2010 Detroit NOOD Overall Winner - Doug Scheibner

Most of my sailboat racing life has been around one design boats. The first was racing on an Ensign (22 foot) where I learned how to run the bow of the boat. As I later recognized – “everything good starts on the bow”.  Sailing One Design, all the little things become so much more pronounced as you often are trying to find very small advantages to create or break overlaps or maybe to be one foot ahead at the finish.  I still have fun sailing on the Thistle and Lightning, but most of my adult life was sailing the International Etchells. The Etchells is one of the most complex one design keel boats with a lot of Dinghy flavor. When I started racing the T 10, I sailed it much like the Etchells. I try to sail all the one design sailboats much like a dinghy, including the J-120. which I've spent some time on.

Friendship is my third T 10, My father bought #148 “whisper” in 1981 which we raced for several years. In 1986, I bought No Rebase out of Tampa, Fl.  My learning experience into rebuilding T-10’s began. It was in much poorer condition that I ever thought –BUT as we all know, you can make any T-10 into a great racing boat as many T 10 owners can attest too.  I raced No Rebase until 1995 when selling it to a good friend at my club. Over the years there have been so many families and generations of families sailing in this class. In 2006 my good friend Nick said “ Doug – you need my T-10, it needs work and I’m not sailing it. Of course I didn’t need it, but I wanted it and I got it. Then the work began, this class really shares all it’s ideas with one another. You can get an answer about anything you may ever want to fix on a t-10 from someone in this class. The T 10 people race fair and hard, but back at the dock they always get together and party! This group of people really enjoy themselves and their boats. The class has kept the boats very affordable  and competitive. The racing is very tight – often one foot the difference!

Sail with the people who are important in your life. Build your team with a commitment to sailing well and having fun – the winning will come with that. Consistency is what you strive for when racing in this class. You need to be able to repeat those trim settings in all conditions to become consistent. I work hard to mark and identify what I think are both speed and power settings. The T-10 requires a lot of power out of maneuvers and then straight line speeding! Communicate with your crew what your looking for. They need to understand their position rather than just trim it in or ease. Make your crew into thinkers and to always have them understanding the race course. They should anticipate the next maneuver – teambuilding!

I start by balancing the headstay sag (3-4 inches for whatever wind strength) by tensioning the cap shrouds. I then snug the backstay to keep it from bouncing when I hit bad waves. I adjust my lowers fairly aggressively from no tension in 4 to 6 mph (lot of sag) to a fairly straight (side bend) mast  in 12 to 14. Then I will add to the lowers and caps more evenly (maybe 2 turns at a time) up to 20-24mph to let the top of the mast tip off to leeward. My Goals:  Sail Flat and then Flatter - Keep it Simple!

I keep the jib tacked as close to the bow tack all the time and only use my jib halyard on a self tailing winch for adjustment. I probably use up to a 3 hole change in my jib car location. 

I ALWAYS sail the heel of the boat over the trim. What I mean is – I will first flatten the main by adding backstay and easing the sheet tension first (twisting) to help keep the boat flatter. I may eventually drop the traveler but not without easing the main first. (I like some drive off the bottom of the main down low. Sunday morning of the NOOD we saw the most breeze in the series. I used a stiffer top batten which I felt was very effective and keeping the top of the main from flogging and more like in a vacumn. I then sailed with the jib in max trim but with very light tell tales (usually dancing up), this negates the immediate need to pull on the backstay unless the pressure stays on. Sunday was a real test of gear changing as the wind went down though out the day. I concentrae on keeping max power as the waves were tough for the lightening breeze. Jib lead forward a hole, outhaul on main eased and fairly heavy vang tension. Soft halyard tensions on both the jib and main. (I usually always have soft halyard tensions) I really keep the jib leech powered up and steer from the low side a lot. (I know – not too popular) The sails were very adaptable to changing conditions, again sheet tensions were most important.      

We sail a Thursday night sunset one design series which is well attended – sometimes getting in two races a night. This is a great way to work in new crew and to work on settings. I hope to sail the NA’s, with the same crew if they can all be there. It’s tough with everyone's jobs these days, but hopefully they can all make it. I thank my local fleet for making this so much fun and for such great competition.  Anyone can win which often is the case in our local racing. Good Luck always helps!