Inshore Racing

Numbers: 20.28 knots

by Sail Staff, Posted January 23, 2008

In sailing, numbers are ephemeral. One second, VMG is up; the next it’s down. Crews battle for gains that are won and lost in heartbeats: The New York Stock Exchange can be more stable (now) than the parade of numbers dancing across “the truth display” situated under the boom. But it's these cycles of feast or famine that make sailing an intellectual game, and that's why so many

IRC Gains Traction in the U.S.

by Sail Staff, Posted January 15, 2008

If you race sailboats in the U.S., you have no doubt witnessed a parade of rating-rule acronyms in the past decade: IMS, Americap, PHRF. Now there’s a new contender in the alphabet-soup rating-rule game. IRC has been used widely in the U.K. and Europe for years, but it was introduced in the U.S. only a couple of years ago. So far the transition has been fairly smooth, with almost 600 IRC

TP52 Wings

by Sail Staff, Posted November 29, 2007

If you’ve ever tried to sail a beam-reach course with a kite up on standard spinnaker-pole rigged boat, you have undoubtedly had to deal with the difficulty of tight sheeting angles on the guy when the pole is eased forward to the forestay. Traditionally, this is alleviated with reaching struts. While these work well, they represent another spar that must be clipped in place (usually to either

Bamboozled: West Coaster Wins IRC East Coast Championship

by Sail Staff, Posted November 5, 2007

Sometimes bigger isn’t always better, as was the case for Dan Meyers and his new Judel/Vrolijk-designed Numbers, an IRC 67, at the IRC East Coast Championship, held in Annapolis, Maryland. Meyers arrived at the event as the defending champion, having won on his former Numbers, a Farr-designed 60-footer. Even with a longer, faster version of his race program, the Boston-based team

Panerai Classic Yachts Challenge Wraps Up

by Sail Staff, Posted October 24, 2007

Perhaps not as well known on the yachting circuit as Rolex, Panerai, the Italian watchmaker, is hot on the sponsorship heels of its Swiss counterpart. The finale of the 2007 Panerai Classic Yachts Challenge recently closed with the first annual New York series. held in New York Harbor October 2–6. The 300-plus yachts taking part in the close racing made for a spectacular sight

Depth of Field: U.S. Olympic Trials Update

by Sail Staff, Posted October 17, 2007

By David SchmidtNo racing sailor ever wants to see a regatta determined in the protest room. But when the regatta in question is the final race in the U.S. Olympic Trials, neither the skipper nor the Olympic committee wants this to happen. But happen it did, in the hotly contested Laser class, as the two top U.S. Laser sailors, Andrew Campbell and Brad Funk, duked

Lesson Learned

by Sail Staff, Posted August 23, 2007

By Morgan LarsonAs I recline my chairback on United #888,outbound for SFO and home, I look back over twelve days in Qingdao. After eleven days of sailing (sort of) in 3-6 knots, all I can think about now is the rush of the medal race and how exhilarating it was for Pete Spaulding and me to race a 49er around the track with nine other elite teams in 20 knots of wind against

Learning to fly

by David Schmidt, Posted April 23, 2007

The emergence of the Foiler Moth has been one of sailing’s most pyrotechnic developments. The Moth is a development class which by definition, means that it’s capable of true innovation, such as hydrofoiling at speeds up to 27.9 knots. It was only recently that Foiler Moths—the Bladerider, the Prowler, the Mistress, and the Hungry Tiger—became commercially

The 411 on College Sailing

by Sail Staff, Posted September 6, 2006

There are currently 154 collegiate sailing teams competing across the country. Each team belongs to one of seven regional districts. The majority of schools have fleets of either Flying Juniors (FJs) or 420s, but a few programs, including Tufts, Bowdoin, and Harvard, sail a fleet of Larks. Many schools also have a few Lasers so that sailors can train for singlehanded championships throughout the

12-Meter Team Building

by Sail Staff, Posted June 14, 2006

In sports, as in the workplace, success often depends on how a diverse group of people coalesce into a team. And there is nothing like sailing/racing with a group of colleagues aboard graceful 12 meters with historic pedigrees to get everyone pulling in the same direction. Competitive juices were flowing but the mood was friendly. The weather was gorgeous, and we smiled at the thought of a