Aside from using it once when we had the kids on board and wanted to keep the boat flat without any drama, the blade jib has remained nicely folded into the 2 x 3′ red square sail bag for the two years we’ve had the boat.
Last Tuesday night we got to break it out for the first time for it’s intended purpose and quickly found that it’s a bit of a different beast than the genoa that we usually fly. We changed over to the jib just before the start of the first race and didn’t have time to dial in the lead placement in the right place on the track.
From the North Sails Newport Tuning Guide    Â
“BLADE JIB – Since it’s always windy when racing with the blade jib, the sail is easy to set up. The halyard is always tightened just enough to pull out the scallops between the hanks. The lead is set at one of two holes; an all-purpose setting, used 85 percent of the time, and the “death hole”, 1.5 inches farther back. It needs to be really windy to go to the death hole, but if you’re overpowered you have to do whatever you can to keep the boat flat.The all-purpose lead sets up the sail with six inches of depth from tack to clew, with the jib leech two to four inches inside the spreader tip. With our jib, the center of the jib lead block is one inch forward of the chainplate. At the all purpose setting, sheet tension should be varied so that the leech moves from 3 inches inboard of the spreader tip in 17 knots to 3 inches outboard in 25 knots. In the aft hole the leech will be trimmed between even with the spreader tip to 6 inches outboard.”
We’ll need to spend some time flying the jib, and finding the location of the two get track positions. Also, I think “Death Hole” just earned it’s way onto the “List of Alternative Boat Names That We Didn’t Go With”.
Here’s my top of mind list of things to do to improve the boat performance after this week’s experienceÂ
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:Â 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
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:Â
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.Â
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…â€Â
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?Â
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.Â
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.
So Peter and I finally found some time to get down to the boat on a non-racing day to work on re-tuning the rig. We’ve worked on the rig settings a number of times in the last 2 years of owning the boat and have come to realize that it’s a process of continuous tweaking. What’s also helped is the level of understanding we’ve gained each time by starting back at zero and working the rig back up to what we believe is “optimal.”
Now, if you’ve ever tried to find information on tuning your one design sailboat’s mast and standing rigging you’ll inevitably find an avalanche of information available online. A great deal of that information will depend on the brand of sails that you fly, and most of this collective mass of information will prove to be inconsistent or contradictory across all the sources. Hence, it’s taken us 2+ seasons of working on it, and we’re still not quite there… However, once you hit critical mass from all that information intake, some things finally start to knit together.
More insightful information and a neat matrix after the click…
One other cool thing that happened last night was that the crew on California Girl towed in what seemed like just about every racing dinghy on the lake. The wind had died down to the point where most of the dighy racers had deployed paddles for the trip back to the dock. California Girl was one of a handful of J24′s that broke out the motors for the ride back to the dock.
Cali Girl’s crew was able to rollup their sails on the foredeck without falling off or letting the sails dip into the water while the skipper drove the boat around towing in becalmed small boat racers. They offered us a tow as well, since we had our hands too preoccupied with beers to break out our own motor. We declined since we weren’t in a hurry to end our night of sweet victory.
Good show by Cali Girl. We continue to see great sportsmanship in our J24 racing community.
