Let’s teach people to take responsibility

Published on May 11th, 2025 on www.sailingscuttlebutt.com

Let’s teach people to take responsibility

The post As Seen on Scuttlebutt appeared first on Sailing Sweet Ruca.

Why Marlow?

On a boat the size of ours, the J/46, the loads are big, especially in heavy air. With only two people aboard, it is critical that we don’t have failures in halyards or sheets and possibly loose control of our sails which would cause damage to the boat, or even to people or pets. We have seen this happen: a broken sheet causing a flogging headsail or swinging boom can be extremely dangerous, and a broken halyard can be impossible to fix at sea leaving you down a sail for hundreds or thousands of miles when you really need it most. We want to go fast, and performance is important to us, but hands down, safety offshore is always #1.

The importance of the running rigging makes us choose our suppliers carefully. Marlow was the only rope company we reached out to as a sponsor, if that tells you something. We choose the items we purchase or use on our boat very carefully. When it comes to recommending products to our viewers and followers, we will only promote products we would actually choose to purchase and use ourselves aboard Sweet Ruca.

It is important when trusting your life to a rope that you know its origin and quality. Marlow Ropes is perhaps some of the best quality rope on the planet. Marlow’s manufacturing is top notch and meets or exceeds international standards, including CE, cordage institute standards, DEFCON’s, MIL specs, ANSI, NFPA and many others. It is depended on not only by some of the worlds best round the world racing teams but also by climbers, militaries, and those that work at terrifying heights (think rappelling from helicopters or dangling from a giant windmill).

Why Dyneema?

Many cruisers’ first thought about Dyneema is that it is just for racers. We disagree with that and believe that the benefits to racers of high strength, low stretch and creep translate to making our cruising experience better. Stretch and strength aren’t the only benefits though. Dyneema has excellent resistance to chemicals, it is lighter than polyester double braids, and is highly resistant to UV. This all translates to the lines on our sailboat lasting longer.

Aside from the obvious performance improvements of lighter weight and lower stretch, Dyneema offers another huge benefit aboard our boat. Its higher strength allows us to choose a smaller diameter for many of our control lines. This translates to lines that fit better into our winches, allow more wraps on a winch, and run more easily through our blocks. This makes hoisting, dropping, and trimming sails easier, safer, and faster.

Working with Dyneema lines is also incredibly easy. Have you ever tried to splice a double braid polyester line with a cover? It is not fun! Dyneema is very easy to splice, in some cases it is faster to splice a line than it is to tie a knot in it. This cuts down on rigging time and cost, increases the line strength vs knots, and in an emergency one can use Dyneema to replace steel wire rigging. We carry some spare Dyneema which can replace our standing rigging in this way. By the way, you can find complete instructions and videos showing how to splice all of Marlow’s lines by clicking here.

Because the lines are lighter and smaller, this also translates to less weight aloft and less windage. These benefits are often overlooked on cruising sailboats. Our thoughts on this, which have been cemented from our racing experience, is that every little bit counts. When sailing 30,000 or more incremental gains add up. The low stretch and creep of the lines also leads to less trimming and less heeling. Less movement of the lines contributes to lowering chafe, the enemy of an offshore sailboat. Less stretch means that sail shape stays more consistent, especially in big breeze when this matters most to keep the helm neutral and the boat flat and fast. Less trimming means more sleep and more time to focus on other important things such as weather routing, cooking, etc. Racing aside, the simple cruisers takeaway: increased safety, leisure time, and sailing enjoyment!

BLUE OCEAN & Sustainability Initiatives

Another reason we chose Marlow, and perhaps one of the biggest reasons, is their environmental initiatives. As sailors we feel a responsibility to leave as little wake as possible when it comes to the environment. Now, let’s be realistic, we are sailing a fiberglass boat, with a diesel engine, and composite sails made of carbon fiber and mylar film. We aren’t going to lie to ourselves and imagine because we use mostly solar and wind power on our journey that we are somehow fossil or carbon free. It is almost impossible for anyone to live day to day nowadays without using some oil based products, and we wouldn’t have the amazing civilization and quality of life without these products. However, we want to improve where we can, by making good choices.

That is where Marlow’s Blue Ocean and bio-based Dyneema initiatives come in. Like saving weight aloft, if we all can make small incremental improvements it is good for the planet. As a rope-maker, Marlow recognizes that our activities will have an effect on both the local and global environment and they are committed to ensuring that the negative effect is minimized as far as is practical. Since 2018, they have been developing products using sustainably sourced fibers in all of their standard synthetic rope ranges.  Most significantly Marlow is reducing reliance on fossil fuels by using fibers either manufactured from waste plastic or natural sources in the lines they manufacture for sailing yachts. We think this is a great thing!

A 5000 Mile Test!

We put our Marlow Ropes and new running rigging to the test when crossing the South Pacific Ocean. We have sailed well over 5,000 nautical miles so far and our lines are holding up brilliantly. We have noticed all of the benefits listed above. We also learned something new, which is yet another benefit to cruisers, the boat is quieter offshore. Once set in place, there is little movement that contributes to creaks and groans in the rigging. It is rock solid!

We noticed a few other things about these lines. First, how nice the covers felt in our hands. Most of the time we don’t wear gloves when sailing, so the “hand” or feel and grip of the lines cover is very important to us. Next, the wear and chafe resistance of the covers has been phenomenal, as is the grip on our winches. Last, the twists and hockles of our old lines are gone. We can have confidence that when we let our lines run that they won’t jam in our blocks, yet another thing that adds to safety and sailing enjoyment.

Overall, we couldn’t be happier with our choice of Marlow Dyneema lines for our running rigging. The handling, strength, and durability are top notch! Even though, in full disclosure, Marlow sent us these ropes at a great discount in exchange for featuring them in some YouTube episodes, know that we are writing this article because we want to, not because we have to or are paid to! We would choose these lines again, and can wholeheartedly recommend them to other boat owners and sailors!

What Lines Are We Using?

10mm D2 GP SK78 – Mainsheet (90 Feet) Black/Grey

10mm D2 Club SK75 – Mainsail Reef Lines (3x)

10mm D2 GP SK78 – Jib Sheets (2x 70 Feet) GP 78 Black/Blue

10mm D2 Club SK75 – Furler Line (92 Feet) D2 Race Grey

8mm Excel R8 – Main Traveler (60 Feet) 

8mm Excel R8 – Cunningham (20 Feet) 

6mm PS 12 Blue – Lazy Jacks (150 Feet) 

4mm D12 Yellow – Jack Lines (100 Feet) 

7mm D12 SK78 MAX – Mainsail Preventers (2x 60 Feet) 

6mm D12 SK78 White – Mainsail Preventers & Soft Shackles

6.5mm D12 SK78 – Miscellaneous Spare & Soft Shackles & Loops

More About Our Partnership with Marlow Ropes

The team at Marlow wrote a wonderful article about us which they featured on their website, click here to read it. Of course you can find the complete selection of Marlow Ropes available to your cruising sailboat by clicking here. In our opinion, companies that give back to the sport of sailing and assist with passing on information to encourage the next generation of sailors to get on the water should be supported. We encourage you to support those that support the sport! We are very grateful to be able to represent Marlow Ropes aboard Sweet Ruca on our circumnavigation and want to take this chance to say THANK YOU!!!!

The post Why We Chose Marlow Ropes to Rig Our Sailboat appeared first on Sailing Sweet Ruca.

Why are there wrinkles in sails?

Some wrinkles in sails are supposed to be there, they are actually designed into the sail and sewn that way, and increase the overall performance of the sail. Some wrinkles are not supposed to be there and can be signs of poor design or wear and stretching of the cloth.

When are wrinkles in sails a good thing?

Speed wrinkles as they are many times called are a good thing. You will most often see these in new sails, and in many racing sails which are trimmed by professional sailors. These wrinkles are supposed to be there.

They are found in the luff (the leading edge or front) of the sail, usually where it attaches to the mast, forestay, or furler.

Surprisingly, the optimal design of a sail is not a perfect triangle. Sailboat masts and forestays are also not perfectly straight, they are designed to bend just a little bit to allow the sailor to make adjustments.

Designed for Adjustability and Performance

For example, in light wind, generally you want more power and a curved shape in your sails. In heavy wind, you want to be able to have your sails make less power and that can be accomplished by making the sail flatter.

Of course, the conditions are not the same each time you go sailing. When you purchase new sails, the sail designer can optimize the sails for the conditions you sail in, so he or she can make them flatter or with more draft (curved shape) depending on your needs.

Most of us, outside of very specific applications like the America’s Cup, get the best value in our sails when they can be adjusted to suit a variety of conditions. This is where the wrinkles come in.

Wrinkles in the genoa, jib, or headsail

This is where most people notice wrinkles in their sails first. It is also how most new sailors are introduced to this concept when learning how to sail.

Most people see wrinkles and think: “they did not raise their sail enough.” Actually, most of the time this means people are sailing in light air, and have lowered or “eased” the headsail halyard just a few inches, taking the tension off of the front of the sail.

Think of a string, when pulled very tight it is perfectly straight (no wrinkles) but when you let go a bit, it curves some, sagging in the middle. This curved shape adds lifting power to the sail, which helps acceleration and increases speed in light air or wavy conditions, but lots of curve in a sail also adds aerodynamic drag, which can slow you down in smooth water or very windy conditions.

What the horizontal wrinkles are doing is allowing the curve in the sail (draft) to be deeper. When the halyard is pulled tighter in your genoa, these wrinkles can be flattened out, and this makes the draft shallower and further forward.

Wrinkles in the mainsail

The exact same concept applies to the mainsail, but sometimes to an even greater extent. In most cases, it is the same. The mainsail halyard can be slackened just a bit to allow for a deeper setting on the sail, creating more power. When it is windy, the halyard can be tightened to make the sail flatter and control the heel angle of the boat.

To a greater extent, some boats have adjustable backstays (some racing-type boats have even more adjustments like check stays, deflectors, runners, and shroud adjustments) and more adjustable points like the outhaul and cunningham. The backstay allows the mast to bend. If the sail had no wrinkles the sail would have a poor shape when the mast was bent more than normal with the backstay.

Another Example of How Wrinkles in the Sail Work

If you have ever flown on a large passenger airplane and sat next to the wings you may have noticed lots of noises, or even the back of the wing moving in and out as the airplane takes off and lands.

What the pilot is doing by moving these flaps in and out is adjusting the draft in his wings, just like you would do for a sail (kind of).

When the airplane is taking off or landing, it is flying much slower. When the airplane is going slow, it needs more lift and drag does not have as great of an impact. Sound familiar? So in this case the extra flaps come out and create more curve or draft in the wings.

When the airplane is up to speed, the extra flaps are retracted to make the wing flatter, with less drag. Think about this like the F-14 Tomcat in the famous movie Top Gun. When going fast, the wings are swept back and smooth! Your boat is just like an airplane, but flying horizontally through the both water (dense, small wings, keel and rudder) and air (less dense, big wings, headsail and mainsail).

U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Rob Tabor (RELEASED)

Speed Wrinkles are a Good Thing

Of course, sailboats don’t have metal wings with adjustable flaps, so using halyard tension and designing sails with adjustability and wrinkles allows you to accomplish the same thing with your sails (to an extent).

So this means that most of the time when you see small horizontal wrinkles in a genoa, jib, or mainsail in light air conditions this is usually a sign that the sail is designed well and the trimmers have trimmed it properly.

We should rarely see vertical wrinkles in a sail, this means something completely different.

When are Wrinkles in a Sail Bad?

Both horizontal and vertical wrinkles in a sail can also indicate something is wrong, either with the way you have your sail trimmed, the way it is mounted on the boat, how it was furled, how it was stored, or perhaps an error in design or manufacturing.

The wrinkles in this genoa are not coming out!

Vertical Wrinkles in a Non-Furling Sail

Quite often vertical wrinkles in a non-furling sail are a sign the sail has aged and the fabric has stretched past its optimal shape. This is quite common with aged dacron sails, especially if they have been sailed in heavy weather, have lots of miles on them, or were raced hard and often.

When you see this, it is time to talk to your sailmaker about inspecting your sails and possible replacement.

If your new sail has vertical wrinkles, that tells another story altogether. The designer or sailmaker may have a specific reason for this and should be consulted if you have any questions. However, this also means that the stitching of your sail could be less than optimal, essentially there was some binding or uneven stitching while the sail was being sewn.

The bottom line is, when you are seeing lots of vertical wrinkles, it is probably time to talk to a pro about it.

Vertical Wrinkles in Furling Sails

Sometimes you will also see vertical wrinkles in your furling genoa or furling mainsail, often where it meets the furler, and you have the sail partially furled in heavy winds. Usually, this is normal, but not optimal.

The designer can add a foam luff or rope “spacers” in your furling sail to offset this, but often when partially furled a sail will always have some vertical wrinkles near the furling attachment points. This is normal, as remember, we still need that adjustability designed into the sail.

If you have lots of wrinkles at your furling points, it could mean that your sail fabric is starting to stretch, or it could also mean that you need to make some adjustments to your furling technique.

Furling sails will sometimes get wrinkles in the head and tack areas when furled under high tension in a big breeze. It can also happen when furling with too little halyard tension, or not enough backstay tension.

If all of this talk about tension gives you wrinkles on your forehead, it is time to give your local or online sailmaker a call and have him on board your boat to review or send some pictures to discuss. Many times furling related wrinkles can be solved with a few small changes and extend the life of the sail.

Horizontal Wrinkles in New and Stored Sails

Optimally we would always store our sails laid flat or gently rolled, let’s face it though, this is not practical for most boats that are large enough to spend the night on. Most of us have some compromises and at some point have to fold our sails.

Mainsails are normally stored “flaked” or folded on the boom. Over time, continuous “flaking” in the same place will create a fold line or large horizontal wrinkle. Use over time will take these out again, but many of us only use our sail for the day then fold it again and leave it for the week while we go back to work. Wrinkles from flaking or folding a sail are par for the course.

When you receive new sails they usually have to be shipped to you somehow. If your sail needs to go inside of a box, it will likely be “bricked” or folded carefully on itself several times to fit into a box or a delivery van.

In this way, it is completely normal for new sails to have wrinkles, which will start to release over time of normal use.

Should I Use an Iron To Remove Wrinkles from a Sail?

NO. More experienced sailors will likely comment that this should be left unsaid, but no question is stupid if it helps. If you are new to sailing, this may seem like a good option. Unlike your T-shirt or plants, the materials and fibers inside your sail material are all engineered for specific use.

Without going into too much detail, applying lots of heat in some areas of the sail may cause these fibers to interact differently or change shape. This would be a bad thing as your sails are designed to be shaped a certain way for optimal performance. In the case of laminate or membrane sails, you also risk damaging the layers in the sail and completely ruining your expensive assets.

When is it time to buy new sails?

Wrinkles don’t always mean why they say, and they are not a definitive reason why sails are worn, mis-shapen, or need to be replaced. Some “speed wrinkles” are a good thing. Some wrinkles, can mean the sail is worn. If you aren’t sure, our best advice is to call a trusted sailmaker and discuss it with an expert. 

Photos of the situation are always a tremendous help. Sail safe, sail fast (or slow if that is your thing), and have fun!

If you are in need of new sails, we highly recommend you contact our friends at 180 Sails (www.180sails.com) as a long phone discussion with them about our own sails is what inspired this article (we were measuring the mast bend for our mainsail). We use an Evolution Expedition Carbon/Taffeta Genoa on board and we are currently in discussion of a new mainsail from the same material.

The post What Do the Wrinkles in Your Sails Mean? appeared first on Sailing Sweet Ruca.

Aren’t you sailing around the world? Cruising boats can’t race, right? Well, sort of. As sailors that enjoy high-performance sailboats and are used to racing with the bare minimum, surrounded by carbon fiber and Dyneema, it is hard to envision racing a full-fledged cruising sailboat. Cruising is very fulfilling and challenging, but sometimes we miss the adrenaline and spike of mental energy in the rush of close-quarters sailing.

Enter our new Brazilian friends Wellington and Paola aboard the Samoa 30 TXAI (the name of the boat means “brother” in an indigenous language). We ran into them while anchored off of Sao Sebastiao and as we sipped Cuba Libres and practiced our Spanish and Portuguese they let us know that one of Brazil’s most important race series was now offering doublehanded and cruising boat classes this season.
Of course, this piqued our interest as racing sailors and we promptly clicked the link to the notice of race Wellington WhatsApped to us the next day. We were in! Just a few short minutes later we had filled out the entry form and our entry was accepted pending payment of the entry fees. This had to be done in person as we do not have a Brazilian bank account to do transfers within the country.

We headed over to Yacht Club Ilhabela to meet Ann, the regatta organizer. Luckily our Portuguese is getting much better, especially Kate’s, and Ann spoke very good English. She has been involved in some worldwide racing programs so she was helpful and easy to communicate with. She knew what it was like to race in a foreign country not knowing the details of the language. Let us tell you, Google Translate does not know sailing terms. For example, sail or vela in Portuguese translates to candle in English.

The yacht club and the race sponsor, Mitsubishi, put on a great pre-race party. An authentic Brazilian fishing canoe was filled with ice and beer for the sailors to enjoy. Champagne was served with the trophies on display at the bar under an awning of palm leaves next to the ocean while sailors told racing stories in excitement for the week’s coming events.

Yacht Racing in Brazil

Now, we didn’t know much about racing in Brazil. We have only met other South American racers once before at the 2016 Melges 24 World Championships in Miami. Let us tell you this, they take racing very seriously down here. There is a ton of skill and boats are very well prepared. As hardcore racers back home we have lots of respect for “pro” level racing, and this certainly fits the bill. What is better than learning from the best? After meeting a few of the sailors, including Mr. Eduardo de Souza Ramos (a past Olympic sailor and TP52 MedCup competitor), and seeing the boats (Botin 44 Phoenix, C30 Caballo Loco, Soto 40s, HPE 25s, and others) we were thoroughly impressed and excited to see some awesome racing.

Our doublehanded (Duplos) class was only scheduled to race on one day of the event, which was perfect as it gave us time to go out in the boat and watch the high-end racing as well as fly the drone to get some awesome aerial shots of the boats in action. We sucked through 5 drone batteries and GB of video on day one as we chased boats upwind and downwind. Needless to say, there will be some very cool footage of all of this racing, including shots from our 3 onboard cameras in the upcoming YouTube video covering this part of our time in Brazil. https://www.youtube.com/c/sailingsweetruca

Let’s Go Racing

On Saturday morning it was our turn to hit the racecourse, and we were amped for our first racing experience since the Bayview Mackinac race aboard Chico 2 last July. It was time to get out the Go-Pros to document this all for YouTube. Before we could get started we had to shift the boat from cruising mode to racing mode. This meant ditching some extra canvass, securing items inside, ditching the dinghy at the dock, and most importantly getting the spinnakers out!

We wanted to ditch more weight, including our oversized 73 lb Rocna anchor on the bow and its associated 218 feet of 10mm chain as well as our extra 100 gallons of diesel fuel (40 in jerry cans), 30 days of food & water, storm sails, canvas covers and lazy jacks, and scuba tanks. YCI was accommodating to allow us to do this, but we just ran out of time. We were going to race in full-on offshore cruising dress!

Our biggest decision was whether to leave our #3 dacron jib on the roller furler or make the switch to our Expedition Membrane Carbon cruising genoa. We watched the forecast carefully. A front was moving in and the wind started to build the morning of the race. This made the normally light 5-15 knot breeze we were expecting change to 15-25 knots with gusts to 30. Our fantasies of pointing extra high with the new carbon sail on the bow were fading fast.

Sailing double-handed upwind in a shipping channel and pre-race starts would put a lot of wear on headsails. It is very hard to sheet in an overlapping sail quickly with only two people. We really need to keep our best sail for our intended purpose, sailing around the world, rather than drag it back and forth across the spreaders and flog it to death racing. So, the old #3 was the last-minute decision.

The Start

Racing in an unknown area always has challenges. Apart from the standard wind shift and current issues we also had a huge language barrier to overcome. The racecourse was to be announced over the VHF radio, a problem to hear sometimes in the best conditions in our native language, let alone in Portuguese. Luckily the race committee agreed to send the course information to all competitors via WhatsApp as well, a welcome reprieve.

Our race was to start promptly at 1230 hrs local time. We jockeyed for position a bit, but after watching the previous classes start, we realized a start on port tack at the pin would be heavily favored in the strong current of the 100ft deep Sao Sebastiao channel. We pinged the line in our H5000 and set our clocks. Kate watched the clock closely as I burned some time. 23 seconds, she said, let’s GO!

We turned the wheel down and sheeted in. We glided over the starting line at our full 7-knot upwind speed, turning the winches and sheeting in hard as we brought the boat to its max angles. Did we just nail an on-the-line port tack pin start dead on time double-handed in a 46-foot cruising sailboat? Yup! We were pretty surprised ourselves and checked the committee boat for the OCS flag and listened to the radio just in case. We were good to go! Looking back, because of the current we were crossing everyone. Holy smokes, a perfect start in our first race in over 6 months!

Upwind Leg

Because we launched so hard we only had one other true contender in our start to deal with. Technically they were not in our class, as they were a fully crewed cruising class boat, not doublehanded, but they were a formidable and well-sailed opponent. The Grand Large 500 Nautilus was hot on our heels. We had a wonderful duel, tacking up the channel, both choosing different sides to seek current relief and checking in with each other in the middle. The Nautilus, skippered by Aziz Constantino, is a 50-foot performance cruiser and had good speed. They pushed us, and we had to work very hard to stay ahead. Short tacking a 46’ cruiser was hard work!

As we approached the windward mark, while avoiding max current, we strayed into some shallow water and tacked away just in time. Thank goodness for the J/46 shoal draft keel at that moment. We gave the red buoy just a little extra room as we rounded it to port, making sure we wouldn’t drift into it in the strong current.

Downwind Leg

Time for the spinnaker! As the wind was puffing to the 30s at times and was sustained around 20 this was going to be a challenge double-handed on a windward-leeward course filled with high-performance fully crewed race boats. We decided to use the G3 cruising kite in the sock, rather than the R2 race runner out of the hatch. We were in full race mode but had to check ourselves, we were racing our house and could not afford to break things.

We gybe set at the mark as we rode a lift into it. This set us on a great layline for the finish. With any luck, we wouldn’t have to gybe again, which is a tough task for a 1700+ square foot asym without a bowsprit. We were hitting speeds in the high 9’s downwind in the flat water. Awesome sailing.

The Finish

The finish was tricky. We were coming into the line just as the ORC 1 fleet was starting. This put a stunning wall of carbon boats with black sails in front of us. Our Rocna anchor looked pretty intimidating to those on the rail of the upwind boats. We decided to start stuffing away our kite early as we had enough lead to be safe and not push things. I ran to the bow while Kate took the helm.

We had a little twist start to happen as we steered quickly between the upwind boats to avoid them. BIG PROBLEM! In this breeze, if we wrap the kite on the forestay we are pretty screwed. Quickly I spiked the tack line and started unwrapping from the bottom up, flagged it, and jumped onto the sock while Kate played chicken with crossing boats. She stuffed it up to be safe just as I was able to get the sock to the deck. Phew!!!

We crossed the finish line under mainsail only, but safely. Line honors for our start, first in our class, and first for cruising boats overall. Nautilus followed closely behind, catching us a bit under the spinnaker, handling it beautifully with their full family crew but the course was not long enough for them. Whoa, what fun!

The Party

Time to clean up the boat and head to the most important part of the race, the Apos Regatta Party! There we would get to see our friends Wellington and Paula again, and grab some much-needed ice-cold beers from the wooden canoe. An excellent band played, awards were given, smiles, hugs, and handshakes were shared.

We can’t thank Mitsubishi enough for sponsoring this regatta, and we are hugely impressed with not only the pro sailing here but the way that racers and yacht clubs are building the grassroots. There is an amazing atmosphere here that is hard to compare, but we found it is similar to the wonderful experiences we have had racing in the Melges 24 one-design class. Passionate sailors that want to build the sport and pass on knowledge, racing hard, while having a wonderful time with friends. We also have to extend a huge thank you to Armando, who has become a wonderful friend and has been instrumental in helping us navigate Brazil. Last but not least we want to give a shout-out to all of our new friends from YCI in Brazil, if you are ever in the USA and feel the need for some racing, look us up at Bayview Yacht Club in Detroit, we have a feeling you would enjoy the famous freshwater races to Mackinac Island (the Ilhabela of the Great Lakes)!

Official Race Write Up, Photos, and Results: https://circuitoilhabela.com.br/termina-de-forma-antecipada-a-primeira-etapa-do-circuito-ilhabela-2022/

Some photos By: Aline Bassi/Balaio: https://balaiodeideias.com.br/ and Wellington & Paola (Velerio/Yacht TXAI)

WTH, We Thought You Would Be in Patagonia?

There is enough here to fill a complete blog post about this. We are still headed there, but plans have been thrown completely out the window due to Coronavirus border closures and a mechanical failure and associated repairs. Sometimes we think though, someone is secretly looking out for us, as we wouldn’t have and be able to share these amazing experiences and have met all of our new wonderful friends. We are going with the flow and don’t even know what will happen next ourselves as the weather and countries policies are continually changing.

The post Lets Go Racing! What??? The 2022 Copa Mitsubishi appeared first on Sailing Sweet Ruca.

The reason we went so long before replacing our existing #2 furling jib (130% Genoa) aboard s/v Sweet Ruca was that we wanted to take our time and think through different sail plan configurations before committing. The sloop rig and sail design onboard is 20-year-old thinking, plus we have added an inner forestay and staysail, which changes the dynamic of upwind and reaching sail selections a bit.

Our racing minds just couldn’t stop thinking about polars and sail chart crossovers, asking ourselves the question over and over: can we improve on the existing sails?

The answer is, yes, we could improve on our sail selection and sailing speeds in most conditions. So why then did we choose to essentially go with the same sail as what we already had?

The next question that went through our minds is: at what cost? This is where things become complicated, as cost, for us, is not only measured in dollars but also happiness and safety. Fully crewed racing sailboats are one thing, double-handed racing sailboats are another, and then performance cruising sailboats with a couple and a dog are another ballgame entirely.

As a doublehanded crew, Kate and I can handle just about any sail configuration you can think of. If we had an unlimited budget it would be quite conceivable to see us reaching along with 3 headsails. This would make us happy, but we can’t afford this (maybe YouTube will blow up and we can optimize our sail plan :-). So, let’s talk about what we would do with an unlimited budget, and work our way back from there:

Our sloop rig has 4 locations to set sails. The mainsail is almost always set and many times reefed. The next sail position forward is our inner forestay (IFS), which carries our staysail, and storm jib. Forward of that is our headstay, where a Harken roller furler is mounted and holds our primary jib or genoa. Next up, on the anchor roller is a tack point for our asymmetrical spinnakers. Onboard we have the following sails: mainsail, heavy staysail, 105% jib, 130% jib, G3 cruising/reaching spinnaker, R2 max size running spinnaker.

Adding a Code 0 to the Mix

Our first thought would be to add a Code 0 to the mix and reduce the size of our jib to about 105%. This would give us a lot more power in light air and maximum pointing angle upwind in medium air. Essentially removing the need to sail with a partially furled #2 as the wind builds past 16 knots and gives us much more sail area usable up to about 8 knots of wind. From about 4-20 knots, this would give us the most speed and flexibility.

This comes at a high cost though. A furler to control the hoist, set, douse of the C-0 would also be a must. The spinnaker tack location is not suitable for a Code 0 furler, it is not far enough forward to clear the bow pulpit properly, and too close to the headstay furler.

We would need to add a bowsprit. Adding something like a Selden sprit though would conflict with our Rocna anchor on the bow. We would also need to add a bobstay for this configuration as the tack loads would be much too high for just the bowsprit. We could add a custom/permanent bowsprit which also carries our anchor, this is the dream solution, but way out of our credit limit!

The smaller jib would also be optimized with the use of in-haulers for a better upwind sailing angle. This would also require more deck hardware. This means more expense, and time spent over drilling, sealing core, and bedding. On a racing boat this isn’t so bad, but doing this in the space you live in, removing headliners, etc. is a real pain in the neck. Having a rigger do all of this for you (if they do it properly) would double your expenses.

We estimate the cost of doing all of this to be about 8,000 dollars in parts alone. We would DIY it, but if you don’t have those skills or time, budget a few thousand more for rigging and yard fees. Plus we would be purchasing two sails, instead of one, almost doubling our sail cost. This would give us the capability to triple headsail reach though, and along with better light and heavy crossovers would net a huge performance improvement.

Self Tacking Jibs

We also considered a self-tacking jib modification along with a zero. This would make upwind sailing while shorthanded a breeze, and give lots of maneuverability on a shorthanded racing starting line.

We aren’t racing though, and we don’t think a 100% or less jib would give us the power we need to punch through waves offshore, putting more dependence on the Code-0. We wouldn’t want to push the C-0 though, as it is not built for that and they can become a handful if a mistake is made and they are carried in too high wind.

A self-tacking jib would also conflict with our inner forestay, foredeck dinghy storage, and would require the hassle and expense of yet more deck hardware. For these reasons, this solution was surely a no-go for us regardless of the cost.

Jib-Tops and Yankees

We get the question a lot, why didn’t you go with a Yankee? Isn’t the foot too low offshore? There is also the question of why go with an upwind sail if your goal is reaching? Wouldn’t a JT be better overall?

These questions can lead you into the technical weeds. On a racing boat, we would surely have a selection of multiple headsails for optimal performance in all conditions. For us though, we needed one sail that would be best in our average conditions and work well enough in all conditions.

The Yankee falls short in upwind shape and is a reduction in much-needed sail area. The end-plate effect is also lost at tight angles. It does have the benefit of staying out of the reach of waves when the conditions get rough. We find though that if we are sailing in conditions where waves are crashing up onto our genoa, a reef is in order, raising the foot.

A jib top is fast off the wind, where we like to sail, and gives us extra sail area up high where the wind is, but compromises too much if we must sail upwind to make VMG or claw off of a lee shore in current.

Max Size Genoas

Why didn’t we go with a 155% maximum size genoa? Weight is one consideration, built with the strength needed it becomes very heavy. This adds to weight aloft. We think a 150+ jib should be built for light air to be handleable by a shorthanded crew. Big jibs are also very hard to tack. There is a lot of grinding and winching to be done every time the boat turns, and many times requires a person to walk the clew around. With the IFS on, surely it would require furling.

A benefit is more speed in light air, but there are some drawbacks. First, it reduces the efficiency of the main by closing the slot aft of the mast. You see this with a large bubble in the mainsail. So, to use this optimally, once again additional outside sheeting points should be considered.

Second, in very light air, with such a heavy built sail, it would generate a lot of negative energy while slatting. If it dropped under 4 knots, we would likely have to switch to a smaller sail just to ensure the sail stayed full.

The third drawback is the average wind speed we normally sail in. Tradewind conditions are normally from 10-20 knots. The world average wind speed is 7.4 knots, and most areas frequently sailed are in the 10-12 knot range. These speeds are coming in at the very top end of a full 155% genoa, meaning most of the time you would be sailing with it partially furled.

The larger the sail, the larger the cost as well. So effectively with a larger jib, we would be paying for more sail area that we would seldom use.

Safety

How does this come into play with sail selection? Well, on a fully crewed racing boat it does not, AT ALL! However, on a performance doublehanded cruising boat, this is a big concern. We sail far offshore, outside the reach of authorities for assistance. We are on our own.

Although we love doing bow work as it gets the adrenaline going, the fact is, the less time we have to spend on the pointy end, the better off we are from a safety perspective. Moving sails fore and aft, leaning over lifelines to connect to bowsprits, etc. creates the potential for errors or missteps. Having fewer sail options means fewer gear changes, which means less opportunity for failure.

This is where keeping it simple and giving up a little bit of speed in some conditions is smart. Remember, even though we like to go fast, we are cruising.

Storage

The last thing to talk about, that we thought about, during our sail selection was storage space. One would think that with just two people on a 46-foot boat there would be plenty of room. In fact, there is not. We try to travel light and still have almost every nook and cranny filled with spares, food, and gear.

Sails are big, and storage becomes an issue. We don’t want to have to climb over sail bags day in and day out. We also don’t want them on deck where they can become an issue or trip hazard in heavy conditions. Those cool stacks of sails on Volvo Ocean Race boats are designed safely in place, not a secondary consideration. You also don’t see them on shorthanded boats.

For a shorthanded offshore cruiser, we find it is best to store the sails where they can be easily used, on furlers, ready to deploy or retrieve. If our budget was a bit greater, we would also put our staysail/IFS on a removable furler for better storage and quicker deployment.

Our Final Choice

After all of this thinking, we finally put our money where our brains were and decided that the existing fore-sail-plan of a 130% furling genoa was the way to go. We measured the existing sail and sent the numbers off to Andy Camarda at Evolutions sails for an exact replacement, but of upgraded material. If you decided to contact Evolution Sails for a quote, make sure to tell them Sailing Sweet Ruca sent you!

After a few weeks of waiting for it to be put into the queue, our sail was built quickly. Despite a few setbacks caused by pandemic lockdowns in New Zealand and a big scare from UPS (they came through in the end) our brand new jib arrived here in Tenerife on time and in perfect condition. We are excited to put it to the test with 5,000 miles of sailing to Cape Horn and Patagonia.

The post What We Thought About When Purchasing New Sails? appeared first on Sailing Sweet Ruca.

It was delaminated and figuratively hanging in there by a thread. You could see the sunlight through the stitching, and poke your hand between layers. The draft was blown out better than a 1980s hairstyle.

When we bought the boat, we knew the sail was old, approaching 20 years. Well past its normal lifespan. The local sailmaker in Newport said he thought it had one season left in it or 3000 ocean miles.

Well, we got two years out of it and over 7000 hard & fast miles. Not bad. But, old ratty sails are slow, inefficient, and can become a safety issue if they tear, refuse to furl or end up in the water. 

When Should We Replace Our Sails?

Let god take it down is fun to say, and works while fully crewed racing, but when sailing your tiny-home doublehanded offshore in a big ocean, that is a far too risky proposition.

We are on a very limited budget, even more so, like many, after a year lost to the pandemic. We thought very hard and did a lot of research before committing to such a major purchase. For us, replacing our primary headsail was a big deal.

I will save you our thoughts, as we could probably write a book about sail plans, crossovers, polars, etc. We finally decided to leave things well enough alone and go for an exact match replacement, kind of. 

Being avid racers we know sails very well and are quite picky.

What Type of Sail Material is Best for Us?

There were only a few options that made sense. 

1. Dacron
2. Hydranet
3. High tech materials

Dacron was the cheapest option, but its shape-holding ability is the least. Sail shape is very important to us. We would likely have to replace a Dacron sail again before our trip is over. 

Hydranet is a very strong material, but it is also the heaviest option. Its shape-holding is much improved over dacron, but it does lose performance over time. It is resistant to stains and good for the tropics. It is also expensive, coming close to the cost of a high-tech sail.

High-tech sails, laminates, or membranes, are normally known as racing sails, but there are cruising and RTW-level high-tech sails. You see these on Vendée Globe and VOR boats. They are lighter and hold their shape best, but are also the most costly. They are easy to repair as they can be glued instead of sewn. 

We like to measure our enjoyment in smiles per mile though. We like to sail fast, and the fact is membrane-type sails hold their shape the best mile after mile. 

Where to Purchase Our New Sail?

After much consideration of all the pros and cons, we finally chose an Evolution Sails Expedition Membrane genoa. We purchased it from Evolution Sails Chicago Loft, run by Andy Camarda who we knew well from racing. We had seen the performance, shape, and quality of his sails on boats we have raced against. He is not only a racer, he has a passion for long distance sailing as well. We had a lot of trust in his knowledge, as well as the designers at Evolution in NZ. Andy worked hard to get us the best price possible and arrange for overseas delivery.

How are Membrane Cruising Sails Built?

These are built in New Zealand with precision laid load path carbon fibers. The cruising Expedition series has extra fibers for more durability, and these fibers are designed and laid custom for your boat type, sailing conditions, reefing configurations, etc. 

After the fibers are laid and the membrane is sealed tight, layers of taffeta are added on both sides. 

The sail has a 3 layer foam luff for improved aerodynamics and a WeatherMax sun cover to protect it when furled. One of the coolest parts of the membrane tech is the ability in production to insert spreader patches and chafe reinforcement inside the sail itself.

The lamination is surprisingly thin because of the new membrane methods, and the sail is loaded with carbon for strength! These aren’t like the old-school laminate sails of the 90s and 00s. Technology has improved greatly. 

Are We Happy With Our New Genoa?

The bottom line is our sail showed up, fit perfectly the first time, and looks beautiful. We can’t wait to get off the dock and see what type of gains we see. We have thousands of ocean miles coming soon to test and review our new sails performance.

The post Buying a New Sail – We Review the Purchase of Our New Cruising Genoa appeared first on Sailing Sweet Ruca.

Sitting in the cockpit of Chico 2 downbound to Port Huron on the delivery from Mackinac Island, it is time to put some thoughts on paper. Things are starting to finally settle into my head that I can finally explain what just happened!

I have been racing with Team Chico 2 for the past few years. This year I switched from helmsman to navigator/tactician as, quite happily, my fiancé Kate is a better light air driver. (Yes, we won the Chicago Mac with a woman driving and a woman on the bow!)

“I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game-winning shot, and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan

Keys to Winning

It is only fitting that a quote by one of Chicago’s greatest athletes sums up my thoughts about being the winning navigator in this year’s 111th Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac. Some say we took a flyer; some say we got lucky. Those that say as much are just psychologically insulating themselves from the truth. The fact is both luck and skill are both involved. The key is preparation and time spent before the race understanding the data available to you and ensuring what you are using to make your decisions is as accurate as possible.

Another key to winning is being blessed with the opportunity to sail with one of the best boat owners on the Great Lakes. Jim Weyand, Owner/Helmsman of the 1D35 Turbo Chico 2, has worked very hard to put together a great boat and an amazing team, led by boat captain David Bennett. Both Jim and David have worked very hard on sail selection, boat preparation, and crew development. They both do a fantastic job in identifying each crew member’s strengths and letting the crew operate to their full potential. Everyone on the boat has fun working hard and sailing fast.

There was a specific point in the race where I had to make a key decision. This was the point of no return, a decision which would separate us from our competitors and put us in a “go big or go home” scenario, focused only on the overall win. Upon relaying the odds and my thoughts to Jim, he simply said: “We didn’t come here for second place.” This confidence and trust by the skipper are hugely valuable as a navigator, and, at least in my opinion, this management style is winner, on and off the racecourse.

Many find the responses above and similar to “we had a great team” as boilerplate responses, however, the reason why you hear this response from champions in almost every sport is because it is spot-on. Chico 2 couldn’t have done it without the support of family members, hard work of our shore support and transport drivers, everyone that sails on weeknights testing sails, the workers at the yacht club, and those that have worked on and sailed on the boat in the past building up to this point. The list goes on and on. Every detail and input is essential.

What everyone wants to know are the details behind the team and the inputs which lead directly to the decision to choose the path in which the boat should follow on the race. I have been using Expedition racing software for years, I can’t remember the first time, but I think it was about ten years ago. I immediately recognized its value on the racecourse, long before many. I have sailed on several boats with others who refuse to trust a computer when making navigational or tactical decisions. This lack of trust in technology, in my opinion, is consistent with the back of the pack. Relying on ego, rather than data and logic, will quickly ruin a race.

Preparation for a race starts long before a navigator steps on the boat. Accurate polars and sail charts (spreadsheets documenting a boat’s speed at giving wind speeds and angles) are keys to big-picture navigation and strategic decisions. Perhaps more important than choosing the right weather model. US Sailings ORR polars are a great starting point, but if possible one should go further, logging data and manipulating their polar file and sail charts to further accurize them when possible.

The Plan & Weather Routing

A winning navigational plan means putting the boat in the best place for optimal speed throughout the racecourse. One mistake I see far too many make is “living in the now, rather than in the future.” Many sailing courses teach sailing the maximum VMC (or VMG depending on your electronics setup) is the key to winning distance races. While this is somewhat true, it is overly simplified. If you sail the best VMC right into a huge hole and then sit at 0% VMC for hours, you have lost the race. This is precisely the trap many fell into this year’s Chicago – Mackinac race. It was easy early on in the race to be lured up the rhumb line and into a possible high-pressure area, predicted by some, but not all of the models. My thoughts on VMC are we always want to be sailing our max VMC to our route, not to the course itself. Maybe we should call it VMoR (Velocity Made Good to Optimal Route).

This long term vision places the boat in the position it needs to be in the future to catch the next shift or take advantage of the better breeze, current, wave-state, or a combination of all three. This outlook does not work though if a navigator does not have a good handle on the actual conditions and how the forecast weather models are interacting. There are times when no weather models are accurate and you have to throw them all out, relying on your instruments and visual observations along with a general knowledge of the prevailing weather pattern. There are also times when a weather model is lining up in timing, direction, and speed almost exactly with the conditions you are experiencing. It is the latter when you know there high accuracy and limited risk in following Expeditions optimal course.

2019’s Chicago – Mackinac race for Chico 2 was one of these limited risk scenarios. Our polars, honed over several years of data acquisition, and the actual conditions experienced were lining up very closely with the NAM Conus weather models. I had also been watching the overall weather patterns closely for the past week or so. Giving me a good idea of what scenarios were most likely to develop in the macro and what large scale influences may or may not have an effect and when. All of this information gave me confidence in the choice of the model and routing, even though there were highly different routes using the HRRR, GFS, and GLERL models.

I knew the overall strategy before leaving the hotel on Saturday morning. Before letting Jim, David, and the rest of the crew know the plan, I wanted to confirm my thoughts with another model download before the start; combining it with on course instrument data, visual observations, and shoreside buoy data around the lake. There is a lot of pressure on a navigator to divulge information before the race starts. Everyone wants to tell a family member their projected finish time, they want to know what gear to wear, or if the competition is going to be pleasant or rough on them. It is hard, but I always withhold this information until I am confident in its accuracy. About 15 minutes before the start, I passed up a piece of tape to place on the bulkhead with our target GPS coordinates, course, and sail selection.

The plan was to be the leftmost boat, head to a northern waypoint about 50 miles up the lake, and sail fast with the Code 0. It doesn’t take a tactical genius to think of this, but it gets harder and harder to implement as the crew watches our competitors gain places on Yellowbrick as we drift away from the rhumbline. The team performed wonderfully, following the plan, making our way up the lake to our next decision point where a few modeled routes converged, about halfway between Milwaukee and West Bend. Here we would re-evaluate, gather more data, and run more models, which affirmed our decision to continue.

As we proceeded north through the night and into the morning, we woke up to being surrounded by a bunch of cruising boats. On a racing yacht, separated from the fleet, and only cruisers in-sight can be an ominous feeling. The boats around us were not participating in the Mac, but in the Hook Race, which runs concurrently up the coast of Wisconsin and into Green Bay. We continued onward, as roughly Green Bay was where we would make the turn out into the lake, setting a roundabout course, allowing a shift to bend us around the top of the Manitou islands. This, as a navigator, is the most stressful part of the race. Picking an angle based on projected wind shifts to thread the needle between a few islands 80 miles away can be a bit tricky, and there is that feeling of rolling the dice which sets in. You can do this though because you have already built the confidence in your own decision through your previous work.

The Toys

Fortunately, Jim has equipped Chico 2 with all the toys the big boats have. The boat is equipped with a B&G H5000 instrument package, a FleetOne broadband system, Expedition racing software, a wireless network with iPads running remote desktop as well as Navionics, and of course our new Quantum Cableless Code 0. The satellite internet dome was key in tracking other boats movements through the Yellowbrick Expedition feature on the inside of us as we crossed the lake. We were able to feel out where the pressure was inconsistent and drive around the soft spots. Leading us to the next big navigational question of the race, and one which anyone who has sailed the Chicago – Mackinac has inevitably asked their navigator at least once. Will we be going inside our outside the Manitous this year?

From weeks out, the possibility of an “outside” or “over the top” race was developing. We also saw that the high pressure was still on the Michigan shore. There was not a chance we were going through the Manitous, but there were also no routes that showed us taking a route to go over, rather than through, Grays reef. We had good pressure, affirmed by tracking the TP52’s through this area. We also knew that a small squall would approach from the west as we approached the reef, which we were hoping to take advantage of to beat a few of the GL70’s across the line.

The Finish

Unfortunately, the breeze dropped off just as we were about to pass Grays reef light, and the 70 footers Arctos and Equation were able to catch and pass us finally. As the squall finally caught up to us as we exited the channel and made the turn for the bridge, we saw the wind build and David made the smart call to change early from the R2 to the FR0. We were able to wick up some 15kt planing runs directly at the bridge as several boats wiped out behind us. From here, it is a straight shot; my job as a navigator completed. I let the crew know where we were in the fleet, just a few miles away from winning the Mackinac Cup! Hike hard and don’t hit the bridge or the reef! You could feel the butterflies, I concealed my tears of joy behind my sunglasses.

As we passed under the Mackinac Bridge, the GL70 Stripes (who went on to win the BYC Mac race the next week overall and who’s navigator is the father of Chico 2’s bow-woman) passed us by as the wind shifted forward and we changed to the light air jib. Yes, by the way, you read that right, bow woman. We actually had two wonderful young women, Kate on helm and Dominque at the pointy end who between the two only had one Chi-Mac race but they performed flawlessly like veterans. In fact, the whole crew, lest not forget David (pit), Michael (headsail trimmer), Matt (bowman), performed flawlessly through the race. It takes a tough cookie to sail on Chico 2; this is no glamour show. It is hardcore sailors taking it to the edge, having fun, laughing and smiling through the whole race as friends.

The bottom line is, as a navigator, you can point the boat in the right direction, but it is the team that takes credit for the win. Jim Weyand’s Chico 2 is truly a team, and for at least one week in July of 2019, the best sailing team on the Great Lakes.

About the Author: Curtis Jazwiecki was the Navigator/Tactician aboard Chico 2 for this year’s race. He honed his skills racing with the best in several one design classes including Etchells, J/111, and Melges 24’s. He is one of the few that has sailed and raced the M24 offshore. As navigator, he won the presigious Chi-Mac Race overall, took 1st on a Hobie 33 in the inaugural Miami-Cuba race, he won his section in the Chicago Mac in 2017, and has placed on the podium 7 of his 15 times on both sides Mackinac racing. He is a member of the Bayview Yacht Club of Detroit and is currently based in Newport, RI, prepping his J/46 Sweet Ruca to cruise around the world with his fiance Kate and dog Roxy. Off the water, Curtis works as an Entreprenuer and FinTech consultant, where he uses the same approach to sailing in business.

Follow the journey on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/c/sailingsweetruca

The post Routing for the Overall Win – 2019 Chicago – Mackinac Race #CYCRTM appeared first on Sailing Sweet Ruca.