For several years now the 505 Midwinters have been run off the beach here in St. Petersburg, affording great open water racing. For the past three years the event has been won by Augie Diaz, with different partners each time. Each of the years, Augie has used North sails. These fast sails also won the 505 North Americans, held in Chicago over last summer. Diaz won the event, with JB Turney capturing third. Most recently Sandy Higgins and his partner Paul Marsh posted some great races in the 2011 505 Worlds using one of our M-10 3DL mains, enjoying a third place overall for the series.
Coming off a convincing win by Ethan Bixby and Erik Boothe in the 505 Europeans in 2008, development continues on the mold shapes and details of our 505 class sails. Our 3DL mains are the lightest and strongest available in the world, and the latest mold shape has been proven very fast. The next major event is the 505 North Americans, to be held in Rye, NY in October.
The FD Nationals will be held in Noroton, CT this summer, after which a container will be shipped to Lake Garda for the Worlds. North sails will be featured on many of the top FD’s in the world.
The ability of a wide range of sailors to yield the best out their sails continued in the Windmill class, where again the majority of the U.S. fleet uses North sails. This year the Nationals were won by John Jennings and Julie Valdez, and North-powered boats totally dominated the 2011 Midwinters.
With growing interest as we look forward to the Contender Worlds to be held here in St. Petersburg in 2011, Ethan is hard at work continuing to develop the fastest sails in that class and in growing the fleet.
Here in Tampa Bay, North keelboat clients continued their winning ways in PHRF racing, with Al Thomas’s Wired, George Haynie’s Time Bandit, Jose Suarez’s Mariah and others enjoying the majority share of local victories. As part of this story, the Farr 395 Wired, the J/35 Time Bandit and the J/109 Mariah all use patented, warp-oriented Dacron Radian race mains. Radian is a great product as it exhibits near laminate like stretch properties, but with all the proven reliability and durability of Dacron. Wired also enjoys the technical advantages of a 3Di #1 headsail. That sail exhibits the best shapeholding capabilities available today in the sailmaking world.
We continue to enjoy working with interesting performance cruising projects such as Dr. Frank Boucek’s new Tartan 5300, incorporating a full inventory including the latest 3DL Marathon working sails. Avalon, a 108-foot Holland design, races and cruises with a full North inventory, using tough Spectra laminates for the working sails. Superyacht sails for Meliti V, an 86-foot sloop, and an inventory for a Swan 82 adds to the list of larger projects coordinated by our team.
We look forward to another great year in sailing, and in hearing from you with any questions.
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