Rounding sequence

[Jackdaw]

At our Fall Regatta a photographer caught BlueJ at the windward mark. It’s a great learning opportunity because you see things you see don’t see on the boat. We sail with 4 (short handed) and it shows at the rounding. This sequence is probably over 20 seconds. We see two things we can improve. Any one see them?

 

[Hayden Watson]

Several boat lengths down wind of the mark when the spin start to go up.

 

[Rick486]

Looks to me based on the wind tell at the mast head that the main and chute are are not optimally trimmed. Main needs to go out and pole needs to come aft. Also looks like with the trailing boat close, might be better tactic to sail a bit high for speed.
Fun stuff. When I see shots like these I miss racing....

 

[Will Gilmore]

I am like Schultz, I see nothing. Just tagging along to learn.
Maybe you could have initiated the turn a couple seconds earlier or furled the genny (code 0?) sooner, but I'm just guessing.
... and where'd the bowman go? A puff of smoke would give the magic trick more panache. Other than that, I would be proud of making a turn like that.

-Will (Dragonfly)

 

[weinie]

other than your boat is Blue J and is not a J boat?

maybe pre-feed sooner?

 

[Apex]

sequence shows a nice fill.....hard to pick out the details, but thought the same on pre-feed. 1st two shots show the pole ready?
Bowman is on knees hoisting? Can he stand to get better leverage and balance?

 

[Jackdaw]

Several boat lengths down wind of the mark when the spin start to go up.

There is an offset mark. We hoisted the moment we hit it and could turn down!

 

[Ted]

In the last two photos it looks like:
1. The spinnaker pole isn't perpendicular to the mast. Drop the outboard end of the pole.
2. The spinnaker tack is flying higher than the clew. Move the pole down to get the tack and clew even with each other.
(my 2 cents)

 

[jssailem]

Good eye @Ted . I was wondering the same. I also questioned why was the pole looking like it is laying against the forestay.
But not sure of the detail so it may be an optical illusion. Like the width given to rounding the mark and the spinnaker being raised well past the mark.

 

[BobbyFunn]

Nice pictures!

1. First picture has you looking at the camera. You racing or trying to look good Eyes on your own page.

2. Headsail trim is difficult since the main is usually blocking the view. This is when having some 3rd person pov is helpful. Are you not happy with what might be an overtrimmed headsail. That slot might be laminar, but the telltales off the leech arent following the sail shape. Its hard to tell if they are all pointing paralle to the hull centerline, but they are all different orientations. There is a pretty agressive down draft or vortex behind the main, especially in the midsection. Overtrimmed headsail and "unbalanced" leach?

 

[glaufman]

Ease the backstay

 

[Jackdaw]

You guys are on it.

Due to 4 crew we are short in the manouvers. That’s the key.

At the windward mark our headsail trimmer becomes bow and goes forward to get the pole. But when we bear off at the mark, the main is eased but no one is there to ease the jib. So w are over trimmed between the mark and the offset.

At the hoist our pit person sets the guy/pole near the forestay before the hoist. We should pull it back more, but it adds risk to the pre-feed of the guy.

 

[Kings Gambit]

If I were abeam the mark at your distance (photo #2), I'd be bearing off already, if I'm seeing this at the correct angle.

 

[Jackdaw]

If I were abeam the mark at your distance (photo #2), I'd be bearing off already, if I'm seeing this at the correct angle.

For sure.

As I noted above, at that point we are bearing off and heading for the offset mark. The main is eased to match the helm, but due to our headsail trimmer being at the bow setting up the kite, the headsail is still in upwind trim. We’re working on that!

 

[Kings Gambit]

Yeah, I did notice the difference in trim between the headsail and the main.

 

[Jackdaw]

Here is a vid taken from another boat that shows the timing of the set vs the offset mark. The Sonar in the pic started 3 minutes before us.

:09 we round the offset mark
:11 start hoist
:17 full hoist
:24 kite fills

having the pole back a bit more would cut down on the time it takes to get the fill

 

[Jackdaw]

maybe pre-feed sooner?

It was pretty breezy (16kts) and we were launching out of a bag because we swapped kites. Because of the offset mark we have time to pre-feed after the mark and before we turn down. You can see the pole is ready in the shots leading up to the mark, and the pre-feed is done in the shot between the mark and the offset.

 

[Apex]

JD, We ease the jib at the rounding just enough to improve trim, but not really trimmed for downwind, otherwise it would foul the spin hoist. You are not likely giving up too much, esp with a fractional rig as you currently are. The only other observation that I heard echoed was having you hunting for the mark under everything. As driver, the bow or in your case jib trim should be calling the mark to you in boat lengths until you can switch from driving to the jib telltales to downwind turning mode.

 

[Jackdaw]

JD, We ease the jib at the rounding just enough to improve trim, but not really trimmed for downwind, otherwise it would foul the spin hoist. You are not likely giving up too much, esp with a fractional rig as you currently are. The only other observation that I heard echoed was having you hunting for the mark under everything. As driver, the bow or in your case jib trim should be calling the mark to you in boat lengths until you can switch from driving to the jib telltales to downwind turning mode.

We almost always race with an offset mark at the windward mark, and it takes us about 10 seconds to reach between the two. During that time the main is trimmed to reach, but the headsail isn't. We're going to add a headsail ease to our playbook to put the jib in better (but probably not perfect trim). Might save us a second or two every race.

Because we're a crew of 4, I call out distances to marks. Everyone else is very busy (bow,pit), or can't see the mark (main) Due to the non-overlapping headsail I can almost always find it on the run-up to the mark.

 

[weinie]

In my (limited) experience, we usually have the mainsheet trimmer trim the jib while the jib trimmer gets his lines set up. Mainsheet guy also furls the jib when the kite is about 1/2 way up.