Back on the bus

We speak to Howie Hamlin and Cam Lewis about their 505 campaign

What do Philippe Kahn and Hasso Plattner have in common? Yes, they have both won the elapsed time record in the biennial TransPac race in their respective maxi boats Morning Glory and Pegasus. They were also both racing last week at the CSC International 505 World Championship, Plattner sailing with Peter Alarie, Kahn with skiff sailor Euan McNicol.

For this 50th anniversary 505 Championship in Warnemeunde, Germany, the class were keen to wheel out as many past World Champions as possible. Included on this list were Howie Hamlin (1999 with Mike Martin) this year sailing with maxi-cat skipper Cam Lewis (1981 with Ethan Bixby and the following year with Gary Knapp) as crew.

Hamlin and Lewis raced the 505 Worlds together before at Townsville in Australia in 1996, Durban in 1994 and two years earlier when the Worlds were in Santa Cruz.

"We thought it would be fun - the class’ 50th anniversary and they’re trying to get all the past World Champions here and we’re good friends," says Hamlin. "You jump back in for a little bit of training, but it’s hard though."

Pairing up with Lewis proved not to be that easy in that Hamlin is based on the west coast of the US, while Lewis lives in Maine on the east coast. "We haven’t trained a whole lot," admitted Lewis when we spoke to him. He flew out to California four times earlier this year and the duo also came out to race at Travemunde Week, finishing a respectible third. "We came over for a speed check," says Lewis. "That was a 60 something boat regatta and now we have 170 boats and you have an eight minute long gate."

A unique feature of the 505 class are their gate starts, which by coincidence are also celebrating their 50th birthday this year (the gate start was originally developed for a Firefly championship by a master at Eton College). Obviously we all know what a gate start is, but just to recap one boat (usually the boat which finished tenth in the preceeding race) known as the 'pathfinder' or 'rabbit' sails off on port tack with a RIB following astern of them. As the start gun goes so the port mark is dropped off from the RIB, while the stern of the RIB becomes the starboard hand mark. The start line is taken by the remaining competitors on starboard tack. This 'gate' is usually kept open for three to five minutes, but due to the size of the fleet at the 505 Worlds was kept open for eight minutes. This opens up a whole unique set of starting tactics, not to mention the potential for the most prolonged and nerve-racking time for anyone starting early and attempting to port tack the fleet... The pathfinder can also be at a distinct disadvantage is the left proves to be paying on the first beat.

And so the gate start became quite an issue for the final race of the Worlds this year when the series' German leaders Hunger and Jess finished tenth in the penultimate race while American duo Mike Martin and Jesse Falsone were breathing down their necks 11 points adrift of their lead.

When we spoke to Hamlin and Lewis they had got off to slow start, scoring a lowly 58th place in the second race which later was a welcome discard. "It was light air and we just didn’t get going," admitted Lewis (right). "We got going early out of the gate and the whole right side came out and we came off the gate and I was to leeward of the boom with my head and by the time I got my head to windward of the boom in a bit of a puff, it was ‘we’ve got to tack, we starting into a header’ and there was a boat right up on our hip and we should have just left the sheets out and ducked them. I tried to get the guy to tack and we let another American guy go by us - he crossed us and finished fifth in the race, so you’ve just got to get going early even if you have to duck sixty boats to get going in the right direction (when you can). Sometimes it’s hard to bit the bullet. A lot of it is lane management and fleet management."

While start options are limited for the pathfinder, the gate start does make it easier for race committee to start big fleets. "You don't get many OCSes, because the way the rule is written," says Lewis. "If you bang off the gate boat and don’t impede them you can do a 360. In the first start yesterday the rabbit got a header and people were set up high and he just tacked to avoid smashing into people and they had a recall and started again. Next start he was lifted and we started and were headed and it was like ‘we’ve got to tack’ and had we had more objective or something we probably could have tacked and crossed the whole fleet. If you can’t tack coming out early and you have to sail through the first shift you are in deep do-do."

The big fleet start doesn't bother Hamlin as he says the last time the 505 Worlds had this many boats was when he won with Mike Martin in Quiberon.

With a more consistent performance towards the end of the week, Hamlin and Lewis finished the 505 Worlds in ninth place overall.



AOB

Following the 505 Worlds so Hamlin launches straight into the annual 18ft skiff regatta in San Francisco. Entries are a little light this year with no boats coming from the UK and number down from Australia. However the local fleet has had a boost with the arrival of Philippe Kahn and his entourage of which Hamlin is now part. "We have got some new local players which is going to be good. Philippe Kahn has bought a couple of boats and so a couple of his guys are sailing and Jack Young. Shark Kahn is going to be sailing which is great. No boats are coming across from the UK, but they want to come across next year." Among the new Pegasuses is Rob Greenhalgh's former JJ Giltinan Trophy-winning RMW Marine.

Meanwhile Cam Lewis is still in lengthy negotiations and court wrangling in Poland with the insurer of his maxi-catamaran Team Adventure, over the bow breakage she suffered more than four years ago now...

"Basically we had a decision from the arbitration courting Poland, but it wasn’t enough to pay the legal fee, pay the debts, the storage and fix the boat, so we are not happy with that and we are going back to Poland to try and get more money through the civil court process because we don’t like the way the Arbitration Panel has written up the termination of all the facts found. It is on-going and the boat is sitting in Rhode Island..."

Lewis and Larry Rosenfeld, his partner in Team Adventure, hope to launch another plan for their maxi-cat whereby they will fund their campaign by selling days on the boat to private individuals and corporates.