If any SG kids are still subscribed to this thing, I'm going to use it as my sailing notebook since I've been doing a bunch more sailing of my own lately. You're more than welcome to read it, it may be super helpful, but I'm writing it for myself and I have a tendency to use naughty words when I do that so fair warning. You'll also see crew names but I'm only using last initials at most. This is one of those times where you get to choose to be cool or a jerk in life. If you figure out who someone is and I have a critique of him or her, please keep it to yourself. It's the height of uncool to do otherwise.
J24 Thursday night 8/10
Conditions: Light southerly, slight ebb.
Boat: Buckshot
Crew: Steven drive, Larry trim, Jane mast, Tom K bow, DK tactics
Result: 8, 1 (no clue overall)
Race 1: We had an okay start and good speed and all the right answers on where to go, there was just so much fucking chatter on board that I got drowned out and we fucked up the beat and had to pull an OK top mark rounding out of my socks, then same thing happened on the run and we got neck punched. I almost jumped off the boat, swam in, and re-quit sailing.
Race 2: I asked for a lot less chatter and people were cool about it, we rounded top mark close 3rd, made a fairly ballsy split at a cruise ship, corralled people into one another effectively, launched to a big lead and won easily.
Summary - it seemed easy to win on a quiet boat with good wheels and impossible to win on a chatterbox
J24 40th Anniversary Race 8/11
Conditions: Mealy southerly, very strong ebb
Boat: Buckshot
Crew: Steven drive, Larry trim, Jane mast, Bianca bow, DK tactics.
Race 1 (of 1): Weird port at pin start that was effective, early decision to go left for Ft Adams wall lefty plus get into more current quicker. Maybe more aggressive than would have approached a race in a series but in this race you either won or who cares what you got, so be aggressive. We rounded mark 1 with a nice lead. Ducked the current well out of mark 1 even though it wasn't sailing most toward the mark. Nice gain against boats that gybed early and extended toward the Rose Island current relief.
Larry and I (really Larry) made the call to go west of Gould and that worked. Despite the leeward mark (the green north of 1/2 way rock) being invisible, I had the chart marked so we were able to find it without much drama. The rest of the race was kind of easy and boring. There were no passing lanes and we had good speed. 4 past class world champions (at least) had a shiny spot on their mantle all cleared off for that trophy, but now they get to come look at it anytime they want to.
J24 J/Fest 8/12 and 13
Conditions: No racing Saturday; fog and medium southerly with moderate ebb Sunday
Boat: Buckshot
Crew: Steven drive, Larry trim, John mast, Bianca bow, DK tactics
Race 1 we knew where the mark was because I'd marked the chart and seemingly no other boats had. We had a crap start with okay to good wheels but rounded top mark second because we knew where we were going. Passed the slower lead boat on the run and won.
Race 2 not great start, got pinballed around because who doesn't like to tack on the boat that won the last three races you've sailed, got nearly taken out by A-Salt on the run, grovelled back for 6th.
Race 3 terrible start, got flushed out right, got good pressure immediately and stuck with it, then got the header to make it a superfecta and that game was over. Win.
Race 4 okay to meh start, good speed, terrific play to put the boats we'd passed by gybing away into each other, extended up the last beat into a SUPER dying breeze and game, set, match.
J70 tuning 8/15
Don't pull the main in as hard on a J70 as you would a J24. It's an Etchells with an asym. Change your battens to meet conditions. That's about it.
J24 coaching 9/7&8
See North Facebook videos. Power pointing versus shape pointing. Mast butt forward against lowers to corral headstay and prevent over bend. Traveler up HIGH in J24 when vang sheeting so sheet is on a pure in and out plane. Sail upwind in a full luff when it's super nuking.
J24 Changing of the Colors 9/29 - 10/1
Boat: Bogus
Crew: Mike drive, Will trim, Rachel mast, Dave M bow, DK tactics
Day 1: Light. You can be aggressive when it's light and crazy, but you don't want to invite disaster to your door. Despite carding a 1, 1 I would actually say we were the most conservative of the relevant boats. Yes we won both races but we were also the only boat that never had a look at carding a complete shocker race at any point.
Day 2: What a disaster. We tuned well for big breeze. Race 1 proves that the tactician can't make the upwind cross call because you never see the cross. First over the line but with a scoring penalty. Second race we were over and restarted but choked down a Z flag for being over, then won across the line by a minute by going the right direction at every second, faster than everyone else on the course. Race 3 we pissed away a win by not having the spinnaker sheets properly tied to the sail so we took a 2nd. Race 4 we sailed a fine race in SUPER shifty conditions and were set to tack for the win on the last bit when we discovered there was no weather jib sheet led. Our boat handling SUCKED.
Day 3. Super light race that we sailed ok and got a fourth, just the wrong boat took a super flyer and won. For the first time we are not winning the regatta and the RC calls the event despite building breeze. Guess where the winners were from? Also that crew changing shit that they did on the second day was just absolute BS. But we're the North team so smile and be gracious and swear and curse the whole ride home and get over it.
Further notes: when someone's just yapping at you (a family member at Jfest, Dave M at Changing), maybe saying "(Person) please hold that thought I'm trying hard to concentrate" is a better approach than asking him/her to shut up. EVEN THOUGH WHAT THEY ARE DOING IS F'D UP AND WRONG AND STUPID and they should know that why would you start yapping at someone who's in the middle of a complicated look at winning or losing a race or regatta, it pays to be nice.
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