THE KEY TO SUCCESS AT J/111 WORLDS
North 3Di powers Skeleton Key to winning victory in San Francisco
After Peter Wagner’s Skeleton Key won the 2017 J/111 Worlds on San Francisco Bay, hosted by St. Francis Yacht Club. North Sails caught up with tactician Seadon Wijsen, North Sails J/111 class expert and salesmen based in San Francisco, CA. Seadon identified four key points that contributed to their first place finish at one of the most competitive regattas of the J/111 season.
North Sails clients have won every major J/111 Class event since Worlds in Newport, RI in 2015. This year, Skeleton Key was equipped with North Sails MNi-4 Mainsail, MHi-4 Jib, Hi-2 Jib, HWJi-2 Jib, A2-4 Spinnaker, and the A4-2 Spinnaker. Thanks to our clients and expert feedback, our designers are constantly improving sail designs, pushing to create the best products for high performance competition.
1. Experience – We have sailed a number of J/111 regattas over the years and know how to sail the boat well.
2. Consistency – Having seven of the eight crew we had at the Worlds last year, and the same team we had in Key West this past January, really helped.
3. Confidence – Knowing our rig tune and sail set up gave us a lot of consistent speed. While this time we were not always the fastest around the marks, we were consistently fast upwind and downwind throughout the wind ranges.
4. Patience – If I were to add one more thing, it is that we had a lot of patience. We were a little frustrated to not be winning after each day and sometimes we beat ourselves up, but overall we were patient, did not try anything too radical, kept covering and chipping away at the competition.
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