Roll tacks - November 2003, #1

I was at the start of the Transat Jacques Vabre in Le Havre recently when I bumped into John Hodgart, who has disappeared off the dinghy sailing scene these past few years, but who is clearly very busy making fancy bits of hi-tech rope for the likes of Mike Golding, Emma Richards and a good many French offshore sailors too.

John works with Tom Hutchinson of Future Fibres, a British company that has found a global niche in the construction of PBO rigging for America's Cup, Volvo and other offshore racing campaigns. Chatting aboard Team Cowes, the Open 60 formerly known as Kingfisher, John told me that the weight saving by having PBO rigging instead of metal rod rigging was the equivalent of removing two fridges from half way up the mast.

According to John, there is no reason why we couldn't all be using PBO rigging in place of our metal shrouds and forestays on any small dinghy. Indeed, this year's crop of International 14s are all sporting rope forestays. They are relatively thick compared with their metal equivalent, but in the 14's case this doesn't matter as the jib luff is zipped up over the top of it.

Rope risk

Costs are coming down and perhaps we will see more examples of rope holding up masts, just like they did in Admiral Nelson's day. Funny how things come full circle. I've only just got used to the idea of rope trapeze wires, although a chat with Julian Bethwaite in Cadiz suggested they are not such a good idea in some respects.

Normally Julian, who is best known for designing the 49er and numerous fast 18-foot skiffs, can't get enough of new technology. But he claims to have heard of a few incidents where rope trapeze wires have been the cause of near fatalities during a capsize. He says this is because the rope floats on the surface and can tend to coil up if the takeaway shockcord has broken or is not sufficiently taut. The danger then is of a sailor getting their neck or ankle caught in the loop, which may then subsequently tighten and become hard to undo.

As a result, Julian is a strong advocate of having the 49er return to using wire only. At the moment, sailors have a choice of wire or rope for trapeze systems, and for reduced weight nearly everyone opts for the latter. I believe sailors should have a choice, however. The other downside of wire is that it requires crimping tools whereas any sailor with a £1 fid and some splicing knowledge can make up a new rope trapeze wire when the old one breaks or starts wearing out. The answer to getting caught in rope rigging is to carry a knife.

This was raised as a safety issue for the second year running at the 49er annual general meeting. I think I have mentioned this topic before, but it is sufficiently important to discuss again. The 18-foot skiffs are required under class rules to carry a knife on the port transom bar, so that any crew or person coming to assistance in the event of a capsize will know where to find it and use it.

Jolly Roger

I am reminded of the Tornado crew at the Princess Sofia Regatta in Palma last year, when a sailor was unable to save his brother trapped under the upturned trampoline of the Tornado. What a waste of a life for the sake of a knife. The counter argument that was raised against having them in the 49er was the story of a Canadian sailor who decided to settle a mark rounding dispute with another team, not by the traditional means of post-race protest, but by playing pirates. Brandishing his knife, the Canadian jumped from one skiff to the other and proceeded to slash the spinnaker sheets, before jumping back aboard his own boat and continuing the race.

So there is an argument that allowing knives on board would open the door to piratical behaviour, but on balance I think the compulsory knife rule would preserve more lives than it threatens.

The other big safety factor that has come up for discussion over the past couple of years is that of the trapeze hook. There are many ingenious designs available now, such as quick-release hooks or the ball-and-keyhole system that has been around for a while but commercially developed by Julian Bethwaite. Some of these systems are finding favour with sailing schools but they have yet to catch on in the serious sailing community.

However, it is worth noting that Marcus Baur and Max Groy have been using their own, custom-built ball and keyhole system on the 49er this year, and with some success. They won the European Championships in Laredo and were fifth in the Worlds at Cadiz. These guys are using this system not just for the safety factor (which is due to having a flat plate on the front of the trapeze harness with just a keyhole slot as opposed to the usual protruding hook) but because they believe it is superior in the heat of competition.

Max points out that whereas a trapeze ring needs to go on in the correct alignment to the hook, a simple plastic ball can locate into the keyhole at any alignment. Also the absence of a metal trapeze ring means the system is lighter and therefore does not swing around in wavy conditions quite so much. It's great to see these new ideas being pioneered at the highest level, and hopefully this is one that will be adopted by more trapeze sailors in years to come.

You can leave your hat on

Anyway, as I was saying, John Hodgart is too busy tied up with rope to get much dinghy racing in, having been a keen 14 and Lark racer in his time. But he was enthusing about his trip down memory lane at the Lark Masters Championship which took place at Stewartby Sailing Club a month or so back. With 44 boats entered, it was John's and many of his contemporaries' first time in a Lark for more than a decade.

The regatta was originally the idea of Tim Fells, who first won the Lark Nationals back in the late 80s and these days is seen at the front of the B14 fleet. But the current Lark Association took it on, and did a great job of selling it. I spoke to Emma Harris, who is responsible for Lark publicity, and who in my time writing Rolltacks has been far and away the most proactive promoter of her class.

She said the event went down a storm with some of the past Lark stars, which included Tim Fells, Alan Jessop, Bob Suggitt, the Shorrocks, and the Mitchells. The Association did its best to reacquaint sailors with their old boats, so Mark and Liz Rushall went sailing in Camembear, the wooden-decked hull that made them the dominant team in the early 90s. John Brickwood and Andy Hicks won the meeting on the water, but the black tie party on the Saturday night was the high point, by the sound of it.

The evening's entertainment included a revival of some long-forgotten Lark songs, unrepeatable here, but which included the class's own version of Singing in the Rain. I won't go into detail, but the Full Monty may well have been inspired by the graphic finale of Singing in the Rain, as performed by the Lark fleet of old. From what Emma says the revival made for amusing but not very pretty viewing. It was, apparently, a flabby, not to say flaccid, performance.

Such was the enthusiasm for the event that some sailors were pleading for it to become an annual fixture, but Emma says it is more likely to happen once every two or three years, following that old showbiz trick of ‘Always leave the audience wanting more'. Even so, she says the event might yet have convinced some of the old timers to purchase a Lark and get back on the campaign trail once more.

All aboard the dry Lark

Although performance-wise there is no discernible difference between the Mark 3 Rondar-built Lark and the older Mark 2 Parkers, the newer version is reputedly more pleasant to sail. The interior is markedly different, with one of the benefits being that it comes up much drier after a capsize. Another nice alteration is to the transom, which on the old version used to scoop a few cupfuls of water if you were too enthusiastic with your roll tacks. The newer version sails drier.

The most fundamental design brief put to Rondar was to build a boat that would retain its stiffness for longer, and the class is certainly pleased with the result, having had three years to get used to the new version. It is also taken that length of time, however, for the Rondars to find their way to the front of the fleet.

Emma says this may be because of a slightly different mast heel position, and so carrying settings across from one of the Parker Mk 2s would not necessarily work on the new boats. But people seem to be getting to grips with the different set-up required and the two types of boat are enjoying the closest of racing. Emma herself is still sailing an older Mk 2, and indeed used this to become the first ever female winner of the Nationals last year, crewed by Becky Priest. While she has been as active as ever in promoting the class in 2003, her own sailing took a back seat while she concentrated on being a mother to young baby Aidan. However, with baby-sitting arrangements being made for next year, Emma plans a comeback in 2004.

With Emma and her partner Nigel Scott both so heavily committed to promoting the Lark, it is not surprising to discover that they both come from a marketing background. I asked Emma to reveal some secrets of the Lark's 21^st Century renaissance, following a bad slump in the late 90s when attendance levels at the Nationals dropped into the 30s. Now the Lark is back in the 50-plus club, and she has promised to report back for a future edition of Rolltacks on just how the Association climbed out of its temporary Doldrums and got the Lark singing once more.

Another fleet that continues to impress with its promotional activities is the Fireball. Jonathan Bale kindly sent me a gear guide for the Nationals in Paignton earlier this summer. The table reveals just what a standardised package the Fireball has become, with Goodwin the only builder to impinge on Winder's dominance of the top 10.