• "Speed Testing "

• "Valcour Sailing Club"

• "Chiott Marine Mayor's Challenge"

Speed Testing

How to get the most out of you boat!

here is no better way to help you win sailboat races than having great boat speed. You can be very smart, have great crew work, or be tactically brilliant, but nothing is better than a decided boat speed advantage.

When sailing in a one-design type of boat, it is painfully obvious if you are slow. If you are fairly competitive some of the time, it is more difficult to see how your speed matches up against the top boats. Most of the top boats in any one-design class will spend some time doing some two boat speed testing to help improve their performance.

How to set up for a speed test: Find a good boat who is willing to spend a little time sailing against you in a one on one situation. Discuss your goals, your time table, and your plan. This could be testing the speed of a new jib, or trying out some different tuning techniques.

On the water: Stay near each other, don’t waste time by sailing off on your own while the other boat is getting ready. “Jockey” into position where both boats are sailing at about 2/3rd speed up wind on the same tack. Position the boats so that they are approximately 1.5 boat lengths apart, with the bow of the leeward boat slightly ahead (about 5 feet forward of the windward boat). Both boats should trim in and get up to full speed, then after re-adjusting (if needed) to get into this starting position, sail upwind.

It is important that both boats are sailing in the same wind, so if one boat gets ahead because of a wind shift or a local puff, slow down and re-align the boats, and start over. When it is obvious that one boat has an advantage, try to determine what the cause is. You may need to trade boats to see if one boat or one skipper is just plain faster than the other. If it is the boat, rather than the helmsman who keeps on pulling out ahead, try to determine the cause. Is it the boat, the sails, or the tuning that is causing the speed differences. Compare rig tuning, try swapping sails, anything you can to eliminate the variables and find the “problem” spots.

Once both boats and helmsmen are up to speed, you can leave one boat constant as the “control” boat and change sails, rig tuning, or sail trimming technique to begin to look for a speed edge. This is how sailmakers fine tune their one design sail shapes, recutting existing sails and testing new shapes, looking for speed advantages.

These techniques can be adapted for PHRF boats also, but it is more difficult to eliminate variables in the testing procedure. If done correctly, speed testing can be very educational, and you may find that you have a good time in the process!

Bill Fastiggi manages Shore Sails, Burlington and spends most of his free time campaigning his Lightning and sailing with customers.

Valcour Sailing Club

by Rob McDowell

he Valcour Sailing Club of Plattsburgh, New York commemorates 30 years of sailing programs this year. VSC began as a one design club racing Cape Cod Knockabouts and the similar Champlainer, built in Essex, New York, in the channel between historic Valcour Island and the New York shore. Through the years the one design fleets broke up and was replaced by handicap racing in 20 to 40 footers .

Racer-cruisers became the core of the club’s activity. This year VSC is returning to it’s roots by sponsoring a series of four small boat races, using the Portsmouth handicap system, as well as running it’s popular Wednesday night series and weekend series for PHRF boats. VSC also runs a LCRC race, the Valcour Race, on July 21, the day after the Mayor’s Cup. The Valcour Sailing Club never acquired a permanent waterfront location, preferring to keep costs low and to take advantage of the numerous local marinas and mooring places. The club has an open membership policy welcoming all interested in sailing. VSC is a member of the Lake Champlain Racing Conference, and is a chartered yacht club through US Sailing. Like most sailing organizations, VSC suffered a decline in membership during the apathetic early nineties, but through excellent management and a quality sailing program has almost doubled in size. Commodore Don Duley and his afterguard has VSC healthy again and growing toward being a significant racing force on Lake Champlain.

VSC has been a defining presence in sailboat racing and cruising in the Plattsburgh area, and has introduced many excellent sailors to the sport. With the new commitment to entry level sailing in its small boat Portsmouth series, VSC will help make more friends among those who love to sail.

Chiott Marine Mayor's Challenge

he Chiott Marine Mayor’s Challenge sponsored by Chiott Marine, Shore Sails, Cloth 'n Canvas, WIZN, Radisson Hotel, Champlain Chocolates, Bruce Hill Yacht Sales, Shelburne Shipyard, Liberty Bell II and CellularOne will be remembered as a wet, cold and foggy regatta. Charly Dickerson and Mardean Moeglein served as the “wet” race committee aboard "Bolero" did an excellent job of keeping track of all the finishes.

"Lionheart"
Last fall, as the Race Committee Chairperson, I very carefully ordered 15 to 18 knots of breeze from the southwest, along with 80 degree temperatures and clear skies. The only possible reason I can figure for the poor weather and light winds is my credit card must have been maxed out when I placed the order. Next year I'll be sure to send cash!

Thirty eight boats turned out for the event. The poor weather conditions, and a late spring combined for the lower than expected turnout. Considering the weather, the regatta was enjoyed by most everyone who attended.

"Frankly Scarlett"
Class A was dominated by two boats, a vintage 1984 Soveral 33, "Frankly Scarlett", sailed by Dave Powlison and John Harris and "Lionheart" a 1992 J-105 owned by Norm Alpert. The two boats tied for first place in Class A with the tie breaker going to "Lionheart" with a 47 second combined time victory. "Lionheart" representing Shelburne also won the Chiott Marine Mayor’s Challenge Cup.

Class B was a sail-away by "Realescape" with two first place finishes. Don Duley and crew sailing an asymmetrical spinnaker equipped J-92 easily paced Jeff Allen’s J-30 "Leprechaun". "Leprechaun" was able to keep up with "Realescape" upwind, but the asymmetrical spinnaker was very effective off the wind.

"Toad’s Wild Ride" sailed by Jim Finch and Marcia Milton is back from a years vacation. It was as if they were never gone, back to their winning ways. The Lindenberg 24, built by Shock and called a Wavelength 24 is an ultra-light 24' pocket rocket. The other boats in C Class are 30' + displacement boats. Given the vast differences between the boats, the racing was very close and competitive.

Class D was dominated by Ed Ziemer in his Redwing 30 "Carina". A classic 30' C&C "Carina" won both races over Al Johnson aboard his Pearson 26 "Swan Song" while Brian Gibbs sailing a Farr 24, "Farr Out", finishing second.

In the J-24 Class, Pete Ryan sailing "PT Blister" was the easy victor finishing with 2.75 points. Ken Signorello sailing "Results" led for a good portion of the first race, giving it away on a windward leg. Al Hobart, aboard "Fawn Liebowitz" finished third behind Dan Simpkins in second. The J-24's have been sailing in Class C for the past 6 years. It's good to see them back doing what they do best, one-design racing.

The Non Spinnaker Class sailing a separate course suffered from poor visibility in the fog. Three of the boats missed the first mark off Appletree Point and were disqualified. John Camm, sailing "Solarus" was victorious followed by John & Nancy Aswad in their new C&C 32, "Indigo" . Finishing in third was Urlich Holzinger sailing "Edelweiss II". The Non Spinnaker Class sailed a 10.9 mile course across the lake and around the Four Brothers Islands and back to Burlington Harbor.

The single multi-hill sailed the same course as the Non Spinnaker Class completing it twice. The Hobie 17 sailed by Brian Garrett was able to finish the course in about the same time as the Non Spinnaker Class.

A $500 donation was presented to Marcel Beaudin, representing the Lake Champlain Community Sailing Center. This donation will be used to help local children participate in sailing lessons at the Sailing Center.

Special thanks go out to Jamie Leopold, Ken Signorello, and Jonathan Haas who have spearheaded this regatta for the past four years. Without their hard work and dedication this event would be far less than it is. I have enjoyed the opportunity to work with them and respect their efforts in planning of the Chiott Marine Mayor's Challenge.