Sail Trim Unlocked!!

It doesn't matter if you are a world champion or a total beginner. We can all learn a little more about sail trim. Every Newport to Ensenada Race (N2E) is going to be sailed in light air at some point… so grab a drink of some sort, sit back and soak up a few tips from Ullman Sails that you may find useful this year.

Light Air 2-8 kts

Light air upwind sailing is something that is commonly overlooked in preparation for the N2E. Something that seems unlikely as we all dream about flying spinnakers all night towards Ensenada.  The reality is though that a southerly breeze is likely at the beginning of the race and also in the early morning hours.  Knowing how to maximize your speed during these times can be the difference between being on the podium and watching from the peanut gallery. 

The most important thing to remember is there are no hard and fast rules. Whatever works for you and your boat will not be the same for everyone. The only thing that remains the same is that boat speed makes you look good. We can all point straight up wind and not go anywhere but in light airs the people who move are the people who win.

Sail choice is the hardest part. Do you want your 155% genoa or drifter?  Usually if boat speed is over 2kts then you want your Genoa up. 

Adjustments should be made gently, the aim is to improve the flow. Not to stop it and start it again once the sail is set.

Keeping crew weight low and forward is the norm in these conditions but try to keep it compacted together as well. Most hull designs will have a lower wetted area with this weight forward approach.

Boat speed makes you look good! We can all point straight up wind and not go anywhere but in light air the people who move are the people who win.

Many helms like to drive from the leeward side in these conditions. Sitting low by the water can mislead you into thinking you are going fast.  It can help the driver keep the bow down though and this is a fantastic technique in the N2E.

Headsail

1.Backstay Eased. This allows the forestay to sag inducing more fullness in the headsail.

2.Luff tension eased allowing the sail to sit as full as possible to its design shape. Typically some small creases may form in the luff. Don't worry, this is fast...

3. Jib car. The relationship between car and sheet is imperative. Moving the car forward makes the sail fuller in the lower section. The sheet tension will control the twist in the leech. In light air you are looking for shape low and twist in the leech to keep air flowing onto the mainsail.

Mainsail

1. Backstay Eased. Mast as straight as possible making the main full.

2.Luff Tension Eased. Again some small creases are nothing to worry about.

3. Outhaul eased, typically you should be able to get your hand easily between the boom and the sail.

4.Leech. The aim is to keep the telltales flying to keep flow across the mainsail and therefore drive. Tensioning the leech will allow you to point but may lead to stalling the main. Keep it on the fast side of too tight is our advice.

If you would like more information on sail trim then please contact your local Ullman Sails loft:

Ullman Sails Newport Beach     (714) 432-1860

Ullman Sails Long Beach         (562) 598-6441

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Ullman Customers at Cal Race Week

Congratulations to Ullman Sails Customers at Cal Race Week

J-105:

1st Gary Mozer

2nd Rick Goebel **

3rd Rich Bergman

J-70:

2nd Karl Pomeroy

3rd Dan Gribble

J-80:

3rd Bob Hayward **

Viper 640:

3rd Jim Sears

J-24:

1st Deke Klatt

PHRF B:

2nd Jim Murrell **

J-109:

2nd Bryce Benjamin

Martin 242:

1st Peter Stazicker

2nd Duncan Cameron

3rd Mike George

RLC:

1st Jay Steinbeck **

** Denotes Partial Inventory

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Santa Barbara Hot Rum Round Up

Santa Barbara’s racing season starts very early in the year. The first race of the Hot Rum Series in January was moderate breeze while the second one was plagued with very thick fog. The starting order is determined by PHRF ratings with the highest rated boats starting first and the lowest starting last. Theoretically all the boats should finish at the same time. The 32 entrants range from Harbor 20s with a 230 rating to a RP 68 at a -69.  

Saturday February 9^th was the 3rd and final race of the series. The wind was blowing 20 to 25 knots with some smaller boats electing not to go out. 19 boats finished the race but the most exciting part was the photo finish. Leading the race to the finish line was a J24 Bullet followed by a J105 Repeat Offender. However, the Farr 40 Skian Dhu was closing fast with the RP 68 Taxi Dancer looking to pass all three. The J105 beat the J24 by 1 second and Taxi followed behind by another 4 seconds. The Farr 40, having been rolled by Taxi a couple minutes earlier, finished 21 seconds later.  The series went to Taxi Dancer with 9 total points.

*Taxi sails with Redline spinnakers and Grand Prix Carbon upwind sails from Ullman Sails

Repeat Offender J105 has a 100% Ullman Sails Inventory

 Larry Harteck

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Kevin Bednar Wins Single Handed Regatta in Galveston Bay

Kevin Bednar walked away with a victory in the annual Galveston Bay Cruising Association's Single Handed Regatta.  Kevin was borrowing his father's J-105 and Kevin was using his Ullman Jib to power him to two first place finishes.  Congratulations to Kevin for his impressive win this past weekend.  Galveston Bay Cruising Association has been putting life into the local sailing scene in Houston by hosting fun regattas that look to include everyone.

Up next in Texas is The Race To The Border  which is a 240 mile sprint down the coast!

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NANUQ FINISHES 2ND IN QUICK RIDE TO KEY WEST

NANUQ FINISHES 2ND IN QUICK RIDE TO KEY WEST
1/15/2011

Congratulations to Ullman Sails customer Glenn Doncaster and his crew who took 2nd Overall in the PHRF Division A of the Fort Lauderdale to Key West Race, January 12-14. Glenn’s Sabre 426 “NANUQ,” is based out of Fishing Bay Yacht Club in Deltaville, Virginia. Glenn and his crew decided to take NANUQ down to Florida only five weeks before the start of the race.

In order to get the boat down south, the team broke up the delivery into three legs, arriving in Fort Lauderdale three days before the start. As a well-appointed cruiser, NANUQ lived up to her reputation and the delivery crew was treated to reverse cycle heat, hot water, a generator, a dinghy on davits and full canvas finishing. Once in Ft. Lauderdale, the crew spent two days turning NANUQ from a cruiser to racer, including changing over the mainsail, removing the furling drum and loading a full inventory of race headsails. Several new sails were delivered for the race included a new S3 heavy reacher and a GPL IT Carbon #2 genoa, both of which worked beautifully in the heavy reaching conditions.

The race itself proved to be a quick one. Here’s an onboard report from the crew:

"It was fairly light at the start 8-10 and built throughout the race, becoming quite windy during the night. Top wind speeds were about 34 knots. It blew out of the north the whole race. We started with the .6 runner and were slightly slower than the lighter displacement boats. As the wind built we got on pace with the fleet and started to make gains toward nightfall. At dusk we switched to the new S3 heavy reaching chute and as we rounded the bottom of Florida the angle tightened and we progressively made gains. Around midnight the wind had built significantly and the apparent wind angle closed so we changed down to a #2 genoa. We beam-reached with the #2 and full main through the night surfing at 10-13 knots of consistent boat speed. The final leg was a beat up the shipping channel into Key West harbor with gusts in the high 20s”.

NANUQ finished in just under 20 hours, correcting to second in class! On arrival in Key West and after a number of celebratory rum drinks and a good night’s sleep, the crew turned NANUQ back into a cruiser. She will spend the rest of the winter in Florida and then Glenn will bring her back to the Chesapeake for more racing this summer

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Ullman's Bruce Cooper Talks J-105 Sails with Fleet 6

Bruce Cooper, the J-105 specialist at Ullman Sails, is a long-time innovator in the class. He's worked for Ullman for more than 25 years and in 2006 purchased the Newport Beach & Long Beach Ullman Sails franchises. During his sailmaking career, he's developed skills that range from handwork to running the plotter to designing. Although Bruce has raced in virtually every type of sailboat, he has a soft spot for the J-105. The home page of his Newport Beach loft's web site (http://ullmansailsnewportbeach.blogspot.com) features a 105 blasting through the Southern California surf. This dedication to the class has paid off: Ullman Sails rule 105 racing in Southern California. An interview with Bruce (conducted via email) follows:

Question: Is there really that much room for improvement left in the design of J105 sails? The class has been around for 20 years now. Surely everything has been tried before. No?
Answer: There is always room for improvement. I have been sailing J-105s for over 14 years and have seen much of the refinement with the sails, rig tuning and how we sail the boats change in that time. I explain to customers that the sail making world makes about 95% the same sail compared to each other. Virtually all racing sails are limited to size, weight and rigging considerations. So, in essence we all have the same canvas to create our master piece on. It's what the sail maker does in the last 5% that separates good designs and top quality sails with a back of the pack sails..... Read on at the J-105 Fleet 6 Website!!

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J/105 SoCal Championship - Gary Mozer wins with solid team

Picture by Rick Roberts

After posting three first-place finishes in a row on Saturday, local favorite Gary Mozer’s J/105 Current Obsession 2 hung on Sunday to take first place honours in the second annual J/105 SoCal Championship hosted by Long Beach Yacht Club and sponsored by Ullman Sails, Other Sailmaker, West Marine and JK3 Nautical Enterprises.

In the final two races, Mozer finished third and sixth keeping a four point spread between himself and second place finisher Dennis and Sharon Case’s Wings. With consistent winds of 10-14 knots throughout the weekend, the competitive 17 boat fleet enjoyed long legs, lots of passing opportunities and tight racing.

'Today we enjoyed a much deserved victory,' Mozer said. 'Twice in the last nine days I’ve been in the hospital with sciatica and in a lot of pain. It was my team that deserves the credit.' Mozer’s team of John Busch, Robert 'Peaches' Wittle, Whit Batchelor, Peter Isaac and Liz 'Tinkerbell' Tran kept the boat in the fight after he began to have severe back and muscle pain near the end of the day Sunday. "My back was hurting so bad I had trouble concentrating,' said Mozer, 'but the key was the years of teamwork we have had together and our consistency. We also had a little help from someone you may have heard of. 'Dave Ullman went out with us earlier in the week during one of our practices and his coaching helped us a lot.' A good part of the fleet is from the San Diego area and, two years ago, a call from fleet member Dennis Case started the ball rolling to create this event. Long Beach Yacht Club found a date for the regatta and it has now enjoyed two years of great racing and great racing conditions.

The reason they wanted to race in Long Beach? 'Well, there are two reasons we chose Long Beach,' explained Case. 'The first reason is that Long Beach is pretty much the center of the West Coast J/105 fleet. We figured boats coming from either down south or up north would have to come about the same distance.

The second reason is the great sailing conditions. The wind is reliable and we race inside the breakwater in fairly flat seas that allow us to enjoy close, fast racing. We are delighted with what we experience here and couldn’t ask for anything better.' With his second place in the regatta Case feels he and his team did quite well in the local conditions. 'We tried to slow him [Mozer] down a bit,' said Case. 'I held him down as much as possible on the starts, but by doing that it put us in a world of hurt for boat position on the fleet. He was untouchable on Saturday so we tried to catch up today by staying ahead of him. Local sailing legend Barney Flam and his boat Flambuoyant sailed to third place in the regatta with his equally skilled son Steve calling tactics and handling main sheet duties.

'It was consistency in that last race that helped us a lot,' Flam said. 'The race was well run and the race committee work was very good.' At the end of the two-day event, there was a three-way tie for fourth place. The tie-breaker was the first place finish in race five by San Diego’s Chuck Driscoll and Tom Hurlburt’s boat Blow Boat. 'We tightened the rig and did a few things which helped us to sail better,' Driscoll said. 'Saturday we were weren’t quite right and after the adjustments we were able to finish first in the last race today.' 'We never sail in really good breezes like this and we worked on getting good starts this weekend.' Giving a final comment on their success this weekend Mozer said, 'It’s all the little details… and consistency that wins races.'

Final Results

1. Gary Mozer, LBYC, 'Current Obsession 2', 1-1-1-3-6, 12 points

2. Dennis & Sharon Case, SDYC, 'Wings', 2-6-2-1-5, 16

3. Barney & Steve Flam, LBYC, 'Flambuoyant', 6-2-4-2-3, 17

4. Tom Hurlburt & Chuck Driscoll, SDYC, 'Blow Boat', 4-7-6-6-1, 24

5. Jon Dekker, SDYC, 'Air Boss', 7-4-7-4-2, 24

6. Doug Werner, SDYC, 'Javelin', 5-5-3-7-4, 24

For more information, please go to: www.lbyc.org

Thanks to Rick Roberts for the report.

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