This past weekend I was invited to sail onboard the TP 52 Decision in the Manhasset Bay Fall series. Dave Shriner and I made the trip out to New York for three days of Sailing on Long Island Sound overlooking the Manhattan Sky line. We had great conditions with temperatures in the high 50’s, solid westerly breeze and plenty of sunshine.

 

The TP 52 is a terrific box rule that has produced light weight high stability racing boats. Decision, formerly Rosebud is a Riechel Pugh 2nd generation design that has been very successful in a variety of venues. The boat is very fun to sail as she rewards good trimming and boat handling with immediate returns in speed. On Friday we practiced, Dave and I where in charge main trim and the hydraulic settings. Unlike the newer generation boats, Decision is set up with two main sail winches instead of one winch and a pedestal.  Around the buoys this means the boat is slightly under winched and a real workout for the main trimmers.

 

After just completing the Lake Geneva Fall Championship, I was surprised at the similarities between the Melges 24 and the TP 52. Both boats accelerate quickly in the puffs and are main driven, rig sensitive up wind. The TP 52 rig has a few easily adjustable controls that give you a lot of options to optimize the sail plan for the given conditions. First the mast jack and plates are used to adjust the tension of the cap and diagonal shrouds. This puts a greater initial compression on the rig. Then the forestay has a hydraulic ram attached to it, so the length and tension of the forestay can be adjusted. This control is important to the shape of the jib and also increases compression and bend in the mast. Having the ability to change the length and tension of the forestay really helps make adjustments to varying conditions.  On most boats changing the length of the forestay requires a fare amount of work that cannot be done while racing. Around the marks and at the start it is very important that the jib and main trimmer work together as it is impossible to turn the boat if either sail is over trimmed.

 

Much of the adjustments were turn key as the crew from “Rosebud” had left a very detailed crossover chart and tuning guide to work from. This made our job really easy so we could focus on looking up the course and make adjustments for each new wind line. It would have been nice to have some like size boats to race against as we were far and away the fastest boat on the course. Going from sailing one-design and match racing the past couple of weeks it was odd to go into a mark rounding all alone. We are leading our division by 1 point so we'll have to keep sailing cleanly around the course next weekend to have a chance to win the event. 

 

It was a very fun three days of sailing on a fast boat, looking forward to closing out the fall series next weekend.

 

Cheers,
Jack Jennings
Pied Piper Racing