What is Kimo Worthington’s advice to Bermuda Race crews? asks Chris Museler. He summarizes it this way: “Look at the forecast and sail hard.” And have the right sails for the conditions. If there was ever a person to ask what sails to pile on board for the Newport Bermuda Race, it’s Worthington, who’s sailing this year in the big Comanche.
Not only has this ocean racing project manager run the most successful American Volvo Ocean Race campaigns (EF Language, Pirates of the Caribbean, PUMA), he’s head of sales for North Sails. Over the last three weeks, Worthington has been on the phone with clients, captains, and sailmakers about the optimum sails for a very broad variety of boats—all that while massaging deadlines, designs, and expectations in anticipation of Friday’s start. Yes, people should have made the call on new sails months ago, but this is sailing and many of us opt to make the call about what to buy and what to bring as late as possible, in hopes of gaining some advantage.
Worthington takes sail selection very seriously. “For us on Comanche, it’s too early to tell what sails we will bring,” he told me on the Monday before the start, between visits to clients. For Jim and Kristy Clark’s high-performance 100-footer (sailing in the Open Division for cant-keelers and crewed by mostly professional sailors), the sail inventory decision is a little easier than that of most other boats because their race will almost certainly be a short one. “My plane ticket is for 3 p.m. Sunday,” Worthington told me—meaning an elapsed time under two days. He told me that if he had to make the sail call right then, as we were talking, they’d carry only three sails in addition to the mainsail: the J1, J2, and the FRO (Fractional Code Zero). That’s because he expected fast reaching conditions before possibly hitting a light-air trough just before Bermuda.
Sail Charts, From Grand Prix to Cruisers
This year Worthington has a wide range of clients. There’s the Grand Prix racer Comanche, and also the two-masted, gaff-rigged 140-foot schooner America, sailing her first Bermuda Race in the Spirit of Tradition Division against the three-master Spirit of Bermuda and two smaller boats. Owned by Troy Sears, America was sailed around from San Diego for some East Coast fun that includes America’s Cup-related events and a crack at the Bermuda Race. America’s sail selection is simple—just four sails. She got her new suit on Tuesday morning and, because the boat is busy with charters, the crew had just one day available to bend on the sails, cutting the hanks off the old jibs and whipping them onto the luffs of the new ones.
A third boat Kimo Worthington has been working with is the Hinckley Bermuda 50 Jambi, entered in the St. David’s Lighthouse Division. “They had the basic cruising set of sails and wanted to do Bermuda. We showed them a sail chart, identified the holes, and started filling them in.”
Sail charts for individual boats are developed over time to indicate which sails are necessary for good performance in particular wind angles and wind strengths. Compiling a chart requires going out with an owner or team, putting up every sail, sailing as high and as low as they can to determine each sail’s performance limits, and learning a lot more about the sails and the boat under the supervision of a coach or a sailmaker. This process, Worthington said, “can make a huge difference with any type of boat and competitor.”
Jambi’s owner and his experienced Corinthian crew have been working on sail selection all spring. A late-night session with Worthington last month allowed the group to test all their Bermuda Race sail combinations. “They were really well organized,” said Worthington. “They were collecting all the data as we went along, and they created their own sail chart.”
Another of Worthington’s Bermuda Race clients is the Double-Handed Division team aboard the J/120 Mireille, skippered by shorthanded veteran Hewitt Gaynor. This very experienced team last week fine-tuned a new Code Zero, a furling staysail, and a new Number 4 jib.
Another Code Zero went aboard a Beneteau 50 entered in the Cruiser Division. “That boat has a microwave, a real cruiser,” said Worthington, obviously impressed by the wide range of boats competing in the race.
Aboard my ride, Simon Says Oakcliff, an Andrews 68 in the St. David’s Division, we tested a new Code Zero— a popular sail in this race, which often has a lot of reaching. Our team had to learn how the continuous furler works, and how high the sail should be hoisted so the furler clears the pulpit. Pre-race practice is important. I have been on another boat where we tested a Code Zero for the first time after the start. It did not go very well. The sail unrolled only partially, and after a sloppy retrieval the slippery, wet Code Zero occupied the forepeak for two days.
To quote Kimo Worthington, “Look at the forecast and sail hard.”
Read other installments in Chris Museler's "Road to Bermuda" series: Seasickness , Personal Gear and Smart Packing , Safety Training
