Download Etchells screensaver now - North News

by Julian Plante on 24 Jul 2006 North Sails have produced a great Etchells images screen saver set. You can download it by going to the News page on our website by clicking on following link: www.northsails.com/australia/News.htm

Now to the latest North Sails Etchells update

It seems that there has hardly been any time to reflect on last summer season before the fleet has launched into the Worlds lead up with the recent Mooloolaba Midwinters, and the Nationals and Worlds not far off in November.

With nearly 60 boats at Mooloolaba, it is great to see the class continuing to show its strength as Australia’s premier One Design keelboat class.

At North Sails, we remain keen active participants and supporters of the class, and constantly enjoy returning for the strong competition and fantastic camaraderie between sailors.

North Sails have produced a great Etchells images screen saver. You can download it by going to the News page on our website by clicking on following link: www.northsails.com/australia/News.htm

Evolving with the class members needs, recent changes to the sail rules, including raising the minimum cloth weight on jibs and sail card allocation now six sails (per year), has lead to the development of new sail models to comply with these changes, and respond to sailors desire to tailor their sail inventories to different venues and sailing conditions. A reminder on 1st January 2006, the sail allocation regulations were changed to allow acquisition of 6 new sails per year of any type (Main, Jib, or Spinnaker). Only 1 x main, 2 x Jibs and 2 x Spinnakers may be still used at regattas.

The minimum cloth weight on jibs was also raised to 6.5oz. For those with 5.5oz jibs on your existing sail card you can keep on using these, but cannot transfer to another sail card.

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Our design team, headed by Michael Coxon has been working ever more closely with former Etchells World Champion, Vince Brun, from North Sails One Design in the USA. The result of this design collaboration between Michael and Vince in swapping and testing each others sail designs, has netted 7 out of the last 8 World Championships.

The next step has been the standardisation of our inventory, so that the same sail designs and detailing are offered worldwide, to ensure North Sails offer our clients the best sail options under the new sail rules. Consequently, we are now offering the same sail models as Vince Brun’s San Diego loft, in addition to our previously available models.

Since the 2005 Worlds last year, Michael and the North Sails Australia design team have been working on a new mainsail design for uprange conditions, now available as the 'BF'.

Using North Sails proprietary software program Spiral TM to develop 3D sail mould for the BF, the team have been particularly pleased with the exceptionally fair and smooth outcome of the required sail shape. The team also developed a number of 1/3 sail models to experiment and check design changes, plus five full size prototypes for on water testing. The results have been pleasing; with a fast out of the box sail that has already won the NSW, WA and Milson Goblet titles.

With the Audi Etchells 2006 Fremantle Worlds fast approaching, one of the questions on everyone’s lips has been 'What sailing conditions can we expect?'.

Fremantle is well known for 'The Doctor', which is the usual fresh afternoon sea breeze. Thus, it has generally been expected that this Worlds will be another windy regatta like San Francisco. However, given the proposed start time of 11am, the racing could see a mix of conditions during the transition period to strong sea breeze.

The Swan fleet held a regatta last year at the same time in November that the Worlds will be held, and the conditions experienced were classic Fremantle summer sea breeze.

Swan fleet sailor Skip Lissiman, reported that late morning saw either a fading land breeze out of the east or an early moderate building southerly breeze reinforced by the doctor around noon.

So what sails to use? Well, for those who want to try something different to the tried and proven PC mains, based on the high percentage chance of building sea breeze, and lack of ground swell with flatter waters expected, the BF is our recommended choice.

To complete the upwind inventory, our versatile GM should be your choice along with LM2 for any light to moderate conditions. Downwind, the Biradial 0.5 running spinnaker will be the workhorse, and supplemented by either the .5VMG or perhaps True Radial if it looks to be a breezy regatta.

North Sails 2005/6 Results

1st, 2nd & 3rd World Championships
1st, 2nd* & 3rd Australian Titles (*partial inventory)
1st, 2nd & 3rd NSW Championships
1st* & 3rd QLD State Titles (*partial inventory)
1st & 2nd WA State Titles
1st & 2nd Australian Midwinter Titles
1st, 3rd & 4th NZ Nationals
1st, 2nd & 3rd Milsons Goblets


North Sails Australia Pty Ltd

12 Polo Ave, Mona Vale, NSW 2103
PO Box 511, Mona Vale, NSW 1660
p +61 2 9997 5966
f +61 2 9997 4805
e office@au.northsails.com

Website: www.au.northsails.com