TESTIMONIALS KEEP POURING IN. Thanks to everyone for all the great comments, here are a few:

“We are quite happy with the new sails you sent to us in London . we have sailed the south coast of England , the channel islands, bay of Biscay, Brittany coast, Atlantic coast of France , Spain and Portugal to Lisbon . we have had light winds to gale force [my wife complains] and no complaints. looking forward to retuning to the Caribbean the end of Dec.

The recut main is meeting my expectation of only the best from Haarstick Sailmakers!

As opposed to last summer where the few races I was able to make were spent with the all-purpose 108% or the heavy 95% and a flat main this has been the year for the light 108% and a full main, and the shape of the main seems to be really great up-wind in the light stuff. The main also blades out very nicely in heavy air. In one race where we went out with the 95% at the start since we had only 5 people and the weather was predicted to keep building form the ~15-18 knots at the start. In the early part of the race we stayed competitive by keeping the backstay loose to give use as much power as possible upwind. Everyone else in our fleet had much larger headsails. When the wind increased as predicted for the last two mile beat, we flattened sails and were higher and faster than most of the fleet. So I would say the sail is performing exactly as you designed as we shifted gears.

My daughter Becky and I are having a great summer. I wish we were performing more consistently on the race course, but that is a crew issue and not a sail or boat issue. My work schedule is again cutting into the time I have available for sailing (I was out the end of last week which is why I didn't answer earlier), and time on the water is the only way to solve the performance issues. In any case we are accomplishing what we set as our goal when racing, "Having Fun!!"

Sorry that I did not get back to you right away this spring after seeing how great the sail looked to thank you for the beautiful recut.

… Do me a favor and tell Tony that I said "Hi". You got a great group of people (and a big friendly golden retriever) at Haarstick.

Thanks for the great shot; how'd you get that angle ? It looks like it was shot from up the mast.

We were all wondering why you guys took your chute down. And we were all REALLY pleased with how that running chute handled on a tight reach !!! The speedo was reading just under 7 knots in just over 9 knots apparent (probably not the most accurate but we felt dead set in the groove) and we had no indication of side slip or having it over strapped. We blasted out of and away from that windward mark mess like we came out of a cannon.

“Just a thank you for your help and discussion today. I know that I have a strange duck of a boat that is going to require some thought . While you are kickin butt in Mentor , I am going to remeasure again to eliminate the effect that the lowered halyard exit of the mast has on the b,mast height and c, maximum leech diminsions. I am happy to find someone as patient and helpful as yourself, good luck and have a great weekend!

“I LOVE MY NEW MAINSAIL!!! Lovely shape
THANKS EVERYONE!

I love this new mainsail that you guys made for Eagle, my J-40!! From the time I first hoisted it this Spring, I could tell Eagle was going to love this sail. But I especially noticed the difference when I tucked in the first reef a few times over the last several weeks, sailing both up and downwind. The sail is well made and the design is perfect.

When we are at the dock, sails never get appreciated. But out on the water, we are always looking up (I am anyway) at the telltales and evaluating sailshape. On the water, it's the sails get all the attention. No matter how beautiful your hull is, if the sails look bad, your boat looks like bad - and probably sails poorly as well. Great sail shape as a thing of great beauty unto itself. It's the sole of every boat. It's where she lives.

Today is Monday, and all I want to do is daydream about sailing back Sunday afternoon, looking up at that beautiful white sail flying downwind in 20 knots of wind and loving it.

Dana Oviatt”

By the way, the sails I purchased for my Tartan 3500 3 years ago are terrific, in fact I think they are better than the originals (which you also made)

Sebastian Fasanello MD”

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ENSIGN:

Doug-

Thanks for the info! And BTW, the sails are working out great - or we wouldn't be having this conversation! :-)

Best,

Ed

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Results:

EYC – Eastern Yachting Circuit

1 – OVERALL – Blaze – Brendan Benson – this is the SIXTH YEAR IN A ROW that Brendan has drove his J/30 to an overall first place finish using all Haarstick Sails at the EYC Regatta.

“Even though our Haarstick Sails are 4 years old, we still had the best speed off the line and this was the key ingredient to winning this regatta.”

-Brendan Benson

Lake Ontario 300:

Bob Fields Wins Division SPIN – D2 Fleet

LEVELS:

40.7 Fleet

1 – Mullet* - Kris and Kiki Werner

3- Out of the Blue - John Doyle

Level 4

1 - Brook and Gunnar Richardson

C&C 29 – also the 30^th Anniversary World Championship

1- Skip Doyle

LYRA Regatta:

Freeman PHRF

1 – Mullet* Chad Henrey

Course Racing:

40.7:

1 - Mullet* - Kris Werner (7 - 1^st place finishes out of 8 races with their new Light/AP Carbon Genoa )

BUFFALO (BHSC) NY Fleet Results:

Mid-Summer Recap:

S2 *1^st Kewero R. Gradwell

*2^nd Hot Pursuit J. Christensen

*3^rd Abino Hawk P. Rains

S2A 1^st Egstasea Team Egloff

2^nd Mad Max R. Ham

J/27 *2^nd Seitz Seer D. Seitz

M1 1^st Plumb Bob M. Sendor

M2 *1^st Hideaway T. Clouden

2^nd Summerlove T. Vaughan

M3 1^st Elusive G. Czumaj

* Partial Inventory

As I write this today at 11am , I am gearing up and making plans for the Ensign National’s next week. This will be my 9^th year in a row going to the Ensign National event. It is the first time that it will be at a venue that I have been to already, and that was in 2002. The event is in Toms River hosted by the TRYC and Island Heights YC.

In 2002 it was blowing between 18-25 the whole week and we brought on a local Ensign sailor, Wendy Werner, to be our 4^th as we figured we needed as much weight on the rail as possible. Although we could have used a 250 pound guy (or girl) on the rail, she filled in nicely with the 3 guys on the boat that she never met and we had a great time.

Dick Torpey, sailing “Irish Mist”, was locked pretty well in first and we were fighting for 2^nd. We moved out of the bay and into the river for the last race of the serires as the wind built to 25 solid. The leeward mark was not sticking to the river bed so they anchored the mark boat and he became the leeward mark. As we were rounding the outboard motor (on the stern of the mark boat) in 25 knots with 4-5’ chop, we found ourselves in about 3^rd or 4^th place. The outboard motor was rocking violently in the chop and as we rounded, a little too closely, my rear end was about to slam into the outboard motor, so I jumped out of my hiking position into the cockpit. I just missed it, whew, and then…. “YOU HIT THE MARK, YOU HIT THE MARK”. I guess my flailing T-shirt just kissed the motor and the mark set boat was quick to point this out. From what I hear the boat should have been silent, but the cat was out of the bag now, so we cleared out of everyone’s way and did our turn.

We ended up 4^th for the regatta. The big news for Haarstick Sails that year was that the only 3 boats to use Haarstick Sails ended up 2^nd, 4^th, and 6^th.

This year we are coming prepared with all 4 position filled out before we get there and I will be keeping an eye on that leeward mark/outboard.

Greg Eiffert- Skipper. Greg is shooting for his 3^rd Ensign National’s win. This will tie the record (I think). Greg won in 1992 at Canadaigua YC. His 2^nd win was 2 years ago when we went to Nyack on the Hudson River .

Mike Frankovich – Greg’s URI roommate. This will be his 3^rd year with us on the Mainsail – He is also local knowledge and will be putting us up at his house for the week. Thanks Mike. Hope you stocked up on Rum. I’m going to need it if it blows again.

Alex Crerand – Bow – This will be his first national event and it is special for Alex as he and his family own an Ensign no Keuka Lake . If you have been keeping up with Loft Lines, this is the Ensign that sunk in 100’ of water and was re-born. (if you missed the article and pictures go to: January 2007 )

They put on a great event here and I am looking forward to it. I will have a write up of the event in next month’s Loft Lines.

Steve Haarstick Sailing Star Boats 35 Years Ago in the 1972

Olympic Trials

OPEN HOUSE AT HAARSTICK THIS FALL – Celebrating 10 years at this location.

Saturday October 13^th – SAVE THE DATE - Come to the loft and see how it is done. We will have refreshments, displays and tours.

Out on the production floor it is rare that the music is not playing. I don’t know what channel was on but a Milli Vanilli song came on and that reminded a few of the guys, that have been here long enough, that a Haarstick Sail was featured in a Milli Vanilli video many years back.

It is a “safe for work” and “safe for children” video, but use caution this is scary. Haarstick Sail is about 22 seconds in, then you can turn it off.

Rank	Boat	Class	SailNo	Skipper	Co-Skipper	Club	Rating	Elapsed	Corrected
1	Vitesse	Express 30	74202	Bob Fields	Suavek Jarosz	RYC	144	3:0: 00:15	3: 3:38:47