Championship-winning designs, made by championship-winning sailors.
Here at HD Sails we hope everyone is doing their best to stay safe during this pandemic. We are trying to continue with work as best as possible and to still meet deadlines, we are asking if you wish to come by the loft to do it by appointment only.
If you are thinking of new sails for when we get back to sailing please don’t hesitate to get in touch and place an order. Once the lid has been let off we expect to get very busy.
Please stay safe and we look forward to hearing from you all soon.
This year HD Sails have been working on a few improvements for their Lark Sails.
We have now introduced a flattener, for when sailors begin to rake, sailors have a much better range to control leech tension. It also gives more room in the cockpit and reduces sail area slightly.
For the Jib we have been working on a fat head, you can still choose the standard jib if you like but the fat head gives extra area and generates more power and a better twist profile.
Mike Senior has been testing these changes, Mike finished 3rd at this years Nationals in Penzance showing great speed across the varied conditions.
Typhoon Sailboats are the proud importers of the recently titled World Championship Winning Carter Optimist. Typhoon Sailboats and Carter have approached HD Sails to provide them with a Championship winning sail.
Here at HD we are trying to think of easier ways for you to take purchase of your championship winning sail, together with Carter a hull, makes for a top quality package. Call Typhoon Sailboats for more information 01926 485017 or visit www.typhoonsailboats.com
The so-called Optimist Spring Championships were sailed at West Mersea in truly wintery weather: the air temperature was only just above freezing, with winds up to 20 kts on Sunday, enlivened by the odd sleet shower, conditions were truly testing. After the first day of sailing the sailors from the Optimist National and Zone squads (142 sailors) were split into Gold and Silver fleet. Jamie Harris, Rosie Williamson and Josh Haynes all sailed well and quailified for the gold fleet (72 sailors). At the end of the weekend Jamie and Rosie both had four top-10 placings out of their six races sailed, to finish in an excellent 6th and 13th place overall, Josh came 33rd.
In the Silver fleet Matthew Beck topped the leader board, congratulations to all sailors taking part in the tough conditions.
After the Spring Championships one of the next big events was at Braassemermeer for the Magic Marine Easter Regatta.
Easter Monday brought the strongest wind of the event which, with clearing skies, meant a great day’s racing. Jamie Harris ended up 13th overall and third Brit. Joshua Haynes 20th overall and 4th Brit, Rosie Williamson was 55th, 13th Brit and 1st British girl.
In the last couple of weeks HD Sails are now able to measure their own sails. If your class allows IHC (In House Certification) your new sails will arrive fully measured and ready to race, this will allow you to save time in getting your sails measured and keep you legal for when you go racing.
Don’t worry if your class hasn’t signed up to the IHC, we are able to have sails measured by our local RYA and class measures but please do check when ordering your sails.
IHC is a programme to enable builders to self-certify equipment – once they have met certain standards. The aim of IHC is to maintain the standards of fairness guaranteed by traditional control and certification, but reduce the time and cost of these activities. For sailors this means they can buy certified equipment, knowing it is ready to race. With an international system of IHC, ISAF can ensure standards and certification apply worldwide.
The programme is to be administered by either an ISAF approved Authorising Authority (AA), which will normally be the MNA, appointed for a country or region (where this is more appropriate), or ISAF itself. The AA will report to ISAF in accordance with the criteria set out in the IHC Criteria and Responsibilities paper (email ISAF Technical for further details).
ISAF will implement the programme in cooperation with the MNAs; however, IHC by definition will apply to manufacturer and as most manufacturers are not class specific (i.e. they make equipment for more than one class), the scheme cannot be class specific. This means that the IHC programme should only be introduced by the ISAF and not through the class associations; however, under a single ISAF IHC licence, a manufacturer could work with a number of different classes.
The ISAF develop and establish training schemes for all Internal Official Measurers (IOM) and approve MNAs to undertake IOM certification training in accordance with these schemes. The manufacturer can then nominate a number of members of staff as Internal Official Measurers which will undergotraining specific to their manufactured product, as specified in the ISAF training syllabi.
A qualified, independant certified auditor, appointed by an AA for ISAF IHC auditing. The auditing of a manufacturer provides the main element of control which is key to the success of the IHC Programme. Audits are performed by both the manufacturer and the Authorising Authority for internal and external auditing, to ensure the manufacturing process, and the certification control are maintained at the highest level possible. The frequency of these audits varies, with internal audits performed every three months, and an AA external audit every twelve months, although this is subject to change should there be incidence of non-conformity with current class rules.
The ISAF IHC Programme is an international scheme that allows sailors to buy race ready equipment from anywhere in the world. There are examples of cases where fundamental measurement and certification of equipment was done at the event, taking up valuable time. The IHC scheme would ensure that all equipment presented at event inspection was properly certified to current class rules with all the correct certification marks in place.
This will very much depend on the class, the Authorising Authority, the manufacturer and the type of equipment being certified. In some cases, the costs will be quite small; however, in others this may not be the case. It is anticipated that in most cases, it will be less than those of current certification costs
Classes are given the option to either opt in or out of the programme and may decide if they wish to be included in the IHC scheme from the outset Assuming the class wishes to be included in the IHC scheme, they are consulted at every step of the proceedings, to ensure the class rules are in order, the measurement of specific items is well documented and to encourage their manufacturers to adopt the ISAF IHC Programme, as well as liasing with the AA regarding the auditing of manufacturers etc.
It may do. Current measurement proceedures will continue to be necessary for classes that do not wish to be included in the ISAF IHC Programme, or for classes where their class rules are not suitable for IHC; however, this is time and class and manufacturer dependant
HD Sails have had a great end to the season taking first place at the Solo End Of Season Championships and GP14 End Of Season Championship.
The Solo EOS was held at Draycote Sc, it turned out to be quite a breezy day and winter certainly arrived! 51 boats turned out with a full star studded fleet. Our own Andy Davis (current National Champion) stamped his authority and proving that the HD rig and Winder boat setup is certainly the fastest this season, Andy won the first two races by comfortable margins, showing great pace downwind.
Mike & Lizzie Senior won the GP14 End Of Season Championships held at Royal Windermere Yacht Club. Mike & Lizzie showed great pace in the light airs on Saturday to top the leader board going in to Sunday. When Sunday arrived the wind didn’t and by one o’clock the day was abandoned.
With this victory it also gave Mike the Grand Prix series for his second year in a row, crewed mainly by Chris White and a helping hand by Lizzie at the end. A huge congratulations to all!
Once again HD sails showing great consistency throughout the GP14 circuit
HD Sails came within a whisker of winning the Merlin Nationals Lyme Regis 2012
Andy Davis and Tom Pygall went in to the week as defending champions and certainly put up a good fight. Throughout the week it became clear that it was going to be a two horse race between Andy & Tom and Olympic 470 silver medalist Stuart Bithell crewed by Christian Birrell.
The strong south westerly wind brought big seas, this gave perfect conditions for the majority of the week. Unfortunately, too much wind and huge waves resulted in sailing being cancelled on Monday and Wednesday.
Throughout the week the two boats matched each other point for point resulting in a tie going in to the last day. Andy and Tom had been more consistent with a score card of 2,2,3,2,2, compared to Stuart and Christian’s 1,1,5,1,dnf. The Merlin Rocket Class sail 6 races with one discard, so going into the last day Andy had to stop Stuart from finishing in the top 4.
Race 6 started with the a force 2-3 in the south west. The race was looking as if the right hand side would pay, Andy was covering Stuart and forcing him down the line, Andy forced Stuart out to the left hand side with the majority of the fleet going right, unfortunately half way up the first beat the wind shifted 35 degrees to the left, favouring Stuart, but both boats rounded the windward mark in the top 7 with Stuart just ahead. From then there wasn’t much Andy could do as Stuart was covering. The two boats sailed through to second and third, giving Stuart the title by a point.
Geoff Carveth and Graham Williamson finshed third on 25 points, Richard Whitworth and Sarah Bines finished fourth on 37 points.
Certainly another great championship, superbly run by Lyme Regis Sailing Club.
HD Sails International Success
Congratulations to Josh Haynes on his international success at the Chocolate Cup in Hungary this summer in his Optimist dinghy. Josh received the silver medal, tied on equal points with the winner, the Hungarian National Champion, Gyapjas Zsombor, but came second after the tie break rules were applied.
The three day Chocolate Cup event included an Optimist fleet of 99 boats with entries from Slovakia, Czech Republic, Austria, Romania, Serbia, Malta, Denmark, Israel, Hungary and Great Britain.
The eight races included a variety of conditions including thunder storms and Josh commented “I just felt that I had the pace to do well and I know that’s a lot to do with my HD sail. I’m really pleased I had a great event. This year has been amazing.”
The IOCA UK National Development Team of eight sailors had enjoyed three days of training prior to the International event at the Spartacus Sailing Club in Hungary on Lake Balaton. The venue will host the 2013 IODA Optimist European Championship.
Josh has also had previous international success, as he had already picked up his first international trophy earlier this year at the Magic Marine Easter Regatta in Braassemermeer, Holland.
Josh (14) has exclusively used sails made by Andy & Jim throughout his racing career of the last seven years. He is currently ranked 15th in the IOCA UK rolling ranking.
STOP PRESS
Josh Haynes wins overall championship of Derbyshire Youth Sailing Series for second year and once again it is secured only after a tie break – this time in Josh’s favour.
Congratulations to Nick Craig on his podium finish at Warnemunde.
60 OK’s from 6 nations descended on Warnemunde for the German nationals held as part of Warnemunde Woche.
With the World Championships in Denmark looming (160 boats registered) the four days of racing were used by many as a useful warm up event.
We wish Nick the best of luck in Denmark, we will keep you up to date on his progress.