J24 Blog

Here’s my top of mind list of things to do to improve the boat performance after this week’s experience 

• Sail flat for best speed.  Use heel when we need it to pinch up or turn the boat.
• Leave room at the pin to round,  allowing for side slip while the boat speeds up.  Practice shooting head to wind a few feet at the rounding.
• Keep the cockpit organized:  Trimmer and Pit should work together to ensure that jib sheets are properly under the spinnaker sheets, leads are in the right position and locked in, no tangles, etc

 

• Sheet the main in tight.  Some of the other boats looked like the main was almost down block to block.  Do we need to go back up to class maximum?  I think it’s rigged for 3:1 right now.
• Learn to use vang sheeting the right way.  We kept the vang sheeted on hard during all upwind legs.  I think in conditions like we had on Tuesday the Mast or Pit man can actively manage blowing the vang in puffs to keep the boat flat.  That way the driver doesn’t have to play the main as much.  We didn’t do that.
• Move the jib blocks to the right tracks when changing sails.  Duh.  We kept them on the genoa tracks for a while…
• Add some traction tape to the hatch lid.  Sliding across the hatch and landing against the lifelines was fun only because I stayed on the boat.
• Get an carabiner to clip the hatch closed tight.  We sealed up the hatch and weatherboard, but the only accessible option for locking it closed was the padlock.  Need a more race-ready option.  Stealing a clip from one of the lazarette lockers would be an example of a bad option.
• Drill a hole for a retaining clip through the end of the top rudder pintle after it passes through the gudgeon.  The newer style pintles already have this.
• Upgrade the outhaul to 6:1.  Since we can’t seem to remember to reset it before the main is loaded and trimmed for the new beat, we need some more mechanical advantage. 
• Figure out how to keep the downhaul attached and untangled on the spinnaker pole.  Somebody draw me a diagram or something…