North Sails One Design

Ensign News

2008 Region 5 Championship
2007 Nationals

2008 Ensign Region 5 Championship

Report by Benz Faget - North Sails Vew Orleans

North sails finished 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 5th place at the Region 5 Champs. I sailed with Joel Ver Plank the commodore of the class and finished 4th. North sails not only won every race but lead at every mark. Congratulations to Tom and his father Frank for winning but also to Travis Van Veste for the fine performance only losing by the tie breaker using the sails he just received. The Nationals are in just three weeks and hopefully we will finish the year with outstanding results! If you have any questions please feel free to contact Benz Faget at North Sails News Orleans.
Finish	Boat Name	Skipper	Fleet	Race 1	Race 2	Race 3	Race 4	Race 5	Race 6	Race 7	Total
1	Foxy Lady	Tom LaBelle	LCYC	2	8	2	1	4	1	1	11
2	Pegasus	Travis Van Neste	Wayzata, MN	1	1	1	9	2	3	3	11
3	Gotta Wanta	Zeke Durica	LCYC	3	5	3	3	5	8	2	21
4	Green Dolphin	Joel VerPlank	Alabama	4	3	7	29	1	2	7	24
5	Eh?	Eric Seaborg	Marquette	8	2	9	5	6	6	9	36
6	Breezie Weezie	Ray Layman	LCYC	12	4	15	10	3	5	4	38
7	Water Dog	Scotty Graul	LCYC	6	14	8	6	8	10	5	43
8	Tecumseh	Dave Snyder	LCYC	10	11	5	4	7	11	11	48
9	Brorealis	John Birkmeier	LCYC	16	10	4	2	14	4	15	49
10	Second Wind	Mark Birkmeier	LCYC	5	9	6	8	13	13	10	51
11	Tiburon	Richard Anderson	Marquette	7	6	11	13	9	14	21	60
12	Instinct	Jonas Carpenter	LCYC	11	12	16	11	16	7	8	65
13	Amaizin Blue	Jason Beccher	Marquette	9	13	12	17	19	12	6	69
14	Gigi	Todd Soderlund	LCYC	22	18	10	7	11	9	14	69
15	Irish Ayes	Neil Lynch	Marquette	14	7	19	15	10	20	12	77
16	Beelzebub	Ron Spainhour	LCYC	13	20	22	16	12	18	13	92
17	Kindred	Bruce Cochran	LCYC	18	17	13	18	17	22	20	103
18	Andrea E	Hans Ediger	LCYC	23	16	18	14	18	15	22	103
19	Aldebaran	Mike Sauer	Marquette	20	15	17	12	22	24	19	105
20	Wings	Leonard Hilton	Pentwater	15	22	23	23	15	25	18	116
21	Rudi	Colin Irish	Marquette	25	19	14	22	25	17	26	122
22	Michipezhu	Pete Iverson	LCYC	24	26	21	19	21	21	16	122
23	Sleuth	Bob Conkey	Mayfield, OH	21	24	25	20	20	19	23	127
24	Nancy B	Bob Braham	LCYC	29	21	20	21	23	23	17	131
25	Chether/Spindrift	Andy Bohn	LCYC	17	23	24	29	24	16	25	133
26	Troll	F. Maaseidvaag	Pentwater	19	25	26	29	26	27	29	152
27	Lil "M"	Leroy Pieri	LCYC	27	28	29	24	27	26	24	157
28	M&M	Mike LaHaye	Pentwater	28	27	27	25	28	28	27	162

2007 Ensign Nationals

Report by Allan Terhune, Sr. Ensign #690

The Ensign Nationals were held at Toms River Yacht Club in Toms River, NJ this past week. Conditions during the week long event were challenging, ranging from shifty easterlies, to the famous Southwest breeze that Barnegat Bay is Famous for, which gave us the big blow during the 8th race.

Consistency over the ten race series and the ability to shift gears was critical. Dick Torpey, representing the host club, with his team of Benz Faget (North Sails New Orleans), son Kevin Torpey and Marc Finneran sailed a solid series to capture the second national title for team Irish Mist. Greg Eiffert sailing White Lady from Canandiagua, NY along with team, local Mike Frankovich, Doug Bertner and Alex Crerand, got off to a slow start but came on strong to finish second. Team Galatea skippered by Allan Terhune Sr, with Mike Cornelius and Billy Warner Jr finished third with eight races in the top eight. They were the only crew sailing three up.

Rounding out the top five were locals Bob Warner in Leading Edge from TRYC and Marista of Island Heights YC,steered by Thom Healy. Thom wore two hats as the regatta chairman and also sailing in the regatta. The event was well run and the depth of the teams made the racing extremely challenging. Places 4-11 were separated by only 11 points!

The new North inventory was all our team could have asked for. It was easy to trim and had the ability to adjust to all the different conditions. Benz was great prior to the regatta in sail selection, setup and was very helpful on site with technical support.

A few keys we took away from the event, not in any order but important and probably reinforcement of things we all already know.

1-Boat prep is extremely important-sails are great but we broke a halyard which cost us one race.

2-Jib halyard tension and being able to easily adjust it is CRITICAL in the changing conditions.

3- The number two is the most underrated sail in the inventory. After long discussions with Benz and Allan we decided the class tends to sail the #1 too high into the wind ranges. Since we sail three up, we felt as the wind increased the smaller/flatter genoa really paid big. The ability to tack on shifts and stay on your feet made big gains for us.

4-Mainsail trim in reference to twist, leach tension and top tell tale flow or stall is extremely important and needs constantly adjusting to your speed and tactical situations at the time.

5-Race eight it was blowing 25-28. We set the chute on second time down. By the time we got squared away, I looked and saw no other colored sails! I'm not sure the gain was significant but it was a challenging ride .Lesson-I don’t know if we were faster vs the risk, But we were the entertainment!

I'm very proud of our club as hosts, the local fleet members who did so well and my team who worked very hard.