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• 2011 Pacific Coast Championship
• 2010 South Americans
• 2010 Herb Shear Regatta
• 2010 Women's Nationals
• 2010 Las Vegas Regatta
• 2009 Bahamas Nationals
• 2009 Snipe Sail Test in Japan
• 2009 District 6 Championship
• 2009 Hearb Shear Regatta
• INTERVIEW Donico Brown
• Coaching Session Tuning Notes
• 2009 MBYC Short Course Sunday
• 2009 Winter Circuit: Midwinters & Don Q Regattas
• 2009 SDYC Snipe Women's Challenge
• 2009 SCYA Midwinters
• 2008 Tag Heuer Snipe Winter Championship

See also: 2006-2007 Regatta Reports | 2000/2001/2002/2003/2004/2005 Regatta Reports

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2010 SNIPE PACIFIC COAST CHAMPS
North Sails 1,2,3!

Coronado Yacht Club provided picture perfect hospitality and conditions for the Snipe PCCs and District 6 Champs. Nine races were held over three days in flat water, warm sunshine and a solid 12-15 knots of breeze with lots of shifts. Staying in phase was key…if you missed a shift, you would surely lose a few boats.

In the end, Tyler Sinks sailing with Jeff Aschieris took the series with 13 points, winning 5 of the 9 races. They always seemed to capitalize on the first shift off the line which opened up options for them further up the first beat. Tyler and Jeff displayed excellent course management against a very deep fleet and above all, they were FAST. Tyler and Jeff used the AP5+ mainsail and the BR1DH jib, however they used one day to test the FT-1 mainsail as well as they prepare to represent the US Team at the 2011 Snipe Worlds in Denmark.

Doug Hart and John Fretwell finished 2nd using an AP5+ mainsail and an R2LM Radial Jib. Doug and John also spent some time testing an FT-1 mainsail as they continue their Worlds preparation as well.

Kevin and Ashley Reali finished in 3rd place using an older AP4 / BR1DH combination.

If you weren’t in South Bay with us this weekend, you missed a truly wonderful event!

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2010 SNIPE SOUTH AMERICAS
Congratulations Rafael Gagliotti!

Photo by Juan Ibarra ibarrafoto@gmail.com

The 2010 South Americans took place at the Club de Yates Algarrobo, Chile, fron November 20-23. 21 teams were present from five different countries: Brasil, Chile, Ecuador, Colombia and Paraguay. Winds 8-10 knots for most races.

Congratulations Rafael Gagliotti and Henrique Wisniewski, for their brillaint participation. They used the North AP-5+ mainsail and the new R2-LM jib.

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2010 SNIPE HERB SHEAR REGATTA
North Sails 1,2,4,5,7!

Report by Brian Bissell

This past weekend was the snipe Herb Shear Regatta in Mission Bay.  There were 27 participants which is a really nice turnout for a local event.  John Fretwell is the new Fleet 495 class leader and has been doing an excellent job getting people out on the water.  There were 4 races on Saturday and 3 on Sunday.  We had a solid 10 knots all day Saturday, while Sunday was really light and shifty.   As you can see from the scores, it was really easy to have a bad race.  There was the occasional unpredictable 20 degree persistent shift, large holes of no pressure, and big oscillations.  The bottom line was boat speed, and if you had it, you could get yourself out of big trouble more often than not.  The sails at the top are a good indication of which ones were going fast throughout the weekend.  The eventual champions Kevin and Ashley also proved how easy our sails are to tune and trim as this was only their second Snipe Regatta.  6 out of the 7 races were won by a team using our AP-5+ main and BR1D jib.  This combination of sails has proven time and time again to be a potent mixture for the flat water conditions we have in Mission Bay.

Winners’ Notes:

They sailed a Persson boat with a Proctor Miracle Mast.  They had North AP-5+ main and BR1D jib.  They were sailing at about 270 lbs combined weight.  On Saturday,  they set up at 21’7” and about 240 lbs of tension which was 19 on the PT-1 gauge, but went two full turns tighter on the Staymaster and went back to the same jib halyard mark.  This helped their performance since they were overpowered earlier in the wind range.  They said they were vang sheeting with the mast locked in the neutral position.  They didn’t use their traveler at all.  On Sunday, they went back to the light air setting and showed great boat speed in the lighter winds.  Congratulations to Kevin and Ashley!!!

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2010 WOMEN'S NATIONALS
Report by John Fretwell

San Diegan sailors Aine McLean Fretwell and Jessie O’Dell travelled to Jacksonville, FL in mid-April for the Snipe Women’s Nationals. The pressure was on with a short two-day, five–race, no-throwout series, but the girls delivered a solid 3rd place finish, and are excited about the potential they see for their team. “The top women are obviously really solid,” said Fretwell, “This was Carol Cronin’s fifth national championship, and both she and Tarasa Davis (2nd) have sailed in the Olympics! This was my first time travelling to a major Snipe event as a skipper, and Jessie was the youngest sailor at the regatta. Our speed was as good as anyone’s throughout the weekend. We had one minor breakdown and my starts could have been a lot better, so I know we still have a ton of room to improve.”

The Nationals was largely a training event for Fretwell and O’Dell, who have their sights set on the Women’s Worlds in St. Petersburg this November. Until then, the team will continue their training regimen, testing their skills regularly against the talented sailors of Fleet 495 on Mission Bay.

For the Nationals the ladies sailed with North’s AP5+ mainsail and BR1DH jib on Persson 30111. They predominantly employed two rig settings: 21’6” x 19 in the lighter stuff, then dropping to 21’5” x 21 for the breezier racing on Sunday. Spreader set up for the Sidewinder standard mast was right off the North tuning guide, and the team weighed in around 270 lbs.

For more information about our Snipe sails, please contact our Snipe Experts. To order your Snipe sails online, click here.

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2010 LAS VEGAS REGATTA

Report by Brian Bissell

This past weekend was the Snipe Las Vegas Regatta hosted by Mission Bay Yacht Club. The conditions were perfect both days. While the Interclub Midwinters in Annapolis, MD experienced temperatures around 20 degrees, the 15 snipes in San Diego enjoyed a sunny 72 degrees. The wind ranged from about 4 knots to 12 knots throughout the weekend. The race committee did an excellent job getting in 6 races on Saturday and 5 races on Sunday.

The racing was close on day 1 and Chuck Sinks, sailing with crew Robbie Dean, took the lead by one point. My crew, Rob Ramirez, and I were sitting 1 point behind Chuck and only 1 point ahead of third place Dave Tillson. On day 2, there was a really good battle between Chuck and myself. Chuck put together some really nice starts and first beats. I think he was first at just about every 1st weather mark. My crew and I had the speed downwind and were able to close some distance on Chuck and were able to find the pressure on the 2nd beat to win the first two races of the day. Chuck finished 2nd in both races giving us the lead by one point. The next race we were overlapped with Chuck on the first downwind leg and jibed to the inside for what we thought was more pressure. The pressure was there initially but petered out and Chuck was able to make a big gain on the last part of the leg. He won the race and we finished 4th giving him back the lead by a couple points. We then won the next two races to take the lead back for good and win the coveted wooden Elvis Guitar trophy.

After the races, a few of my customers were really curious as to why I was so fast downwind. Here are a few tips and some things I was doing that I think helped my downwind performance…

1) Steer the boat with body weight and not the rudder
I was constantly heading up in the light spots and heading down in the puffs, but I wasn’t doing it with the rudder. When we felt the pressure load up the sails and it felt like we had enough to carve down, I would say “windward chine” and my crew would shift his weight so that the boat would heal to windward and the boat would naturally want to head down. When the puff would dissipate, I would say “leeward chine.” This would get Rob to grab the centerboard handle and shift all his weight to leeward. The boat healing to leeward wanted to head up. Whenever you can steer the boat without using the rudder, you are decreasing drag.

2) Head up in the lulls and down in the puffs
With the steering method used above, we felt it was important to try and stay in the pressure as long as possible and keep the boat moving well at all times. The puffs were fairly localized and we were able to stay in the puffs longer if we headed down right when they hit the boat. When we ran out of wind, heading up would keep the boat moving and we’d hit the next puff a little sooner. You sail a little extra distance with this method, but you stay in pressure longer and pressure was king.

3) Keep your air clean
In light to medium wind, staying in clean air is critical; I think even more so in the snipe. A good way to check if anyone is giving you dirty air is to line up either the telltales on your shroud or your masthead fly to see where it is pointing behind you. The telltales indicate the direction of your apparent wind which is where you will need to look for a clear lane of breeze.

4) Downwind Jib Trim
I was adjusting the jib trim a lot to change gears and not just by using the jib sheets. The other jib controls you can use downwind include the jib Cunningham, whisker pole length, and jib halyard. We didn’t adjust the jib Cunningham very much. I pulled it on until most of the wrinkles came out and the shape looked like a smooth foil and then I would leave it at this setting. When the wind went light we would pull on some jib halyard, lengthen the pole, ease the pull forward a touch and head up for more pressure. This would flatten the jib and make it easier for the flow of wind to make it through the sail. Then when the puff hit, we would head down, shorten the pole, ease jib halyard, and square the pole back by pulling on the jib sheet.

5) Loose vang for “by the lee” sailing
We would have a very loose boomvang whenever we were healing to windward and sailing “by the lee.” The twisty profile of the mainsail’s shape helped our boat speed in this mode. I have heard the flow of wind changes drastically when you start sailing by the lee and if your vang is too tight, it will disrupt this flow.

6) Short Forestay
I sail with a shorter than average forestay for a couple reasons. When going downwind, I like to pull the aft puller all the way on, but I don’t like to rake the mast back. With a shorter forestay, you can pull the aft puller on that pulls the lower part of the mast back while the forestay prevents the top of the rig from raking too far back. This also opens up the spreaders and pulls the gooseneck aft which enables you to let your boom out further and closer to a 90 degree angle to the mast.

Chuck Sinks and I were both sailing with the North AP-5+ Main and BR1DH Jib.

Top 5:

1. Brian Bissell/Rob Ramirez 2-1-6-3-7-2-1-1-4-1-1 .... 29 points
2. Chuck Sinks/Robe dean/Peter Burton 3-2-4-6-2-3-2-2-1-2-3 .... 30 points
3. Rick Anerson/Diana Carter 1-8-2-7-4-7-4-3-5-3-6 .... 50 points
4. Doug Hart /Matt Morris 7-4-3-12-10-1-3-4-2-4-2 .... 52 points
5. Garth Reynolds/Zoe Bolesta 4-7-10-5-1-6-9-7-7-5-7 .... 68 points

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2009 BAHAMIANS NATIONALS

Report by Brian Bissell

Congratulations Chris Sands skipper (wearing Team BLUE hat!) and Donico Brown! They won all three races at the Bahamians Nationals that were sailed. A couple of the races were won by almost an entire leg!

Theyused the BR1DH jib that North Sails One Design donated to their program when Brian Bissell was out there for the winter circuit and claimed that it was really easy to set up and trim. Congratulations Chris and Donico on a great performance.

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SAIL TESTING IN KAMAKURA, JAPAN

Report by Snipe expert Brian Bissell and North One Design Designer Garth Reynolds

We recently completed a week-long Snipe sail testing session with North Sails Japan. The goals for the trip were two-fold. First, pit our AP5+/BR1DH against the Japanese counterparts the PR2 and SW3 mainsails and the R2-LM jib; second, to learn how to build, use and analyze NS Japan’s “America’s Cup” style Two Boat Testing System. The following report combines our individual perspectives of the week, a brief analysis of the sails, and an explanation of system functions and advantages it will provide to North Sails One Design.

Upon arriving in Tokyo, Garth and I were immediately inspected by quarantine officers to make sure we weren’t bringing in any diseases.  They take this very seriously.  I believe they escorted one guy off the plane because he started coughing.  If you pass their series of questions, you get a facemask and a yellow card that I think said something like “disease-free”. So much for first impressions!

After getting through customs and finding our bags and box of snipe sails, we rented a cell phone and hopped on a bus for Yokohama where we were met by Takumi.  Takumi is a sales rep for NS Japan and will be representing Japan and North Sails at the Snipe World Championship this year.  He drove us to Kamakura which is a small beach town that used to be the capital of Japan 750 years ago.  Untouched by the war, there were some really old temples and big Buddha statues everywhere you looked.  This 13.3 meter-tall, 93 ton cast bronze Buddha sculpture is the second largest in Japan, and was cast in 1252!

Getting down to business, Garth was in charge of learning the NS Japan Two-Boat Testing Program, while I was responsible for getting our AP-5+ main and BR1DH jib set-up and tuned right to test against the Japanese quiver of sails.  What was to happen in the next 5 days was mind blowing.  Definitely the coolest, most educational sail test I’ve ever been a part of.

Garth’s TECHNICAL NOTE: The basic principle of the Japanese two-boat testing system is:

• Track two boats while sailing with GPS to tell which boat is going faster and/or pointing higher.
• Include wind data from a masthead system onboard the coach boat. The coach boat is also equipped with a heading sensor and a GPS.
• Determine the TWA, TWS, AWA, and AWS on the two test boats (in relation to the coach boat. Not a perfect scenario of having wind data on EACH test boat…but more sophisticated than anything done previously for small boats.
• Utilize mast-head cameras on each boat to take one photo-per-second.
• Compile all of the data (test-boat track/speed, wind data, photos) on-board in a CPU, and display the data in REAL TIME!

This is a simple principle with a complex solution utilizing five different programs developed by NS Japan to give the coach boat operators the real time view.  

Photo: Upwind testing in progress. LEFT: System engineer and Team NZL engineer, Masanobu Katori. DRIVING: Makoto Kikuchi. FORWARD: Extra crew.

Imagine coming in from a long day of sail testing.  You’ve just sailed 8 one-mile-long upwind beats and 8 downwind legs the same distance.  The boat felt really good at times, average part of the time, and a bit sticky in some areas.  In a normal sail test, the variables would be eating at me.  Was I higher and faster that one time because of my technique, was I trimmed a little tighter, was I hiking harder?  Is it just a matter of different sail designs?  In a normal sail test, that would forever be unknown.

Garth’s TECHNICAL NOTE: We conducted the sail test as one would without the GPS tracking tools. If the boat to leeward felt they could tack and cross, they were allowed to do so. If the windward boat fell into the leeward boat, the windward boat would tack and we would reset. We also switched windward-leeward positions, which gave us a clear understanding that the AP5+ was a “pointing sail” with less twist and more leech return in the bottom, and the PR2 was a “fast forward sail” with more twist, less leech return, and more shape in the top of the sail. The Two-Boat Testing System was not needed to see these trends; however the system provides a quantitative and objective view of the testing. After each sailing session, the data can be broken into segments, analyzed and “scored”. Test runs are evaluated with “Advanced Performance Analyzer” and scored with a “gain rate” of [meters-per-minute]. Another advantage to using the system, is that each one-minute run starts the boats at an even position, and calculates the gain at the end of the run; nearly eliminating the need for a perfect line up for each run. This helps streamline the testing, and allows for more efficient use of the time on-the-water.

At the end of each day, in our debrief sessions, we would pick apart each upwind leg.  The two boats’ GPS tracks show up on the screen in seemingly parallel lines; one in red, one in blue.  Looking closer, you can see the lines aren’t exactly parallel and at times one boat may have been going higher and faster, higher and slower, lower and faster, or lower and slower. To get an accurate account, the one-mile beats were sliced into one-minute long segments (usually covering 250-meters).

Let’s say for instance, in the one minute test section of sailing upwind, my boat made big gains.  I sailed higher and faster.  The first thing we would do is look at the wind strength and direction.  Were we in a puff?  Were we lifted? If the gains were caused by a wind shift, it can be noted and marked as a “gain due to wind shift”. Next, we’d take a look at the bird’s-eye-view of the two boats sailing upwind.  This is where you can see the difference in technique.  Who’s hiking harder?  Who is steering the boat more aggressively through the waves?  Were the sails eased the same amount in the puff?  Finally, we use “Advanced Sail Analyzer” a software developed by NS Japan, to analyze both sail shapes (draft position, camber, exit and entry angles, twist).

Garth’s TECHNICAL NOTE:  Advanced Sail Analyzer takes “sail scan” to a new level. Masthead photos along with photos taken from the chase boat are synced using a timestamp, so when a photo is taken from aft of the test boat, it can be matched to the corresponding masthead photo. See following example.

Simultaneous photos from aft and from masthead

Advance Sail Analyzer

The final step in comparing the flying shapes is to convert the ASA-measured photos into an IGS file, providing a 3D “wire frame” view. These IGS files may be viewed in an overlay so the similarities and differences are shown in a natural “boom up” view as the skipper and crew would see the sails. The 3D IGS viewer can display the sail(s) from any angle, similar to Spiral. The 3D view below is an overlay comparison of the same photos.

Lastly, the IGS file of the flying shape may be input directly into Membrain, allowing the designers to compare the measured flying shape (from sailing) to the theoretical flying shape determined from the CFD/FEA tools Flow and Membrain.

At different times in the day, one boat might try something new.  I’d tell Garth, “Hey, I’m going to add a little more jib halyard tension, or I just dropped shroud pins ½ hole, or I am going to try a little mast ram forward.  He would mark the time of day and note what change was made.  Then at the end of the day we could check how those changes affected performance and what affect they had on 1) sail shape and 2) performance. Again, removing the subjectivity from the equation!                                                        

I have always debated vang sheeting vs. traveler sheeting in the Snipe.  The Japanese swear by traveler sheeting and I am a little more comfortable vang sheeting.  It was really interesting to see how the sails reacted differently to both variations. Overall, vang sheeting was favorable in an offshore, shifty and gusty breeze condition with a high variance in the gusts and lulls. In this condition, traveler sheeting did not allow one to ease/trim the mainsheet fast enough to keep up as the breeze changed. Traveler sheeting was favorable in a steadier, onshore breeze condition as the transitions from gust-to-lull were smoother.

What an amazing experience!

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2009 DISTRICT 6 CHAMPIONSHIP
North Sails 1,3,5,7,8,10!!!

Report by Brian Bissell

This weekend was the Snipe District 6 Championship hosted by San Diego Yacht Club.  The race committee, along with a few of the participants, used this event to gear up for the World Championship that will take place in the same spot this September. 

Doug Hart mentioned before the skippers meeting that this was the deepest fleet he’s seen at a local event in a long time.  This had a lot to do with some very talented junior teams that made an appearance.  The hot shot juniors included newly crowned collegiate All-American Tyler Sinks, the high school sailing standout with a strong sailing pedigree Nevin Snow, and a top Snipe sailor from the Biscayne Bay fleet who will compete in both the junior and senior World Championship this year Nick Voss.

The racing schedule called for 4 races on Saturday and 2 on Sunday.  If all six races were completed a throw-out would take effect.  Both days were picture perfect sailing conditions.  Saturday was sunny and probably averaged about 7 knots.  There were some big rolling swells but not much chop.  These standard San Diego conditions were ideal for the AP-5+ and BR1DH and it showed as we went 1,1,1,3.  My crew Blaire Herron did an excellent job working the boat downwind and clearing the dagger board of seaweed.  The Seaweed was actually a huge factor In the racing since it was everywhere and just a little bit on either board would drastically slow you down.

I sailed on Sunday with my world’s crew Kate Sheahan who had flown in late Saturday night from Bermuda.  The breeze picked up a bit and averaged around 10 knots on the day.  Don Bedford, who missed day 1, came out of the gates hot and took the bullet in the first race.  Nick Voss charged ahead early and stayed there to win the final race of the regatta.  We finished 2nd in both races to hang on to win the championship by 9 points over George Szabo.  Overall North Sails were 1,3,5,7,8 and 10 with the new AP-5+ main taking 1st and 3rd.

Top 5:

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2009 HERB SHEAR REGATTA

Report by Brian Bissell

This weekend was the Snipe Herb Shear regatta hosted by Mission Bay Yacht Club.  There were 18 boats competing and some good teams made for some great racing.  The first day was light and shifty; around 5-6 knots.  The second day was more like 6-8 with up to 10-11 in the final race.  I sailed with Kate Sheahan who did an excellent job telling me where the next puffs were coming from.  It was all about connecting the dots since the holes were serious showstoppers. 

We sailed with the new AP-5+ and a BR1DH.  We had great speed and point in every race.  I was sailing at 21’7” on the rake and 21 on the PT-1 tension gauge.  I believe this is a really good set-up for the flat water we had on the bay. 

Kate and I had sealed the deal after race six, so I asked her to take the tiller for the final race so I could check things out from the front of the boat.  The combination of Kate’s driving skills, the wide groove of the AP-5+, and a monster lefty on the final beat, we finished 3rd in the final race.  North Sails were 1,3 on top 5 with Doug Hart and Matt Morris in 3rd..

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INTERVIEW DONICO BROWN

Interview by Brian Bissell

Donico Brown is a junior sailor from Nassau, Bahamas.  His love and dedication for the sport of sailing is an inspiration.  He doesn’t come from money.  He wasn’t forced into the sport by his parents.  Sailing just looked like a lot of fun and he decided he would do whatever it takes to get out there and succeed.  Donico and his friends hold numerous fundraisers such as car washes and raffles in order to raise the money required to travel to off-island regattas.  It was so refreshing to see these junior sailors working hard to raise the money to support their love of sailing.  As a long time junior sailing coach in the U.S., I had grown accustomed to seeing young sailors take their parents’ financial support for granted.  As a token of my appreciation, I donated my Snipe jib to their campaign since theirs was really worn out.  In return, Donico agreed to give me an interview…

It was nice meeting you during the snipe winter championship in Nassau this year.  You guys really sailed well and it was a joy to see some young teams out there making a strong effort.  The Snipe is a challenging boat and your team seemed to be learning new tricks each day.  You have some highly competitive regattas off the island coming up and I was hoping to ask you a few questions about your preparation.

What got you into the sport of sailing?
Donico - I use to watch the opti's sail in the harbor almost every day and it seemed like a lot of fun.  Then I found out that one of my friends was already in the sailing program, so I followed him to the sailing camp and signed myself up for the program. 

How old are you?
Donico -18

How many years have you been sailing?
Donico -3 years
 
Do you play any other sports?
Donico -Yes, I play basketball.

Which sport is more competitive Basketball or Sailing?  
Donico -Sailing is more competitive than basketball. Since I started sailing, I don't play basketball as much as I use to because I am really focused on sailing and I can see myself going somewhere with sailing.  Now I just play basketball to stay fit.
 
What will be your next regatta and where will it be sailed?
Donico -My next regatta will be Sarasota Sailfest which I will be sailing the laser radial.  It’s in Sarasota, Florida at the Sarasota Sailing Squadron.

What do you like the most about sailing the snipe?
Donico -The thing I like most about sailing the snipe is that it takes team work to sail the boat.  For me, two heads is better than one.
 
What are you doing in terms of regatta preparation? 
Donico -I am sailing 5 days a week and I am in the gym 3 days a week.  I am also running a mile every day, but keeping in mind my body weight. (155lbs)
 
Traveling to off-island regattas can be expensive.  Are you guys doing any type of fundraising?
Donico -Yes we had a car wash and have several more planned.  The raffle at the Snipe Winter Championship was also one of our fundraisers.
 
Besides the Snipe, what other boats do enjoy sailing?
Donico -The laser because it’s a physical boat.  You really have to work hard and work the boat to get the real performance out of the boat.  Also because it’s one of the largest fleets in the world.

What part of sailing do you find to be the toughest?
Donico -I find hiking to be the toughest part of sailing because all of your body’s muscles must be fit and in shape.  It is the toughest thing for me but it is not a problem.

What is your long term goal in sailing? 
Donico -I am looking to make a career out of sailing. One of my goals is to go to Jr. Worlds in the laser which I will be going to in July.  As time goes on am trying to go to as many regattas as possible to try and make my way to the top of the fleet in the snipe and laser.  I am also looking further down the road to possibly making it to the Olympics.  

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions!

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2009 Snipe MBYC Short Sunday

Report by Brian Bissell

Mission Bay Yacht Club hosted Short Course Sunday on the weekend (3-29-09) which consisted of 5 races.  The courses were windward/leeward the length of Mission Bay.  There were 14 boats in attendance with some new faces in the crowd.  Steve Hunt borrowed Chuck Sinks boat, used a set of North Sails and was instantly fast, winning the first race.  I was able to help them get up to speed quickly with their tuning and boat set-up.  The windward mark was set really close to shore in front of the yacht club which provided a very shifty and puffy final approach to the mark and would really mix things up. 

Overall Steve Hunt finished in 3rd with an AP-4 main and BR1DH jib.  Rick Arneson finished 2nd and I was lucky enough to win by 3 points.  I was using an North R&D main and a the ZS-1 Mylar jib.

I sailed with a high school freshman named Matt Hecht who had only sailed the snipe once before.  He picked things up really quick and actually gave some really good input that improved our performance.  He noticed that our jib telltales were breaking unevenly in the first race.  He noticed that the top tell tales would break first.  This meant that the top of our jib was under trimmed and the leads needed to be moved forward.  When we made this adjustment, our scores improved dramatically from a 5th in the first race to a 1,1,2,3.

Garth Reynolds sailing with his special lady friend made his Snipe Debut.  Garth was using an R&D jib that was probably better suited for heavy air and chop, which is the opposite of what we experienced.  It was good to have such a strong North presence there and the fleet really took notice.

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2009 Snipe Winter Circuit

Report by Brian Bissell

Snipe Winter Circuit wrap up…

Midwinters 3rd Place North Sails (AP-5+/BR1DH)… Brian Bissell/Genoa Fedyszyn

Don Q   3rd Place North Sails…(AP-5+/BR1DH) Enrico Solerio/Paulo Lambertenghi

Bacardi Cup    3rd Place North Sails…(AP-5+/BR1DH) Brian Bissell/Watt Duffy

Gamblin      3rd Place North Sails…(AP-5+/BR1DH) Brian Bissell/Watt Duffy

Nassau Overall  2nd Place North Sails…(AP-5+/BR1DH) Brian Bissell/Watt Duffy

Zimmerman Trophy for Winter Circuit Overall…. 2nd Place North Sails…(AP-5+/BR1DH) Brian Bissell/Genoa/Watt

Nassau was the last leg of the winter circuit and it was the most competitive regatta they have seen there in many years.  Ernesto Rodriguez, Augie Diaz and Alejandre Tinoco from Brazil all made the trip out to the island to battle it out for four straight days.  It was a great four days to test out different rig settings and fine tune our boat set-up.  Ernesto, Augie and Tinoco ( who finished 3rd at Brazillian Nationals and 2nd at Don Q) are among the best Snipe sailors in the world right now so there is no better measuring stick than racing against those guys.  Ernesto was on the top of his game all circuit long and continued his streak in Nassau.  In the overall, we finished behind him in 2nd,  Tinoco was 3rd and Augie was 4th.  Every race was tight and had many lead changes. 

Tuning-wise for most of the regatta Watt and I used mast rake 21’7 inches with 20 on the tension gauge and in light and choppy spots we would ease jib halyard to a specified mark that would give us a rake of 21’6.5” and a tension of 18.  The eased tension enabled us to make it through the chop a lot better since we were sailing with a heavy combined weight around 330.  Our other method of changing gears was fore and aft jib lead position.  We rigged up a system that would let us move the leeward jib cars from the windward rail.  Moving the cars aft a bit in the windy spots seemed to give us an extra gear.  I was really happy with how the AP-5+ looked through the full wind range.

Snipe Midwinters - Clearwater, Florida

23 boats -  Ernesto Rodriguez sailing with his light weight “super crew,” Megan Place won the regatta and Hernan Peralta (Optimist World Champion and Snipe Junior World Champion) sailing with the reigning Snipe World Champion crew, Enrique Quintero, edged by us right at the finish line of the last and passed us overall. We finished third.

I was sailing with Genoa Fedyszyn who did an amazing job in the front of the boat for her first Snipe regatta.  I knew she’d be able to pick it up quick since she is just coming off a laser radial Olympic campaign and is a really good skipper in her own right.  Peter Commette, sailing with his wife Connie, was 4th and Hal Gilreath and Clayton Dixon rounded out the top 5. 

The real story from Midwinters, though, was the impressive speed from first time sniper Mike Danish sailing with his wife Duffy.  They just bought a full set of North Sails for the Winter Circuit and went with the new AP-5+ Main and BR1DH jib.  Mike is a  good friend of mine from college sailing and is one of the few All-Americans to come out of the Coast Guard Academy.  It was mutually beneficial having him there as a tuning partner because we were able to get him up to speed quickly while getting our own boat fine tuned in the process.  Mike rounded the first windward mark in 1st place in 3 out of 6 races.  He struggled on the downwind legs and lost some boats which is understandable because downwind sailing in the Snipe is the toughest part of the game and takes a bit of time to learn the different modes.  I’m confident I will be able to help get him going better on the downwind legs soon since he’s a fast learner.  It also won’t hurt that he is a member of the Biscayne Bay fleet and will be able to practice against the best in the world.  Nice job Mike and Duffy and welcome to the class! 

The Don Q Regatta - Miami, Florida 

There were 41 boats from 7 countries participating.  Historically, the Don Q has great breeze, so I decided to go with a heavier crew for the event.  Luckily enough, the legendary Watt Duffy agreed to fly in with his bag of snipe tricks to teach me a few lessons.  Unfortunately, however, we started off the event a little slow.  Looking back, I think it was a combination of us never having sailed together before, the increase in crew weight from 285 to 325 to go along with  light and lumpy conditions and having our jib leads not quite right for those conditions.  But enough of the excuses.  After going 16, 10 on Day 1, we immediately went to work on the boat on land to find out what our problem was.  We rechecked all of our numbers and even hoisted the jib to check the lead positions.  Right away we noticed that it appeared our jib leads were too far forward and too far outboard. 

We went out on Day 2 having only changed our lead position and went upwind with Peter Commette, one of the fasted guys from Day 1, and the boat felt amazingly different.  We had any mode we wanted; higher and same speed or lower and faster.  The better boatspeed made us look smart tactically and we finished right on Augie’s transom to notch a 3rd place finish.  Had the beat been another 100 yds, we would have ground him down.  Right after race # 1, a large cruising sailboat crashed into our Race Committee boat, injuring the owner of the boat (she had to be rushed to the hospital), and they called off racing for the day.  Reports are that the owner was shaken up and almost had a cardiac arrest, but is doing fine now.

With our new found boatspeed, we made our way through the fleet in race 4 after a mediocre start and rounded the top mark in 5th.  We started to work really hard to grind down the people in front of us upwind, but we got a little too aggressive and accidentally dipped our whisker pole in the water while surfing down a wave.  This ripped our jib a foot and a half up the luff tape.  Watt was able to lash the panel back to the luff tape on the downwind leg for a temporary fix.  We still had to sail one more mile and a half beat and then finish downwind.  We held on to a 9th place finish that put us into 3rd place overall.  However, we still had a ripped jib with one more race to go.  Henning and Heinz Balzer were dropping out of the final race and lent us their jib so we could race the final race.  We didn’t have enough time to tune the sail or check our settings enough before the last race started and we had a horrible final race that dropped us to 8th overall.

Watt and I have one more event to redeem ourselves and Augie and Ernesto are both competing in Nassau.  It will be a great opportunity to race against those guys and fine tune our settings.  Keep tuned for more infor from the Bacardi Cup.

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2009 Snipe SDYC Women's Challenge
Aine Fretwell defeats Barbie Tillson and
Aimee Heim to win the SDYC Women’s Challenge

Report by John Fretwell

The 2009 Snipe Women’s Challenge was sailed on San Diego Bay on the first day of March. A small but talented seven boat fleet, which included a collection of past National and World champions, turned out for the one day event. Husbands and an impressive assembly of children watched enviously as the ladies enjoyed six quick races in puffy 6-13 knot, flat water conditions, with sunny skies and unseasonably warm temperatures.
Race 1 saw Aine Fretwell and junior crew Mallory Schluter pull off a determined win after getting forced out to the right alone following a pretty tragic start. Barbie Tillson sailing with Alex Brown was second, with Aimee Heim and Jerelyn Biehl taking third. Races 2 and 3 saw a bit more breeze, with all the ladies fully hiked in the puffs, and lots of position changes, especially with the downwind finishes.  Aine and Barbie each grabbed a bullet in two photo finishes. Race 4 saw a change of guard as Aimee and Jerelyn ground their way to first, with World Champs Carolyn Krebs and Julie Redler taking the deuce, and Barbie and Aine each taking their drop. More changes in race 5 as Stacy Szabo and Julie Mitchell took their share of the day’s bullets. Going into the final race it was Fretwell and Tillson tied for the lead with a four point cushion over Heim. Aine and Mallory stayed in touch with Barbie and Alex all the way around the course, finishing second behind Aimee and Jerelyn to secure the regatta.

I caught up with Aine after the racing for a few comments (and to hand off some kids!). “In the puffy conditions, changing gears was key. The North AP-5 main and BR1-DH jib both responded well to all of our adjustments and helped us have nice speed all the time. It was also really important to understand the current as it picked up later in the day.” Aine and Mallory sailed North’s Persson 29222 with rake at 21’7” and 250 lbs. of shroud tension.

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2009 Snipe SCYA Midwinters
North Sails 1,2!

Report by Brian Bissell

There was a small but competitive Snipe fleet competing in the 80th annual SCYA Midwinters in San Diego this weekend.  The SDYC race committee sailed us out in the ocean near where the 09 Worlds will be sailed this summer.  The conditions were predominantly light with some big rolling swells.  Two-thirds of the fleet were using North Sails and a team using North Sails won 5 out of 6 races. 

Going into the last day of racing, Don Bedford was winning by a point, I was in second, and Doug Hart was a close third.  We came out of the gates hot in the morning and won the first race, Doug Hart finished right behind us and Don placed 5th.  This put us in the lead over Doug by one point with a nice cushion on third place.  Going into the last race we knew we had to beat Doug to win the regatta.  We started just to windward of Doug and were able to extend to windward and a little forward.  He eventually tacked to duck us and we tacked to put on a loose cover.  In hindsight, it should have been a tighter cover .  We were bow to bow with about 2 boatlenghts of windward separation and drag racing for the right.  We eventually started to get headed and began to fall into Doug a bit.  When I looked over my shoulder, it appeared that we were far enough right on the course to finally tack in the header.  So, we tacked and Doug continued on for another 15 boatlengths.  Coming across from the right I realized we had tacked too soon.  Doug had sailed deeper into the righty and was sheering off of us.  He barely made it across a pack of boats coming from the left whereas we were forced to take some sterns.  Since he was now winning the race, we felt we needed to take a few risks to try and get back into it.  Unfortunately, none of the risks paid off.

Doug and crew sailed very well to win regatta.  They showed great downwind boatspeed at all times and were among the fastest upwind.  After speaking with Doug after the event he said that after making some small adjustments to his jib lead, he started going much better.  He felt his leads were a bit too far inboard, and when he moved them out about 1”, he went much better.   Doug was sailing a Jibe Tech Snipe with the AP-4 main and BR1-D+ jib.  We sailed our Persson 29222 and used an old AP-5 with a BR1-DH jib.  Congratulations Doug!

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2008 Snipe Tag Heuer Snipe Winter Championship

Report by Dave Hughes

North Wins 2008 Tag Heuer Snipe Winter Championship
Nassau, Bahamas
April 9-12

Capping his win at the Bacardi Cup earlier in the week, Brian Bissell won the 2008 Tag Heuer Snipe Winter Championship in top form.

Going into the final day of racing it was do-or-die for Bissell in the eight-race series.  Snipe master Peter Commettee led overnight, meaning Brian had to put two points on Peter and win a race to ensure the tie-breaker.  Off the first start of Race #7, match racing pursued and Bissell won the start in the middle with Commettee struggling at the boat.  General recall.  The second go-around only intensified. Bissell commanded off the start and led around the track with Peter close behind.  Attempts to slow Peter enough to allow for a boat to squeeze between Brian and Peter did not work.  

Still behind in the standings, Brian had to win the Race #8 with Peter 2nd, or place anywhere with a boat between he and Peter. The third place boat was out of the picture. In the end, the final was a near image of the first race of the day.  Brian led around the track with Peter 2nd in a tacking duel that launched the two boats from the fleet.  The win put Brian over the top by 1/2 point under the Snipe class bonus for race wins. Italian Enrico Solerio -- who finished 2nd in the Bacardi Cup -- took third overall.  A fantastic coat-and-tie awards banquet concluded the regatta and presented the winning crew with their own Tag Heuers.

Brian used the AP-4 main and BR-1D+ jib with DeFazio-style tuning on a Sidewinder Gold mast, proving very quick in all conditions.  

Special thank you to Henry Filter for use of his van and helping transport the North Sails Snipe, Peter Commette for storing the boat at his house, Connie Commette for sorting out logistics, Gonzo Diaz for lending us his top-cover and helping us with Nassau shipping, Augie Diaz for lending us his trailer, Dick Bobenz for organizing the Clearwater mid-winters, Ernesto Rodriguez for unloading the Worlds container from Portugal, Jerry Thompson for his overall guidance, Shane the "Life Coach" for showing us Nassau in top fashion, Mark, Tressa and Rebecca Piekarz for absolutely wonderful housing in Nassau, Jimmy and Laurie Lowe for organizing the Nassau event, Robert Dunkley for the use of his Olympic Games sport coat for the awards dinner, Mark Dunkley for local know-how, the Stout family for all their help with Team Blue, David and Susan Odell for answering all our Snipe class questions, the legendary Earl Elms for excellent race committee and good humor, Thad and Annie Inge for being such great hosts in Miami, the team at North Sails One Design, and Kimmer Popoff for...well, pretty much everything!

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