J24 Blog

*1) Jib* – Inducing twist to the jib on Sunday was definitely correct. However the jury is split on the trim of the jib. Some of the top boats actually had the jib sheeted out to just outside the spreaders . I do not think we (djinn) ever had it outside the spreaders, but we did have it in tight and neither worked very well. Perhaps out to the spreaders is the way to go and/or something to try for next time.

*2) Vang* – As much a I wanted to stress the vang on Sunday, I think I still underestimated it. The amount of vang required to keep the main flat is intense, which is why some boats blew out their vangs altogether.
Equipment issue: Not enough purchase to put it on tight. Not properly rigged to blow it easily if needed. UPGRADE YOUR VANGS TO MAXIMUM PURCHASE ALLOWED BY CLASS RULES.

*3) Downwind spinnaker* – Definitely my weakest point. One of my constant fears is accidentally gybing caused by the action of the waves. After just a minute of talking through my fears, I realized that accidentally gybing the main in heavy air is not going to easily happen under spinnaker. It’s hard enough to gybe the main even when we _WANT_ to gybe, because the main is pinned against the shrouds.

Being by-the-lee a bit or being dead downwind for the entire run and getting pushed by waves isn’t going to do anything to move the main. So, then the question becomes how to control the rolls, and the answer is moving weight back in the boat. We should have had everyone much further back, and we should have been twinging in hard on both sites to better control the kite.
Equipment issue: Twingers rigged aft instead of having their own cleats near the beam. The rear cleats are too crowded..twingers get in way of spinnaker trim.

… More in Part 2…

I came across an article reporting on the ISA All-Ireland Helmsman’s Championship, a regatta raced in the J/80. What interested me about this article, aside from the colorful Irish turns of phrase, was the writer’s claim that “the J80 steps comfortably into the shoes of the J24, which we all got steamed up about in the 1970s.” Here is a description of sailing the J/80 from the JBoats site:

Be sailing in 3 minutes. Take off the boom cover and hoist the mainsail, attached to the mast with slides. Cast off. You’re now sailing faster than other boats with full canvas. Ready for more speed? Uncleat the furler line and pull in the jib sheet. Presto! Now you’re really flying! Time for the afterburners? Pull the sprit launch control line, hoist the asymmetric spinnaker and trim. Now you’re planing! To jibe, simply let off the old sheet and pull in the new. No one on the foredeck! You can even do it single-handed.

And it does 15 knots planing down wind! That’s intriguing.

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Cliff Estes has some great shots of the regatta over at Borrowed Light Images. I’ve posted a few below. Also, be sure and read Nojan Moshiri’s write up of the event.

 

Regatta champs Suspense charge towards the mark at the 2007 Puget Sound One Design Fleet Championships – Copyright © 2007 Borrowed Light Images

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Hi all, it’s a pleasure to be a new blogger on this j24 blog. I’m the skipper/owner of Djinn and while I keep my own blog on Djinn’s racing activities, it’s private and mostly geared around scheduling and repairs. I’m excited to add my ramblings on here and hopefully it will help not only Djinn to get better but other boats that are starting out in this highly competitive Seattle fleet.

Peter asked me to start by contributing some observations about the Sound OD Championship on Oct 6/7, 2007 and since then I’ve traded some emails with other skippers about how we could have done better in this extremely heavy air regatta.

So, without further interruption, I’m going to include my initial race report below and then in subsequent posts for the next several days, I’m going to add some hits and tips I’ve gathered. The source of these tips asked me not share them with too many boats, but at the risk of never getting advice again, I’m going to throw discretion into the wind and post all of it in the coming days. After all, I don’t think there’s anything you read on a blog, read in a book, watch on YouTube or discuss over drinks at the CYC which is going to make you better at boat handling (with the exception of really learning and understanding the rules).

Here is my review of the regatta:

It was a great weekend, I was impressed with the performance of the top boats and how flat they were able to keep their boats. We certainly learned a ton.

Moving the mast butt forward, being properly adjusted on the shroud tension and bringing the Jib in as tight as possible, as well as moving the jib car back to induce some twist in jib seemed to help a lot, but we didn’t make these adjustments until Sunday. We also put the vang on much tighter on Sunday by sitting on the boom, sheeting in hard and cranking on the vang, but it’s clear to me I need more purchase on my vang, because it really wasn’t on enough. Same thing with our outhaul which we couldn’t get on hard enough either.

It blew like stink both days except for right before the last race on Sunday when it calmed down to about 14/15 knots and about a 1/3 of the fleet put up genoas. Then, it got up into the mid 20s during the race, with some stronger gusts, which was really something to witness.

On Saturday the race committee had a number of issues with the whalers and they were unable to start the racing for more than an hour and a half. We used some of the time running the course and trying to practice, but a whole lot of time was spent doing the gravy train around the start line and getting exhausted.

Congrats to Suspense and everyone who made it out!
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Next I will post about some of the jib trim settings I was corrected on, as well more on all things heavy air, including the vang, the crew position, avoiding the accidental gybe, trimming the spinnaker downwind , the outhaul, shroud tension and tacking in big wind.

So after a few subtle hints (like a big posting about it on this blog) my wife bought me the Wenger Alignhi Yachtman Knife as a gift for our anniversary. I’ll be testing it out on the water over the weekend and will post a review here.