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A
NEWSLETTER FROM HAARSTICK SAILMAKERS
(800)
342-5033
(585) 342-5200
email:
info@haarsticksailmakers.com
Web
site: www.haarsticksailmakers.com
In
this issue:
-by
Dave Sliom – Haarstick,
DISCOUNTS
ARE HERE for one more month, UP TO 20% OFF
FALL DISCOUNT PROGRAM: RACING, CRUISING, FREEDOM SAILS: NOW - 11\30\2006:
13%
DISCOUNT FOR ONE SAIL, 18% FOR TWO OR MORE SAILS
ADDITIONAL 2% DISCOUNT FOR CARBON RACING SAILS
REDUCE DISCOUNT 2% WHEN USING A CREDIT CARD FOR PAYMENT
ALL
INFORMATION REQUIRED TO BUILD THE SAIL MUST BE AVAILABLE TO US BY
FREIGHT
AND NYS TAX EXTRA WHERE APPLICABLE
FALL
DISCOUNT PROGRAM: ONE DESIGN SAILS:
NOW –
10% DISCOUNT FOR ONE SAIL, 15% FOR TWO OR MORE SAILS
REDUCE DISCOUNT 2% WHEN USING A CREDIT CARD FOR PAYMENT
ALL
INFORMATION REQUIRED TO BUILD THE SAIL MUST BE AVAILABLE TO US BY
FREIGHT
AND NYS TAX EXTRA WHERE APPLICABLE
For above Discounts payment terms are as follows:
50%
deposit with balance due on completion prior to shipment, or pick up OR within
30 days of invoice if stored at our loft for the spring. Storage for new sails
is free.
A
Note From The Buffalo Rep.
I would like to thank all the new and old
When I started working at Haarstick Sailmakers two years ago, I
really had no clue to the amount of me, care, dedication and complexity that
surround making racing and cruising sails.
Having grown up sailing, I had really taken for granted what a sail was,
and just assumed that a sail was a triangular piece of cloth with reinforcement
in the corners and a rudimentary shape that was designed by some engineer
toiling away in front of a 3 dimensional model on a computer screen in a back
office. It only took a few minutes
on that first day at the loft to prove that mental image wrong and made for some
anxious moments, leaving myself thinking that I bit off more than I could chew.
Fortunately the staff at Haarstick has been as helpful to me as they are
to their customers and have given me the training, knowledge and confidence that
it takes to become a confident and knowledgeable sailmaker.
With the growing support in the WNY Market, I would like to assure
my customers, both present and future, that we will be pleased to
assist with all your sailing related needs.
Thanks again for your support, and I am looking forward to the 2007
sailing season.
Eric
Christensen
WNY
Sales/Service Rep.
J24
East Coast Championship Regatta
-by
Dave Sliom – Haarstick,
The
Haarstick J24 Mainsail,
The
next few days I spent finalizing the rig tune and getting the boat all ready
(new main halyard, topping lift, etc.). We
finally got out with the full crew on the Thursday afternoon before the Regatta
start on Friday. It became obvious
rather quickly that our lack of experience as a crew sailing J24s was going to
hurt us, especially changing gears and turning the boat.
We worked hard on our kinetics, and were actually very happy with our
roll jibes, but our tacks and changing gears upwind still left a lot to be
desired, but enthusiasm was certainly not lacking on the crew.
Friday's
racing called for around 5-10 knots of breeze and overcast skies giving way to
rain in the afternoon. We got out
early and felt comfortable to move on. This
was my first time driving a J24 and starting in a large fleet (45 boats) in
about 20 years, and the time away showed as I was schooled on the first start
and only was able to get away in the 2nd row.
We worked hard to climb back into contention and into the top half of the
fleet and managed to finish 20th out of 45.
Bottom line is whenever we dialed up against a competitor, we simply had
better straight line speed over everyone, again, we lost out with our gear
changes, but straight line speed and point was better than everyone.
Whenever we had someone on our windward hip, we were able to work out
over them and force them away. Our
tacks were poor, as we lost several leebow opportunities by not accelerating out
of the tack fast enough. Our
downwind performance was simply fantastic as we passed boats on every downwind
leg, easy to do when you can sail as fast or faster and much deeper.
The
second race on Friday, I made a vow never to be schooled on the start line like
I was in the first start, and luckily, we had three general recalls to practice
our starting. We were front row and
moving out in each recall, and when we finally got a start in, we found our
marshmallow, held our hole to leeward and blasted out front row in the start.
It was nice watching all but three boats having to bail out and tack
underneath us. We rounded the
weather mark in 7th place, and held on with the leaders through the downwind
leg, start working back upwind. We
had to duck a starboard tacker, and as we were ducking him, the boat on his
leeward hip decides to tack onto port, and forced us up into the stern rail of
the starboard tacker we were trying to duck.
Minor contact, and we took a yellow flag penalty, protested the other
boat and were hoping for redress for the penalty after the meetings.
This incident allowed several boats through us, and we ended up in the
teens but with a penalty pending.
The
third race of the day, we once again got an excellent start and were in the top
10 at the weather mark (8th). We
were sailing with the regatta leaders. We
passed one boat downwind, chose the left turn around the port gate because we
were seeing persistent clocking shifts and therefore wanted to protect the
right. A lot of the top boats went
there with us, and unfortunately we got a huge left shift on that leg that we
had not seen all day. The fleet was
turned inside out as we found ourselves sailing with good boats in the thirties.
We were able to pass a few of the top boats downwind by simply sailing
deeper, jibing inside them. Unfortunately
we were deep, around 30th in that race due to the unanticipated left hand shift.
Since
we did poorly in the last race on Friday, we decided to just eat our penalty and
not spend the time in the protest room.
Saturday
is when things got interesting. Forecast
calling for 15-20 knots from the south, dying some around
We
got out just in time, and the wind was starting to increase.
We decided to go with the jib, but unfortunately we did not have a
Haarstick jib, and had to use the only jib that we had to use.
Unfortunately, the jib was way too deep to be effective in these
conditions (how I wish we had a Haarstick jib), and we just could not get it to
look satisfactory to us. Once again
got good starts, but we had 3 more general recalls.
The tactician wanted the right side to protect against the big right hand
shift that was expected. We started
about three boats from the committee boat, which was a mistake as we were called
over on a Z flag general recall. The
RC said that there were at least 20 boats over the line, but only Z flagged 8
they could see and we were one of them. Unfortunately
the penalty carried over to the good start, on which we got another great start,
started heading upwind and then the winds came, huge gusts up over 30 knots,
with lulls around 15. The puffs
were all shifts, either headers or lifts, which made it really hard to drive
upwind. We were top ten coming to
the weather mark when one of the boats took out the eventual regatta winner
while they were on port, then hit another boat while still on port, and we saw
all this because we were on their weather hip.
These guys still didn't retire even though both boats they hit had to
retire, go home and were granted redress. Then
they were taught a lesson, about 3 boatlengths from the weather mark, they were
hit with a lifting puff to around 35, they ragged the main to keep the boat on
her feet, but because
the
puff was a lift, it drove their bow down and main filled and they capsized (not
broached) keel out of the water, they had to put a guy on the keel to get it
back up and finally they decided it was time to go home.
I can’t remember ever seeing a J24 capsize upwind before.
We rounded in the top 10 (don't know exactly where because it was too
windy to count boats. Then we had a
wonderful downwind leg, spinnaker up, planing the entire downwind leg, and
watching boats wiping it left and right. We
saw lots of carnage, capsizes and shredded spinnakers.
We doused early, made a good rounding while one of the leaders flagged
his spinnaker, he let both sheets go and the spinnaker flagged out and then went
over the top of his mast. That was
ugly and we could think of no good way that could turn out for them.
We went upwind, but the jib was killing us because it was so deep.
We lost several boats there, and started downwind without the spinnaker.
We were once again able to hop on a plane and hold it for the leg,
passing several boats to end up around 10th, but then had to take a Z flag
penalty.
The
wind died just a bit after the 2nd race, and the PRO gets on the radio to tell
us that we have seen the worst and he would set another race, this time 1 1/2
mile legs and 5 legs (damn sadist). Half
way up the first leg, the forecasts all came true, right around
was
no way to sail with the mainsail without two battens as we were just going to
rag the leech completely out. We
decided to drop the mainsail (seemed to take an eternity) and then finished with
just the jib. We still managed a 22
in that race even with all the mayhem. We
got back in and were happy and proud that we were one of the few boats that kept
our keel wet the whole time. But
unfortunately we now had two missing
battens,
two batten pockets needing repair and a little tear in the leech which I am sure
happened as we were dousing the mainsail. We
also had one crew with a cut on his head and another with a very bad deep bruise
on his hip. We decided that it was
probably best if we just did not go out on Sunday since we already had missed a
race and did not perform up to our hopes. Also Sundays forecast was calling for
more 25-30 knot winds with gusts to 40 which the fleet did see on Sunday, so I
think that our cautious approach on the last day was probably safest (even if
those downwind planes were fun as hell).
Bottom
line is the sails are super fast, except for that jib which was not a Haarstick
sail. We had great straight
line speed, excellent point, and deeper and faster downwind.
Our weakness was our inexperience sailing J24s and every time we had to
turn the boat we lost, except jibes. Other
than this weakness, I was very happy with the boat’s performance.
We made good tactical calls, had great starts (except for one), and kept
the boat on her feet through the worst of the conditions.
I have no doubt that with more time on the boat we will be challenging
the leaders of this great competitive fleet.
Congratulations
to Don Stehle and Crew for cleaning house at the Oyster Roast Regatta at
Severn Sailing Association in
The
Haarstick Spinnaker was used to take help take the
Click
on the following link for the Regatta Results:
http://www.thistleclass.com/results/2006/oyster.pdf
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