Lessons Learned Double Handed Racing

Tune in to Episode Seven of the Lessons Learned Podcast series by UK Sailmakers with Justin and Christina Wolfe, a pair of incredible offshore double handed racers. This year, the duo have been campaigning their J/111 RAKU in the Pacific Northwest and RED RUBY, a SunFast 3300 in Europe. They talk about double handed racing in both regions, and preparations and modifications to the boat and the way that they sail. Regarding the secret to their success, Justin says, “We sail the boat pretty similar to how you would sail it fully crewed. We don’t want to make concessions for being double handed, and do things differently, if it isn’t just as fast. We’ll just put in more effort and not compromise.” Chapters: 0:00 Lessons Learned Intro 0:34 Intro to Sailing Double Handed 2:02 Boats Owned 3:25 Why the J/111? 4:20 Modifications to the Boat 5:51 Scoring Double Handed Races 6:54 Racing in Europe 9:45 Comparisons for Racing in Europe vs the PNW 10:30 Safety at Sea 12:02 Division of Labor 13:50 Differences to Sailing Fully Crewed 16:15 Milestone Races 16:16 Sail Selection and Inventory 22:43 Van Isle 360 23:51 Working with UK Sailmakers Northwest 24:09 Wrap-up Like and subscribe to the UK Sailmakers YouTube channel to be notified when more great content from our channel is uploaded. The Lessons Learned Podcast is also available for streaming on Spotify and Apple Podcasts as well as Amazon Music. Image credits: Title card - Dennis Pearce RAKU photo - Jan Anderson RED RUBY photo - Paul Wyeth