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News & Results

Fresh from the water — page 18

Race results, technique, podcast episodes, and news from the lofts — performance, design, and the people behind both.

Photo © UK Sailmakers

Racing yacht beating upwind under black mainsail and jib, crew hiked on the rail waving, a white spinnaker overhead nearby

COMPANY

UK Sailmakers Customers Finish First in Four of Eight Classes

View fullsize UK Sailmakers customers stood out at the 2019 Sovereigns Cup sailed out of Kinsale Yacht Club in southern Ireland. Of the eight classes, UK customers finished first in four. •…

July 12, 2019

Two views of a white EasyFurl Code D with straight luff on a Berckemeyer LA28, GER 3, one full and one being rolled up

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EASY FURL CODE D CRUISING SPINNAKER

One of the biggest challenges cruising sailors face is how best to sail downwind with only your white up-wind sails set. The jib bangs against the mast and gets beat up and doesn’t provide…

June 21, 2019

Video still of sportboats under red, white and blue spinnakers at Clear Lake, Texas, captioned 'Move of the day'

COMPANY

WHEN OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS

You win some, you lose some, but when the right opportunity knocks, you have to be ready to pull the trigger and go! Here’s a couple of minutes of video shot by Stuart Lindow from Texas'…

June 21, 2019

X-302 DUX beating upwind under grey X-Drive® mainsail and No. 1 genoa, two crew in the cockpit, blue-striped hull

RESULTS

ANOTHER CLASS WIN AND OVERALL TITLE TAKEN BY X-DRIVE

View fullsize DUX’s X-Drive mainsail has a lightweight 5X5 Liteskin for extra durability on both sides of the sail since her mainsail is used in winds from next to nothing to over 30 knots.…

June 21, 2019

Trimaran under black UK Titanium mainsail and jib flying a Canadian flag along a cliff-lined shore in the Race to Alaska

RESULTS

RACE TO ALASKA – UK TITANIUM HELPED PUT TWO ON THE PODIUM

Team Pear Shaped Racing’s trimaran DRAGON. UK Sailmakers helped put the second and third place finishers on the podium in the 2019 Race to Alaska. The 750-mile course runs from Port…

June 20, 2019

Video still from BETTY BOOP's cockpit in a gale, crew in yellow and red gear with a headsail flogging overhead

RESULTS

RACING IN A GALE, A FIRST HAND STORY

By Morten Christensen This year’s Skagen Race, a 110-mile run south from Oslo, Norway to the town of Skagen at the northern-most point on the mainland of Denmark was sailed in horrific…

June 20, 2019

Rules diagram of windward and leeward boats showing when a leeward boat may luff and the old mast abeam call

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MAST ABEAM — A BLAST FROM THE PAST

Sitting around the UK Sailmakers water cooler (technically a scuttlebutt) the other day, a bunch of us got talking about the Racing Rules of Sailing and some of the rules that were deleted…

June 20, 2019

Alden 50 ELENA driving upwind under grey X-Drive® genoa with crew on the rail and a bow wave flying

RESULTS

FIRST CLASS, FIRST IN FLEET, BEST OVERALL PERFORMANCE

On May 25, we posted a story about Steve Gordon’s Alden 50 ELENA and how a new all-purpose headsail from UK Sailmakers had exceeded Steve’s expectations during the 2019 Edlu Race. Steve and…

May 28, 2019

Large group of sailors and children in matching caps holding a 2019 Pacific Circuit Rally banner at a marina

TECHNIQUE

HAPPY HOLIDAY WEEKEND: ENJOY IT WITH A FEW GOOD "HOW TO" TIPS

View fullsize To all sailors in the United States, Happy Memorial Day Weekend from the sailors getting ready to set out of on the Pacific Circuit Rally, which will take them from New…

May 23, 2019

Overhead view of a Swan 42 crew in white shirts at work, a Larchmont Yacht Club spinnaker filling to leeward

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STAY IN YOUR BOX - By Buttons Padin

In 2013, I was fortunate enough to be on the crew of Larchmont Yacht Club’s entry in the New York Yacht Club’s Invitational Cup. We were the “young” team (OK, my age was the outlier);…

May 23, 2019

Blue-hulled sloop ADVANCE from New York sailing under white UK Sailmakers main and jib at an evening race

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TOP 10 REASONS TO GO WEEKNIGHT RACING

View fullsize Top-10 Reasons To Do Weeknight Racing 10 – You can practice your tactics and maneuvers in a low-pressure environment. 9 – You can bring along and train your B Team so they are…

May 23, 2019

Cruising sloop with a Swedish courtesy flag sailing past a rocky coastline

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X-DRIVE RACING SAILS IN ACTION

If you ever wanted to see X-Drive sails in action, check out this video. It shows the X302 XEBEC with with X-Drive Carbon sails sailing out of Howth Yacht Club in Dublin, Ireland. The both…

May 23, 2019

Alden 50 ELENA sailing under a new grey X-Drive® genoa and white mainsail, crew gathered under the dodger

RESULTS

NOT JUST MEETING EXPECTATIONS...EXCEEDING THEM!

Steve Gordon’s Alden 50 ELENA needed a new headsail but he was asking for a lot — He asked for a good light-weight reaching genoa that would power the boat in this summer’s Marion to…

May 23, 2019

Four yachts running downwind under red, blue, magenta and white spinnakers on flat water with an autumn shoreline

RESULTS

MAKING GAINS DOWNWIND: Your Instruments Aren’t Your Only Instruments

Last Thursday night during our evening racing series, I got pushed over the line early and had to restart. There were only three boats in our class—it’s still early in the season—but it was…

May 15, 2019

Video still of crew in red foul-weather gear working a red and white asymmetric spinnaker through a gybe

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FASTER FINISHES of ASYMMETRICAL GYBES

This video shows two sprit boats gybing their asymmetrical spinnakers and is a good compare and contrast exercise to learn about the best way to gybe an asymmetrical spinnaker. Watch the…

May 13, 2019

On-deck view of a red, white and blue spinnaker flogging above the bow as crew scramble forward on a racing sloop

TECHNIQUE

HOW TO RECOVER FROM THREE SPINNAKER FAILURES

View fullsize Before heading to Australia in December 2017 for their first Sydney-to-Hobart Race, the crew of Andrew Weiss’ CHRISTOPHER DRAGON had a briefing session with renowned ocean…

May 3, 2019

Salona 44 ANGER MANAGEMENT heeled in rough seas under a reefed mainsail and No. 4 genoa below the Organ Pipes

RESULTS

SYDNEY HOBART RACE -- MAKING THE MOST WITH A RAW OFFSHORE CREW ON “ANGER MANAGEMENT”

View fullsize The Salona 44 ANGER MANAGEMENT rounding the Organ Pipes off Tasmania’s Cape Raoul. Storm Bay is living up to its name with the wind blowing 35 knots forcing ANGER MANAGEMENT…

May 1, 2019

Five sailors in fancy dress, including a Mario costume and a red-wigged mermaid, posing on a dock before their boat

RESULTS

NOT YOUR GRANDFATHER’S RACE

View fullsize When you first learn about the Race to Alaska (R2AK), you quickly learn this really is not your grandfather’s yacht race. As the regatta’s website states: “No motor, no…

April 26, 2019

Dubois 60 catamaran sailing under a full-battened white mainsail and genoa with green mountains behind

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MULTIHULL SAILMAKING SMARTS

Anyone who has been on the water in past years has seen the growth of the cruising (and racing) catamaran market. With many checking in at 50’+, these dual and triple hull boats have…

April 26, 2019

Two photos: white sloop 888 heeled hard and overpowered beside a light blue sloop sailing flatter under grey sails

RESULTS

BIGGER IS BETTER! NOT SO FAST...

Here are two photos from the start of the 2019 Patos Island Classic race in Sydney, BC, on the east side of Vancouver Island. The winds were in the high-teens. On the left is a C&C 35 with…

April 21, 2019

Two smiling sailors on deck, one giving a thumbs up, beside a new white mainsail with a UK Sailmakers logo

RESULTS

SAIL ENVY

View fullsize Texan Mark Belanger sails his Hunter 430 out of Houston’s Lakewood Yacht Club on Galveston Bay. Mark is a cruiser who single-hands his boat regularly and has been sailing for…

April 21, 2019

Long light blue racing sloop with grey sails and crew on the rail leads a black-sailed boat past a wooded shore

RESULTS

PATOS ISLAND CLASSIC: A TALE OF THREE BOATS

View fullsize The Santa Cruz 70 WESTERLY coming off the starting line flying her Uni-Titanium No. 3 and X-Drive mainsail. The trimaran DRAGON is just to leeward. These two boats had a great…

April 12, 2019

Three racing yachts on converging courses under dark sails with rocky cliffs and breaking surf behind

COMPANY

THE FINE ART OF MAKING TREES

View fullsize Tim Wright/Photoaction.com images View fullsize View fullsize Ensign Padin? BY Buttons Padin While in the Navy, we junior officers of the deck would monitor approaching ships…

April 9, 2019

Hand holding a yellow iSocket Autoswitch with two outlets labelled Tool and Vac for auto-starting a shop vacuum

COMPANY

SAFER, FASTER AND EASIER BOTTOM SANDING

Sanding bottom paint is one of the least enjoyable elements of our sport, but it is a necessary evil for boats that are not dry sailed. With a lot of people about to go into the boat yard…

April 3, 2019

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