J24 Blog

This is not a blow by blow race report, I’ll leave that to Brian. This is an attempt to understand what I could have personally done better.

The wind on the lake this Tuesday was stiff, at least compared to what we’ve become accustomed to. There was an intimidation factor, and I was very aware that mistakes made at the helm could have bad results. We set out on the lake with the genoa hanked but soon realized the jib would be the better choice. I did my best to keep the boat flat and dry (yeah, right) while the fore deck replaced the head sail; the water was choppy and the wind was howling. With the jib ready to hoist we sailed around, working on feel. The rig was so overpowered that even under main the boat was hard to control. Jibing was wild with the boom swinging wildly across to leeward and the boat rounding up.

We decided to skip the spinnaker. I certainly didn’t want to risk a broach or an accidental jibe so this was a decision that sat well with me. Eventually we did fly the spinnaker, and guess what?, we broached. More on that later.

This crazy, uncontrolled atmosphere also took us out of any start routine. We didn’t get a look at the course or hear the start gun go off. While we were still getting our bearings, the racing had begun.

Over the course of the race I developed a better feel for balance and trim but never lost a healthy respect for the conditions, sailing on the conservative side. This was slow, but so is sinking. Nevertheless, we maintained good boat speed and made our lay lines. We had some exiting crosses and were involved in some tactics. We all got soaked and somehow the fore deck managed to stay on the boat, but there were some close calls. All in all, good fun.

In the spirit of accountability and learning from mistakes, I want to lay out the instances where I got things wrong, and explain what was happening during these maneuvers that led to the mistakes, which should provide a guide for avoiding them in the future.

Mea Culpa:

• Wrapping the boat around the leeward mark. We were coming into the leeward mark just ahead of a starboard tacker coming in to leeward of us. We were to the 2 boat length circle first and as we rounded and came up to close hauled, the boat heeled wildly. I was on the leeward side of the boat, where I normally sit on runs, when the boat heeled and as I moved across to windward the tiller caught in my clothing and I lost control of the boat, which promptly wrapped itself around the leeward mark. Normally I’ve avoided this in the past by staying on the (new) leeward side through-out the tack, until the boat is settled, and then carefully moving to windward. With the boat heeling wildly and feeling like my weight was needed on the windward rail I hurried across, and the tiller got caught up. Irrational sailed on, and excitement turned to angst. Obviously I need to take better care of the tiller.
• Crash taking away from a starboard tacker when we may have been able to roll them. We were intending to duck the starboard tacker (S), and had the bow down when she tacked. The fore deck yelled to not duck and instead, stay the course. We were gaining rapidly on S, which was still down speed after their tack. Either due to bad air from S, or being luffed, I couldn’t stay above her without pinching. In addition, from my vantage point behind the jib (nearly blind), I was concerned that we were pointing at her transom and gaining rapidly. I called for a tack. Unfortunately I tacked before anyone was ready. It was an ugly tack. On top of that, it was again demoralizing for the fore deck who believed we could have rolled her. Since we were pinching I don’t believe we could have. We were pointing too high to maintain speed and roll S so in the end, tacking was the right move. I certainly should have given Bill, the trimmer, and the rest of the crew, time to prepare and respond.
• The broach. I’m not sure what part I played in this. I may have been able to respond soon enough to steer downwind and catch the broach before it happened. I may have been pointing too high. The wind was very shifty and puffy, so I may not have been able to do a thing. I shouted to “release the sheets” which might have helped.
• Coming in to the marina too hot under main. I would have done the same thing again but I wanted to explain why I did what I did. Coming into the marina we were still under main and moving fast, on a reach. The main was luffed but we were still moving fast. Brian was busy un-cleating the main and as I watched it seemed to me that the halyard was stuck. I still had time to jibe away, which I did, giving a warning first. We jibed away and closely avoided the south side dock and a moored power boat. We tacked back headed close hauled to the marina entrance where we doused the main and docked nice and easy. The jibe was a close call, but I felt we could make it, and we did.

The starboard tacker (S) lee bow event sent me to the rule book. I was curious to see if there had been any violation on her part. Initially, she was the starboard tack boat and we were on port, so we were the keep clear boat.

10 ON OPPOSITE TACKS
When boats are on opposite tacks, a port-tack boat shall keep clear of a starboard-tack boat.

Once she tacked and passed head to wind, she was obligated to keep clear of us until she was on the new close hauled course:

13 WHILE TACKING
After a boat passes head to wind, she shall keep clear of other boats until she is on a close-hauled course. During that time rules 10, 11 and 12 do not apply. If two boats are subject to this rule at the same time, the one on the other’s port side or the one astern shall keep clear.

Now after S was on a close hauled course (assuming she was), we had to again keep clear because we were on the same tack, but clear astern.

12 ON THE SAME TACK, NOT OVERLAPPED
When boats are on the same tack and not overlapped, a boat clear astern shall keep clear of a boat clear ahead.

But finally, the rule that has been on my mind is this one, especially 16.2 (the anti-hunting rule):

16 CHANGING COURSE
16.1 When a right-of-way boat changes course, she shall give the other boat room to keep clear.
16.2 In addition, when after the starting signal a port-tack boat is keeping clear by sailing to pass astern of a starboard-tack boat, the starboard tack boat shall not change course if as a result the port-tack boat would immediately need to change course to continue keeping clear.

Unfortunately, I don’t think rule 16.2 applies in this case. As I understand it, the rule is designed to to keep the starboard tacker from putting her bow down to come after us (hunting us) and force us into a bad ducking maneuver. But then again, we had to immediately change course as a result of her course change. So I’ll leave it to the jury.

I’m psyched for our next opportunity to sail in a good stiff breeze. The sailing was great and the boat handling will improve. We don’t get a lot of chances to sail in 22 knots of wind on Lake Washington so the next time I’m going to really savor it.