Wire to wire win

[Jackdaw]

Great first win for Jodi on BlueJ last night, we nail the start and lead wire to wire, including beating 4 boats that owe us huge time to the finish. Here's a short vid from the evening.... A (longer faster) j27 that was behind us slowly drives up to us to windward, but now I control when we both gybe to the mark. We wait for our best angle, then nail the maneuver and blast downwind. They are much slower to gybe, loose distance, and have to hot reach to the mark. We never see them again. Zoom!

 

[plenny7]

Nice!

 

[jwing]

What does 'hot reach' mean?

 

[Jackdaw]

What does 'hot reach' mean?

Great question. When sailing downwind, spinnaker boats will gybe their way down the course to stay in best pressure and on a good true wind angle (145-170) for their spinnaker. Now the longer you wait for your last gybe to the mark, the 'hotter' that angle will be, or more reachy. You can see in this screenshot that after we gybed we were reaching to the mark, and the j27 gybes MUCH later than we did. So they came in hot. OK for sailing as long as you can carry your kite, but a real test of your crew work when you have to douse at the mark. Nobody likes to take down a kite that is reaching; the deeper you are sailing the easier it is. With the wind way forward, and 14 knots of breeze its almost impossible, and often boats will turn down (away from the mark) to douse. But that's slow.

 

[Apex]

congrats on the win Jodi! :O)


....must be the XS crew shirts at work. ;O)

 

[LakeShark]

@Jackdaw I have to ask a potentially dumb question. I enjoyed your video but do you have a double line coming from your mainsheet? In this video as well as others it seems like your boat has either an endless line (but I don't know how) or 2 lines coming to the sheet tender. Why is this?

 

[Jackdaw]

@Jackdaw I have to ask a potentially dumb question. I enjoyed your video but do you have a double line coming from your mainsheet? In this video as well as others it seems like your boat has either an endless line (but I don't know how) or 2 lines coming to the sheet tender. Why is this?

@LakeShark , we have a 2-speed mainsheet system, designed to help the high sheet loads when going upwind. It is a Harken 3:1/6:1 system. Pull both sheets and you get a very quick 3:1 retrieve; nice when rounding the leeward mark and miles of sheet are out. Like in that picture! Pull one of them (either one) and its a much easier 6:1 retrieve, great when getting the last two inches of sheet in to get perfect upwind trim. Spendy but worth it; right @cb32863?? ;^)

It would be great if it were an endless line, but the splice would be a nightmare in the blocks. So we re-balance the (long!) sheet after every sail.

 

[LakeShark]

I didn't even know such a thing existed. I guess you learn something new every day. Looks like a nice setup though.

 

[Jackdaw]

congrats on the win Jodi! :O)

....must be the XS crew shirts at work. ;O)

That sure helped! Sadly it was under many layers of foul weather gear. It was cool and got COLD once the sun started setting.

 

[Stu Jackson]

I guess this means you decided to "keep" each other! Great work!

 

[cb32863]

@LakeShark , we have a 2-speed mainsheet system, designed to help the high sheet loads when going upwind. It is a Harken 3:1/6:1 system. Pull both sheets and you get a very quick 3:1 retrieve; nice when rounding the leeward mark and miles of sheet are out. Like in that picture! Pull one of them (either one) and its a much easier 6:1 retrieve, great when getting the last two inches of sheet in to get perfect upwind trim. Spendy but worth it; right @cb32863?? ;^)

View attachment 136739

It would be great if it were an endless line, but the splice would be a nightmare in the blocks. So we re-balance the (long!) sheet after every sail.

Most definitely worth it! Going to improve mine later this year to the 6:1/3:1 w/ratchet. With mid boom sheeting on that big main of the 235, it tends to get to be a lot of work to trim main. Last night was a prime example.

 

[Jackdaw]

Most definitely worth it! it tends to get to be a lot of work to trim main. Last night was a prime example.

This is a key point, in particular if you race and/or have a lady trimming main. Jodi is tough as nails but simply not as strong as the average ape you see trimming main. The extra purchase gives welcome assistance.

 

[Sandy Stone]

Nobody likes to take down a kite that is reaching; the deeper you are sailing the easier it is. With the wind way forward, and 14 knots of breeze its almost impossible

Oh, so it's not just me, then?

 

[Alansails]

GREAT JOB TEAM!
good work! Congrats

 

[Jackdaw]

Oh, so it's not just me, then?

No indeed.

That j27 totally muffed their drop, and ended sailing past the mark with their kite up, the most painful thing you can do in sailboat racing. Not only are you make HUGE negative VMG while that is happening, but you get the double pain of having to sail upwind back to the mark, at only 1/2 the VMG you were losing while you sailed by!

 

[Meriachee]

We had the same block made by Guido at Garhauer. Nowhere near as pricey as the Harken offering and just as glossy.

 

[Jackdaw]

We had the same block made by Guido at Garhauer. Nowhere near as pricey as the Harken offering and just as glossy.

I've looked into that in the past, and while the Garhauer stuff is well built, there is significant differences. The Harken part allows you to adjust the angle of the cleat, which is key to ease of use. Also on the Harken part, the block before the cleat has a ratchet that can be turned on and off, which makes using it in a blow much easier. With this you can hold the sheet without cleating it. And its much lighter.

Harken really designs their stuff with the input of racers and world class sailors. Its why they use it.

 

[Meriachee]

Harken really designs their stuff with the input of racers and world class sailors. Its why they use it.

Yeah, but lets not forget that not everybody wants, or can afford the really slippery stuff.

 

[pateco]

Nobody likes to take down a kite that is reaching; the deeper you are sailing the easier it is. With the wind way forward, and 14 knots of breeze its almost impossible, and often boats will turn down (away from the mark) to douse. But that's slow.

View attachment 136738

Couldnt you raise the jib, and douse behind it as you head up at the mark?

 

[Jackdaw]

Couldnt you raise the jib, and douse behind it as you head up at the mark?

Remember that the spinnaker is outside the jib, and once you turn up, its not in the lee of the jib, but windward of it. People have tried it, but it looks nasty.

When things are tight at the leeward mark (like in the drop in the original video) I'm always talking/watching the foredecker, so make sure I can turn the boat.