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Sail-World.com : .
It’s that time of the year again, when the sun is shining, the nor-easters have settled in on the harbour and everyone starts thinking about the great race south. Great news is the bumper fleet this year entered into the 10 year anniversary of the tragic 98 Hobart.
As we went live with this newsletter, 101 boats were entered into the race including well known maxi yachts Wild Oats XI, Ichi Ban, Skandia, and ASM Shockwave. A very strong fleet can be found amongst the 50 – 60 footers ; with tough competition to be fought out amongst the likes of Audi Centre Melbourne, Black Jack, Cougar II, Living Doll, Loki, Quest, Shogun, Wot Yot ,Wot Now and Yendys. North Sails wishes all competitors safe sailing and a great trip along the eastern coastline to Hobart.
North Sails would also like to take this opportunity to thank all our customers for choosing to sail with us, and wish all sailors a Merry Christmas and safe yachting over the break.
Loki hits the water
Stephen Ainsworth's new Reichel/Pugh 63 Loki hit the water last week, with boat and sails performing well. In her first race, Loki showed an impressive turn of speed to win the SOLAS Big Boat race on IRC. The latest Loki again features 3DL™ Carbon upwind sails, and V-series asymmetric spinnakers developed using North's Virtual Wind Tunnel™ flow simulation software.
With just less than two weeks to the start of the Hobart race, time is at a premium and the perfect fit of the new sails was critical. North Sails Alby Pratt is onboard for seatrials and commented, 'From the sail program perspective, everything has gone smoothly so far.
We used Flow (for analysing loads produced in sails) and Membrain™ to analyse and fine tune the sail/Southern Spar rig combination. As a result, the position of the reefs, luff curve on mainsail, and jib sizing are perfect straight out of the bag.
The new Loki project has again highlighted the benefit of accelerated sail development time. Australian North Sails Australia CEO Michael Coxon says, ‘initially Stephen did not think there would time to make the boat competitive so he was going to miss Hobart, but everyone has worked together to make it happen.’
'Computerized design technology has slashed development times. Back in the mid 90s North Sails began working with the University of Auckland in the Twisted Flow wind tunnel. From that work came computer analysis of sail shape and sail stress, three-dimensional mould design and gradient spinnaker analysis.
‘At that time, it took serious computer grunt to analyse data over and over again and only the best funded America’s Cup campaigns could justify the expense. Now the programs have been developed and desktop computer power has grown, so this technology is now in the North lofts and it’s having tremendous benefits for all our clients. We don’t just use this for big campaigns, we use it for 35-40 footers.
'Before we had our Flow and Membrain™ software we would build a launch set of sails, work to refine them and then a year later we’d build a second set, incorporating all the little things we’d learned during the year and so on. Now we launch with fourth of fifth generation sails.’
WA Marten 49 fleet grows
Western Australian based boat owner Trevor Taylor will be visiting the eastern shores of Australia soon in preparation for the summer season racing. His campaign will include competing in the 64th Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, and the 2009 Skandia Geelong Race Week.
The sleek Marten 49 was named Optimus Prime after Taylor decided that his ocean passages across the pacific oceans needed to be upgraded from his Farr 47 (Ausmaid) to a boat that could easily transform from cruising to racing mode.
Recent results for the Optimus Prime team have included recording the fastest time and second overall in the Fremantle to Carnarvon Race held in April earlier this year. They also took out the short course racing series off Leighton Beach, WA in October as part of the Farrawa Cup hosted by Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club.
Earlier this year they competed at the Audi Sydney Harbour Regatta out of Middle Harbour Yacht Club with on board support from Alby Pratt from the North Sails Sydney loft.
Optimus Prime will be joined in Western Australia soon by Brian Todd’s new Marten 49 Sue Sea which is participating in rally to Hobart before heading West.
The Marten 49 North Sail inventories for these boats feature 3D thermo moulded 3DL sails with blended aramid and North Flex balanced carbon yarn structure.
Dufour Performance 34
The regatta version of the Dufour Performance 34 has begun turning heads, with the yacht being a very competitive IRC racer. Originally designed for shorthanded Performance Cruising and then crowned European Boat of The Year in its new regatta configuration launched in 2008 with North Sails inventory it has secured wins in the Copa Del Rey and Spi Quest in France, and will soon be racing on the local IRC scene.
The success of the 34 in racing with North Sails means 2009 sees the release of the Dufour Performance 34e (evolution) incorporating a modified deck conducive for racing, with a North Sails 3DL inventory now available as an international factory option. The Australian Dufour distributors were an integral part in contributing towards the development of this ideal IRC racer.
Opti coaching clinic with Andrea Giovannini
Luff tension for the Opti rig: A sail is like an aeroplane wing, when shaped correctly it will give maximum lift and speed. With wind pressures and sea conditions always changing you have to adjust your sails to give the optimum lift and speed for the varying conditions.
The luff tension for an Optimist is controlled by a reverse Cunningham in the means of twists attached around the inboard boom end (goose neck), to a pin, a hand width above the goose neck. This controls the height of the boom & thus the tension on the luff.
The luff controls the position of the draft (full point). The further back the draft, the flatter the entry of your sail, which allows you more pointing ability. The further forward the draft, will allow a more rounded entry and a more open leach, which sacrifices your pointing ability and depowers you.
By adding more twists to the gooseneck you can raise the boom creating a loose luff and moving the draft aft. You should have at least 2 cm of play between each sail tie, with small power creases forming. This is a good light wind setting and should stay like this until you start using more vang (i.e 1-12knots).
After 12 knots you are using more vang and need to think about depowering the rig. At this point you should feel an increase in weather helm, by taking off 3 to 4 twists the draft will move forward and balance the helm out a little bit, allowing the boat to feel more balanced. As the wind increases you should progressively release the twists to allow for a tighter luff, this will depower you and the stronger the wind the less twists you use, until you have no twists and a tight luff.
Exceptions: In light air and big waves/chop it is advisable to drop some twists to allow a more rounded entry, as you use more helm upwind steering in between and over waves. So remember the lighter the wind, plenty of twist.
For any other Optimist advice please contact Oziopti on 03-96993444.
North Sails has available the following 2007 world championship winning designs:
H-08 RADIAL MAINSAIL (>43kgs)
This is the sail that won the World Championship event in both the boys’ and girls’ division. The main modification to the sail des
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7:38 AM Mon 22 Dec 2008 GMT
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