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The Newport to Bermuda Race,

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What is needed?

So, you want to race in The Newport to Bermuda Race?

Your first question is, commonly, “what’s involved and where do I start??”

This race is one of the Premier ocean races in this tiny world and is very carefully planned and executed by the Cruising Club of America in partnership with the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club.

THE Bermuda Race is not complicated but it is complex. On the other hand, a lot of people have done it, many multiple times and there is an Ambassador program that the organizers established, who are available to help the novice.

You think to yourself, “gee, I’d like to do the Bermuda Race”. There are many reasons for this:

It is a bucket list race for many sailors.

It a great challenge, getting you and your boat and crew across the gulf stream to a sundrenched idyllic island in the middle, more or less, of the Atlantic Ocean. AND back-Lots of family adventures in this portion too.

It is a great adventure generating once in a lifetime memories for the participants.

It is pretty well subscribed with Family and Friends crews, so there WILL be some one for you to race against across all 700 odd miles of sailing.

Now the bigger question becomes, HOW?  What is needed to compete in the Newport to Bermuda Race?

This essay is intended to address as many of the answers to that questions as I can.

Overall it is worthwhile remembering that Yacht Racing is a management exercise.

With the exception of the first item, thereafter in no particular order:

Crew:

Might seem an odd choice, but as with any enterprise, the people are the most important asset.

As you start to think on the program, and in your minds-eye, start thinking about potential shipmates, some of the things to toss into the mix, obvious and otherwise include:

Experience:

Many potential shipmates may indeed be very capable sailors, but with not much experience offshore. This may include sailing at night, and/or sailing in hard weather, defined by me for this discussion as in excess of 25-30 knots true wind speed, biggish seas and a lively boat motion.

Age:

Commonly there are a mix of ages on any boat going to Bermuda, with the possible exception of the full-on Cat. 3 Pro boats where the physical demands generally require crew on the younger side and in any event being professional sailors are likely to be pretty fit regardless of age. There might be a discussion with potential crew on skills versus experience combined with age. There are some very good young sailors, who do not pass the experience test, and some older sailors who are pretty fit, skilled and experienced. That is a good combination.

Fitness:

Make no mistake, the fitter you and your crew are the easier time all will have on the race. Simply moving around and hanging on aboard a boat that is bouncing around in 30 knots of sou’wester in the Gulf Stream is an exercise in strength, agility, flexibility, and endurance.

A fitness detail of high importance:

I have conducted safety seminars covering the getting into the life raft drill. The sessions take place in a warm, calm flat water, swimming pool. I have seen individuals who, uninjured cannot get into the raft unaided.

Skills:

There is the sailing part of the equation and this is frankly the easiest part. A worthwhile question discussion for prospective crew is what other things they know about? Engineers with mechanical skills, electrical, computer, medical, interest in weather and the ocean environment, navigational interest, administration-you would be flabbergasted at the degree of administrative paperwork this race generates, either in actual paper or in bytes. A three ring binder one inch thick will be full when all said and done.

Commitment:

If you start recruiting in the fall, (Or ideally a few years out) for the following years race, you might think about the following. Quite often people will sign on for such an adventure, but there are always some boats with last minute dropouts that create all manner of problems. Some of the common reasons include:

Health issues:

Of the crew member or a family member including aged parents, pregnancy, accidents, illness and so on.

Work issues:

These include, but of course are not limited to: Last minute orders, particularly big valuable ones, departure of skilled personnel, cranky customers, is the crew’s company likely to be bought or sold. It is worthwhile inquiring if there is a likelihood the crew might be transferred away from easy participation on the race and so on.

Personal:

What is going in the life of the prospective crew?

Reserves:

In this respect it is worthwhile having a bench that has a few more folks on it than “just” the number you plan on sailing with. These back-up crew of course need to be aware of this situation and may well be rotated thru the various training activities.

The Boat:

With a suitable number of potential crew (and yes this is chicken and egg issue) what is the boat to be? The options are:

The boat you have

OR

The boat you are buying or will buy.

The Charter of a suitable boat

The next boat question is:

  • What is the longer-term plan for the boat you are planning on taking?
  • IS it part of the exit plan, or “just” the next boat?
  • Is the Bermuda race (there are at least four) a bucket list item, one and done?
  • Or are you liking offshore racing and thinking you might like to keep doing this?
  • This is a good reason to do a couple of races as crew before committing yourself to the Full Monty. In the North East, there is: The Marion to Bermuda, Yes, this sails to Bermuda but it is a less intense much more Family and Friends event. Marblehead to Halifax, about half the distance. Annapolis to Newport, about three quarters the length of the Bermuda Race, plus it is possible to stay out of the stream if you wish to use this race as a practice event.
  • Do you have a history of this kind of sailing? I.E. Offshore ocean racing? Perhaps a knock on from your parents?
  • Is the boat to double duty, as the “family yacht” and so with an interior and some level of creature comfort.
  •  Or be a race boat only, hose out n arrival and hand over the keys to the return trip delivery crew?
  • Double duty of course is all the other things a boat can do such as cruising, locally or further afield, ocean/off soundings voyaging, Wednesday night racing and so on.
  • If the boat you have now, is it suitable for racing to Bermuda?
  • What might need to be done to make it so?
  • At what cost? Including the cash to Upgrade and considerations on the likely impact of such mods on re-sale.
  • What class are you thinking of competing in?
  • Grand Prix, cruiser, cruiser-racer, double-handed?
  • What is your budget tolerance for preparing the boat? A virgin boat can burn through 20k in short order. This is just the boat, not the logistics at either end.
  • Are items 6 and 12 able to be combined so that the money spent on the Bermuda Race upgrades can be amortized across other uses? For instance, is buying a couple of expensive, high-test sails something that is only for the BDA race or is the boat use sufficiently broad that they will have utility, and so value, in other sailing areas?

The characteristics of the boat:

This is of course intimately connected to the foregoing list, but the following focuses on the design properties of the yacht.

Stability:

The minimum Limit of Positive Stability (LPS) for the Newport to Bermuda Race is, or has been, 115 degrees. This means the boat can get knocked down to 115 degrees and recover. It is worthwhile taking some time to research this particular detail on the boat you own or the boat you are looking at.

Some ways of doing this include contacting US sailing and see if they have measurement certificates for sisterships, if you are looking at a production boat. The Newport to Bermuda Race is run using the ORR Rule and they are likely to have a sistership certificate too.

There a few rough and ready rule of thumb formulas online that might give a broad-brush indication of what you are looking at. In the event the boat you fall in love with misses 115 degrees by just a bit, there are a couple of ways of improving the stability without rebuilding the boat. One is additional weight in the bottom of the boat. The other is to upgrade to composite rigging. The latter is more expensive than the former but cheaper than a new Carbon mast. For a small improvement in stability the composite rigging might be a high value solution.  This kind of calculus is part of the longer-term plan with the boat.

Special Regulations for Offshore Sailing

Known in the vernacular as thewith the Offshore Regs, does the boat’s hull, interior, deck and related structures comply with the (increasingly stringent) minimums? The book, to be had from US Sailing, World Sailing or downloaded from the latter is a reference book that will be very well thumbed and annotated by the time you return from Bermuda. As the name implies, it covers everything from the size of opening ports and hatches to the number of crew who must have taken a particular level of Safety at Sea course within a specified time in advance of the race.

Getting back

Yes, the race is TO Bermuda, BUT you need to be just as well organized for the return trip with all of the crew and boat preparation being the same. The weather Gods care not if when in the stream in 45 knots of Nor Easter you are racing or “cruising home”.

This is by NO means a comprehensive list of individual tasks required to be done if you do make the leap to The Bermuda Race.

On the other hand it is a great event at both ends and in the middle (the race) and the feeling of accomplishment is right up there.

IF you need some more detailed council on the issues cover here, call me 401 965 6006 or email coop.joecoopersailing@gmail.com

This is preferred. The websites email system is cumbersome.

Thanks

Cheers

Coop

High school sailing and keel boats

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The Farr 40 Kaper

It is no news to anyone who has been around sailing boats for more than about 10 minutes that the various skills one learns when being on sail boats, on top of the actual “sailing”, the steering the boat, are vast, deep and readily transferable to other walks of life. Such is just one of the reasons why the US Naval Academy has a pretty developed small boat sailing program.

And by “small boats”, I embrace all of their sailing activities, from the College dinghies, to the learn to sail program they call Beginner Sail Training in Navy 26’s and, for those inclined and with the developed skills, the offshore sailing program. It is from this latter cohort that the Rainy Day Farr 40 Kaper emerged.

Certainly, we are talking about “The Navy” so it is reasonable to assume that familiarity with boats and the sea is a given. However, the yearly intake of freshman Midshipman has far fewer young people with sailing skills than one might think.

On a Tuesday in June I was with 8 high school sailors from around Rhode Island on the Naval Base in Newport, RI. The goal was to go sailing with some of the Navy Mids. who had just finished racing from Annapolis to Newport a week or so before, aboard two Farr 40’s from the Academy.

This all came about through an email from an old mate of mine, Jahn Tihansky, the Director of the Navy’s Varsity Offshore Sailing Team, VOST, to a number of the members of the Storm Trysail Club involved with the Junior Big Boat Safety at Sea seminars. The gist of the note was, “We will be in town with two offshore boats and 18 Mids., is there something we can do?” Something we can do” was quickly translated by me and Jahn into being some mentoring time on the Farr 40’s, wth the Mids. with some high school sailors from around RI.

As with many, more or less, off the cuff ideas, this one came together pretty easily and quickly.

I coach the Prout School Sailing Team and I am also the RI rep to NESSA, the North east region’s organizing authority for high school sailing. As such I have the other RI high school coaches in their own email distribution list. This list, plus the participant list (15 teenagers) from the recently completed S.T. Foundations Jr. SAS at Sail Newport, in Ft. Adams, along with my own team’s sailor and parent lists and a few misc. kids I know, gave me a pretty wide net with which to advertise such an opportunity to. The net result was we had 8 HS sailors on two of the Navy’s VOST Farr 40’s for close to 4 hours. The pictures in this post were taken on this day. There were a number of interesting elements involved with this Kaper over and above “just sailing” and I was able to articulate my vision for the day at the planning meeting Jahn conducted prior to boarding.

Jahn introduced himself and his fellow coach from the Academy, the highly lettered Nancy Haberland, a three-time Olympian, holder of 18 National and 7 World championships and who has been a coach at the Academy for 15 years.

The third coach, Brad Donnelly, is the current HS coach for the Rogers HS Sailing Team in Newport and is, as it turns out, a soon to be retired Commander in the US Navy and whose current day job is as a lecturer at the Naval War College, on whose grounds we were standing. I was the fourth coach.

Jahn asked the HS sailors for a quick bio of themselves and sailing experience and then for me to paint a picture for the sailors of the goals of the day. The broad brush of the day had been developed over a dinner Jahn and I had the previous week. The idea I had was this. Here are two groups of young sailors, with not many years between them.

The high school sailors are relatively new to the world of sailing having had the bulk of their exposure in the H.S. 420 & FJ dinghy environment. The Navy Mids were in fact only just a couple of years ahead of the HS sailors as was discovered when Jahn asked the Mids., “how many of you sailed before coming to the Academy”, to which the answer was perhaps one with some background. The Mids. had of course been exposed to the world of sailing, or at least the idea of the sea, for the past however many years they had been at the Academy.

Leadership is possibly the one human characteristic valued above all others in the Navy and for good reason. Leadership is what got Bligh and his loyalists 35-hundred some miles across the Pacific in one of the superior epic small boat voyages on record.

I proposed that the goal for the day have two critical components:

The Mids. would practice their leadership, communications and instructive skills with the HS sailors.

And the HS sailors would learn some of the broad-brush skills needed to sail big boats.

We then divided the 8 HS sailors into two groups and assigned them a boat. With that we moved to the boats. Each boat has a Skipper and of course all of the roles are assigned as is normal for any similar racing yacht. Trimmers, bow, mast, pit, nav. etc.

On board our boat, I allocated the four HS sailors to one of four areas: bow, mast/pit, trim and steer and to work with and under the eye of, the corresponding Mid. With that we proceeded to sea.

Well, Narragansett Bay north of the Bridge, just off the War College in fact. Along the way we pointed out the local Navigation marks and their implications, set the mainsail, instructing the Padawans on the minutiae of tailing a line, getting turns onto a winch while tailing, use of a winch handle, leading the halyards with snatch blocks across the hatch-the main halyard on a Farr 40 exits the spar below decks and must be led on deck to be tensioned on a winch. The uses of the backstay hydraulics, double ended “German” style mainsheet, boom vang, working traveler and other sail controls, may of which are on the 420’s, but in the Farr of course have more load & so purchase and many of which exit a central pod in the middle of the cockpit floor and are much more aggressively used when sailing.

After a few bare headed tacks and gybe, we set a Jib and went up wind. Intruction was given of the importance of the communication back and forth from the bow to stern and the key role the mast-man has in facilitating such communications. After a few tacks and gybes with two sails during which time the Mids. in the relative areas had been covering the pleasures of the Dip Pole Gybe, we set a kite, pretty cleanly as it turned out and headed across to the Jamestown shore in the 5,7 knots of Easterly.

Navy sailors in charge of each area were constantly showing, explaining and watching their opposite HS number in the execution of any particular task in any evolution.

We had HS sailors trimming main, steering, handling the jib and kite sheets and guys and working the bow. Jahn and I would be moving back and forth, chiming in when we felt necessary as would the two senior Navy sailors including Zach, seen below, holding onto the backstay, the boat’s skipper.

Sailing with performance meters was a first for the HS sailors when steering and as might be expected they mostly sailed by the angle of heel and pressure, a theme Jahn and I were close by to reinforce pretty regularly.

Adjustable Jib leads and a backstay were two control tools the HS sailors were introduced to, and the look and expressions of amazement at the change in shape of the main and the feel of the tiller, when the backstay was applied or eased was a sure sign the lessons were hitting home.

During the course of the afternoon we were able to rotate three HS sailors thru steering and two thru the mainsheet trimmers role.

Richie, one of the (soon to be a Sophomore) Prout sailors who had been working in the pit, jib trim, after guy, middle of the boat area, sailed with me for the Tuesday evening been can racing, later that afternoon on a 40 footer I had introduced him to, along with another young sailor from the recent Jr SAS, and it was very gratifying to see just how far Richie, in particular, had come in just a few weeks since the SAS.

The opportunity to sail with Midshipman from the US Naval Academy is a special treat unlikely to be widely available to other high school sailors around the country and so not a particularly good template for duplication. Although JAn did tell me they try and do “this” any where they go on thier summer sailing seasons. But Navy boats or not, there is no reason at all why such an instructive afternoon of mentoring and training cannot be undertaken anywhere there are keel boats, High School sailors and owners and crews interested in developing young sailors. 

Apart from the pretty obvious aspect of self-interest such efforts present to willing owner’s, by way of keeping the potential roster of future crew topped up, working with such interested and engaged young people is one of THE most rewarding activities I have done and do and will continue to do.

One last side bar.

I am also involved with the Young American Sailing Academy, the outgrowth of the Young American Sailing Team that so successfully completed in the 2016 Newport to Bermuda Race. Based in Rye NY, this group is into its third class of developing high school sailors into big boat sailors. One of the young sailors who come up from New York to the Farr 40 Kaper is a graduate of the YASA program, including the 2016 Bermuda Race and with whom I have sailed with in several races. She is one of the most buttoned-up young people you could ever meet and so it is no surprise she has been accepted to the US Naval Academy and will be heading down there mid-July. I will miss her as a person and friend, and certainly the fun of sailing with her, but my loss is a big gain, in my estimation, for the US Navy and their VOST program and so for the country in the larger picture.

Bon Voyage Maddy.

Joe Cooper Sailing Podcast

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Last week I had a call from one Chris Heaton, who with his Dad, operate Newport Nautical Consignment in Newport, RI.

Chris wanted to know if I was interested in being intervewd by him for his podcast, “Standing before the mast”. What me? Stand up (actually sit for a while) and talk about sailing? When does this start.?

Well, last Tuesday, I visited Chris at the shop, just off the rotary on the way to the War College entrance at the navy base, hang a right over the railway tracks, keep the Shell station to port and NNC is on the left. It was a hoot. He has a great little set up with nice mikes, two in fact, some computer software and it all happens in the front room of the shop. A couple of comfy chairs and some beer, although I still had my coffee, and off we go.

Click her toEnjoy:

Cheers

Coop

Vendee Globe: Hugo Boss inches away.

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So far so good for the tenacious Brit on his fourth attempt to get his Knighthood, I mean, win the Vendee Globe. Personally I reckon the big job now is to be steady and cool and not get too psyched by being in front. I am sure he’d rather be there than in some of the other positions he has been in during his three previous races. Right about now 4 years ago I think he was fixing one of the rudder connecting rods after the Watt and Sea came adrift and busted said rod. Ever the Sponsors Man, he recorded it on board the boat with Hugo Boss logos everywhere. And of course this time, he is posting positions on the Alex Thompson website, so more eyeballs again. THIS is great sailing as marketing tool thinking

The other two leaders are putting the yards (meters?) on the top of the next group. Currently in second is Seb Josse on his third Vendee Globe. Just the short version of his CV includes a fourth in the first leg of the 1999 Mini-Transat, a second in the 2001 Solitaire du Figaro-A four or five leg stage race soloin 33 foot one design boats, around the Bay of Biscay and the western approaches to the English Channel. ‘The Figaro’ is THE training ground for the serious French solo sailor, and lately Brits too. Josse was a part of the crew and so, co-holder, of the Trophy Jules Verne aboard the Maxi Cat Orange, nee PlayStation. Third in the TJV with Isabelle Autissier in ‘03, fifth in the Vendee globe in ‘05, fourth in the ’06 VOR on ABN Amro 11 including a 24-hour speed record. You get the picture. He is sailing for the financial house of Edmund de Rothschild, long a prominent name in sailing with a collection of Gitana’s.

In third lies Armel Le Cleac’h, presently 92 miles astern of The Boss. Le Cleac’h is another professional sailor with a long history of big time racing. Figaro, World Champion in IMOCA (these Open 60’s) fourth in the Route du Rhumb, France’s answer to the OSTAR. A second place, twice, in the 2009 and 2013 Vendee Globe gave him the scent no doubt.

Interestingly when researching the basic stats of the boats, the beam of Hugo boss is not given. But Thompson has the most upwind sail of the three leaders at 340 sqm. Compared to Le Cleac’h at 300 and Josse at 290. He is also a tenth of a metric tonne lighter, 7.5 vs. 7.6. And, in what must be an enormous mental boost for Thompson and a bit of a ‘WTF’ moment for the rest, is the fact Hugo Boss was abandoned in the 2015 Transat Jacques Vabre, in November after being launched 01 September. After being recovered, a nice bit of work in itself I reckon, Thompson’s team spent six months rebuilding her again. And a slight bit of sailing trivia for you Thompson’s co-skipper in the abandoned TJV was the same Spaniard, Guillermo Altadill, (the most successful sailor no one has ever heard of) who was aboard High Noon, the youth boat that blitzed the 2016 Newport to Bermuda race.

Second and third are 89 and 92 miles astern of the Boss, and after that the distances really exercise the bungy cord. From fourth through tenth, they are respectively: 123, 195, 207, 285, 442, 575 and 619. And we are not talking about the rookies here either. Just in this group are a total of 17 (including this one) Vendee Globe races from a total of 43 previous races within the fleet.

From todays interviews with the sailors, Sébastien Josse remarks on the increasing discomfort aboard the boats in this race. ‘With each Vendée Globe it’s worse and worse. In my first one, I had a comfortable bed, but now it’s really uncomfortable and it’s hard to sleep’. Having boat speed is a great way to win a sail boat race but it does have its down side in a three-month race. Josse again:

When the boat is above 18-19 knots, it’s hard to move around. It’s noisy and it’s impossible to sleep with all the banging. It’s less comfortable than a multihull.

Then there are the forces these boats are subjecting themselves to. The following remark was made while the boats are sailing in 15 knots of true wind. We’re at the maximum loads for the boat. In the Southern Ocean we won’t be able to do that.”

If you did not know Thompson, (is British) it might be easy to infer it from his remarks from the same body of ocean. “It’s a bit bumpy. He goes on: (In this cut and paste from the VG news section whose work is duly recognized)

It is pretty amazing to be on a boat which in 16-17kts of breeze I can average 22kts. The breeze has finally come left a bit to allow Hugo Boss to lift up her skirts a little bit and go a bit faster. I have a bit more breeze for a few hours and then it will lighten up and drop a little bit before tomorrow when we will start a real fast, fast dash for three or four days towards the Cape of Good Hope. I could not have asked for it to be positioned more perfectly. It is a very normal scenario this. It is developing just to the south of us and will move down, and I will be able to stay ahead of it. I think just this lead pack will be able to stay with it. We will be with this low pressure for quite a while. I think Seb is right. This is going to be the first big test for the boats. I am imagining a wind angle of about 120 to 125 degrees true, sailing in 23-26kts of wind. Depending on the wave conditions is what will decide how fast the boats go. To be honest if it was flat water in those wind conditions my boat could average over 30kts. With waves I don’t expect to be going much faster than I am now, to be honest 22-24kts maybe. Today I will prepare the boat a little, re-tidy up, re-stack, and I will try and get as much sleep as I can in the next 24 hours. I have a little composite job to do, just to make sure everything really is ready, make sure my sail plan is correct for when it comes, make sure my contingencies are ready, make sure I am fresh to be able to hit the turbo button when it arrives. I guess we are going to find out how strong these boats are now. Who will be ready to lift the foot first? Show the French you have learned? I think these boats…well the limit is quite obvious. You know when you have to slow down. Last night I had to slow down. 24 hours before the Cape Verdes you get slowed down. You get told by the boat. The boat tells you when to slow. It is as demanding now as in more wind. We do not need a lot of wind. The more wind, the more waves, the slower you go.”

We’re not in Kansas any more Toto.

Newport to Bermuda Race-What sails?

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Sails for offshore and the Newport to Bermuda Race:

The Newport to Bermuda Race, sailed in even numbered years and it’s counterparts that are sailed in odd numbered years, The Marion to Bermuda Race and The Bermuda 1-2 are something of a right of passage for many US sailors, especially those in the north east. While not particularly long in terms of famous ocean races, the weather across the track can make for some pretty hard going, more so for the unprepared. The Bermuda race is roughly the same distance as the Sydney to Hobart race and the Fastnet race but as has been seen in both these races distance is not the only factor to contend with when preparing to race (sail) ‘only’ 650 or so miles.

The Newport to Bermuda Race committee is rightly proud of their safety record (only one loss of life in the race’s history) and so the organizers hunt and peck from a variety of sources and mandate a few of their own safety regulations in some cases.

The default regulations for offshore sailing, including things like required equipment, the boat’s structure and training are the Offshore Special Regulations, known as offshore regs.

Front cover of the World Sailing Offshore Special Regs, aka the 'Offshore Regs.'

Front cover of the World Sailing Offshore Special Regs, aka the ‘Offshore Regs.’

This booklet-sized document contains these regulations promulgated by International Sailing Federation, ISAF, now called World Sailing. It covers all manner of particulars to do with getting to the finish in the same boat you started with and all the same crew you started with. It is EXTREMELY hard won information and a very informative read for anyone thinking of going maybe anywhere in a sailing boat.

It is however somewhat Euro-centric in that everything is cross-referenced to an ISO number. For the layman it is a bureaucratic black hole. To make things a bit easier for US sailors US Sailing started a few years ago to develop their own prescriptions for requirement for races in the US. The result is a document a normal person can read and defines the gear required for the boat for three categories of racing, not six, called by USSailing: the Safety Equipment Regulations (SER’s) and the three categories are Ocean, Coastal & Nearshore.

Finally the Bermuda Race Organizing Committee list their own requirements based on their very extensive research, surveys after each race and the vast experience in some very un-hospitable areas of the worlds oceans of the members of the CCA.

In the view of some the safety requirements for much of the Offshore Regs. are becoming more and more complex. I have over the past few years been told by at least two people I can think of that they are stopping doing offshore races due to the rigmarole and cost of the safety kit.

Regardless, the requirements for sails have generally remained pretty stable for several years. There are really only two principal changes to sails lately: Storm Jibs and Storm trysails manufactured after 1 Jan. 2014 are required to be ALL high visibility, usually orange, in color. So, the sail requirements for the Newport to Bermuda race are as follows.

There are three required sails and an assumed fourth one, the mainsail.

REQUIRED SAILS

The three required sails are: a Storm Jib, a Storm Trysail and what is called a Heavy Weather Jib. These are very specifically defined in the safety equipment section of Bermudarace.com. The mainsail has only one requirement and that is:

3.33.1 Reefing: A yacht shall have mainsail reefs capable of reducing the area of the sail by an amount appropriate for the weather conditions possible on the racecourse.

This phraseology is intended to push back to the owners and the master, the responsibilities for going to sea. This is in fact embedded in the Racing Rules of Sailing and RRS Rule 4 is here:

DECISION TO RACE

The responsibility for a boat’s decision to participate in a race or to continue racing is hers alone.

From a practical and seamanship perspective, contemplating sailing across this course on a boat with only one reef, would be a risk, way riskier than the reward of a few pounds less weight in the mainsail.

The Heavy Weather Jib (HWJ) is from a sailmaker’s perspective and design and engineering wise, are ‘merely” small, flat and heavily constructed jibs. But they must meet the rules for HWJs though which are-for the Newport to Bermuda Race:

3.33.3 Heavy Weather Jib:

A yacht shall carry a heavy weather jib (or heavy weather sail in a yacht with no forestay) of area not greater than 13.5% height of the fore-triangle squared.

In practice it turns out that on many, if not most boats an forestay sail, like the one seen on this Bristol 41-1 suffice as the Heavy Weather Jib but you should do the calculations or have your sailmaker do them, ideally with you.

Forestaysails commonly qualify as Heavy Weather Jib

Forestaysails commonly qualify as Heavy Weather Jib

A line item in the HWJ definition from World Sailing Offshore Regs is:

‘A heavy-weather jib (or heavy-weather sail in a boat with no forestay) with: area of 13.5% height of the foretriangle (IG) squared and a readily available means, independent of a luff groove, to attach to the stay.’

In practice this means grommets installed at suitable intervals in the luff of the sail immediately aft of the luff rope that enters into the headfoil on the boat.Thru these grommets may be passed lengths of line suitable for lashing the sail to the headstay in the event of damage to the foil.

The “alternative methods” of securing the sail to the stay has been edited out in the Bermuda race’s own rules. This now abandoned rule stems from the days of aluminum head foils being damaged by spinnaker poles bashing into them, rendering it impossible to get a sail up the foil. Today’s headfoils are made from plastic and spinnakers much less likely to be set on poles but at sea if something can fail, and this is everything, there must be a Plan B.

In the case of the HWJ, having your sailmaker install grommets up the luff so the sail can be secured to the foil (by short lengths of line premade for the purpose and stored in the emergency took kit, right?) is a very good idea. You can also leave the lines in the sail permanently because IF the foil fails AND you need to set this HWJ, having the lines already installed will be a lot easier than having a couple of crew sitting in the bow lacing the lines they the grommets for 30 minutes or so. And as a practical matter their presence will have zero impact on the performance of the sail for those thinking abut windage

Here is another Cooper TIP too. Backup grommets are something to think about for all headsails. Apart from the fact the head foil will not get un-busted when the breeze abates and having a way to set headsails is generally a good idea in an ocean race there is another utility made available by such grommets in the luff.

During the headsail changing process sails so equipped can have a length of light line woven back and forth, Dutchman like, through these grommets. The bottom end is made off with a figure eight knot so the line does not pass thru the grommets. All of this does a couple of things. It helps keep the luff of the sail forward in the flaking process. It offers a way to tie off the bulk of the forward end of the sail. This gives the crew at that end of the procedure a bit more freedom to wrestle the sail back into its turtle. If push comes to shove, a sail can be tied off to the boat at the forward end and it is perfectly possible for one man or woman to get a headsail into a turtle by themselves. Just ask anyone who did the sewer on a 12-meter, back in the day. Finally when changing back to this sail as the wind diminishes, the upper end of this line can be temporarily tied off until the sail is really ready to get hoisted. This makes it a bit harder for the (forward end of the) sail to go over the side.

STORM SAILS:

Sail offshore long enough (and or sail with no reefs in the mainsail) and you WILL meet conditions that will require all your seamanship skills, those of your crew AND small sails. The Newport to Bermuda Race requirements for the storm sails are:

3.33.2 Storm Trysail:

A yacht shall carry a storm trysail, with the yacht’s sail number displayed on both sides, that can be set independently of the main boom, has an area less than 17.5% of “E” x “P”, and which is capable of being attached to the mast. Storm sails manufactured after 1/1/2014 must be constructed from a highly visible material. Commonly this is an orange, yellow or pink material.

Trysail sheeted to boom

Trysail sheeted to boom

 

Rugg J 105 Storm Try tied around the boomA trysail sheeted to the boom: The traditional sheeting method for trysails is to lead the sheets to the quarter blocks in the stern. This causes chafe, where the sheet passes over the life lines, results in a poor shape when the sail is eased, leaves a lot of sail flapping around in tacks or gybes or needs more people to perform these manouvers. A very viable alternative is to set the trysail off the boom as seen above. In this case a reef lines is used. HOw ever the sail is set one must be on constant guard for chafe.

3.33.4 Storm Jib:

A yacht shall carry a storm jib not exceeding 5% of the yacht’s “I” dimension squared, and equipped with an alternative means of attachment to the headstay in the event of a failure of the head foil. Storm sails manufactured after 1/1/2014 must be constructed from a highly visible material.

Storm sails built after 2014 are required to be a high visibility color.

Storm sails built after 2014 are required to be a high visibility color.

The decision to set a trysail or not (and how to lower and stow it, don’t forget) is largely driven by the size and type of boat and by extension the skills of the owners and crew. The age, physical dexterity, strength, skill, sailing ability, seamanship and experience are all factors in sail handling in these conditions. And the last two are not always the same as sailing skill. One magazine article cannot address the many variables in methods for using and lowering a trysail let alone the variables on the course.

I would strongly recommend practicing as often as you can with all the crew and especially in crappy, windy weather doing all the evolutions and especially reefing and headsail changes.

Frankly the forgoing requirements for racing boats present very sound information for anyone bound offshore. AND yes, I get that people don’t want to carry Storm Sails around but they have uses outside of conditions over 50 knots.

Next up, what sails do I NEED for the Bermuda races