Inshore Racing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

One-Designs Shine at Key West

by Sail Staff, Posted February 8, 2008

When Peter Craig took over management of Key West Race Week in 1994, the event featured one racing circle, 12 boats, and seven starts. Since then, Craig and Premiere Racing (his management company) have grown the competition to 261 boats—177 of which are racing one-design, with the rest racing either IRC or PHRF. This means that in 2008, roughly 30-percent of the fleet is racing handicap;

Movie Time: Key West Race Week Video

by Sail Staff, Posted February 11, 2008

Grand-prix boats are spectacular: the finest sails, the best equipment, and the brightest minds in the sport of sailing. But for most of us, catching a ride on a boat like Numbers, Dan Meyer’s new Judel/Vrolijk-designed, IRC-optimized, one-off carbon-fiber racer is the stuff of dreams. David Schmidt, SAIL’s Senior Editor, was fortunate enough to enjoy a day’s racing aboard Numbers

Truth in (MedCup) Engineering

by Sail Staff, Posted February 25, 2008

It's the hottest game going, but it's not coming to a port near you unless you live close to the Mediterranean glamour circuit. MedCup racing for TP52s is what we're talking about, and the series has just signed Audi AG as title sponsor to replace Breitling from 2007.Hmm. Perhaps it was no accident that Audi had such a large display of hot cars outside the tents on the '07 circuit.