September 1997 – September 2007: our 10^th year in our new loft at 1461 Hudson Avenue, Rochester !!

This September, 2007 marks the tenth anniversary of Haarstick Sailmakers’ move from the former Clinton Avenue site to our current 1461 Hudson Avenue loft. We had decided to move in the spring of 1997, as I was tired of renting loft space on a year to year basis, and decided it was time to have the financial security of owning our building. Also, the Clinton Avenue location had become increasingly dangerous over the years, and it was time to move on. This was the fourth time we have moved the sail loft since the company was founded in 1970, and we have finally found our permanent home.

I want to thank our very hard working crew, but especially all our customers, whose confidence in us and the products we make have made the past 37 years possible! I hope that we may continue to earn your confidence and support in the coming years. But I personally want to thank all of you who have made it possible for me to continue for so many years doing what I love best: designing and building custom sails!

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

Show up and we will give you a coupon for 5% off your next sail purchase. (1 per boat)

Saturday October 13^th, 9am -1pm – SAVE THE DATE - Come to the loft and see how sails are made from beginning to end. We will have refreshments, displays and tours.

There are still a few production slots open in late September, so if you act fast you can get a new sail at the best price of the year and still have a chance to take a look at it this fall.

ALL INFORMATION REQUIRED TO BUILD THE SAIL MUST BE AVAILABLE TO US BY 10/31/2007

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.

ALL INFORMATION REQUIRED TO REPAIR THE SAIL MUST BE AVAILABLE TO US BY 10/31/2006

FREIGHT AND NYS TAX EXTRA WHERE APPLICABLE

SAIL INQUIRY: sales@haarsticksailmakers.com

www.haarsticksailmakers.com

800-342-5033

342-5200

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 series, as the wind built to a solid 25 knots. Since the leeward mark was dragging its anchor, the mark boat was used as the leeward mark. As we approached the mark boat in 25 kts, in about 3^rd or 4^th place, the outboard motor was rocking violently in the 4’-5’ chop. As we rounded, a little too closely, fearing that my rear end was about to slam into the outboard motor, I jumped out of my hiking position into the cockpit, just missing it, whew! Then “YOU HIT THE MARK, YOU HIT THE MARK”. I guess my flailing T-shirt just kissed the motor? I’m pretty sure members of the race committee are not supposed to say anything, but now that we were told there was contact, there was no choice but to clear out of everyone’s way and do our turns.

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 at Canadaigua YC in 1992, with his 2^nd win 2 years ago at 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 our 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 on 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 )

My rear end was clear of all marks and boats this time around (read above for details). I wish I could say the same for the boat; but I’ll get to that later. What a great event! We had beautiful weather with varying conditions, varying courses that were well run, and nice social events with great people, all of which made for a great week of sailing on Toms River and Barnegat Bay . I’m sad it’s over. I don’t get to see all my fellow Ensign sailors enough and I’m already looking forward to Niantic , CT next year.

Lets’ Start with the practice race; if you ever heard the rumor “it’s bad luck to win the practice race”, well it’s true. The practice race was light and shifty out of the North. We started mid line and punched out from the boats around us. We saw Gary Woodruff punched out at the pin, and all the way to our right, was my DAD. GO DAD! I think my dad started in the 2^nd row at the boat and tacked out, as soon as he could get to the right side.

We tacked on the first good shift and felt good in the middle of the course. It was tricky getting up to the windward mark. There were many 15-20 degree shifts. My Dad went far right upwind and looked great. Other boats also looked good on the right. A few last minute shifts made us look good and we were 3^rd at the mark. Nailing the far right paid off big for my father as he came around the mark in 1^st place with Peter Heffernan in 2^nd. We were able to catch up to Peter at the leeward mark, and passed him the first half of the next beat. My father had great speed and was holding us off, staying in first by a decent margin. We were happy to finish where we were and didn’t want the bad omen, but then we had two of those big shifts in a row and we found ourselves in first where we stayed until the end. It was great to see my father up in the front with us and we were excited for the regatta to get underway.

The RC moved the races out of the river to the Bay, as the wind was moving to the East, and there was more room than in the channel. We were kind of bummed to move, as we had just gotten comfortable where we were.

We had another good mid-line start and were working to get far enough in front of a boat to weather so we could tack into clear air, and get to what we thought was the favored right side. When we were clear, we made our first tack of the regatta, and our sheets fouled on the shrouds! We came to a complete stop in front of the starboard boat, and were dead in the water!. They had to tack to avoid us. So once we got up to speed, we did our turns. Ouch! We ended up 11^th.

Next race, we had more of a congested start and were working hard to get into clear air. We were about 10th at the windward mark, and made up about 4 boats on a quick jibe at the windward mark (this became a common move throughout the week for us). At the leeward mark we had too much speed at the rounding, and with few options on where to stick the bow, we stuck it into the stern of the boat ahead of us. Another ouch! Two turns later and we were in the deep teens. We managed to fight back for another 11^th.

So if your keeping score, 1^st in practice race, 2 races, 2 fouls, tied for 12^th and there’s more bad news coming.

Sailing in Jersey was nice. They hold the start, waiting for the sea breeze to fill in. The nice part is that the sea breeze fills in around 12-1pm . So, you get the morning to rest from the night before, or go the beach and hang out in the surf.

Race 3 was started in the river with an Easterly breeze of about 7-10, and a little less shifty. We were in the middle of the line with a nice hole behind us and noticed a 5-8 degree shift at 10 seconds left to the gun, so we tacked. We had enough room behind us that we could cross the fleet at the boat end. We tacked back onto starboard about 1 minute later and found ourselves at least 15 boat lengths ahead of the 2^nd place boat. What a great feeling to come back, from what we thought was a slow start to the regatta, and be in first place by this much. A few boats got to the right side of the course but most were going left. We held in the middle trying to cover both sides.

This next part gets a little blurry. 4-5 boats got ahead of us on the right side and the left side was starting to look great as well. We were stuck in the middle of wind shifts that were not getting to us. Both sides made out, but the more we tried to get back in it, the worse it got. Ouch! I think we were 20^th out of 28 boats at the first windward mark. We ended up 16^th that race and were getting pretty discouraged with our results after finishing in 1^st and 3^rd in the last two National’s.

Race 4 the SE sea breeze finally started to push in for the first time of the week. The local knowledge on the boat, Mike Frankovich, knew this breeze better and it paid off. I’m not sure of the details but we ended up with a 1^st this race. Felt good. No ouch this race.

The next race was about the same direction. I think the breeze built to about 10-12. Not sure about the details again. Details always get fuzzy when you do 10 races in 4 days. We did favor the left side with the SE breeze and it always seemed to pay off. We ended up 3^rd this race and were now in 6^th overall after 5 races. Congrats to Walt Pratt and Eric Jones, out of CT, for winning this race with their new set of Haarstick Sails.

We had good winds out of the SW at about 12-18 knots. This was rare for Toms River and I think it was caused by an approaching front with rain in the forecast, although I don’t remember the rain ever coming. We ended up 6^th the first race. The next two races we felt untouchable with the boat speed/point we had. We finally started to feel dialed in for the first time in the regatta. We had great starts and walked to windward of anyone around us. With our excellent speed, and covering the left side, we ended up with a 1^st and 1^st in races 7 and 8.

We were in a solid 2^nd now, but getting to first would be tough. Dick Torpey was sailing a solid regatta up to this point with only 1 finish out of the top 5, after the throw out was applied. So he was 11 points ahead of us and the third place boat was about 10 points behind us. With only two races left, getting 11 points on a boat that finishes in the top 5 every race would be tough. We needed to stay consistent and hope that they have a bad race.

The Sea Breeze filled in for the start of the races in the river. This was how I remembered Toms River . It was a steady 18-20 out of the south. Trim in and hike hard. We felt great again. Good start, cover the left and hold on to first, and it worked again. Another 1^st, but Dick Torpey had another solid race finishing right behind us for the 3^rd race in a row.

The wind built to about 20-25+ and clocked to the SE. The RC brought us over to the mouth of the river. While they did this, many boats opted to reduce canvas. We went to our 6 year old #2. Not that we felt disadvantaged, it has only been used 2 other times and it always felt fast. We needed to put 10 points on Torpey to win this event and our only chance was to get another first and hope that he ended up 10 places behind us. Getting into a match race wouldn’t accomplish enough so we did our own thing.

Greg got us into another nice hole and off we went. The #2 is much flatter than the #1 and in a few of the lulls we actually “felt” slow, but still had superior speed. We ended up 1^st at the windward mark but Torpey was hot on our tail, again. They went for the chute without hesitation, but I was nervous about putting ours up. We learned our lesson last time nationals were here in the 25 knot breeze. Once you hit hull speed with just the genoa up, the chute gives you no speed advantage, it just sends you out of control. But we had to if Torpey was. So up it went, and out of control we went. Not that he was much better, but we would have been fine with just the pole on the #2. There were a few wipe outs behind us, and we decided to get the chute down well before the leeward mark. Torpey and crew handled the chute work a little better and managed to get in front of us. We had no choice but to split from him if we were going to have any chance at a win. So we went right and hoped.

At the final weather mark, two other boats that went left with Torpey, got in front of us. As we were in 4^th with Torpey in 2^nd, we put the pole on the #2 and went down wind to wrap up the regatta with a 2^nd overall.

Congratulations to Dick Torpey for a solid regatta. Allen Terhune ended up third with only 3 people on his boat, yet they still put their chute up both leeward legs of the last race, I think the only boat to do so. We were happy to come back and win 4 races, but there was no coming back from those first 3 races. Moral of this story: “don’t win the practice race”.

Many thanks to Thom Healey for running a great event, and to Dick Torpey for having a wonderful welcoming party at his house. Team 856 had a great time and we are looking forward to Niantic next year.

We had the opportunity to sail on the boat last Thursday in some light to moderate air. What a pleasure it was to sail on this beautiful boat. Thanks to Keith and his father Tarry for having us onboard to look at the new sails.