Category Archives: Short-Handed sailing

Full Length Battens-3: Square Head mainsails

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The Square Head Mainsail–on to advantage side of the equation:

The Square Head mainsail is the default style for the Class 40 short handed offshore race boats.

The Square Head mainsail is the default style for the Class 40 short handed offshore race boats. Don Miller Photography image

The previous few essays have focused on the limiting issues surrounding full length battens including, for the vast majority of the normal boats that most of us sail, the backstay.

Briefly I have proposed that:

  • There is not really solid empirical evidence that one sail with FLB is faster than the SAME sail with leech battens on the same class of boat and assuming that both boats are prepared to be as identical as possible.
  • The Cost of FLB may outweigh the Value a lot of the time
  • I will get to the “sail handling” aspect of FLB further along in the series. This area is in fact one of the areas that does offer increased value for the owner via ease of handling the sail: Hoisting lowering reefing.

For now I am going to concentrate on the most obvious advantage and a much lesser known aspect of full battens in general and the Square Top mainsail in particular.

In my experience virtually all discussions with sailors regarding sail shape is one sided, in that it revolves around the sail’s shape and so the implied concept is aerodynamic lift. I cannot immediately recall any discussion where the other side of the lift equation is even mentioned let alone discussed: DRAG.

Drag is everywhere on a sail boat:

Someone with more time on their hands than me could calculate the amount of drag on this boat

Someone with more time on their hands than me could calculate the amount of drag on this boat

The actual hull topsides

Cabin profile

Rigging

The sail’s surface

The width of the roller furler or furled headsail when sailing with a staysail

The furling drum

The anchor

Rails, life lines stanchions

The dinghy stowed on the bow or in Davits

Cruising boats carry lots of kit and it is all drag.

Cruising boats carry lots of kit and it is all drag.

Halyards

Dodger

Life raft on the cabin top

Bimini

People standing up- This is why most good race boats have the guys all sitting together in breeze or laying low in light air.

Radar either tower astern or on mast

Radar reflectors…..You get the picture.

What is missing from this list?

It is one of the reasons why the square head sail has emerged over the past few years.

We have discussed the usual limiting factor for the size of the roach on most boats is the backstay, closely followed by adherence to a handicap racing rule.

Enter the “open” class boats, in particular the solo offshore race boats. This cohort encompasses the Mini 650 class, the older open 40’s and the much more successful, as a class, Class 40’s, the open 50 and 60 foot mono-hulls and their multi-hulled cousins and in some parts of the world open class skiffs like the Aussie 18 footers.

None of these classes (I am not 100% certain about the 18’s) have any restrictions of sail size or shape, only number and type depending on the individual class and the race.

If Bigger (more area) is Better, so the square top sail is born.

The one element missing in this discussion so far is the mast.

The mast, the square top sail and full length battens are all interconnected.

 The Twitter version:

The mast is drag

The square top sail minimizes that drag

The ST cannot work without full length battens

ESPECIALLY in this case, the FLB need a low friction track because of the great compression generated by the ST sail.

The NPR version:

Because it is sticking up in the air, the mast is 100% drag, at least for the purposes of this essay-Ignore the wing masts and wing sails please.

Over the span (the fore and aft width of the sail-the girth.) the drag from the mast is reduced because the air is smoothed out by flowing across the sail.

As the sail ascends into the air on 99% of boats it gets narrower, again almost universally due to tradition as manifest in the backstay.

This image gives a good visual of the issue at hand-Namely the top 3-4 feet of mainisail-on a 40 footer-is not contributing to reducing the drag from the mast.

This image gives a good visual of the issue at hand-Namely the top 3-4 feet of mainsail-on a 40 footer-is not contributing to reducing the drag from the mast.

At a point that varies for all sorts of reasons this reduction in drag is reduced. The drag from the mast starts to increase.

The point is that usually within a few feet of the top of the spar and for a rule of thumb it can be where the girth of the sail is less than about 4 or 5 times the local for and aft length of the mast, the amount of drag over comes the amount of lift generated by the sail.

For instance, let’s say the mast is 6 inches fore and aft. 4 or 5 times 6 inches is 24-30 inches. So in this example the drag starts to increase, dramatically, at that point on the sail where the girth is less than 24-30 inches wide fore and aft because there is not enough girth in the sail to smooth out the turbulence created by the wind hitting the mast.

This image shows the ration of the mast for and aft length to the width (girth) of the sail as the sail approaches the mast head. 4 or 5 to 1 puts the equal girth n this main at a little lower than half the distance between the mail head and the top batten. I enlarged the image and used a metric rule against the screen to determine this.

This beam on image shows the ratio of the mast’s fore and aft length to the width (girth) of the sail. This is obviously a conventional mainsail and was built to comply with local racing handicaps. As on almost all conventional yachts, as the sail approaches the mast head the position of the girth on the sail diminishes. On this Sabre’s main the girth equal to 4-5 times the masts span is a little lower than half the distance between the mainsail head and the top batten. Functionally then the (mast) drag starts to increase dramatically somewhere above the top batten is. I enlarged the image and used a metric rule against the screen to determine this.

Enter the Square Head sail. This sail profile minimizes the drag from the spar as well as being much more sail area.

I do not have many images close up of the relationship between the mast width and the sail girth as for the one of the Sabre above, but I think you get the idea.

I do not have many close up images of the relationship between the mast width and the sail girth as for the one of the Sabre above this image, but I think you get the idea. This image courtesy of Don Miller.

BUT

It is functionally impractical for any boat with a backstay. Unless of course you want to lower the mainsail every time you tack which may sound like a pain but again find out what the customer is trying to do with his boat sail goals plans etc. I did do two offshore cruising boat sails that were exactly that big roach that would not clear the standing backstay. In one case, the image below, it was a bit difficult to get through in light air although he reefed in about 14 knots of wind, so the roach was easier to deal with the first reef in. I did another offshore cruising mainsail where the owner specified that he would sail with the first reef in if lots of tacking was going to be involved. The roach in this sail was even more aggressive than the first one.

This is the roach profile of the first boat I mentioned in the paragraph aobove.

This is the roach profile of the first boat I mentioned in the paragraph above. Many thanks to the owner for providing the image. www.mccubbin.ca/boat

 

This particular boat was built with two configurations-One with this large roach and NO backstay at all for coastal cruising in and around New England. The spar was of course so designed. And a smaller main WITH backstay for going in the ocean. This is one way to do it...

This particular boat that I did the working sails for was built with two configurations-One with this large roach and NO backstay at all for coastal cruising in and around New England. The two light lines you see on the sail are more conventional runners for headstay tension, but are not really required to keep the rig in the boat. The spar was of course so designed. And a smaller main WITH backstay for going in the ocean. This is one way to do it. Boat was a custom Bruce King design.

For boats with such sails, very large roach OR square head, enter the twin topmast running backstays, generally referred to as “the runners”.

As the name implies, they are running backstays that attach to the masthead and are adjusted by a two or three part purchase led to a winch.

This image gives a bit of an idea on the twin running backstays idea. Yes, this is a race boat, a single handed forty footer from the 2009 O.S.T.A.R

This image gives a bit of an idea on the twin running backstays idea. Yes, this is a race boat, a single handed forty footer from the 2009 O.S.T.A.R. The two padeyes with blocks on the transom are part of the three part purchase this boat has. The blue cordage crossing forward of the starboard stern rail is the last fall prior going to the winch through a clutch at the very edge of the image. The pair of blocks adjacent to the base of radar plinth are for the mainsheet.

Upon contemplation it will be seen that this is not something to be undertaken lightly. Many things need to be contemplated, not the least of which, in no particular order are:

Boat & Deck hardware lay out

Mast strength

Standing rigging configuration

The degree of sweep of the spreaders

The skill of the operators and

Their willingness to put up with this added task when tacking

All these factors contribute to the reason why most “cruising” boats do not have square head sails.

Next up running backstays, batten compression and hardware for the battens.

Our first sail late in the afternoon. Scott Bradford assisting and checking the spar.

This is my mini-650 on her first sail late in the afternoon in August 1995. Scott Bradford assisting and checking the spar. This was the first 5 minutes of sailing after her launch. At the time this roach profile was considered to be huge. If you look at the luff you will see the luff sliders I used-NOT ball-bearing at all, but the best available option on the day. I was more interested in keeping the sail on the boat during handling.

 

Full Length Battens-2c: To FB, or not to FB

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With apologies to you know who.

I have received another question and a related comment  from some readers on the LinkedIn forum “Sailing Network”. This  forum requires authorization but the  access is free once registered.

The question comes from Pippa who appears to be either the principal or a partner and is a RYA Yachtmaster Instructor (Sail) with Miramar Sailing School, Antigua

“I’ve been reading your comments and blog about Fully Battened Mainsails – I have a Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 40 which has sails that are probably the originals from 1996. The main is starting to look ‘tired’ and we have been considering getting a new sail with only leech battens – do you think this would be a retrograde step, or not make a significant difference to her performance? Obviously the current main being a bit out of shape won’t help, but will we regret not getting a replacement that is fully battened? Interested in your opinions!”

This is the comment from the same forum from a reader in San Francisco, DG Tilton-

“Get the full battens. I got about half a knot better in low winds. Most importantly, for students, better control in a jibe. The extra expense of new batten cars/slides for the mast was well worth the investment. The command of out haul for shape also improved performance as well. The difference between old and new is always an increase in speed. But the performance of my sail in 12 years is like new. I teach heavy weather sailing in SF Bay. Our typical winds of 25 kts to 35kt present dynamic conditions due to micro cells of wind vortex. Your lighter winds in Antigua make sail shape even more important. The difference is like releasing more energy for speed instead of drag.”

This is interesting because both correspondents seem to be in the sailing instruction business and both seem to sail in conditions of more than enough wind, most of the time.

I will point out here I am not writing to advocate for or against full battens. Each boat, owner, situation, skill and experience level, sailing plans and a sea-bag full of other factors influence any decision on a boat and the decision on FLB’s is no different.

These essays are to share what I have learned over a more than 15 years as a sailmaker sales rep. that is incorporated into over 50 years of sailing including roughly 40 in the marine trade.

As I read through the question and comment i received, I have the following questions for Pippa centered on her basic question to me:

Would getting a sail with FLB be a retrograde step OR make a significant difference to her performance?

Then the first thing is to go back to the first essay and review the discussion there in particular the part about performance increases after either:

Adding FLB to an old sail. Second is getting a NEW sail with FLB.

My question at the beginning of the first essay is:

Can the “increased performance” be attributed to the Full Battens, on the new sail

OR

Does the “increased performance” stem from the fact that the sail is new and so has all the advantages of a new sail?

These include of course a new(er) shape, perhaps “better” (more stretch resistant-even Dacron) materials than the old one, perhaps larger area via more roach, I note that OEM sails are notoriously “small” with regard to roach and the materials used in such sails are not so great, a superior shape design if from a different sailmakeing firm and or designer or simply what has been learned over the intervening years since that sail was designed.

I am not aware of truly empirical evidence that full length battens on THE SAME SAIL, ON THE SAME (class of) BOAT improve the PERFORMANCE of the boat. And how are we defining performance? Faster, higher or both?

Issues to consider when trying to answer that question include:

  • Does a FLB mainsail make the boat so equipped sail faster and or higher-compared to the “old” sail with out FLB?.
  • In what wind speed?
  • In what sea conditions,
  • Steered by whom?
  • With or without a prepared and smooth bottom?
  • With the same amount of stuff, in the same place in the interior?
  • With the same headsail, in the same “shape” condition as when the old main was being used?
  • Same rig setting?, rake, backstay, mast prebend cap shroud tension?
  • Same weight on the rail?
  • Same helmsman?

These all play a part in a boat’s “performance” and are some of the particulars that sailmakers want to have in place before even consenting to go on a sail speed trial. Organizing and executing such testing with two boats is a right royal tedious business too,even at the top end of the sport and is full lots of small details that are very hard to uncover. For instance I once did a sail for a fellow with a free standing cat rig spar. After delivery he called to complain that he could not keep up with some of the boats at the rally/rendezvous he was attending. After about 6 hours of sailing, questioning, measuring, reviewing details of the design, I discovered that this fellow had a mast step that was in totally different place than other boats I had measured on the dock adjacent to him and that his spar was, for reasons unknown it was larger in diameter…..He did not even know it was larger.

I can attest from my own experiences that determining if one sail is faster (and or higher) than another is a very long drawn out process. This experience comes from two America’s Cup campaigns and lots of hours sailing along in a straight line with lots of smart and experienced sailors and sailmakers trying to make the boat go as fast as it can, then changing nothing else except the sail in question and repeating.

Thus even with an identical Sun Odyssey prepared as closely as possible to Pippa’s boat in order to be as equal when sailing along side each other; there are still many variables to be incorporated before the “increased performance” of the sail can be attributed to the sail having Full Length Battens.

Read again my remarks in an earlier post as to why,” if FLB are faster”, why then does the J105 class not all have FLB mainsails for instance? The 105’s have no rules regarding batten length. The paragraph is about half way down the post.

The next part of a decision to incorporate FLB into a new sail has to do with, as I wrote in the first essay,  value and encompasses things like:

  • Extra cost for the (addition of the) battens on the sail.
  • Issues of moving FLB around by carrier if necessary. Long, and skinny is expensive to ship even if it light in weight. I am thinking, Spares.
  • What are you going to use for luff hardware, at what cost and thus value? In my going for the cheaper option is not sound. This is especially so on a 40 footer, used (I am assuming) as an instruction boat with the attendant minimal seamanship (as distinct from hours or miles of sailing) experience of the students, one assumes, in an area with more than enough wind most of the time.
  • Considerations of maintenance, specifically chafe: The Sun Odyssey 40 has spreaders with some amount of sweep to them. When running down wind the battens, especially the top couple will bear on the standing rigging and chafe due to the hard spot where battens in the sail cross the standing rigging. The chafe will be harder than a sail with conventional battens.
  • The mechanism for securing the sails into the pockets-Perhaps not a great issue on a boat that may not stray far from home. Regardless reefing any sailing 25-30 knots of wind always flogs the sail and invites battens to spear out the leech end.
  • Stowing the sail on the boom. Here is one area that the FLB are or can be superior and perhaps add the value but only if combined with a slippery track arrangement and some kind of sail containment. The SO 40’s I looked at on the web all have some kind of boom bag and lazy jacks for the sail to be captured by and stowed in. Again more money.
  • The battens and pockets, cars and batten boxes all add weight. I have memories of a mainsail for a 40 footer weighting 50-60 lbs. Add another 15 pounds for all “the stuff” if the sail has a really low friction track and car system.
  • The added weight of the track and the now heavier sail all sticking up in the air will have an effect of some magnitude on the boats stability. Whether or not it is visible to the human eye depends on other variables.

I am not going to recommend or not FLB. As I say above my goal is to lay out what I see as the issues that by experience many folks do not consider in their interest in and experience with FLB.

In sum the question for Pippa to contemplate is:

“Is all this worth the extra capital cost and the maintenance cost compared to the Value you get from them?”

Value being subjective but of course including performance (it will be a new sail after all), possible increase in ease of handling the sail-if appropriate sail capture kit is incorporated into the boat, additional weight to hoist, a less “aggressive” flogging” of the sail when it is not trimmed. This is because the battens slow up the frequency of the individual flaps, to and fro that are the components parts of flogging.

Pippa, you asked for my opinion, well here it is (grins) Mr. Tilton says that  the “extra cost” is worth it but that is a decision you will have to make for yourself and your own circumstances.

Were I consulting with Pippa on this sail in my previous life, these would be the questions I would be putting to her.

 

Stability of offshore boats

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One of the many features of a Mini Transat boat that attracted me was the basic premise of the boat. That seamanship was to be to the fore and all the gadgets were secondary.

British Delivery skipper Bob Salamon saw that the only game in town then, the O.S.T.A.R was getting too far away from its original, inexpensive, “run what ya brung”roots with big campaigns,big boats and big budgets. He wanted to offer a race that went back to basics. He thought that there would be enough sailors who would be attracted by the idea of preparing your own small inexpensive boat for a 3500 mile ocean passage, creating your own weather forecasts from simple tools like a barometer, air and water temp. and clouds were the only ways available then of course, plus the the sailing, navigation-Sextant and the seamanship required to make the passage.

This idea struck a chord with a young Californian sailor named Norton Smith. He had, I think,participated in one of the, if not THE first Single-handed Trans-Pac in possibly 1977. Following the first Mini Transat, Smith researched the boats and the race and ultimately commissioned local San Francisco Bay sailor and designer Tom Wylie to design him a boat. Wylie also ran a boat building business and so the boat that became American Express was built by Wylie in his shop in, I recall, Alameda on the North side of San Francisco Bay.

American Express was the winner of the second Mini Transat in 1979

American Express was the winner of the second Mini Transat in 1979

15 or so years later when I was having Wylie build parts of my boat I learned a bit about Smith’s boat.

It was cold molded plywood. It was to have water ballast in it, for at the time the Mini Rules were a bit like the 18 foot skiff rules in Australia: “The boats are 18 feet long and the start is at 2:0 pm”. Well the minis were roughly the same for the boats themselves. “They gotta be 6.5 meters long and the start is in September”. There were a few regs for the sails and kit required, but nothing like today.

Well before the current crop of Mini's with their cabin tops and escape hatches, American Express sailed in at least two Mini Transats, winning the 1979 edition.

Well before the current crop of Mini’s with their cabin tops and escape hatches, American Express sailed in at least two Mini Transats, winning the 1979 edition.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The way Smith and Wylie calibrated the water ballast configuration was very practical and well before the now default standard 10 degree  rule. This 10 degree rule common virtually default rule in solo offshore races and boats today and requires that any device that impacts stability of the boat usually water ballast or canting keels is restricted to a maximum heel angle at the dock of 10 degrees.

Remember too that this is years before the BOC and all the races it has wrought. Really the only Name Brand solo race was the O.S.T.A.R.

Compare the very "nortmal" hull shape and keel with the inboard rudder in this picture of American Express from the early 1990's.

Compare the very “normal” hull shape and keel with the inboard rudder in this picture of American Express from the early 1990’s with the keel and shape below.

Coopers mini at Sail Newport in 2002

Coopers mini at Sail Newport in 2002

 

They build the boat and went sailing on SFO bay. They rigged up a kite pole with a large drum or water carrier of some sort on the outboard end. The sailed up wind and gradually put more weight on the kite pole that was rigged square to the boats centerline. When the boat recovered from its un-ballasted angle of heel to one they thought was right, and faster, they measured the amount of water and built the tanks inside the boat to that volume.

Another “quick and dirty” detail was the deck. The Moore 24’s were very popular at the time, well they still are, and so they somehow got a Moore 24 deck, placed it on the top of the Wylie Hull and trimmed it to fit the hull,  glued it on—Job Done!!!

American Express preparing for the 1993 Mini Transat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The fascinating thing about this boat is that it is still active and apparently sailed in the Mini Transat in 1993. Further as the first image will indicate, a mini is incredibly stable. The displacement of a mini is about 2200 lbs, mainly because they must carry about 1,000 of gear including the skipper. The “pull down” stability test described in an earlier post  is relatively new but if you look at the first image, on top of a guy up the mast on American Express, in the early 90’s or late ate 1980’s the boat is totally unperturbed by the say 170 pound bloke aloft. 170 over 2200 is close to 8%. We could all contemplate what might happen to our boats if 8% of the boat’s displacement was hoisted to the top of the mast…..

The flat deck was both easy and fast to build and install and lowers the CG of the boat. It works from a sailing the boat and rigging layout too

The flat deck was both easy and fast to build and install and lowers the CG of the boat. It works from a sailing the boat and rigging layout too

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If I ever act on one of my pet projects, to open a museum or similar institution dedicated to the sub species “Solo and DH sailing racing and cruising”, American Express will be one of the featured boats.

American Express at rest. Date unknown

 

Transat Jacques Vabre & The Mini Transat

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For an admittedly small cohort of US sailors, it is relatively easy to understand the French passion for fast, short handed (solo or double handed)  offshore sailing.  For those of us who do relate to such events, two of the bigger ones, the Transat Jacques Vabre and The Mini Transat are both now fully underway. These races offer a couple or three weeks of the finest examples of this division of the sport of sailing.

One of the continuing fascinations for me is the skill these guys and girls have and the thought that goes into making them, the crews and the boats sufficiently safe so that there is a reasonable chance they will all finish in one piece. For instance all the Mini skippers have to carry an immersion suit. They are required to have a water tight bulkhead in the bow and they must have sufficient built in flotation to keep the boat afloat in the event of a holing. Minis were among the first class’s to have escape hatches in the stern. The qualifying process in terms of miles sailed and races completed is very rigorous in order to be accepted as an entry in the Mini Transat. Compare that with the entry requirements for most ocean races in the US. The only races I can think of right now that actually mandate qualifications and a qualifying passage are the Bermuda 1-2 and the Single handed Transpac.

One significant requirement that the Mini’s started and now is incorporated into the Class 40’s and the IMOCA 60’s is the stability test. For the Mini’s they must be capsized at the dock, the mast head at 90 degrees to the water plane, a weight put a roughly  50 Kg. weight on the top of the spar and the boat must recover from this position or it does not pass.

I often wonder how many "cruising boats" would pass a similar test.

I often wonder how many “cruising boats” would pass a similar test.

All sailors and cruising sailors in particular can always benefit from the  practice of important skills: MOB, broken equipment and so I think there is a lot to be learned from the world of the single and double handed races that the average cruising sailor could benefit from in terms of practice and forward planning. Anyway, read on:

As it turns out, after being in postponement  mode for two weeks waiting for it to stop blowing the labels off the wine bottles on the Brittany Coast, the Mini Transat race started 29 October last. A day or two later with the boats Half way across the Bay of Biscay, the race committee abandoned the race and instructed the fleet to beat feet to the closest port based on the forecast that it was to blow like stink again. 5 boats made it to Sada on the NW coast of Spain while the rest blew into Gijon further to the east. A couple more were further east and one, the sole US boat sailed by Jeff MacFarlane, drifted off downwind after he broke the rig and was lifted off by one of the escort boats. Jeff must be pretty hard on his boats: this is the second one he has broken in two years trying to keep his position as the number three ranked mini sailor in the world.

You are single handed on the boat, but no one does these things alone. Image (c) Don Miller Photography 1995.

You are single handed on the boat, but no one does these things alone. Image (c) Don Miller Photography 1995.

 

One of several minis in the North East USA.

One of several minis in the North East USA.

The Mini’s are 21 foot rockets sailed solo From France, with a scheduled stop in The Canaries, which for this year has been abandoned due to the weather delays in favor of merely passing through a gate adjacent to The Canaries, then full blast across the Atlantic finishing in Guadeloupe.

The 4 classes of boats in the TJV, a trans-Atlantic race sailed double handed from France to Itajai, a coastal city south of Rio in Brazil (and a repeat stop over port for the 2015 VOR) are class 40’s, IMOCA 60’s, 50 foot multi-hulls and 2 MOD Tri’s (sailed double handed at 25-30 knots most of the time) were also held for a few days due to 50 knots of gale blowing across the basin in Le Havre the starting point for the TJV. This fleet got off last Saturday or Sunday but shortly after the start the race committee instructed the Class 40’s to finish at Roscoff, about 200 miles SW down the track from Le Havre. Reason being yet another 50 knot gale about to blow across the Bay of Biscay and the 40’s were not going to be fast enough to get far enough south to avoid it. The idea of beating up wind in 45-55 knots in a Class 40 is less than appealing, even to the French.

A class 40. One of the impressive fefatures of these boats is the really properly water tight hatch into the cabin.

A class 40. One of the impressive features of these true offshore boats is the really properly water tight hatch into the cabin seen here with the hatch handles and a bar (for the padlock) on it

While the Minis had a week in Spain the remaining three classes of the TJV boats sailed

An attribute of the Mini Class is the, if not regulation requirement that you be able to sail with no mast...But the spirit of the race the boats the competitors and the events, all of them, encourage the kids of sporbel solving seamanship skills we all ought to aspire too.

An attribute of the Mini Class is the, if not regulation requirement that you be able to sail with no mast…But given he spirit & history of the race, the boats, the competitors and the events, all of them, encourage the kinds of problem solving & seamanship skills we all ought to aspire too.

past C. Finisterre and the 40’s restarted based on the time differences recorded when they “finished” in Roscoff. On Tuesday the Mini’s started again and headed south down the Spanish/ Portuguese coast in the now 30 knot NE trades. This has interestingly enough put them right on the heels of the Class 40’s the tail-enders, 3  of whom were passing C. Finisterre  as the minis came out of the bay on which Gijon is sited.

As it turns out the lead mini has sailed past all three of the tail end Class 40’s. The third to last Class 40 is at 38:38n x 15:45 west…. although the lead Mini is about 200 miles further east, at 38:12 North x 11:13 West. The last Class 40 is the only boat with an America aboard, Rob Windsor sailing with Brit Hanna Jenner aboard the US sponsored 11th Hour racing. They were one of two C-40’s to divert back to shore after the second start to fix a broken head stay toggle which might have seen their abandonment but for smart work on the crews part to save the rig when the head stay fell in the drink. The price for this failure is their nearly 700 mile deficit on the leaders, but they are back in the race and will be pushing hard no doubt.

The leading Mini is the scow bowed, ugly, to my eye, yet seriously fast winner from the 2011 race presently in the hands of a pretty skilled, experienced and aggressive Italian.

http://www.minitransat.fr/skipper/giancarlo-pedote?lang=en

The ten lead minis are AVERAGING over 10 knots with the leader averaging 12 but the third place boat is averaging 13.6 knots…Think about how fast they are really going to average such high numbers. The weather map says they are sailing in 25-30 knots.

One can follow the Mini Transat here: http://www.minitransat.fr/presentation-0?lang=en

The top 10 Class 40’s are averaging between 12 and the 15.2 of the leader AVERAGING, that is. One boat really pushing hard is the Anglo French pair Halvard Mabire (FRA) and Miranda Merron (GBR). They have hand steered their way to the front group up from 8th yesterday to 4th today.

And filed under the category of “know your boat, aka tiller time” this pair has completed about 60% of the Global Ocean Challenge DH RTWR for Class 40’s a couple of years ago, the Atlantic cup, the Quebec St. Malo race and lord knows what else in the same boat, a 2nd generation Pogo. It probably does not hurt that they are among the oldest pair in the race: Halvard will be 57 on Nov 18, another birthday at sea it seems & Merron is 44.

They also hold the race record for the most transatlantic passages at 54…Mabire has 34 and Merron 20 crossings. From the back of the envelope, 34 trips x 3,500 miles per, say on average = 122, 500 miles JUST in Atlantic sailing. Plus this one assuming they finish—4 boats have abandoned the race so far and the leaders are not at the Canaries…and this one is closer to 5,000 miles.

One can follow the TJV here– http://www.transat-jacques-vabre.com/fr/20-ans-de-courses

These races are worthwhile following not the least for the ability to follow an ocean race where 20 years ago it would have been impossible once the boats were over the horizon, but because of the good ideas that can be got from looking at the many images of the boats under way and at the docks.

 

 

O.S.T.A.R-Only American Finishes

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Newport RI

19 June 2013

Looking like he was sailing back from a weekend on  Block Island, Jonathan Green, the sole US entrant in the 2013 O.S.T.A.R. finished the 3000 mile solo classic off Castle Hill this afternoon under bright summer skies at approximately 1415 local. Greeted by a couple of boat loads of friends and supporters, Green was the 6th boat to finish and is almost certain to capture first in class and is well in the hunt for a top three place in fleet. Describing the race, Green congratulated the two skippers in the two boats smaller than his Beneteau Oceanis 351: Richard Lett in a VQ 32 and Dutchman Jac Sandberg in a revamped 30 footer built over 20 years ago for shorthanded Round Britain and Ireland race.

Jonathan Green approaches Castle Hill to finish the O.S.T.A.R

After his departure from Newport on April first to get to the start Green was tormented by a fresh storm roughly every three or four days. On the 12th day out near the Azores he was capsized by huge seas generated by a depression that filled basically the entire north Atlantic basin with a central pressure of 955 Mb. Ensuing damage to the boat prompted an unscheduled stop on the Azores for repairs.

Starting from Plymouth on May 27, the fleet encountered hard weather from the jump with 25-35 knot west north westerly’s for the first 36 hours.

Green was leading his class virtually from the start and generally in company with the two smallest boats in the race. Englishman Richard Lett aboard Pathways to Children, a neat & tidy shorthanded boat drawn by Dutch solo sailor and designer Dick Koopmans set the pace. Dutchman Jac Sandberg aboard a 23 year old 30 footer designed by Brit. Jon Corby & originally built for the Round Britain and Ireland Race was going full throttle to keep pace with Lett. Green, sailing one of the more comfortable boats in the classic race, was pushing hard all the way thru several storms. An email from him on the second day reported same wind and a brutal crossed up sea state on the edge of the continental shelf.

When asked for his thoughts after coming ashore at the Newport Yacht Club, the Finishing Club and HQ for the race at this end, Green that it was the hardest thing he had ever done but was delighted and proud of the accomplishment.