North Sails One Design: Key West - Black Seal Interview
January 28, 2016 - by North Sail One Design North America - 2016 is shaping up to be a big year for Melges 24 sailors as the class prepares for the World Championships in Miami this fall. The first major event of the year was held at Key West Race Week where Richard Thompson and his team christened the brand new Black Seal-GBR850 with a dominating class win over a very talented fleet. We asked Richard and North Sails Ireland's Nigel Young, Black Seals “speed guru”, to answer some questions about their team, their superstitions and what really made Black Seal so fast all week.
Congratulations, first off, to all the team on GBR 850, Black Seal, on your dominating victory in the Melges 24 class at Key West Race Week. When did you decide to organize your program to travel all the way to Key West for Race Week and how did the team come together?
Richard - I have been sailing M24s on and off since 1998. When the Worlds 2016 was announced for Miami, I purchased a new boat and planned a brief campaign in the lead up to the Worlds. The basic crew came together easily as I have previously sailed with both Jamie Lea and Nigel Young, whilst I would not start a campaign without the involvement of Krista Paxton who brings all the advantages of strength, determination, extraordinary hiking ability and strength which belies her light weight. The perfect combination! Rachel Williamson was sailing with us for the first time and immediately blended in perfectly.
Nigel - As Richard says, Team Black Seal was formed way back in or around 1998 and Richard has been sailing in the class on and off for all of that time. He became a client of North Sails at about the same time and has been with us ever since. I first sailed with Richard in 2001 after a 6 month sabbatical from North Sails to ride my motorbike 12,000 miles around the USA! I first started sailing the Melges 24 in 1994 and have been sailing it ever since. The Melges 24 is the best small sports boat out there by a million miles in my opinion.
It takes a full team effort to win at KWRW. Who was on your team and what was everyone's job?
Nigel - This year our team was Richard Thompson (UK) doing the driving, Jamie Lea (UK) calling tactics, myself (UK / IRL) managing the upwind and downwind sail trim and Krista Paxton (USA) and Rachel Williamson (UK / IRL) teaming up on the front end and controlling spinnaker hoists and drops, and hiking! The team are all very experienced in the Melges 24 class and it just works. One of our priorities when putting a team together is it must work on land as well as it works on the water! No big ego's welcome!!
Richard - Some time ago I decided that it was time for me to go and sit at the back of the boat. It has been more than 10 years since I steered and so it is critical that the rest of the crew operate at a high level to offset the handicap of their helmsman! Jamie Lea is not only a great tactician but also, working for North Sails One Design gives him a lot of experience and time helping me understand how to make the Melges 24 go fast. Nigel Young is the sail trimmer for both the jib and spinnaker. Nigels’ experience as a sailmaker for North Sails is an incredible asset to our team. Our confidence level in knowing that our sails are set and trimmed properly and the boat is tuned right for the conditions largely falls on Nigel (and Jamie) so, I think the best definition of his role would be that he is in “charge of speed”. Krista Paxton and Rachel Williamson run the spinnaker up and down as well as weight distribution and, most importantly, wind and gust spotting. The result of this clear delineation of responsibility is that all I do is steer. I do not participate in tactical decisions and try to stick to my job which is sometimes difficult especially when things get exciting. I am regularly told off for looking at the other boats!
Black Seal won 6 of the 10 races which is very telling of the quality of your team and your ability to make a M24 go fast. What do you think were the three (or four) factors that gave you an edge over the fleet?
Richard - In a nutshell:
1. We planned and worked to make certain we all have a clear division of responsibility on the boat which everyone sticks to.
2. We all constantly monitor boat speed so that, if we aren’t going as fast (or faster), it is time to change something. This applies especially upwind where the overall set up often needed to be compromised to keep me, as helmsman, in the groove.
3. Stay calm, especially when things are not looking quite so good.
4. Keep it simple. Doing the simple things well means that you need never do the difficult things
Over a 5 day event there obviously a lot went right for your team. Were there any mishaps or problems that occurred and, if so, how did you handle them?
Richard - These were mainly around helmsman operator error. I often found it difficult to stay in the groove in the very choppy conditions. We generally sailed upwind with a lot of twist upwind which probably gave away a few degrees of pointing but this was more than made up for by better and more consistent speed.
Nigel - Richard’s humility aside, we truly had no issues at all during the week. The boat is new from Melges Boat Works and it’s really excellent! We had no gear issues, no failures at all in fact. I guess that's down to our preparation of the boat and the great team, plus a great job by Harry Melges and the gang up in Zenda!
This years’ Key West certainly seemed to fit the bill as a great training event for any teams going to the Worlds in Miami. What heavy air tips can you share from the past week that may help a team preparing for the Worlds in the fall?
Nigel - It’s interesting that KWRW has been billed as a windy event! In Europe we tend to sail in stronger winds than in the USA so we would describe the conditions as moderate for the week so not really heavy airs but certainly we had breeze. It was only the last day that things got near the edge at all and that was only for a few minutes during the final race. There were big waves for sure but not really that windy. I think the key to success in a breeze is to keep the boat flat and fast upwind and sail “on the edge” downwind! While that’s certainly easy to say it’s not always easy to do! I certainly think your team needs to be on the weight limit (or as close as possible) as well as focus on having your tuning perfect and, probably most important, practice sailing in those conditions as often as possible.
Richard - The only point I’d add from my perspective is, upwind we certainly try to use all the gears and are always “shifting gears” as conditions warrant so we can keep going fast so that we do not stall the keel. For downwind I think we try to be “smoothly aggressive” in keeping the speed up whilst trying to use the bigger waves.
We've seen lot's of successful teams that embrace some rituals or habits (perhaps even superstitions) when they race from where they eat, what they wear to what kind of food is allowed on the boat. Does the team on Black Seal have anything you all do as a team that might fit into one of those categories?
Richard - The only ritual that I noticed is a really good breakfast and copious cups of coffee before leaving the dock. More seriously, as helmsman, I find having plenty of upwind/downwind work helps to calm the nerves before the start of the day. Don’t leave the dock too late.
Nigel - No rituals or superstitions on Black Seal.........Well I guess the only one is we only sail with Flourescent Yellow spinnakers! Nothing else will do. (Editor note: Nigel, I’d say that is a fairly significant superstition but at least we will find you on the course!)
Your sail inventory for KWRW was the AP-3K main, J-7K jib, P-1 Reacher and Max Runner spinnakers. What did the team learn about the sails and setup for this sail combination and how well would that combination work for teams leading up towards the Worlds in Miami?
Nigel - We use the standard North Sails One Design Class M24 sails on Black Seal. The AP-3 and J-7 designs are the most successful upwind sails in the M24 and don't look like they will be beaten as the best all round sails for a long time to come. As you can only measure in one main, one jib and two spinnakers for a major regatta you need really versatile sails and that's what we have with the standard class sails. The latest addition to the wardrobe is the P-1 spinnaker and this is a really nice sail and a must have for 2016.
Richard - We really like the new P-1 kite and, in fact, used it exclusively during Key West. The sail fits our sailing style quite well and, so far, find it to be quite flexible in the conditions we’ve raced this year.
KWRW this year featured a fair bit of breeze for the most part. Can you share with us your thoughts on tuning throughout the week? How much did you have to change your setup and how far did your setup vary from the North tuning guide?
Richard - Nigel, this seems to be right in your wheelhouse.
Nigel - Well it’s actually quite simple for us. We use the standard tuning data from the North Sails M24 tuning guide and always have. The one thing I might add is that, in our experiences, I think you can carry a lot more tension in big waves than you might think even if the wind speed does not match the wave height. That's something we will see in Miami and we saw an awful lot in Key West.
What is the plan for the team for 2016?
Nigel - Currently, for 2016 Black Seal is planning on sailing KWRW, the Miami Madness Regatta in March, Charleston Race Week in April and then one or two more events before the Worlds in November. Both Jamie and I will race on the European circuit as well so we will have plenty of hours in the boat before the Worlds 2016 in Miami.
That’s currently the plan. We will do at least one more event, perhaps two before the summer. Additionally we will then plan to have 4 training days at the venue in Miami before the Worlds commences.
Last question....Fill in the blank... "The most fun part about sailing the Melges 24 in Key West Race Week was _________________"
Nigel - The most fun part of sailing the Melges 24 in KWRW was the rain!! At least it was warm not like as I write this in my office in Cork!! (Editor: The rain? Really?)
Richard - Winning!
This interview was prepared by North Sails UK/Ireland Nigel Young. We want to thank Richard for sharing their information with us.
Article on the webpage of the North Sails One Design North America