February 2008

It has been a good start to the Winter one design racing season here in the Tampa Bay area.

The St. Petersburg Yacht Club put on a very well received Multi Class regatta in January, also serving for the FD and Contender classes as their Midwinter Championships.

Lin Robson and Tim Gorbold won the FD class, using this regatta to start their path toward the Worlds, to be held at the end of this year in New Zealand. They used the RX-1 main, AP genoa and the Bi-radial Spinnaker for this event.

Ethan Bixby, racing his new Contender for the first time, sewed up the regatta and also began the development path toward the Worlds. This year they will be held in Kingston, Ontario in August.

Ethan and crew Erik Boothe continued their winning ways in the 505 class Midwinters, winning the event for the team’s third year running. As was the case last year the event was held at a county park near the Gulf of Mexico, affording a beautiful setting and a wide range of conditions. Ethan and Erik plan on competing in the 505 Worlds, this year to be held in Palermo, Italy.

December, 2007

As our local fall and winter sailing season swings into high gear here in Florida, it’s time for a review of the year to date and highlight some of the successes.

George Haynie and his crew aboard the J-35 Time Bandit won the Suncoast Boat of the Year title, with Dr. Jose Suarez-Hoyos’s team aboard Mariah second overall. The Boat of the Year award is a cumulative prize awarded to the highest scoring PHRF team for the season. Both teams utilize North Sails and technical support.

Loft owner Ethan Bixby was aboard George Andreadis’ Meleti 4 for the IRC North Aegean Championships, a regatta the team won with a full North inventory aboard. There was a wide range of wind conditions and in some respects the event was won by our new Code 0/3 asymmetric which was extremely fast in the Code 0 range.

Avalon, a Holland 108’ ketch with a full North inventory, won the two races and its class in the St. Barth's Bucket this year. The Bucket provides a premier setting for some of the world’s great mega sailing yachts to compete on a friendly basis. It also provides a great look at the current state of that market and technologies utilized in highly loaded sails for these vessels.

Brad Porter and his team aboard the Carrera 280 XLR8, won their class at Block Island Race Week, along with winning the Round the Island race overall. Brad uses a full inventory of Gulf Coast-supplied North sails to power his boat.

North Sails clients continue to pile up the victories in One Design competition here on the Gulf Coast. Most recently Ethan convincingly won the 505 North Americans with crew Erik Boothe. This is the fourth time Ethan has won the title, and the first win was 31 years ago, before Erik was even born! A concerted and continued design refinement process has produced some really nice results.

Ethan and Erik also won the 505 Midwinter Championships earlier in the year. This event, which gets bigger and better every year, was held in the beautiful setting of a seacoast park. Next February the A-Cats join us for a unique meeting of performance one designs.

In the Flying Dutchman class, Gulf Coast sail consultant Lin Robson won the U.S.Nationals, North Americans and Midwinters, all with different partners for each event. North inventories are now aboard all but a few of the U.S. fleet. The designs have been proven to be very fast and are seen aboard more and more boats overseas as well.

Other one design class overall wins included the Windmill Nationals and Midwinters. This venerable Clark Mills design has over the years introduced many young sailors to the next level in performance dinghy sailing after Optimists, and continues to give enjoyment to adult sailors as well. North sails are found on all the top boats in the fleet.

Dave Beatson of North Sails Jacksonville has been very busy on a wide range of vessels and missions, from northeast Florida PHRF racing events to cruising catamarans. The past year Dave has been seeing an upswing in new clients transiting north and south seasonally. He is in a good position to assist in that region.

March, 2007
Summer racing successes were numerous for Gulf Coast clients as George Andreadis and his team aboard Meliti won the IMS 600 Worlds in Crete. Gulf Coast owner Ethan Bixby was aboard, and as with many of Mr. Andreadis’s other successful boats coordinated the sail inventory.

Ethan joined owner Tom Lihan and Ken Read aboard Tom’s Mumm 30 for that class’s World Championships, coming away with a podium 3rd place finish. North Sails figured prominately at this regatta, capturing most of the top places.

Local Melges 32 team and clients Mike Carroll and Marty Kullman placed second at Key West and won their class at this year’s NOOD regatta in St. Petersburg. Ethan was aboard in St Petersburg as trimmer. New Wave has had a successful record since her launch, as well as being a Gulf Coast client.

In the same NOOD regatta, Robby Brown sailed Preparation J to a very good second place finish in a tough J 24 fleet.

On the one design front new 505 designs have been proven very fast, with a recent Gulf Coast hosted Midwinters win proving the speed and versatility of the new sails. Ethan and crew Erik Boothe won all but two races over a wide variety of conditions.

Lin Robson has been assisting PHRF clients with sails and training in such classes as the J-109, along with many cruisers seeking the best sail solutions for their offshore projects.

Lin is again working toward the next FD World Championships, this year to be held in Spain, using the latest Gulf Coast designs. These new sails have been proven fast since the last Worlds held here in St. Petersburg. Except in a very few exceptions, the U.S. fleet is now fully equipped with sails from Gulf Coast. Significant wins this year include the U.S. National and North American championships.

North Sails' Jacksonville associate Dave Beatson has been widening his reach and list of successful projects from the northeast sector of the state. PHRF racers and bluewater projects describe many on his client list.

North Sails' Jacksonville client Tom Bell, racing his C&C 38, won his division at Charleston Race Week, as well as the North Flroida PHRF championships. NS Jacksonville, in conjunction with North Sails, will be sponsoring the First Coast Offshore Challenge in April over a variety of courses.

May, 2006
As our Winter/Spring events have unfolded and we are making plans for the summer sailing season, North Sails' Gulf Coast loft is again busy with interesting offshore and one design projects.

Loft owner Ethan Bixby wrapped up an exciting and successful racing season in Europe aboard George Andreadis’ TP 52 Atalanti. The Gulf Coast loft has been coordinating and providing sails for this project, and it has been an exciting season with lots of new developments in the asymmetric spinnakers, staysails, and Code Zeros. Ethan continues to sail in the Farr 40 class and with local PHRF competitors, and has joined Team Pegasus for this summer;s Farr 40 buildup to the Worlds.

On the one design front, Ethan has amassed many International 505 North American, East Coast and Midwinter wins, finishing in the top ten at four World Championships, capturing 1st place in 1981 with Cam Lewis.

Using the latest design refinements in all three sails, Ethan along with Erik Boothe as crew won this year’s East Coast and Midwinter championships going away, and looks forward to the 2007 Worlds, to be held in Adelaide, Australia. This summer, Gulf Coast will be well represented by clients competing in the Hayling Island Worlds.
Sail Consultant Lin Robson continues his involvement and coordination of many offshore cruising projects utilizing our proven NorDac Dacron sails, convenient Quick Cover main cover systems and cruising asymmetricals. This is in addition to offshore one design racing projects such as the Farr 395 and J-109.

Lin has been working hard with Ethan to develop our FD sails with very positive results. Our designs were aboard nearly all of the fleet in the U.S. Nationals, held at the St. Petersburg Yacht Club at the end of January. Lin and crew Erik Boothe scored 8 points in 7 races to capture this title for a record 7 times.

In the recent World Championships, Lin and Erik were the top U.S. team, finishing seventh in a talent filled fleet, and the only team to finish ahead of the eventual regatta winners in any race. Equipment failure and a bad day in the middle of the regatta held them back from an even higher finish. The new designs have proven to be very fast, and the rest of the FD world is noticing.

North Sails were featured prominently at the St. Petersburg NOOD regatta, with many division winners. One of those was Cakewalk, an SR 21. Cakewalk relies heavily on her North Kevlar AP #1 to provide an extra edge. This sail was specifically designed and built at the Gulf Coast loft, and was clearly one of the factors contributing to her victory.

Congratulations go out to Gulf Coast client Dr. Mike Siedlecki on winning Suncoast Race Week in late April. Sailing his Martin 243 with a full North inventory, Mike made full use of his new 3DR full battened main to score two bullets in the last races to capture the win.

North Sails Jacksonville associate Dave Beatson has been increasingly busy with an ever expanding presence in northeast Florida. Dave is continuing his involvement with cruising and PHRF projects, along with steadily increasing numbers of rigging upgrade and retrofit projects.