Rupert Holmes on how to go about buying a yacht for shorthanded racing – the fastest growing section of the sport at the moment<\/p>\n
The rapidly growing double-handed and shorthanded racing scene has attracted a flurry of recently launched models specifically optimised for this type of competition. But a cost-effective way of competing can also be found with a used boat.
\nIn little more than five years short-handed racing has transitioned from what was often seen as a fringe activity to become mainstream. There was an explosion in interest when a doublehanded mixed doubles class was mooted for the Paris Olympics. This attracted big names including Dee Caffari, Shirley Robertson, Henry Bomby and Ocean Race veteran Emily Nagel.
\nEven after the class was subsequently dropped from the Games much of that talent has remained in the fleet, and social distancing rules provided a further boost: for a few weeks after the initial 2020 lockdown the only racing possible was solo or doublehanded.
\n\u201cGrowth over the past couple of years has been exponential,\u201d confirms Nigel Colley, Solo Offshore Racing Club director and MD of Jeanneau dealer Sea Ventures. \u201cOnce people tried it, many didn\u2019t rush back to fully-crewed sailing. Instead a lot modified their boats for shorthanded racing or downsized.\u201d
\nJean Pierre Kelbert\u2019s JPK 10.30 L\u00e9on is a double-handed Fastnet winner. Photo: James Tomlinson
\nIt\u2019s easy to think of a good short-handed raceboat as being of a certain mould, with broad transom and twin rudders: Sun Fasts, JPKs and so on. These designs have common traits that include huge stability, translating to better control when pushing hard in borderline conditions and easy depowering when the breeze builds.
\nHowever, you don\u2019t have to look far to find examples of wildly different designs that have notched up decent results, including many older models. The most obvious of these is Kelvin Rawlings and Stuart Childerly\u2019s J\/105 Jester that won the double-handed division of the 2015 Rolex Fastnet Race, took 4th overall on IRC, and was first British boat on corrected time.
\nThen there\u2019s Will Sayer\u2019s masthead rigged, shoal draught Sigma 33C Elmarleen, which won the 2008 OSTAR on corrected time and the doublehanded class in the 2011 Fastnet.
\nArticle continues below<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSecond hand boats: how to buy a ready to sail yacht<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tIt\u2019s no secret that if you want to buy a new yacht the wait is now likely to be two\u2026<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHow to win at double-handed racing \u2013 5 top tips from a Fastnet champion<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe popularity of double-handed sailing is on the rise. The Rolex Fastnet Race is the perfect case in point \u2013\u2026<\/p>\n
More recently, in the 2019 AZAB (Azores and Back Race) my partner and I were 4th overall racing Zest, a 36ft Rob Humphreys one-off from the early 1990s, beating all but one of the seven Sun Fasts in a fleet of 45 boats. Equally, Jeffery Knapman\u2019s MG335 Virago \u2013 a design from the 1980s \u2013 has a long list of successful results, including overall victory in last year\u2019s RORC Channel Race.
\nEven before the recent explosion of interest, demand for good shorthanded racing yachts was such that many of the best craft changed hands before reaching the open market. Now that\u2019s typical across the board.
\n\u201cDemand on the brokerage market has been huge for the last 12 months,\u201d says Hannah Le Prevost, sales director of J\/Boat distributor Key Yachting. \u201cIt\u2019s coming from people new to racing, those already in the scene wanting a different boat, and from people changing from fully crewed racing.\u201d As a result she says they have a longer list of people looking for a boat than those with one for sale.
\nDee Caffari and Henry Bomby racing. Photo: Rick Tomlinson
\n\u201cThe market is really tough at the moment,\u201d adds Colley. \u201cRight now there\u2019s very little available. Inflation in new boat prices is high and lead times are long, so many people are hanging on to their existing boats.\u201d In the last year he\u2019s sold a couple of used JPK 10.10s and 10.80s, plus four or five Sun Fast 3200s, all for 10-20% more than they would have fetched two years ago.
\nIRC optimised shorthanded racing yachts
\nShorthanded racing in the UK and France is predominantly under IRC and there are no one design classes, so it\u2019s imperative the boat will rate competitively (unless six or eight owners eventually get together to seed a new class). In this size range IRC still appears to treat some very lightweight planing boats quite harshly, which tends to rule out designs like the Figaro 2 and many of Pogo\u2019s ultra-fast cruising models.
\nEqually, the stability requirements for Category 1 oceanic races such as the OSTAR, AZAB and RORC Transatlantic now rule out designs such as the Sigma 33. If your future plans include one of these events it\u2019ll pay to factor it in at an early stage. Equally, there are few boats shorter than 30ft that comply with the equivalent requirements for the Fastnet.
\nOutside a handful of small yards such as JPK, two designs currently dominate the market for new boats in this sphere. The most obvious is the Sun Fast 3300 which is offered with a wide range of possible specification and final on-the-water prices varying from around \u00a3240,000 to \u00a3280,000, including VAT.
\nPhoto: Paul Wyeth\/RORC
\nMore than 100 J\/99s have now left the factory and racing successes include first doublehanded boat in the 2021 Rolex Sydney Hobart Race under both IRC and ORCi rating rules. Typically the on-the-water price of a fully equipped new boat is in the \u00a3170,000 to \u00a3190,000 range including VAT.
\nShorthanded racing set-ups
\nMany myths still circulate about appropriate set-up for shorthanded racing. Perhaps the biggest of these is that symmetric spinnakers are difficult to handle. This may have been true a couple of decades ago, but the professional sailors in the old Figaro 2 fleet got it down to a fine art. This knowledge \u2013 and more \u2013 is now well embedded in the UK short-handed community.
\nOnce you know the drill, gybing a symmetric kite when sailing solo in up to 20 knots of true wind is straightforward. Depending on the boat and sea state, it\u2019s still possible in 23-25 knots.
\nA J\/105 is a solid shorthanded option. Photo: Key Yachting
\nIRC is relatively kind on downwind sail area and many older boats benefit from larger spinnakers. On Zest, for instance, we increased the S2 by more than 20%. This is particularly important for offshore racing, where extended periods of very light airs can be encountered.
\nHeadsail choice is important too. Even older boats have almost all changed to non-overlapping jibs, as these rate well and sail changes are enormously easier than with big genoas. A few boats have roller furling, plus a heavy weather jib set on a removable Dyneema inner forestay.
\nHowever, most have hank-on sails fitted with a slab reef, which makes for a quick and easy change down from a J3 to a J4, for instance. Equally, a North Sails J1 with a Helix structured luff can be fitted with a Cunningham to flatten the shape to match that of a J2.
\nShorthanded boats in the UK invariably carry a Code 0, although they are not so popular in the French fleet. When I sailed with JPK founder Jean Pierre Kelbert last autumn he told me his own JPK 10.30 Leon \u2013 which won the doublehanded division of both the 2019 and 2021 Rolex Fastnet Races \u2013 has a very flat nylon A3 that can be reefed to an A5.
\nYou don\u2019t have to have a super-modern, wide transomed doublhanded race boat to compete
\nIn very light airs it\u2019s as good as a Code 0 at true wind angles as tight as 60-65\u00b0, but is a more flexible sail that means fewer kites are needed, which confers a small rating benefit.
\nBeyond that, Colley recommends buying \u201cthe best pilot you can afford.\u201d He also points out that small tweaks to the deck layout can make big differences to how easy boats are to handle when you\u2019re alone on deck. Additional turning blocks for headsail sheets, for instance, can make cross-winching possible. Moving spinnaker sheet turning blocks forward a little from the transom may enable them to be led to any winch, allowing them to be trimmed from the helm.
\nAnother useful modification is cam cleats on the mast for halyards. Sails can then be hoisted at the mast and temporarily cleated when you\u2019re alone on deck. Once the halyard is fully tensioned at the pit, the geometry means it pops out of the mast cleat automatically.
\nKate Cope\u2019s Sun Fast 3200 R2 Purple Mist. Photo: Tom Hicks
\nGoing shorthanded
\nKate Cope started sailing later than many, before buying a Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 36 for cruising. Her first exposure to the racing scene was in 2015 when she helped a friend, who had replaced his heavy old Rival 32 with a J\/105, prepare for a doublehanded Fastnet Race.
\n\u201cWhen I was helping Rob cast off, I realised I wanted to compete as well,\u201d she told me. She entered her own boat in the Myth of Malham Race the following year, following it with the Channel and Cherbourg races. In 2017 she completed a full RORC season, including the Fastnet, sailing with a team of six. They were third to last on the water \u2013 \u201cBut we had a massive sense of achievement,\u201d she says.
\nIt helped that a lot of people, among them Rob Nelson, Deb Fish and David Cooper were really generous with their mentorship. \u201cEven though I was at the back of the fleet, no one made me feel stupid \u2013 instead they sought me out and helped me explore how we might have done better.\u201d Initially Cope measured progress by noting the few boats she beat in each race. That list quickly became longer and longer.
\nAfter a couple of years, she was ready to step into a more performance oriented boat, with the goal of competing in the 2019 AZAB in a new Sun Fast 3200 R2. \u201cIn hindsight, the transition from being almost last in the 2017 Fastnet, to completing the AZAB in a high performance boat two years later was a huge one.\u201d
\nIn 2021 she finished 7th out of the 28 boats that competed in the UK Double Handed Offshore Series and her next big goal is the RORC Transatlantic in January next year. She\u2019s also now organiser of the UK Double Handed Offshore Series and JOG vice-captain.<\/p>\n
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The post Secondhand boats: Buying a shorthanded racing yacht appeared first on Yachting World.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rupert Holmes on how to go about buying a yacht for shorthanded racing – the fastest growing section of the sport at the moment The rapidly growing double-handed and shorthanded racing scene has attracted a flurry of recently launched models … <\/p>\n