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See also: 2000-2003 Regatta Reports
By Al Terhune
Congratulation Heidi Backus and team "Nuts"! North Sails dominted the final Tartan Ten regatta of the year, the Fall Bay. The regatta was hosted in Put-in-Bay which is a unique venue and lends is self to great sailing and even greater parties. Heidi Backus and her team on "Nuts" won the regatta and Charles VanderHorst and his team on "Adios" were second. Both boats were using the North Main, Big Boy Jib and AirX Runner.
This was note worthy regatta as it was the end of the T-Ten 2007 season, but also the final regatta for Bill Buckles and team "Liquor Box". Needless to say, the team threw a huge going out party on Saturday that was unreal.
For more information on our fast T-10 sails, don't hesitate to contact the North T-10 experts!
By Andrew Kerr Photo: Don Wilson (right) and team on Convergance. For more information on our fast T-10 sails, don't hesitate to contact the North T-10 experts!
By Skip Dieball Congrats on your victory (again!) at Cleveland Race Week!!! Tell us a little about your boat, team and keys to your success. Ted: As we all know the T-10 has had a longer than expected life span, and fortunately has aged well. Although, as the fleet is around its mid twenties, many of the boats now require some pretty extensive upgrades to avoid deteriorating past the point of recovery. We did this work two years ago over the winter, and have been very happy with the results. The primary concern was the core moisture, which we took care of. As well as hardware upgrades on the deck. We have also kept an eye on the bottom and foils to keep them fair and smooth, but I think most T-10r's can do this themselves, paying for a pro job might be overkill if your looking at kts/$. I'm also fortunate to have a great team on board, with a consistent core of 5 or so who do most of the events. I think if you can get that core together of 4 or 5, who race together consistently, then you can add a few bodies here and there to help keep the boat flat. It seems tougher to field a full crew these days, and unfortunately that keeps some boats off the scratch sheet. But if you prepare early, and focus on that 4 or 5 person core, it's not that difficult. We have been sailing with 7 on board now for that last few years, and think that's a good number. As the midsummer events tend to be lighter, even sailing with 6 is fine. Knowing that the breeze was medium and shifty on Saturday, how did you guys change gears successfully? Ted: Wow.. Saturday was a mind bender! After the last race we didn't have the feeling we were doing things that well, leaving a lot of easy opportunities on base. But as it turned out we surprisingly ended the day tied for first, with the lesson being, in a jumbled fleet the pain is widely distributed. As for gear changes, I'll start with rig tune. Sailing out it was obvious that it was going to be painfully sloppy with less wind than wave putting a premium on power in the sail plan. We sailed the first race at a med to light upper setting, say 40 or so on the loose with next to nothing on the lowers. Our uphill speed seemed ok not great. The next race had a little more pressure with the swell laying down a bit, so I wound up a turn and a half on the uppers and put enough on the lowers to take out most of the prebend. I was shooting to get a bit more headstay tension while keeping as much power in the main at the same time, This seemed to go better. We kept that setting for the third race as well. The last race got lighter, and we were once again starved for power. I backed two full turns off the uppers and a half off the lowers. I can't really tell you how that worked cause the pressure was so scattered across the race coarse it was difficult getting a good gauge on speed vs other boats. I'd a been happier just to skip that race while I still had some hair left. We have worked on a pretty good system for sheeting both sails together, with the jib always cross sheeted. In most cases the main and jib went in and out together. This is not hard to do, and critical in those conditions. We always carried a fair amount of twist in the main, with the traveler between the weather seat and all the way up and the boom then sheeted to centerline. We sailed with a fair amount of sag in the jib halyard, using the jib cunningham sparingly in puffs. We did a lot of digging out of bad starts on Saturday, so our focus was primarily to find clear lanes, which usually meant sacrificing favorable shifts. What we figured after the day was that more of the shifts had to do with pressure than actual shift, and sailing in clear air usually could get you to the next pressure band faster than tacking in a phantom shift and loosing a clean lane. What other events do you plan on doing this summer? Ted: The boat will do the CYC leukemia cup, maybe Lakeside, deepwater, and the bay. Things are doubtful on the nationals though. You sail Snipes also, how does this complement your T10 Sailing? Ted: It's all about time on the water. The snipe adds a bit more of the physical and tactical to the equation, but just getting out and working on improving is the biggest advantage. What advice would you give to a new T10 sailor? What would you suggest they focus on in reducing the learning curve? Ted: Why buying a new set of North sails and getting you on board for the first race of coarse!! :) Seriously, I've never been a fan of re-inventing the wheel. Nothing will pay more dividend to a new T-10'r than to ask a veteran skipper or crew out for a sail to get you out of the blocks. Pay close attention to main and jib sheet tensions and lead positions, marking your boat or taking notes as you go. A good speedo also helps here. Keep notes on wind speed vs. boat speed in a variety of wind strength. This applies both up and down wind, as your VMG downwind changes dramatically going from 5 to 12 kts of wind. A seasoned t-10'r should be able to tell you when the boat is going fast or not as well as how to get back up to speed when your feeling slow. In addition, you should put as much or more time into boat prep as on the water. Make sure your bottom and foils are fair and smooth, running rigging is updated and works efficiently for the various crew positions. ( i.e.. cross leading jib sheets). Make sure your mast rake is max'd (checking headstay length w/class rules.) And of course keeping your sail inventory as close to current as you can afford. But most importantly is getting that core team together, put as much time on the water as possible, and have fun with it, regardless of how you do on the race course. You’ve been running with North Sails for a few years. How have the sails helped your team? Ted: We've always been happy with the North program. I'm a believer in consistency more than break through technology, and that's what we get from North. Taking the guess work out of wondering whether your sails are fast or not allows you to focus on the more important things on the race course. And the North sails have always been consistently fast for us. Will we see you out for the CRW offshore series? Ted: We're planning on the Friday night race for sure. Can't miss chili night!
By Skip Dieball This past weekend was the kick-off to the 2004 Cleveland Race Week. The One-Design boats hit the course for some great sailing in 20+ on Saturday and a nice 7-10 on Sunday. Classes competing: T-10, J22, J24, Mumm 30, J105, Dragon, Ensign, Highlander, Fireball, Jet-14. There were 3 race circles to accommodate the diverse classes. Here are some great North results: Highlander
J-22 T-10
J24
Jet 14 For complete results, click here. For more information on our one design sails, don't hesitate to contact the North One Design experts!
Report courtesy Todd Tigges The winds were up and down all weekend and the ability to shift gears was critical as this fleet had a lot of great competition. Friday and Saturday were very light and shifty with winds from 0 to 7. Sunday brought a better, more steady breeze with winds ranging from 10 - 15. Fortunately our North sails allowed us to easily make the necessary adjustments which, as you can see by the scores, the racing was really tight and and every point was critical. .
Report by Skip Dieball Cleveland Yacht Club - July 19-20, 2003
(*) North partial inventory It's no wonder North makes the fastest T-10 sails! For more information
on our latest T-10 designs, please contact our T-10 experts!
Report by Skip Dieball We are glad to report that the top 4 boats at the 2003 Cleveland Race Week were powered by North sails. Here's a note from a happy customer:
Report by Skip Dieball Chicago
Yacht Club The 2002 T-10 North Americans was sailed in a variety of conditions off of Chicago's waterfront/skyline. Fourty-seven boats competed this year with many of the top contenders being past champions. For North Sails One Design, the T-10 class has been one of our fastest growing classes due to our dynamic approach to one-design sailmaking. We have taken the same approach to design, construction and service as we have in over 80 other One Design classes. This formula has yielded many regatta victories for our customers, and the 2002 NAs was another in a long line of customer wins (Detroit NOOD, Chicago NOOD, Cleveland Race Week, '00 NAs, '01 NAs).
Richard Grusnten's Vodoo - 2002 North American Champions
At this year's NAs, North customers finished 1,2,3,5. Richard Grunsten's winning team certainly didn't leave much to chance. That's why they chose North for sails. Our committed sailmaking team delivered them speed out of the box and over the varying conditions. This year's Runner Up, Rich Stearns, was very impressed with his North Sails. See what he has to say below. Rich has been involved with the T-10 for many years, and we are proud that he chose North as his sailmaker.
In 3rd this year was Scott Bruesewitz. Scott has been working with North in Chicago for a number of years. Their consistent finishes year after year prove that they have focused on all facets of the T-10. Perry Lewis (North Sails Midwest) talked about their speed advantages downwind. "We had a lot of angle to play with our spinnaker. If we wanted to sail deep, we had no problem."
Heidi Riddle, 1st 2002 Chicago NOOD
Throughout late 2001 and early 2002, we've tested new cloth styles in our Mainsail. North's own "Sharkskin" Dacron tested the best and is now our standard material of choice for our mainsails. The higher modulus numbers allows you to trim the sail harder without the leeches closing off over time. According to Lake Erie sailor Bill Kubicek, "The main set up really nice out of the box. The grey cloth is cool too!"
Report by Greg Fisher The 2001 Tartan Ten Nationals were sailed in Detroit. 29 boats. While the turnout was slightly lower than anticipated the quality was there for sure. North Sails again won the Nationals! Dave Disbrow sailed to first overall with Heidi Backus-Riddle in third...the word is that the sails are fast and easy to trim. North 1,3!!
We just returned from the Detroit NOOD regatta. What a great turn out for the T-10's. There were 20 Boats. We had a ton of wind and rain. 2 races each day. North definitely dominated the class. Actually, Vermilion Boats dominated the regatta. We got 1,2, 3, 4 and 5th. First Place NUTS Heidi Backus-Riddle - NORTH
August 23,2000 - Last week the Tartan Ten North Americans finished up in Mentor, Ohio. It was a big turnout as expected (42 boats) with all the heavy hitters present. It sounds like there was a "bit of everything" breeze and water wise so it was a great test for our customers and our sails... We were pleased that Wayne Pignolet won the event with a new North Main/jib over last year's winner Richie Stearns of Doyle/Chicago. Tim Britton was fourth with a full inventory, including our latest downwind specialized Ched Proctor designed AirX spinnaker. North sails also were 6th and tenth. Nikki at North Sails Vermilion ( actually she and Gary were a great help this whole spring with the Ten class) put together a breakdown of sails at the regatta. For more information on the T-10 North Americans contact Greg Fisher at One Design Central, Gary Harris at Vermilion (sailed on tenth place boat) or Perry Lewis at Chicago ( sailed on 1999 runner-up).
For more information on T-10 sails, contact the North T-10 experts.
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Don Wilson and his team on Convergance won the 34 boat T10 class by 41 points. The team used a brand new North Mainsail & jib and were fast in all conditions. The T10 class was the biggest fleet at this years Lands end Chicago NOOD regatta. 
1- Don Wilson *
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