NORTH SAILS BLOG

AUSTRALIA’S JOHN BACON – FROM 5.5M SAILOR TO IRC RACER Taking on the World With North Sails World Champion yachtsman John Bacon has arranged many successful racing programs together, and his next few months of sailing is no exception. With a range of sailing projects on the go, John’s also contesting two exciting regattas in two vastly different racing yachts on two continents in the next month: the 5.5m World Championships in Hanko, Norway, and the Rolex New York Yacht Club Race Week in Rhode Island, USA on his new Dunning 44. Stepping Up in Sydney Growing up on the water, John had always sailed with his family and friends. However it wasn’t until a change of scene to Sydney’s Pittwater that gave the yachtsman a push into the racing side of the sport, and after crewing on various yachts, he realized it was about time to pull together his own team. “I enjoyed crewing, but I really liked steering – and I thought the only way I’d do any steering is to buy a boat. So, I started with a little boat and began to upgrade and work my way up through a series of different boats and ended up at the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club (RPA). I was happy doing keel boat handicap racing and had a pretty nice Sydney 39 and it was a pretty good IRC boat where we did really well in that. That’s where I started to get involved with North Sails, with getting better sails and crew with that boat. I’ve used North Sails from the get go in all my campaigns, and now, it’s never a question of using anything else.” Jumping into One Design racing with a McConaghy 38, John knew the next step was to assemble a competitive program to race against the best. “I got to know David Sampson and Cameron Miles, and although we knew each other already, we got to form a really tight-knit team together at RPA, and just loved it! We’ve had a great relationship with Norths through the MC38 program and it was never a question of using anything else. We sailed that boat for 10 years everywhere! We did every regatta, and I think we won one nationals and came second a few times.” The Challenge of 5.5m Sailing The 5.5m development class all race on the same start line, however the fleet is scored in three divisions according to their age, as Classics, Evolutions, and Moderns. The Evolution is where John saw his next pursuit as the world championships were coming to his home waters in Australia. “As my time started to free up I was doing less work, I got interested in the 5.5m. I really loved the concept of 5.5ms and was really drawn into it. The boats are all different, it’s all in a box rule. They’ve got different designers, different sail plans, as one boat may be good on a Swiss Lake, whereas another one is really good at the Baltic. They’ve all got this character of their own.” “We bought an old Evolution boat in Europe, in the 1973 to 1993 division, and we thought we’d go sail it and do the German Open Regatta, but the poor boat was a wreck, so I got a mate of mine over in Europe to completely restore it for the worlds in 2019 in Helsinki as a bit of a practice. Terry Wetton, James Mayjor and I formed this really nice team, and we ended up winning both regattas, it was just amazing.” “After the 2019 worlds, we brought the boat back to Australia, and RPA was hosting the worlds in January 2020, so instead of trying to win it at our home club we had to defend our title. And we did! From Evolution to Modern John’s decided to level up and compete in the main Modern division for the upcoming 2022 5.5 metre World Championship in Hanko, but the change in division is all the same racing for him and his team. “Everyone’s on the same start line. You’ve got boats that could be up to 70 years old on the line with new modern styles. So within the fleet, it’s actually a really interesting strategic point of view among the divisions, as the speed differential between the divisions is not that much. With 5.5ms it’s actually about the equipment.” When discussing the North Sails inventory, John’s vision for the development of his team includes tweaking and recutting the North Sails designs to suit the racing conditions he expects. “We’ve done some fantastic work with Darren Jones, our coach, working with Alby Pratt and the designers on coming up with some really nice sails. We’ve gone away a little from the One Design sails, and we’ve got a full wardrobe of 3Di sails. But we’ve looked at some light air paneled sails as well as an option, which is a work in progress that we’re going to look at in Hanko.” When asked about how quickly the class progresses, John’s passion for the project shines through. “There are a couple of new sails turning up for us, and the good thing about 5.5m is that it’s a development class. You get to push the development of the class further each time you make a change, and I really like that. It’s good and when you turn up with something a bit different and it works for you, it’s fantastic!” Where John has spent the most time developing are with his spinnakers, optimizing the inventory for the class minimum and maximum wind speeds for racing, between 4 and 25 knots, allowing him to extend the crossover of the larger spinnaker and remove the smaller spinnaker completely from the boat. “North Sails has been amazing and we’ve got a great relationship. It’s fundamental to what we’re doing with the program, so we’ve got some nice new sails meeting us when we get over there and we’re looking forward to getting out there on the water.” New Project for Race Week in Newport Racing his Dunning 44 at 2022 Rolex New York Yacht Club Race Week fits perfectly into the packed schedule John has planned for this year, but he hasn’t yet seen the boat he plans to race with his international crew of mates looking to have fun. “We had an opportunity to buy a Dunning 44 in Newport, Rhode Island, called The Edge. And I love it there. We haven’t travelled for the last couple of years, and the Rolex New York Yacht Club Race Week regatta is on in July this year, originally we didn’t think we could fit it in, but it fits perfectly as it’s the week after.” “It’s going to be a bit of a scramble, and somewhere we talked Ken Read into doing tactics for us, and Suzy Leech is navigating too. So I’m going to be surrounded by all these absolute legends. And then we look at the entry list, and it’s the who’s who of big boat racing.” “I am where I am in sailing because of the relationships I’ve got with people, and I really respect that and am really grateful for it. And I am a North Sails customer, but you get more than the sails, you get everything. The development, the help with that development, the backup, the support, and you know if we blow a spinnaker up in Norway, I guarantee you we can get it fixed.” “So we’re working with the North Sails loft in Newport for the Dunning 44. The boat’s brand new, it’s only done two regattas. The sails that are coming with the boat are okay, but we want to keep moving, so we’ve ordered another North Sails spinnaker and a medium jib, and we’re doing a recut of the main to a more specific design that Ken Read has been part of. The boat’s got lots of potential but it’s going to be another massive challenge to sail against some of the competition we’re up against, but we’ll see!” Offshore Sailing on the Horizon John also played an integral part in the launch of the first Farr X2, owning the first of the newly designed short handed yachts to Australia to help get the project underway. “The Farr X2 is going well. We recently sailed it from Sydney Harbour up to RPAYC in Pittwater. For me, I really love the projects, and I got involved with Bret Perry and the guys, and I thought this was a project that needed to start happening.” However, John isn’t planning on sailing the Farr X2 himself in the short term, as he’s given it to two young female sailors to launch their double handed offshore racing campaign. “I’d done a two handed campaign with David Sampson before, and then Alice Tarnawski came to me and said she wanted to do some two-handed female sailing, and the timing for the Farr X2 to be built worked out well. It was something that was a really cool project to do, and Alice and Clare Costanzo have teamed up and are one hundred percent into it!” “I’ve got a lot on myself so I’ve kind of said to the girls it’s their project, and they’re going to race it in the Sydney to Gold Coast race, so we’re doing everything we can to get them to Hobart. In the meantime I’m looking forward to doing a bit of offshore sailing in it for sure, but the main program is to get Alice and Clare to Southport and then get them on the start line to Hobart on Boxing Day.” READ MORE

NEW CLASS LEADER FOR THE 5.5 METRE World Champion Christoph Burger Takes On New Role © Robert Deaves Christoph Burger has sailed a lot of different one designs since childhood, including two Olympic campaigns in the Finn, but he’s always returned to the 5.5 Meter class. “My dad built one of the first modern boat in 1994, when I was 18. That was my first link and I never really stopped sailing this beautiful boat.” Taking over as 5.5 class leader for North Sails has been desirable, he says, because “it is one of my favorite classes to sail.” Based in Switzerland, Christoph joined North Sails in 2013 and now combines professional sailing and coaching clinics with selling sails. “That’s often a win-win situation. When you introduce someone to sailing or help him to get better, then the orientation to North Sails is very helpful and simple.” He continues to sail other classes, including the Finn, J70, Dragon, and Star, as well as campaigning the 5.5 as middle crew on New Moon, a Bahamian team that won the 2018 Worlds. They also finished either first or second at the other big 2018 regattas. “I’m always saying you don’t have to win every regatta to be a good salesman,” Christoph says, “but it helps now and then that you’re on top and people look up to you. I’m really happy that other North Sails clients are performing well; I think we won all the regattas in 2018 and all the podiums with our sails.” Which is easier to do when ninety percent of the top 10 during the 2018 worlds, of the fleet is using North Sails. © Robert Deaves Sail Development 3Di is an “absolute rocket ship” in moderate to heavy winds, and Christophe says he’s quite happy with the current three jib designs (light, medium, and heavy air). “The designers just finished a lightweight jib and clients are buying.” The spinnakers are also fine up and down the range, so the next development project is to tweak the mainsail design to be more dynamic in light air. “Only a year ago, we were the only team having 3Di sails,” Christoph reminds us. “We decided not to use them because they were not officially for sale yet and it would’ve been too much of a speed advantage. Now one year later, we’re already talking about new mainsails again!” Technology unique to North makes it possible to continually improve designs, but that can be potentially confusing to his customers. “I have to communicate really well what we have right now and where we want to go, and make a steady clever but sustainable development of the product.” The 5.5M presents some specific challenges compared to other classes because it is not strictly one design in hull shape. Like twelve meters and other meter classes, “5.5” is the output number of a formula that includes hull displacement, waterline length, and sail area. “So if the boat designer chooses to have maximum sail area, he has to build a heavier boat or choose a shorter waterline,” Christoph explains. “Each boat has its own sail plan; they all look the same but they’re optimized for each boat.” At the end it is still the crew that makes the biggest difference. 5.5 sailors like to be kept informed about sail developments, he says. “It’s not their profession like ours, they don’t have their heads 24/7 around sails. So whenever they see me, they’re really excited. What’s the new guy’s doing, what have I been doing, what’s the latest.” That’s a nice entry point for Christoph to explain the latest design tweaks. © Robert Deaves On the boat Christoph won the second title during the 2018 5.5M Worlds with a team that has sailed together for three years. “Basically I’m responsible for the boat setup,” he says. “Which sails and then what tuning, getting the whole setup ready to go sailing. On the water, I’m doing strategy and tactics and a little bit of everything. The helm focuses on the steering and the bow is calling wind and current.” Christoph adds “But at the end we are a team with equally importance. We stand and fall together”. His team is excited to compete at the 2019 Worlds, the 100th anniversary of the class, in Helsinki—where the very first Gold Cup was sailed. Off the boat Christoph isn’t home much during the sailing season, so he tries not to schedule any travel in December to January in order to have time with his wife and three kids—aged eight, six, and three. The family enjoys skiing, as well as all kind of sports. “It’s very cool to see the little ones growing up,” he says. “I’m always the first one suffering when I’m going sailing for two weeks.” A few winter boat shows are also on the docket this year. “It’s always good to get to see clients in a different environment. At regattas, everyone is in their own focus.” The sailing season starts up again in early February with a J/70 regatta in Monaco, which makes Christoph grateful for his access to other North Sails experts. “As soon as I have a question I shoot an email to a colleague and he responds normally within a day, so I have a perfect first-hand answer. I do the same with the others. “You have to keep on working and do your homework so you can be better,” Christoph adds. “I’m trying to get better every year.” © Robert Deaves © Robert Deaves © Robert Deaves READ MORE