers was born out of team New Zealand when they won the Cup in 1995 in San Diego. That whole team was built on the philosophy of not just getting the sail designer involved early but treating the crew as the client. So the boat, mast and sail designers don’t just work in isolation – you all work at the same time on solving the problem and interact. And put the users in the mix as well. What we see now is that whether it’s a club racer, superyacht or grand prix racer, North Sails are now seen as an important part of the process from early on. In Superyachts we’re involved in design work before the owner has even given the go-ahead on the yacht, just part of the Research & Development to see if the project is viable. In the past, you’d design a boat and build a boat. Halfway through the process they’d think “we’d better order a mast” and then at the end order the sails right at the end. That was very common. But we’ve realized boats are a system and need to tap into all the smart people across the industries. And this philosophy has been adopted by North Sails across the company and around the world, so every customer benefits from this approach at all levels. What are you excited about for 2016? For me personally, I’m excited about the Superyacht season. There’s so much going on there and how much things are developing, so there’s lots of interesting challenges. That’s what’s going to keep me busy. And the Olympics will be interesting. Especially as a kiwi, we’re all excited about Pete Burling but he’s got a busy time on juggling America’s Cup and his 49er. I hope he can carry on through and bring home the gold medal! And the Olympics is where the future of our sport lies. READ MORE

In an exciting development for the future of One Design multihull sails, Glenn Ashby, world class sailor and multiple multihull world champion, has teamed up with North Sails to develop and market the Glenn Ashby Signature Line of multihull sails including the A-Class, Taipan and Tornado. The skipper of Emirates Team New Zealand will be bringing his design history and expertise to develop the signature line of sails that will be based on the current Ashby Sails models. He will be working on product and tuning development alongside the North Sails One Design team worldwide. North Sails, the world leader in sailmaking, shows once again through this partnership with Ashby, the importance the company puts on working with the best in the business to create leading-edge products. Paul Westlake, Global Head of Sales said: “We are delighted to team up with Glenn to create this new Glenn Ashby Signature Line. Glenn’s credentials and prowess speak for themselves and this is a great step forward for us in our One Design multihull offering. As a company we are constantly striving to be the best at what we do and we firmly believe that our customers will benefit greatly from this partnership.” Tim Healy, President of North Sails One Design comments: “Glenn’s experience in this arena is invaluable and will help us get on track straight away. His multihull sailing knowledge packaged with the North Sails Suite of design tools will help us bring sail development in these classes to a new level.” Glenn Ashby said: “I am really looking forward to an exciting future working with North Sails and have complete confidence in continuing to provide our worldwide customers and friends with the highest quality personalized products. The Signature line of sails will utilize proven winning designs as a base for new development utilizing the ultimate in technology and product quality.” Ashby will continue to be active in the international A-Class regatta circuit within the bounds of his current America’s Cup commitments. READ MORE

The team on Teasing Machine began their 2016 season the same way they ended 2015: as class winners. After taking IRC 3 in the Sydney-Hobart Race, they loaded the 43 foot Archambault A13 on the same ship as Comanche, beat that maxi to Antigua (thanks to starting several days earlier from a different port), and then won IRC 1 in the Caribbean 600—which was the event that had forced them to hurry from Hobart to Antigua. Overall they finished third in the seventy boat fleet, the first boat under 50 feet ever to make it onto the event’s biggest podium. “We like to win, but not at all costs,” owner Eric De Turkheim explained on the dock afterward. He said the team toasted the glorious sailing conditions—and their performance—with an evening glass of red wine. Teasing Machine tactician Laurent Pages says, “We were careful to avoid making any big loss and one of the key areas was Guadeloupe; we didn’t stop at all in the wind shadow of the island and a lot of that was due to our navigator, Jeremie Beyou.” With a carbon deck, twin wheels and twin rudders, Teasing Machine has a lot of stability and power, and she ate up the Caribbean tradewind reaching conditions. Her North Sails inventory includes 3Di ENDURANCETM sails and nylon spinnakers. Congratulations to the rest of the top ten finishers, all powered by North Sails: Proteus, Momo, Jethou, Comanche, Spookie, Nikata, Tonnerre 4, Team Brunel, and La Bête. North also helped teams win the top five spots in IRC Z, top three in IRC CK, top two in Multihull, and first in the Class40 and superyachts classes.   READ MORE

Fifteen years after the first J/109 was launched, the class is experiencing a resurgence as second- and even third-generation owners buy up used boats. The 2015 North Americans (run as part of Block Island Race Week) had twenty-five boats on the line. The 109 is still the same boat: a simple racer-cruiser that can be raced one design or under IRC. And with the newest crop of owners making racing their top priority, improving performance is considered more important than keeping the boats ultra-simple. Beginning with the 2016 season, the class will allow the use of in-haul systems on jib sheets. The goal is to help light air performance, and to help make the class jib more competitive for handicap racing. The in-haulers are rigged between the clew and the lead block, deflecting the sheet inboard. To take advantage of the new performance possibilities, North Sails J/109 expert Jack Orr spearheaded the design of a new class legal jib, the AP-6. The new model allows for sheeting angles of eight to nine degrees, significantly inboard of the standard J/109 tracks. It also has a higher clew, so that the sail doesn’t hit the coach roof when it’s deflected inboard. And the luff has been increased to the maximum legal length allowed under class rules. After extensive on the water testing and a few recuts, the new sail design is now ready for production. Jack notes, “We also tested a new, external roller batten pocket that rolls better and will reduce the chance of the battens compressing towards the leech and breaking.” In order to see the benefits of tighter sheeting angles across the entire wind range, performance-oriented owners will also want to upgrade their heavy air jibs. The new HA-4 is built out of North Sails 3DiTM and can do double duty as a handicap #3 jib. “We think the new class jib designs, combined with 3Di construction, will provide a faster setup and a longer lasting sail,” Jack explains. “Customers that want to stick with 3DL to save some cost can get the same new designs.” In addition to the new class-legal one design jibs, North also offers the APG-4 145 percent genoa for PHRF/IRC racing, which is built out of 3DL. The 2016 J/109 regatta season gets started in April with the American Yacht Club Spring Series. The North Americans are scheduled for June 12-16 in Newport, RI. For more information about the North Sails J/109 product lineup, visit offshoreonedesign.com contact Jack Orr. Jack.Orr@northsails.com | 203 887 7621 READ MORE

North Sails clients won 8 out of 13 classes in Key West, including Melges 24, J/70, Farr 280, ORC 1, ORC 2, Performance Cruising, and Multihull. With seven bullets in nine races, Peter Wagner’s team on J/111 Skeleton Key dominated the class Midwinter championship by 14 points. “We are from San Francisco so big breeze is clearly familiar to us.” And for Peter Wagner and his crew on Skeleton Key, going fast through wind and chop were clearly important skills at the 2016 edition of Key West Race Week. The team posted no finish worse than second over the weeklong event. STARTS AND BOAT SPEED When asked what the biggest factors were in their victory, Wagner’s response was hardly unusual. “We were able to start cleanly with strong control of our lane in eight of nine races. We then had strong enough upwind boat speed to turn these starting opportunities into defensible leads.” And even when they had trouble on the starting line, Skeleton Key was able to grind back. “In race nine, we got a bit surprised at the start by a late-forming crowd at the boat, and had to bail out to the right side shortly after the gun. The left corner paid massively on that first beat, and we spent the race clawing back. We felt fortunate to salvage a second, passing Wooton on the last leg.” SAILS USED Skeleton Key sailed with their North Sails 3Di Main and Medium/Heavy jib for the entire regatta, except for one beat when they used a 3Di RAW Light jib. Downwind they used an A2 spinnaker, except for one run sailed with the A4. Wagner calls the 3Di Medium/Heavy “a great sail which has been our workhorse throughout the event.” Tactician Seadon Wijsen adds, “The 3Di Medium/Heavy jib we used is very versatile. We used it from 9-21 knots and it was fast, especially in the higher wind ranges. As a testament of the 3Di product durability, this sail had been used for five previous regattas and practice days and still looked and performed great.” Of course great boat speed is not the only factor to winning a big regatta, and Wagner and Wijsen both credit teamwork with keeping them in front of the fleet. “The crew work was flawless all regatta long,” said Wagner, “which didn’t give the rest of the fleet any openings to capitalize on.” Wijsen agreed. “We practiced one day in San Francisco in October and the Saturday before the regatta began. Our team was a little erratic and nervous early but after winning the first two races everyone settled down and focused on their roles. We just got stronger after that.” TRIM & TUNING Saturday’s practice in 9-13 TWS helped the Skeleton Key crew adjust to Key West conditions. “I thought the rig was a little loose on Saturday, so we adjusted for Monday to +14 full turns on uppers and +5 full turns on D1’s from our tuning guide BASE setting,” recalled Wijsen. “We sailed Tuesday and Thursday at +9 full turns and +3 full turns from BASE. I felt the tight rig being good on the J/111 even in chop. We did not adjust the headstay during the event and I am not sure we would ever adjust the headstay because the boat seems to like the BASE rake in all conditions.” “Jib halyard we kept a little tighter than normal to get the mid leech a little tighter. Because the waves didn’t match the wind direction, we set the boat up asymmetric on traveler, mainsheet tension, in-hauler and jib sheet tension. Twisted and looser on port into the chop and flatter, tighter on starboard for pointing in flatter water.” J/111 THOUGHTS This was Wagner’s first year in the J/111, and his first KWRW. “What we have learned in our relatively brief experience in the J/111 is that upwind performance is all about boat speed,” he explained. “The boat will point very nicely once it is up to speed, and it’s very important to maintain strong flow in order to establish height, especially in chop. Sounds obvious I know! Doing it well requires good coordination between mainsheet trimmer and helmsman, as well as creativity on more open jib sheeting angles depending on the sea state.” The next event for Skeleton Key will be Charleston Race Week in April. “We would encourage all J/111s to come join in what promises to be a fantastic event,” Wagner said. “The fleet momentum is building, and this is a simply great group of sailors to race with.” Wagner also complimented one sailor in particular. “Seadon Wijsen called superb tactics throughout the series, staying patient and always putting us in position to leverage our speed edge.” And Wijsen had his own praise for the owner: “Peter really did a great job in making sure there was nothing we wished we had or had done before the racing began.” With the help of North Sails Seadon Wijsen and sail designer Phillip Williamson from North Sails, a new J-111 Tuning Guide is under development and will be uploaded to the North Sails Offshore One Design J/111 webpage next week. Questions on the event or North’s J/111 sail inventory can be directed to Seadon or Phillip: Seadon Wijsen: seadon.wijsen@northsails.com | +1 415 339 3000 Phillip Williamson: phillip.williamson@northsails.com READ MORE

Rewind to January 2014 | A new suite of 3Di sails has arrived on the finishing floor at the North Sails loft in Vannes, France. The sails will be hoisted for the first time on maxi trimaran Banque Populaire VII (ex Groupama3), to fuel the pursuit of transatlatic speed records under the helm of Armel Le Cleach, both solo and crewed. The main, J2, reacher and Gennaker™ powered Loick Peyron (filling in for injured LeCleach) to win the Route du Rhum that year. The sails were used for the delivery from New York to France, and back to France from the Caribbean. The inventory included a North Sails 3Di ENDURANCE mainsail and J2, complemented by a 3Di RAW reacher and NPL SPORT gennaker. The sails saw a thrilling first run with LeCleach, and that was only the beginning. Early 2015 | North Sails designers are back on the loft floor prepping the sails for a Jules Verne attempt, this time under its new name IDEC Sport. Legendary french sailor, Francis Joyon, will challenge the record with a crew of five. They will use the same sails that were built for LeCleach. The designers are scratching their heads. Fully crewed round-the-world sailing was not in the picture. Lower loads were specified, minimum weight was the goal. “We really pushed for the weight to be light and we succeeded in that for the solo trip.” recalled North Sails designer Gautier Sergent. “To shift gears for round-the-world sailing, we ran the numerical models again for the new constraints. We reinforced the sail mainly only with flat tapes, and added chafe protection in the exposed areas.” “Yann Regniau and myself also designed a new J1 to complement the existing sail robe and optimize the boat performance now sailed by a crew. We made a new J3 to replace the old cuben J3 from the Groupama3 era.” November 2015 | The team’s intention to sail around the world had given the designers reason for pause. They applied the best solution available by adding minimal post-production structure to increase load capacity. The sails were ready, Joyon was happy. IDEC Sport sets off from Ushant with no time to waste. December 2015 | Now over half way around, IDEC reaps the benefits of their risky dive South – an attempt to make up time. Sailing past icebergs at high speeds, they made up close to 1000 miles on the record pace. They are back on track as the boat appraoches Cape Horn. January 8, 2015 | IDEC Sport finishes their lap around the world. They clocked another 29,000nm on the boat’s 3Di sails, and set the 3rd fastest time in history. The six men celebrate. The designers rest. One of North’s experts, Quentin Ponroy, joins the delivery crew for the sail from Brest to La Trinité. They clean up the boat and inspect the equipment. Ponroy assists in derigging the sails and checking for wear. Last Week | Ponroy reports to Sergent back in Minden. The sails are in very good condition and Joyon does not plan on buying new ones anytime soon. He did seem to indicate another attempt for the Jules Verne record this fall… READ MORE

North Sails clients enjoyed a full week of sailing in Key West, winning eight classes at the annual regatta put on this year by the Storm Trysail Club. The prevailing NNE was too strong for sailing on Tuesday, yet otherwise delivered four days of big breeze racing. Dedicated teams hit the water early for pre-regatta sessions with North Sails Offshore One Design scheduled for Saturday and Sunday. Sailors in the J/70, C&C30, J/111, and IRC classes spent a full day in clinics before wind speeds kept them on the dock for all of Sunday. While practice was blown out, J/70s sailors gathered on the ramp for a tuning clinic with top North one design sailors Tim Healy, Geoff Becker, and Bill Hardesty accompanied by J/70 pro, Willem Van Way. Conversation centered on the fresh trend of sailing wing on wing in mid-range breeze (9-13kts). Look for an instructional video coming soon from North Sails One Design. The regatta kicked off with the windiest and waviest racing of the week on Monday; NNE at 22kts gradually dropping to 16kts. Racing resumed on Wednesday with steady conditions that lasted through Friday. Pete Wagner’s North-powered Skeleton Key was fast out of the blocks and consistent all week, ultimately winning the competitive J/111 class. In the Melges 24, Blind Squirrel held a firm lead until Black Seal surpassed them by a point in the arms race for first. Both boats raced with stock North one design sails. In IRC, Steve Benjamin’s relaunched TP52 Spookie sailed a solid regatta off the back of his Rolex Yachtsmen of the Year award last week. North clients won their classes in the J/70, Farr 280, ORC 1, ORC 2, Performance Cruising, and Multihull. Detailed Race Reports Cumulative Results READ MORE

Having set off together on November 22, North-powered Jules Verne contenders Spindrift 2 and IDEC Sport completed their circumnavigation on Friday within 5 hours of each other at the finish line in Ushant. After hoisting 3Di sails, the journey began with a record-setting pace to the equator and continued down the Indian Ocean, where IDEC Sport crossed in record time by sailing south to 6 degrees latitude. Icebergs in the Southern Ocean stunned them before rounding a magically still Cape Horn. In the final push, the crews withstood a brutal beat up the Atlantic before greeting friends, family, teammates, and the greater community at the finish line. Spindrift 2 crossed at 15:01 UTC on Friday 8th January to claim the second fastest circumnavigation on record. They sailed over 29,000 miles in 47 days 10 hours 59 minutes and 02 seconds, clocking an average speed of 25.35 knots. Skipper Yann Guichard sailed with 13 crew members including Sail Expert Jacques Guichard who works out of North Sails France. Also onboard is driver/trimmer and co-founder Dona Bertarelli and Sébastien Audigane, Antoine Carraz, Thierry Duprey du Vorsent, Christophe Espagnon, Erwan Israël, Loïc Le Mignon, Sébastien Marsset, François Morvan, Xavier Revil, Yann Riou and Thomas Rouxel. The time makes Driver/Trimmer Dona Bertarelli the fastest woman to sail around the world. IDEC Sport finished at 1650hrs UTC on Friday 8th January to claim the third fastest time on record. Finishing in 47 days 14 hours and 47 minutes, they beat the boat’s 2010 record trip by 17 hours. Legendary French solo sailor, Francis Joyon, sailed with a crew of only five: Bernard Stamm, Gwénolé Gahinet, Alex Pella, Boris Herrmann, and Clément Surtel. 47 days is no time at all. In these 47 days we have watched them from the comfort of our homes and offices, debriefing their routes over Christmas dinner, watching from our tablets as we rang in 2016, constantly reminded of what a special achievement it is to sail around the world. Both Spindrift 2 and IDEC Sport used North Sails 3Di Endurance sails for the circumnavigation, which offer the highest durability and performance ratio of the North Sails range of products. Congratulations to the crews on Spindrift 2 and IDEC Sport for a safe and fast lap around the planet. Here’s to the next one! The Records: Spindrift 2: Ushant to the Equator in 4 days 21 hours 29 minutes Spindrift 2: Ushant to the South of Tasmania, the entrance to the Pacific, in 20 days 04 hours 37 minutes IDEC Sport: Crossing the Indian Ocean Spindrift 2: Ushant-Cape Horn in 30 days 04 hours 07 minutes, which brought a lead of 18 hours and 11 minutes over Banque Populaire V. Dona Bertarelli: The fastest female sailor to circumnavigate in 47 days 10 hours 59 minutes and 02 seconds ”This Jules Verne Trophy has been a series of firsts for me: going around the world, rounding the three capes, having so many days on the clock… And I really want to get back out there. The boat is perfectly adapted for this task, we’ll just need the weather to be with us. And then the South Seas, they’re magical. The Indian Ocean was rather grey, but in the Pacific we were treated to some incredible light when we went down to almost 60° South… But I’ll remember all the birds most: the albatrosses, petrels, fulmars and Cape petrels constantly following us.” – Yann Guichard, skipper of Spindrift 2 “There were a lot of great moments. I shall most remember a classic one: rounding Cape Horn in very pleasant conditions and in an incredible light… But the most important thing was the pleasure of being with a crew. We really worked well together and got on well. Our skills were fairly complementary. There were several solo sailors in this crew and that made a good mixture… Will we do it again? If we could set off again as a crew on this boat, we’d willingly do it.” – Francis Joyon, skipper of IDEC Sport Image credits: top © Jean – Marie Liot / DPPI / IDEC Sport; right ©YannRiou / Spindrift Racing; below © Yann Riou / Spindrift Racing. READ MORE