Spreading the word

We talk to former 505 and 18ft skiff world champion Howie Hamlin about his campaign to bring skiff sailing to the USA

Howie Hamlin is currently on a crusade to get racing sailors from his native Califorrnia round to his way of thinking: that when it comes to thrill factor and bang for buck afloat, there is little to beat performance dinghy sailing be it in either of his two favoured disciplines - the 505 or the 18ft skiff.

From Long Beach, Hamlin was something of a late developer in sailing. During his youth he was exposed to the sport by his father, a long term 14 and Dragon sailor. However it wasn't until aged 21 when he went for a blast in a 505 that he was fully bitten by the bug. "I got a ride on one and I thought ‘this is fun’. Previously I’d been into racing motorcycles and go-karts and going fast. 25 years ago it was the fastest thing in the States - it was the 18 of sail boats."

Once committed to the 505 he took part in all the regattas he could, including regular participation at the Worlds where ever they might be, but it still took him a long time to reach the top of his game. It wasn't until 1990 when he'd been in the class 15 years, that he won his first North Americans sailing with Steve Rosenberg. He has won the North Americans several times since, once with Cam Lewis who he sailed with for two season beginning his spate of second places in the Worlds - he has finished runner-up at the Worlds on six occasions now.

His most successful partnership has been with Mike Martin, the person most responsible for upping his game. With Martin he finally won the 505 Worlds in Quiberon in 1999 - remarkably his 20th participation at the Worlds. "It took forever, but I started late and I think my sailing has only been getting to a world level in the last few years largely through the help of Mike," says Hamlin. "He said 'if you want to win, you’ve put time in, you’ve got to start sailing'. So we started training about five years ago, one night a week in the summer and that was the difference and then we won."

Apart from being highly proficient on the water, Hamlin also has a strong technical streak. In 1979 he designed his own hull still built by Larry Tuttle at Waterat in Santa Cruz. After a spate of wins by Rondar 505s, it was in a Waterat that Hamlin won the Worlds some 20 years later. He still sails this boat.

"It was quite revolutionary at the time - one of the first dinghies in all honeycomb and epoxy and Kevlar," he recalls. "I knew Iain Murray was doing 18s out of that stuff in Australia and so I just got into the aerospace thing and tried to find the materials and started to build 505 that way. Those boats still last today. They are rock solid. You could win a worlds with an old one. And it’s good because it costs a little bit more initially - maybe the hull costs 50% more - but all the rigging is the same and you have a boat which lasts forever, because they never break down and they never get soft. If they don't bend they don’t get soft."

It is partly due to his being a closet engineer that his 10-12 year partnership with Mike Martin - a professional engineer - was so successful. "I’m a mechanical kind of a guy, but I have always been in business. Mike is a formal engineer, but we can talk turkey all the time and then he does all the analysis on our blades or whatever and we discuss the trade-offs. He’s got a great mind for engineering applications."

Aside from taking up a training regime with Mike Martin, another key to his success has been in developing a select group of training partners in Long Beach.

"There is no substitute for experience, understanding what matters in terms of boat speed and don’t over complicate it because everything is adjustable on the boats so it is really easy to get confused. That is easier said than done. We have a little chart that breaks down the wind velocity in three knot increments and then has all the controls on the boat and at each velocity we try to agree on what settings are right and we calibrate the boats all the same. We calibrate everyone else’s in our fleet and we share all the information with our tuning partners with complete honesty, because the best thing you can do is speed up the guys you sail against, because that makes you fast."

Among his training posse is Paul Allen who will this year be campaigning a 505 with the remarkable 14 year old Melges 24 World champion Shark Khan. Father Philippe Kahn has also become hooked on the 505. "Philippe’s having a blast - he just thinks it is the greatest thing," says Hamlin. "He emails me pictures every week. He can’t believe how much fun they are."

Since winning the Worlds Mike Martin has moved to the driving seat on his own 505 while Peter Allory has taken over as Hamlin's crew. In 2003 Hamlin/Allory won the pre-Worlds and came third in the main event and they will obviously be major players at the Worlds this year when they return to their home water of Santa Cruz in ??.

Hamlin is now just into his 50s, although fit and looking very much younger no doubt thanks to his living the textbook Californian lifestyle. Professionally he is a successful property developer. He surfs every morning before going to work and is equally serious about skiing. Six hours drive away is the Eastern Sierras where he reckons he spends 25-30 days a year.

Hamlin says that in the States the 505 has remained a remarkably stable class over the lengthy period he has been involved with it. "In LA we don’t have many - six boats or so. In San Francisco there are 20-25 boats, so at the North Americans you get 35-40 boats. For the last 25 years it has been really constant. There are a couple of years when we get to 50, but by and large it is 35-40 boats. It is just a good boat. They are just beautiful. In open water and big breeze there is nothing better - it is more fun than the skiff. They love big waves and open ocean and in light air they are fine too - they are nimble, light and loose."



It was Australian yacht designer Iain Murray who first enticed Hamlin into the 18ft skiff seven years ago. "The league wanted to make the class more international," he recalls. "From the 505s we were friends with Iain Murray and Iain recommended us."

After several sporadic forays into the 18ft skiff they finally won the JJ Giltinan Trophy, the class' effective world championship, in 2002 and retained it, just a quarter point ahead of RMW Marine, in 2003.

Recently Hamlin has been the only US representation in the 18ft skiff class but is currently trying to develop interest in the US.

With the St Francis Yacht Club he organises an annual 18ft skiff grand prix, the Bay being one of the few sailing venues in the world to rival Sydney Harbour for ideal skiff racing conditions. "St Francis is unbelievable. You sit at the bar and the start line is just off there and boats come right into the bar. The course is right in front of the club house and you’ve got Alcatraz and the Golden Gate and great breeze and you schedule it on a flood tide week. You get on the water and it is blowing 25 knots." The event also includes a unique drag race between the bridges where the 18s go head to head with sail boards.

Hamlin has also been responsible for coaxing other sailors into the 18s. He helped Patrick Whitmarsh's Aristocrat team get to the JJ Giltinan this year and imports 'training boats' which he sells in California. Whitmarsh has bought one of these and there is a possibility of the McKee brothers getting back into the class now they are between Cups.

However in the States where dinghy sailing - even a boat as adrenalin-pumping as an 18ft skiff - is still for some reason looked down upon by the general sailing fraternity, it is an uphill struggle. "It has been hard to find the people with the money and the ability and the time. In Australia you have this graduation of skiffs that they grow up with - the 12s, the 14s and the 16s, and so they are used to sailing overpowered unstable boats and in America there wasn’t anything like that until you got the 49er. So little by little we’re getting there."

He is envious of the set-up of the 18 Footers League in Sydney who own all the boats (outside of Sydney all the boats are privately owned). "They have a really good formula which works for them. They have recognised that if you have unlimited spending it will kill the fleet. The top guys will get sponsors, they’ll sail full time and the fleet will die. So they have controlled the spending by owning the boats and so the sponsors are all on the same playing field. No one can pay more - Aus$28,000 the first year, $22,000 the second year. It is a really great model".



In in the US there is also almost no culture of race boat sponsorship outside of the America's Cup although West Marine, the US chandlery giant and his sponsor at thte JJ Giltinan this year, are one of the few exceptions and enthusiastic about his cause. "I hope they will keep going," says Hamlin. "The guys we are in contact with think it is a great way for them to be recognised as a leader in sailing. From a cost to return, photos and image, it is cheap. I am trying to learn about this sponsorship thing works and how you get value."

So is the 18 footer the world's hardest dinghy to sail? "It is debatable between that and the 49er," says Hamlin. "The little bit of experience I had in the 49ers was that you can get it into trouble with it quicker, but you can get out of trouble with it - you can work and manhandle it. But with the 18 once it is starting to go the wrong way, it’s over - you’re done. But on the 49er you have only got two guys, on the 18 you have the third guy and ever move you have one guy doing weight and balance. And on the 18 you have two rigs. They have to sail with one rig."

The rigs are similar in their set-up between the two boats, except that the 18 has around twice the power. "I could never do an Olympic campaign because of work but my experience was 'why sail this when you could sail this when you could sail an 18 - they are so cool. The 49er is a really good choice for the Olympics because of the cost. They are much cheaper."

Aside from his 505 and 18ft skiff racing, Hamlin says he has tried big boats, but didn't enjoy it. The exception has been his experience sailing on board Steve Fossett's Cheyenne, on which he is an occasional crew as the maxi-catamaran's designers Gino Morrelli and Pete Melvin live locally to him. The main constraint he has sailing on the maxi-cat is time. "I’d like to do more, but right now it is tough with my business. It costs me a lot of money to take the time off and the economy is just so good at the moment. If the economy crashes and I retire, then I’d like to do more. I like the technical aspects of a big multihull."

The balance between 505 and 18ft skiff sailing, however, works out well. The majority of 505 sailing happens in the summer months in the northern hemisphere, while the 18ft skiff season with the exception of a couple of events in Europe and San Francisco, takes place in the south hemisphere summer.

This year the 18ft skiffs will be descending upon San Francisco from 30 August until 3 September.