J24 Blog

Tim Healy Wins the 2008 J24 North Americans

Photo by Dallas Johnson

The J24 North Americans at the Wayzata Yacht Club on Lake Minnetonka, Minnesota saw one race in on the forth day, sailed in extremely light wind. Bob Harden and the crew of Mr. Happy took the bullet but it was Tim Healy who hung on to win the regatta and the North American J24 championship. Healy finished 18th in the 8th and final race of the series but with 8 races in was able to discard the result for a net of 22 points (40 total). John Mollicone was second overall and Chad Olness moved up 2 places on the day to round out the top three. Full reults here.

Photo by Dallas Johnson

Day 3 of the 2008 North Americans saw two races in light winds, the first won by Tim Healy and the second by John Mollicone. Healy maintained his overall lead, with Mollicone moving up two places to 2nd overall, scoring a 2nd in the first race to go along with the bullet in race two. Bill Fastiggi slipped a place to 3rd overall. Full results here.

Photo by Dallas Johnson

After a second day of racing with 3 more races completed, it’s Tim Healy moving up five places to first, replacing Will Welles (Paraloc), now in third place. Bill Fastiggi (Beauty) moved up one place to 2nd overall. For complete reaults go here. For more go to SailKarma.

Photo by Dallas Johnson

Results after day one:

Complete results here.

Another perfect night and another great season of Tuesday night racing. It’s been a mixed season for Juju. The boat and equipment is now in good shape and we’ve come a long way in our boat handling and understanding of strategy, but we had a hard time getting consistent crew out on Tuesdays and our efforts suffered for that. We do have some good new committed crew now and going into next season we should be in good shape.

We also tried out a new look last night with Brian at the helm and me calling tactics and working the bow. It was good to be able to look around a bit, get my head outside of the boat and think a bit more about strategy. It was especially good at the start to be able to look around and concentrate on things other than driving.

For his part Brian is an excellent driver and also is naturally bossy which makes him an excellent helm! Weston took a turn at trimming and did a fine job, and Bob at the mast is a natural at communicating puffs and checking out other boats, and keeping everyone informed on our relative performance. So the future is bright. I for one can’t wait for next season.

Thanks to Michael Johnson (Hot Pursuit) for the fine picture of Juju taken from the committee boat last night before the first race.

Photo by Sean Trew of Pacific Fog Photography

The Columbia Gorge One Design regatta is this weekend. I came across this post from a blogger who goes by Riverdog:

Attack of the J-24′s

Last night, just before dark, a lone J-24 sailboat puts in to our dock and ties up for the night. Not too unusual, but….

They never come at you one at a time!

This morning, at 0700, I got up and peeked out from the curtained cabin, and the dock was full of the critters! Like fire ants in Tejas, they seem to have multiplied overnight.

They all shared a quick breakfast on the dock, operaing in an efficient system, each boater having one breakfast item, which were quickly shared, and on some sort of signal, at 0745, they all started little buzzy outboard engines (no wind this morning) and buzzed on up the river.

Gangsters!

I like it.
Continue Reading »

Photo Bill Blevins used under a Creative Commons license

I posed the following question to the fleet listserve after the downwind start in the third race last Tuesday:

What is the strategy for a downwind start. For instance, when do you set your spinnaker, when do you raise the pole?

It sparked quite a discussion…

Continue Reading »

So Bob, our mast guy, says do you ever do downwind starts. I say I haven’t in the three years I’ve been racing.  And so after a douse where the spinnaker ended up in the lake, and I’m madly re-running the sheets, and we are going to be late to the start, I look up and the entire fleet has spinnaker set, charging to the line. Too funny. Sort of.

We were caught off guard, didn’t get the spinnaker set before we had to reach to the leeward gate under genoa. That is sort of our night. Many highs and lows, wrapped spinnakers, a torn leach cord, a crash gybe that nearly dumped the crew.

On the high side we were dialed into the puffs and made nice work of the beats. It makes it a bit more painful to see the spinnaker in a un-recoverable figure eight when you actually have a fighting chance in a race. But the breeze was up and mistakes get magnified. A character and experience building exercise for sure.

One lesson was learned on the downwind start. When we made it to the windward mark all boats were leaving it to starboard, which we have never done before. Here is the relevant section of the Lake Washington GSIs:

9.3   Start between the starting buoy and the orange flag on the race committee boat. Pass each rounding mark in the order displayed and on the same side as the starting mark. Finish between the finishing buoy and the orange flag on the race committee boat. When a number, such as “2″ or “3″, follows the course letters, it signals a multiple-lap course. Sail the course as many times as is indicated by that number, crossing the finishing line at the completion of each lap.

Since we started downwind with the pin to starboard, all other marks must now be left to starboard. The leeward mark was a gate so this rule didn’t change anything there. Lesson learned.

When we got back to the dock we did some practicing with the spinnaker pole to sort out some of the issues we are having with douses. I wish we had more time for practicing, I know it would make all of the difference. But it’s hard enough to field a crew one night a week as it is. This is really the biggest challenge for us right now.

All in all, it was a great night on the lake, our crew is getting deeper, and everybody lived to sail another day. 

Is this a third video in the series?

First there was “Sleepiest Sailing Video Ever?,” a video of a race in Monaco in very little wind. This was followed up by “Not Sleepy,” which showed a German boat flying a spinnaker in 40-50 knots of breeze.

Now comes a new video from the Monaco author where he seems to be promoting J24 for the “grown up” set, if the title “J 24 Adulte” is any clue. The video begins with a laid back couple out for a sail in the picturesque bay off of Monaco, but once they meet up with a A-Class sailor things really take off!

“Beintot Class A”

One of the nice things about getting holed and being out for a month (if there is anything nice about it) , is that it gives you that great opportunity to go back to your roots and crew.  This return to the roots was really refreshing for me.  It gave me the chance to be out racing and actually take time to reflect, which is not something you get to do during a race when you’re the driver.

As a result, I’ve deployed a new weapon in our arsenal, one that I’ve wondered  about trying for some years, but somehow never got around to.  The Dinghy Start isn’t something I’ve had a lot of experience with. While I learned to sail on Lasers and FJs out on San Francisco bay, I never took it to the next level and race them.  By the time I raced, it was as crew on bigger boats, and, you don’t do a Dinghy start in a J-105 or a Cal (at least, not where I’m from). 

But, we always call the J/24 a ‘big dinghy’ and she certainly is sensitive to weight, and yes, a dinghy start is powerful in certain conditions.  This was how our basic pattern went, wait for a start with moderate wind, 6 to 10 knots, let’s say, get your boat up on the line (or maybe just 1/2 boat length or 1 boat length off the line, with ONE MINUTE to go, on a close hauled course.  Then, ease everything, and I mean, ease it all the way.  Let the main all the way out, let the genoa, all the way out.  Then, wait. At about 30 seconds, trim everything in, and go!

We had two really good starts thanks to the dinghy start out on the lake two weeks ago, but there’s a lot to learn . The critical things are 1) there’s no major current on the lake, if there was current, it certainly would add an element of timing and distance that’s completely different. 2) You have to stop your boat and hold her, on a closed hauled course. Use a point on land or use your compass, but don’t get into irons, you need to be able to trim-and-go.  3) Luff those sails.  If you don’t have the main all the way out, you’ll still move forward, which is not the idea.  4) Learn how long it takes to accelerate. I’ve found about 30 seconds in 8 to 10 knots is about right.  But, once we got rolled by boats that came powering up under us.  We should have trimmed way earlier. I think we waited until 10 seconds to go one time, which was wayyyyy tooo late.. argggghh .  

The reason I like this start a lot is that it forces you to get to the line, in the front, with one minute to go, and so, you’re there.  Next, you’re on starboard, so that’s cool.  Any boat approaching to windward, well, they don’t have rights anyway, so who cares. As to the leward boats, they HAVE TO give you opportunity to keep clear. They can’t just come and barrel into you. They have to give you time to trim in and head up.  Also, any boats that were to leward of you before you luffed, are now gone, because they didn’t luff.  

The negatives with this start are that you may feel that there is a lack of control.  But as long as you stop the boat, close hauled, trimming in and going is pretty easy.   Also, you have to watch you equipment, boom and genoa, and make sure you don’t foul anyone.  

Find a spot on the line and give this powerful method a try the next time you’re on the lake!