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Bump's World - July 2011
July 24, 2011
CLASSIC YACHT RACING
Last fall Jud and Cindy Smith called me to talk about boats again. During last summer I got Massachusetts Maritime to let us use their Hinckley 43 to see if that is something Jud and Cindy might like. Jud claims he has always wanted a traditional boat. You would think that one of the best sailboat racers in the world would be much more interested in how competitive the boat was and not the old slow style design.
The Hinckely 43 is a Ted Hood design, and very traditional looking. Like a traditional design she has a spoon shaped bow and a long overhanging stern. Ted was always a big centerboard guy so this yacht sports a center board. By today’s standard she is very small below but everything is teak and nicely finished. The deck layout is old school with winches around the mast for halyards and no jammers. In her day, 1981, she was considered a cruiser/racer.
The strange thing about this yacht is how small the mast section is for the weight of the boat. The mast is a very bendy double spreader with a baby stay. A baby stay is a small stay attached about ½ way up the leading edge of the mast. It attaches to the deck about 1/3 the way to the headstay. The pressure of the babystay pulling the mast forward greatly reduces any pumping motion of the mast. The babystay also controls the bend of the mast, along with the adjustable backstay, which in turn flattens the mast sail for windier conditions. The baby stay is also a pain to tack around since the sheets and jib have to tack between it and the headstay. I decided to remove the babystay since the bend looked ok created by the adjustable backstay and it would make tacking that huge genoa easier.
Jud, Cindy, myself and crew headed out of Marblehead for a day race. The weather forecast was for light winds . At the starting area we saw 6 to 8 knots of wind from the south. The weather looked to me like a classic sea breeze day, which Jud agreed with. Jud won the start at the pin, what a surprise, and we headed out to the left to catch the shifts as the sea breeze filled in. In 6 to 8 knots of wind in a 25 thousand pound boat was painful. Boats behind us were going faster and pointing higher. I tried centerboard up and down and I did not notice any difference.
The left shifts did come in as predicted so we kept getting back in the race and were first at the weather mark. Down wind with a symmetrical spinnaker we were low and slow. Racing downwind at 4 to 5 knots of boat speed is not very exciting. We had lost a couple of boats by the leeward mark. The second upwind leg we kind of held our position. The boat tacks really slowly, so we only reacted to big shifts. Base strategy here is to pick a side and go all the way to lay line.
We finished 3rd and there was not a lot of positive talk going around the boat. Lunch was served as we waited for the second race. We wandered a little too far from the start area and heard our sequence begin. Once again what looked like no problem getting back to the line, was big a problem. We quickly realized with 3 minutes to go to the start we were already racing.
The sea breeze had filled in pretty good by now which I thought would help this big beast. We were about 20 seconds late for the start, not good. I was struggling to get the mainsail to look like anything good. Finally I walked up to the mast to see that it was completely inverted. It had a beautiful bend in the wrong direction and pumping like crazy. I ran back to the stern and released the back stay and ran back forward to attach the babystay. Mean while we had to run downhill to ease the headstay which was now sagging about 3 feet. It seemed to take forever but I got the babystay on adjusted, and backstay adjusted.
We had given the fleet a huge lead. We sailed the rest of the race and went home with our tails between our legs. Jud and I began discussing what it would take to make this classic yacht a reasonable PHRF boat. Cindy told us we were crazy. Jud and I like to think we are the most competitive people in the world but that’s not the case. Cindy is the most competitive person in the world. No Hinckleys, no classic slow boats that heel a lot and go sideways.
Oh well we tried. Jud, Cindy, and I bought a custom Taylor 45. More on that later.
Please mail comments to me at Bump@newwaveyachts.com
Bump Wilcox
Bump's World - July 2011
July 24, 2011
CLASSIC YACHT RACING
Last fall Jud and Cindy Smith called me to talk about boats again. During last summer I got Massachusetts Maritime to let us use their Hinckley 43 to see if that is something Jud and Cindy might like. Jud claims he has always wanted a traditional boat. You would think that one of the best sailboat racers in the world would be much more interested in how competitive the boat was and not the old slow style design.
The Hinckely 43 is a Ted Hood design, and very traditional looking. Like a traditional design she has a spoon shaped bow and a long overhanging stern. Ted was always a big centerboard guy so this yacht sports a center board. By today’s standard she is very small below but everything is teak and nicely finished. The deck layout is old school with winches around the mast for halyards and no jammers. In her day, 1981, she was considered a cruiser/racer.
The strange thing about this yacht is how small the mast section is for the weight of the boat. The mast is a very bendy double spreader with a baby stay. A baby stay is a small stay attached about ½ way up the leading edge of the mast. It attaches to the deck about 1/3 the way to the headstay. The pressure of the babystay pulling the mast forward greatly reduces any pumping motion of the mast. The babystay also controls the bend of the mast, along with the adjustable backstay, which in turn flattens the mast sail for windier conditions. The baby stay is also a pain to tack around since the sheets and jib have to tack between it and the headstay. I decided to remove the babystay since the bend looked ok created by the adjustable backstay and it would make tacking that huge genoa easier.
Jud, Cindy, myself and crew headed out of Marblehead for a day race. The weather forecast was for light winds . At the starting area we saw 6 to 8 knots of wind from the south. The weather looked to me like a classic sea breeze day, which Jud agreed with. Jud won the start at the pin, what a surprise, and we headed out to the left to catch the shifts as the sea breeze filled in. In 6 to 8 knots of wind in a 25 thousand pound boat was painful. Boats behind us were going faster and pointing higher. I tried centerboard up and down and I did not notice any difference.
The left shifts did come in as predicted so we kept getting back in the race and were first at the weather mark. Down wind with a symmetrical spinnaker we were low and slow. Racing downwind at 4 to 5 knots of boat speed is not very exciting. We had lost a couple of boats by the leeward mark. The second upwind leg we kind of held our position. The boat tacks really slowly, so we only reacted to big shifts. Base strategy here is to pick a side and go all the way to lay line.
We finished 3rd and there was not a lot of positive talk going around the boat. Lunch was served as we waited for the second race. We wandered a little too far from the start area and heard our sequence begin. Once again what looked like no problem getting back to the line, was big a problem. We quickly realized with 3 minutes to go to the start we were already racing.
The sea breeze had filled in pretty good by now which I thought would help this big beast. We were about 20 seconds late for the start, not good. I was struggling to get the mainsail to look like anything good. Finally I walked up to the mast to see that it was completely inverted. It had a beautiful bend in the wrong direction and pumping like crazy. I ran back to the stern and released the back stay and ran back forward to attach the babystay. Mean while we had to run downhill to ease the headstay which was now sagging about 3 feet. It seemed to take forever but I got the babystay on adjusted, and backstay adjusted.
We had given the fleet a huge lead. We sailed the rest of the race and went home with our tails between our legs. Jud and I began discussing what it would take to make this classic yacht a reasonable PHRF boat. Cindy told us we were crazy. Jud and I like to think we are the most competitive people in the world but that’s not the case. Cindy is the most competitive person in the world. No Hinckleys, no classic slow boats that heel a lot and go sideways.
Oh well we tried. Jud, Cindy, and I bought a custom Taylor 45. More on that later.
Please mail comments to me at Bump@newwaveyachts.com
Bump Wilcox