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North of Twenty

by David Schmidt, Posted October 22, 2008
“This thing is like a Volvo Open 70 except it doesn’t have a canting keel and its systems are more refined,” says veteran bowman Jerry Kirby as Numbers, Dan Meyers’s newly splashed Judel/Vrolijk 66, hits a big wave and jostles the crew, most of whom are stationed near the stern to keep the bow up. All around us are choppy seas; the true-wind instrument reads 18 to 21 knots, and our
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Heavy Lifting

by David Schmidt, Posted October 22, 2008
We all want our boats to be more stable, but how can this be accomplished? The conventional solution is to hang more ballast off a deeper keel. Think more progressively, and you’re talking about water ballasting, which, while effective, also adds extra weight. Go sci-fi, and you’re canting your keel to windward—which is very effective, but is complicated, accident-prone, and still depends on
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Dream Week

by Sail Staff, Posted October 22, 2008
“You gotta be kidding me!” exclaims a muscle-bound member of the crew of Leopard, a brand-new Farr-designed, British-owned 100-foot Super-Maxi, from our observation post aboard her tender. “The RC’s set the finishing line just off that reef. Leopard’s doing 15 knots, easy. There’s not much time to gybe, get that kite down, and head up.” Seated around me are other
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Bases Loaded

by David Schmidt, Posted October 22, 2008
So, you want to campaign a Volvo Open 70. The 2008–09 Volvo Ocean Race (VOR), a fully crewed around-the-world marathon, started on October 4, 2008, in Alicante, Spain, so you're out of luck unless your time frame is far downstream. As in, the next race. When the time comes, you could model yourself this way: You could start by buying the VO70 that holds the monohull 24-hour distance record
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Kites Take the Speed Record

by Sail Staff, Posted September 22, 2008
There is sadly little detail—and of course, everything waits for official ratification—but there is every reason to believe that we have a new sailing speed record of 49.84 knots set by an American, Rob Douglas, with a kite. Douglas is a windsurfer who took to kites only in June. There has been a lot of speculation that kiting development would overtake the lead of windsurfers in
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