Year: 2022

  • STC Ted Hood Regatta Report

    (Eastern YC- Marblehead, MA)- The Storm Trysail Club’s Ted Hood Regatta provided the fleet of J/70 and J/105 one-design classes, plus PHRF classes, great sailing over the three-day event, despite the challenging weather conditions. 
    Hosting the 5th annual event from August 19th to 21st was Eastern Yacht Club, in conjunction with their amazing local partners- the Corinthian YC and the Boston YC. 

    J/105 ClassThe J/105 Class saw Ric Dexter’s BROUHAHA simply eclipse the fleet with straight bullets in five races. Similarly, Miguel Martinez’s TAINO posted mostly seconds to grab the silver with 12 pts. Then, rounding out the podium was Marty Galligan’s ATALANTA.
     
    J/70 ClassUnlike their J/105 colleagues, the nine-boat J/70 class was a “shoot-out at the OK Corral” between the top five teams, all finishing within five points of each other. Winning by a point was Dave Franzel’s SPRING. The balance of the podium was determined by a tiebreaker at 23 pts each. Winning the countback for the silver medal was Rich Witzel’s ROWDY over Pearse Dowd & Daan Goedkoop’s LOCOMOTION, who had to settle for the bronze. Just one point back from them was Bill Lynn’s KEY PLAYER with 24 pts. And, rounding out the top five was Jim Raisides & Charlie Pendleton’s BAD HOMBRES with 27 pts. 
    PHRF DivisionIn the seven-boat PHRF 2 Division, Liz Smith & Ward Blodgett’s J/33 SIROCCO took the silver with a consistent 3-3-5-1-2 tally for 14 pts. Sailing photo credits- Paul Todd/ Outside Images.com. For more Storm Trysail Club Ted Hood Regatta sailing information

  • Inshore Verve Cup Preview

    (Chicago, IL)- From August 26th to 28th, the Chicago Yacht Club will be hosting the Verve Cup Inshore Regatta on the challenging waters of Lake Michigan, right off the majestic waterfront of Chicago.  Participating are eight one-design fleets, with the largest participation coming from the J/70 and J/88 classes.
    As a 2023 J/70 World Championship qualifier that is taking place in St. Petersburg, Florida, the Inshore Verve Cup is also serving as the J/70 Great Lakes Championship. As a result, the J/70 fleet has a stellar turnout of twenty-eight teams with boats attending from all over the USA and Canada. Several class veterans should be a factor at the top of the leaderboard when all is said and done after a scheduled 7+ races; those teams may be Martin Johnsson’s AQUAHOLIKS, Cate Muller-Terhune’s CASTING COUCH, Don Wilson’s family crew on CONVEXITY (with daughters Ava and Jen), John Heaton’s all-pro crew on EMPEIRIA, Doug Rastello’s GOOD TO GO (local hotshot Alex Curtiss as tactics), Rich Witzel’s ROWDY, Allan Terhune & Paul Sevigny’s SMOKESHOE, Bruno Pasquinelli’s STAMPEDE, and Doug Newhouse’s YONDER. 
    Similarly, the J/88 class has an amazing turnout of sixteen boats! Most of them are registered for the J/88 North American Championship that is also being hosted by Chicago YC later in September. Leading teams include past Midwinter, Great Lakes, and North American Champions, such as Ben Marden’s BANTER, Iris Vogel’s DEVIATION, John & Jordan Leahey’s DUTCH, Andy Graff’s EXILE, and Dave Tufts’ GAUCHO. For more Chicago YC Inshore Verve Cup sailing information 

  • Accurate Sensors For Repeatable Settings

    The applications and benefits of the Cyclops Marine load sensing technology allow professional and amateur teams to better understand what’s happening with rig and control lines. 
    Long-time J/Boats sailor in everything from J/22s to J/24s, J/70s to Santa Cruz 70s, J/125s to J/111s, Erik Shampain provides interesting insights on how accurate sensors can help improve repeatable high-performance settings for everyone across the fleet. Erik explains;
    “Every now and then something very cool and helpful comes along to help take some of the guesswork out of our sailing. Enter Cyclops Marine’s Smarttune turnscrew and Smartlink load sensors. Smarttune sensors are used exclusively for standing rigging applications, but the Smartlink sensor can be used just about anywhere. What’s especially cool is that you can see the data they provide in real-time, and you can download all of it to a smartphone to view it on a graph or in other formats. While these sensors might not be race legal in your class (they’re not in the J/70), they are immensely useful for training. I used them on the J/70 Midlife Crisis in preparation for the 2021 World Championships in Los Angeles, California. 
    To display the sensor information on our J/70, we used a B&G Triton-2 display, which requires the addition of Cyclops’ wireless gateway to the NMEA 2000 backbone of the B&G instruments. The data is compatible with many other instrument brands and can also be viewed using the Cyclops Marine “Smart Fittings Manager” App, communicating via Bluetooth. The App allows you to review, record, graph, and save the data in multiple formats. The graphing function is especially revealing as it shows what’s happening with the rig tension, etc. as you go through settings on the dock or sailing upwind through different conditions.
    For example, we always wondered what happened to the headstay load as we tightened our shrouds, so we put a Smarttune turnscrew sensor on our headstay. We thought if we were to plot the headstay load relative to the number of turnscrew turns above our base setting, the headstay load would graph as a curve. At some upper end in shroud tensioning, however, the forestay would stop getting much tighter. To our surprise, the graph was very linear— the forestay just got tighter and tighter. So, in heavy air, within the safety tolerances of the mast, we learned we could go with tighter turnscrew settings, producing a gradually tighter headstay.
    The Cyclops Smarttune also reinforced the importance of getting shroud settings correct before the start so that our other settings— backstay, vang, inhaul, etc.— stay consistent. 
    Another example: the graph clearly showed that the amount of backstay used is relative to how much shroud tension we are carrying. Not enough shroud tension and we had to carry too much backstay to hold the forestay load. Too much backstay and our mainsail got too flat, and so forth. That’s essential stuff to know.
    We also used the Smartlink to help confirm and quantify what we already knew. When it’s windy, a J/70 vang is often tight when sailing upwind, so we installed a Smartlink Nano (the smallest sensor in the line) on the vang.  As we ease the main in big puffs, the downward load on the leech is transferred from the mainsheet to the vang, which bends the mast more. That, in turn, affects forestay tension. How much? The sensor quantified that for us. It also quantified how much additional headstay load we could achieve by sheeting the mainsheet harder. All told, that data helped us balance settings and sheet loads as the wind speed went up and down.
    The crew of past J/70 world champions, Paul Ward’s EAT SLEEP J REPEAT, took the system a step further by adding wind instrument data into the mix, which allowed them to figure out which settings worked best in certain wind conditions. They were still able to train themselves as to what 8 knots of wind feels and looks like and duplicate proven settings for that wind range.
    What would be some applications for other boats? World champion sailor Andrew Palfrey has been using these products on Etchells and 5.5 Meters to help develop accurate instincts for the trimmers on the water. 
    “On the Etchells, the jibs have to go through such a wide wind range that headstay sag, especially in light to medium winds, is critical,” Palfrey says. “With the Cyclops sensors, we now have a reliable tool to accurately measure headstay load. It is a training tool, as they are not legal for racing in the Etchells. But, they do provide factual information and help develop your eye for determining headstay sag by comparing the sag amount and luff entry angle to a given load. It’s also a great learning tool for seeing the factual effect of differing backstay and mainsheet loads on the headstay.”
    The Cyclops products offer the potential of further equalizing performance between professional and amateur teams. With the Cyclops Smarttune and Smartlink and a little time sailing, it could be far easier for amateur teams to match the settings and loads of the professional teams. Top sailmakers share settings and many one-design classes have round table discussions after sailing about what top boats were doing, and with the Smarttune, especially, mid-fleet teams could learn how to achieve proper headstay tension throughout wind ranges, thus ratcheting up their performance.
    The Cyclops products also have applications aboard bigger boats, since you can put them between just about anything. They are often used on blocks and lines to make sure that safe working loads aren’t exceeded. In the 2021 Transpac Race, Pyewacket, first-to-finish, and new 24-hour course record holder, was equipped for this race with outriggers to optimize sheeting angles for their large downwind sails. They didn’t want to go beyond the safe working load for the outriggers, but they also wanted to be pushing the boat as hard as possible and not break anything. Adding a Smartlink to the outrigger down line allowed them to monitor the load in real time, displayed on their B&G instruments. The outriggers never failed. The Smarttune comes in five sizes (from 5/16 to 3/4″ thread diameter). The Smartlink also comes in five sizes (from 600kg to 20 tons). The smallest in the line, the Smartlink Nano, is accurate to within ±6kg. Both Smarttune and Smartlink are factory calibrated and accurate up to ±1 percent of the sensor maximum working load.”  Thanks for this contribution from Erik Shampain and Sailing World magazine