J24 Blog

The original idea when we started this blog was to be able to review and post our experiences racing in the Tuesday night club races on Lake Washington. It’s been a while since anyone has posted so it’s time to get back to it.

Much of the early part of the season was missed either struggling to find crew due to heavy work schedules and family responsibilities, or from having the boat in pieces while we upgraded the rig.  Now that we are deep into the second half of the season we seem to finally be putting the pieces together.

For the first time since buying the boat with my partners Brian and Bill we know the boat can be competitive. We’ve put a ton of work into the deck layout and rig, some money into patching and finishing the bottom, and we finally have some decent sails. About a month ago we had a guest skipper who was able to take an 8th place out of a fleet of about 25 boats that includes some really amazing teams. We would be ecstatic to finish 8th on a regular basis, so we can lay to rest our debate over whether our end-of-fleet finishes are due to the boat or due to us. They are due to us!

So now to last week. Due to last minute commitments to work and family, neither Bill nor Brian could make it! Luckily we’ve been developing some depth in our crew rotation so I was able to go out with Nate trimming, Weston on bow, and Bob at the mast. If I’m not mistaken, it was Nate’s first time trimming at this level of racing, and Weston’s 2nd or 3rd time on bow, but all 3 guys have been out regularly and have a good understanding of how things work, and most importantly are dedicated and motivated racers.

The racing conditions were perfect. Sunny, breezy, stunning views of Mt Rainier, and enough daylight for 4 races. We had as our strategy to be smooth around the course and conservative in our tactics. We succeeded in that for the most part. We were smooth, but a bit slow. We did however beat one boat in the thrid race! So not much changed there.

Our worse finish was well behind the last boat in the fleet, mainly due to penalty turns and an ill-advised attempt at a gybe set. The penalty turns were for an auto-tack during the start where we tapped a windward-now-leeward boat as we came across the wind, and continued into a small pileup. We were able to escape on port, but the turns put us in last.

I’m still not sure exactly what happened, but at least there was no damage. We wouldn’t have been in the mix at the pin at all except we got pinned by a leeward boat on port heading towards the fleet on starboard and felt we had little choice but to tack for the pin, since they weren’t going to let us get below them and around the bulk of the fleet. Fighting for the pin was definitely a deviation from our conservative strategy.

Our best finish was second to last. We beat a good boat but with a replacement driver, and we did it even though our motor mount was dragging in the water! It is a motor mount that can be lowered and raised, and it was jammed in the bottom position. A good thump and it popped back up. Not that it made us any faster!

The great news is that everyone got a lot of experience and will be ready to step in the next time. And the night out on the lake couldn’t have been any more spectacular. Next week there is no racing due to Whidbey Race week, so we will go out and do some training, probably mostly drinking.

So there it is. I’m a little rusty but it feels good to get back into posting on the “trials and tribulations of a fledgling J24 campaign, racing every Tuesday from April to September on Lake Washington, Seattle.”