The secret to double-handed offshore racing success

The double-handed offshore scene sees amateur sailors take on the pros. Rupert Holmes chats to Christina and Justin Wolfe to find out the secrets of their success

Three years ago a Sun Fast 3300 called Red Ruby, whose American owners come from the Pacific North West, popped up in UK double-handed races. It immediately notched up a string of impressive results in a very competitive fleet.

Red Ruby went from 2nd in the 2022 and 2023 UK Double-Handed Offshore Series; to 1st in class – and very nearly 1st overall – in the 2023 Rolex Middle Sea Race; also winning the 2023 ORC Double-Handed World Championships in Barcelona, and the 2024 IRC Double-Handed European Championship.

For her achievements, including being first female skipper in the 2023 Rolex Fastnet Race, Christina (Chris) was awarded the 2023 US Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year. “I don’t sail for a living, but when I do sail, it’s the most alive that I feel,” she told a room full of sailing luminaries on accepting the award.

So how did two non-pro sailors achieve such good results in an unfamiliar fleet – and a sailing area on the opposite side of the Atlantic? First of all, “based on our experience, I really recommend buying a good used boat versus a new boat,” says Justin.

Red Ruby was formerly Gentoo and had been previously campaigned by James Harayda and Dee Caffari.

“So much of the detail had already been figured out and it would have taken us much longer to get a new boat set up from a distance,” he adds.

“Maybe that was the lucky, serendipitous piece,” Chris adds. “James Harayda is amazing, and we got really lucky that we picked that boat, because he had it really well set up and he shared everything with us.”

“When we showed up to sail it for the first time, he went out with us for two days just in the Solent; that was a really big deal for us,” says Justin. “James had figured out so many little details. We know for sure that had we picked any other Sun Fast 3300, any other brand, or any other model, it would have taken us years to figure out.”

Of course not everyone can plan to buy a boat that’s been raced by top IMOCA 60 skippers, but in any class there will be boats that have been very well set up by sailors achieving consistent results. Acquiring one of those, with things like polars and sail crossover charts already well developed, is often a much faster way to the head of the fleet than buying a new boat that has to be set up from scratch.

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Another key aspect is that the Wolfes shared Red Ruby with American pro sailor and former Olympian Jonathan McKee, who co-skippered with Alyosha Strum-Palerm (and sometimes others, including America’s Cup and meteorologist legend Pete Isler), giving a roster of four core sailors to race two-up.

“Jonathan has done a Mini Transat campaign and is just a phenomenal sailor,” says Chris. “This partnership approach has meant that we have four brains working on everything instead of just two.

“That helps with all of the thought that goes into the optimisation and setup. The four of us also do a pre-race and a post-race discussion for every single race. That really helps us learn more quickly as each time Jonathan and Alyosha go sailing we’re learning from that. Our boat actually races quite a lot, so the total knowledge gained through sharing is really good.”

European approach

To get a better understanding of racing in Europe, the couple first went to the 2021 Double-Handed World Championship in Italy, raced in one-design Beneteau Figaro 3s. UK-based double-handed skipper Gavin Howe then introduced them to the Solent Sun Fast 3300 fleet and double-handed racer Nigel Colley of Sea Ventures.

“We specifically picked the UK because it has the biggest double-handed distance racing fleet, and found a boat that seemed promising with lots of the same design in the fleet,” says Justin. “It worked out really well because we were immediately sailing next to other 3300s and could tell if we were sailing reasonably well or not. It was as close to the one-design racing we experienced on the Figaro 3 as possible.”

Chris points out the double-handed community is close and mutually supportive. “Being a part of the UK Double-Handed Offshore Series, with the people we’ve met and communicated with through WhatsApp, has been really helpful. Most people know how the French are doing so well, as they have a sharing community that trains together. What the UK double-handed group is doing seems to be modelling that and it’s very effective.”

Technical tweaks

The couple made few big modifications to Red Ruby, other than adding Fourth Cape’s electric E-Bar toe-in adjuster for the twin rudder system and a Cyclops load cell for the forestay. The latter was added primarily to give a reliable and repeatable reference for backstay tension in different conditions “rather than trying to figure it out each time we come to the boat.”

Aside from that, Justin says: “The biggest single thing we did was changing the mast rake, just doing what we felt was right, rather than following what everyone else was doing.”

In preparation for the 3,800-mile Cap Martinique race from the Breton port of La Trinité-sur-mer to Martinique, they added a through-hull camera 25cm in front of the keel. This is interfaced with the boat’s computer and allows quick checks to see if there’s weed or debris snagged on the keel.

They made small improvements to the electrical system as well as spending time to ensure they fully understand the charging systems. “We also keep the sails pretty fresh so they don’t have a real opportunity to wear out. We worked hard with our sailmaker on the inventory and all the sails have been replaced since we bought the boat,” Justin adds.

Otherwise they endeavoured to keep the boat as simple and light as possible. “We looked at adding a water ballast system and fully intended to,” says Chris, “but after racing a few times, decided the boat didn’t need it.” They have avoided adding weight and complexity, and the boat rates better without water ballast.

“We haven’t added anything that isn’t essential: we don’t have a shore power charger, refrigerator, water heater, or cabin heater.” An exception to this philosophy was the addition of solar panels for extra redundancy for the Cap Martinique race. Reliability is key offshore. “One thing we did replace were the rope clutches for the backstays,” explains Justin. “Those were undersized and a couple of 3300s have broken masts in the Solent on crazy downwind days when the clutches either failed or caused the line to fail.

“We replaced them with textile clutches that are stronger and kinder to the line.”

Seasons were discussed and planned well in advance over several calls, with the budget for the following year agreed at this stage, “We split everything 50/50 with Jonathan that is boat related: maintenance; improvements; sails; and deliveries,” says Chris. “It has worked very well, but we have built a transparent relationship for this partnership, with a lot of communication.”

Smooth handling

Botched manoeuvres, especially in challenging conditions at night, can easily negate any gains achieved through superior boat speed. How do they avoid this? “Chris and I have sailed double-handed together for 28 years,” says Justin, “it’s what we do best.”

“We had a J/111 at home that we double-handed very aggressively during and after Covid,” adds Chris. “You get to reinforce those manoeuvres when you are racing that boat around buoys against fully crewed boats.

“We also have a J/70 that we treat like a dinghy, also with all-asymmetric kites, so we just keep doing things over and over again, trying to get to Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hours figure,” says Chris, referencing journalist Malcolm Gladwell’s famous book Outliers: The Story of Success in which he posited that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to achieve mastery of any discipline.

“We’re still working on all of that!” she adds.

One of the couple’s biggest tests came in the 2023 Rolex Middle Sea Race, when they finished 2nd overall – an agonising 24 seconds away from winning IRC overall on corrected time. Their race got off to an inauspicious start, with their class becalmed on the start line, then a problem with their headsail feeder hampered them further. By Lampedusa the weather models showed Red Ruby had no chance of catching eventual overall winners Bullit, a Wally 93, but the Wolfes were undeterred.

“So much happened in that race! I think we did 22 sail changes,” Justin told race organisers afterwards.

“We went hours and hours and hours without any rest at all, because there was too much going on, we couldn’t stop.” The couple used to compete in triathlons, so working at a high intensity for endurance periods is familiar territory.
“In a 600-mile race how many places did you leave 24 seconds?” he reflected, “Could’ve done one better tack, one better call on the current in the Messina Strait…”

“But then you look up, and there’s volcanic eruptions happening around Stromboli!” added Chris.

“We made some great navigational calls. One thing we can do, because we have been sailing together so long, is make decisions really quickly,” she explained. “There is no board meeting to decide if we are going to tack or gybe. We both see the same information, we both come to the same conclusion because, essentially, we have developed as sailors together.”

Learnings

The project was wound up a few months ago, and Red Ruby will be off to a new home, but what advice would the Wolfes give to anyone planning a similar campaign?

“Start making the connections – the people are important,” says Chris. “We love the competition, but it’s really no fun if you don’t get an opportunity before or after the race to connect with people.

“Being distant from the boat [has been] the most difficult part for us because we can’t just pop down and do a little project, or go for a quick sail or whatever. We had to plan really carefully, and do things really efficiently, both sailing – and project-wise. [That] is the most challenging part because it requires more planning and more efficiency.

“One of the highlights is also that we kept moving the boat around. It didn’t really have a base and spent two winters in Malta, the summers in Hamble and the springs in France. That’s been really fun, but it’s a challenge to make it work and means dealing with different people in different locations if we need something done. It adds an additional layer of complexity in a sense, but comes with its reward. So it’s totally worth it.

“With the Red Ruby project drawing to a close we can easily say that the entire experience exceeded our expectations,” she adds. “The boat performed better and was more fun to sail than we hoped. The racing and competition were fantastic.

“But most surprising was the number of wonderful friends we made in Europe.”

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