J24 Blog

Filed by: Brian 

Tuesday night was a wild ride with sustained winds higher than any of our crew had raced the boat in.  Luckily we had our full regular crew of 5 which gave us our best shot of racing the boat as flat and efficiently as possible.  We’ve had a number of newbies (even compared to our own short tenure) rotate through to help fill in this season.  It would have been pretty ugly and stressful had that been the case this week.   Ok, it was pretty ugly and stressful anyway, but it was fun.

All the pre-work on tuning the rig and working on our starts went out the window as soon as we made it out of the marina and into the 15mph+ winds.  Had we been out for a cruise it wouldn’t have been a difficult day.  However, trying to stay in race mode, fly the genoa and continue to trim for speed made it a real workout.  Which leads us to a recap of our best training program to date: 

How To Gain a Half Season of Experience In Just Three Races

Use the “Immersion” racing experience to get your crew into top physical, mental, and adrenaline shape. 

Step 1:  While standing in the parking lot before heading out to the boat, don’t make a big deal about bringing foulies, boots, etc..  “Oh you think you’ll want to bring your full offshore foul weather pants AND jacket?  Ok, I guess…” 

Step 2:  Go ahead and tune the rig up from the 5-8 knot setting to 9-12, but don’t let that high pitched whistling of the wind through the standing rigging fool you into believing it’s stronger than that.  It’s easy to de-power with sail trim and backstay tension once you are out on the water, why limit your ability to take advantage of changing conditions?  Right? 

Step 3:  Demonstrate to the mid-boat and bow crew that the immersion will be immediate, tangible, and literal.  Bury the bow into an oncoming whitecap to wash the seagull crap off the deck.  Don’t worry about whether people have their jackets zipped up yet. 

More after the click…

Step 4:  (This one’s real)  Set the tone that we’ll still race hard even in the face of conditions much stronger than we’ve been in.  It’s not a hurricane for crying out loud.  We’ll still be concentrating on improving our boat handling and tactics just as we did last week when it was almost calmed into cancellation.  

Step 5:  Pretend you’re in the Sidney-Hobart while changing the genoa down to the jib and getting washed with lake-water each time we come down the next set of chop.  Don’t complain about the crusty hanks that are frozen from being in hibernation in the sail bag for a decade of non-use.  Seriously, if you complain we’ll make you drive next time and really abuse you. 

Step 6:  Resist the urge to instigate a challenge between the trimmer and the bowman about whether we’ll fly the spinnaker downwind or go main-and-jib like most of the boats in our part of the fleet.  Realize in the third race when you decide to go for it and nearly capsize the boat why this is a good idea. 

Step 7:  Back at the dock, recap over beers, while still soaked and shivering, about what actually did go well in a race of 2 out of 3 decent starts yet 3 out of 3 DNF’s.  You’ll learn a lot about sailing the boat when you’ve got 5 heavy guys on the windward side, and still seeing the leeward rail submerged after some bigger puffs.  Each crew position has things that went well and also things that went wrong with their job in the race.  You’ll be more sharply focused on those now, regardless of conditions.  The ratcheting up of conditions* makes your weak points far more clear.  *(For us.  I realize that many of the incredible crews in our fleet raced without batting an eye.)   

Step 8:  Hours later than usual, finally get to eat the sandwich that was intended for a quick between-races dinner.  This will be the best tasting sandwich you’ve ever had.  The pain in the fingers, bruised knees, chapped lips, and frozen toes quickly fades.  The memory of the experience only gets clearer.