TIM HEALY’S TAKEAWAYS FROM MARBLEHEAD

Tim’s Suggested Inventory For The 2018 World Championship

Marblehead is an open-water venue that can often have flat water, swells and chop. My headsail of choice for this particular venue is North’s J-2 High Clew jib. It features a powerful shape for conditions seen in Marblehead, and has proven itself after winning four World Championships as a great option. The high clew allows for more efficient in-hauling over the cabin top and is easy to trim out of the box.

We used the J-2 for practice leading up to and during the NOOD regatta, and our trim settings became noticeably fast. By the end of the regatta we had excellent upwind speed in the lumpy sea-state. I recommend the J-2 High Clew jib as your best headsail option for the Worlds.

Our Race-Winning Settings: (6-10 knots)

Lead Positioning: 5.5 – 6 holes in front of car

In-Hauling: Clew positioned right at the cabin house

Sheet Tension: Use sheet tension to control the twist, keeping the upper leech telltale flowing 100% of the time.

We used the new XCS-2 Mainsail which features the same championship winning shape of the XCS-1 mainsail, with some minor updates.

The AP-1 Dynakote Asymmetric is also ideal for Marblehead’s choppy conditions. When we were in displacement mode (under 10 knots) we needed power and the ability to trim. The Dynakote material is more forgiving and absorbs the shock from the unforgiving sea-state making it easier to trim and easier to sail lower angles at a faster pace. These two sails paired with our tuning guide will make your Worlds experience easier and faster out of the box.

Contact Tim if you have any questions on how you can up the level of your program and get maximum performance this year at the World Championship.

We caught up with Ray and Jenn Wulff, who placed first in Corinthian division using Tim’s suggested inventory. Here is what they had to say about their experience using North Sails and how it impacted their weekend performance.

“As a corinthian team, we don’t have a lot of time to tune and practice before events. At the Marblehead NOOD, we pulled a set of North Sails out of the bag, having never seen them before. We followed the tuning guide provided, and had a fantastic regatta. The North Team put the time in to create a fantastic guide that makes it easy to go from the office to the race course with confidence. North’s J/70 sails are user friendly, forgiving, and easy to set up. Hard to beat that!”

-Ray & Jenn, Joint Custody