{"id":71925,"date":"2017-01-11T20:07:57","date_gmt":"2017-01-12T01:07:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/?p=71925"},"modified":"2023-05-06T23:43:47","modified_gmt":"2023-05-07T03:43:47","slug":"the-hutch-files-a-razor-thin-advantage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/racing\/the-hutch-files-a-razor-thin-advantage\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hutch Files: A Razor-Thin Advantage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Key <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n Quantum Racing slips along off of Fort Lauderdale while training before Key West Race Week 2017.<\/span>\n James Lyne\/Quantum Racing<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s file this one under, \u201cThings that make my palms sweat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Quantum Racing is on the eve of beginning our 2017 season. A 60-race no throwout regatta that rewards consistent yachting, boatspeed, and reliability in our gear. In our three month \u201coff season\u201d we took a critical look at all areas of improving Quantum Racing’s performance. One area we looked hard at, but is difficult to quantify, is windage. Think about it in terms of a floppy shirt versus a shirt that is pulled tight on your body. For sure a tight shirt is less windage than so following this thought process we looked at the most obvious area, the shrouds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

In the quest of a 1-percent performance gain Quantum Racing researched the Southern Spars\u2019 Razr product. The shrouds are solid carbon and roughly 30 percent smaller in diameter than the existing ECsix rigging, which is also a Southern project that was on Quantum Racing. The upside to Razr rigging is the windage reduction in the open course equals about 8 meters per windward leg. The benefit is even better in less than 12 knots of wind. Yet, in 2016, we had three port-starboard crossings that resulted in protest flags being green flagged by the umpires, demonstrating the game of inches we play. These crosses are too close. We\u2019ll take every opportunity to gain a meter\u2026 or 8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

The downside of Razr is its fragility and reliability. With every equipment decision of this importance, we have to check reliability against the performance gain. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being incredibly reliable, the ECsix rigging was a 9. The new rigging is sitting somewhere at about 5. Not because the rigging will break under load, but because it\u2019s fragile when handled. We cannot grab a D1 when it\u2019s slack and pull it, for risk of breaking the shroud near the turnbuckle. There are currently three boats in the TP52 fleet using it and it\u2019s been reliable thus far, with only one known breakage on account of human error. Therein lays the problem: our entire team must be vigilant with not dragging sails around the D1s or randomly grabbing them as we get on and off the boat. Anybody who sails by us in the waters off of Key West will see orange fluorescent tape on both D1s to remind all of us: \u201cDO NOT TOUCH!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Things that make my palms sweat as if the competition alone is not enough. Still, I\u2019m really looking forward to getting the party started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

[Ed\u2019s note: a Southern Spars representative confirms the Razr product, initially developed by FutureFibres, is strictly targeted for grand-prix programs.]<\/em><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Terry Hutchinson reports in as tactician for Quantum Racing’s TP52 at Quantum Key West Race Week<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38958,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"BS_author_type":"BS_author_is_guest","BS_guest_author_name":"Terry Hutchinson","BS_guest_author_url":"","hydra_display_date":"20170111","hydra_display_updated":false,"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":"159","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"The higher the stakes, the greater lengths each team will go in its quest for inches on the racecourse. For its state-of-the-art TP52, Quantum Racing is putting faith in its pencil-thin carbon rigging.","_yoast_wpseo_title":"The Hutch Files: A Razor-Thin Advantage %%sep%% %%sitename%%","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","arc_story_id":"4DR45YZM5JYEDFANT5RAUCAPJQ","arc_website_url":"quantum-key-west-race-week-17-hutch-files\/","custom_permalink":"","arc_subtype":"right-sidebar","arc_exclude_from_feeds":false,"sponsored":false,"sponsored_label":"Sponsored Content","sponsored_display_label":false,"sponsored_image":0,"post_right_rail":true,"post_right_rail_ad_1":true,"post_right_rail_ad_2":true,"post_right_rail_ad_3":false,"post_right_rail_ad_4":false,"post_right_rail_recirc":true,"fixed_anchor_ad":true,"post_top_ad":true,"post_off_ramp":true,"post_taboola":false,"labels":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[159],"tags":[343,655,259,178,318,283],"class_list":["post-71925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-racing","tag-key-west-race-week","tag-quantum-key-west-race-week-2017","tag-rigging","tag-sailboat-racing","tag-terry-hutchinson","tag-terrys-tips"],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}