Racing Our Hunter 340

[Bill19233]

We were able to get our Hunter 340 into all 8 of the GBCA Rum Races on Galveston Bay this year. We had a great time in every race. We did all right, we were never in the scoring top five of our cruising class, usually in the middle of the fleet.
In the last race, we caught every lift and were doing great, until I decided to "sock jibe" the A-sail at the last mark and the sock line somehow tied itself in a knot around the radar. It took about 15 minutes of trying to untie it with boat hooks before I got smart and just cut it. We ended up finishing 15 minutes behind first place in our class.

Here's a video I made of us in the race:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0HzhFiSI64

The gimbal I rigged up for my POV camera worked pretty good through the tacks.

 

[Jackdaw]

Nice vid! I'm a huge fun of getting video of racing, there is much to learn to make your sailing better by watching. Some quick things I saw:

BIG overturn in tacks. Start the turn fast, go slow when near head to wind to allow the sail to cross, and them quick to the new angle.

NICE job launching the spin with the jib out. Never go headless.

NICE job with twings on the spin sheet. Keeps the sail in much better trim.

As a Bob Seger fan, I say nice boat name!

 

[Bill19233]

Thanks for the comments and advice. It was our first year to club race, and I loved every minute of it.
I'm going to try to find a way to afford new sails for next year. To quote you: "Life is too short to sail with crappy sails."
I had trouble getting crew for some of the races, we did way better when we had at least four on the boat.
Made a video to send to potential crew, still a few edits to do on it:

Never seem to have the camera on when there's a really close crossing or dolphins are next the boat.

 

[Jackdaw]

Thats a great video, and a super way to attract crew. I wish I had the time/skill to do that. I just record gigabytes of gopro vids.

One more thing re the spin:
If you have a full crew think about using your asym without the sock. In my experience it is much more trouble than it is worth when racing while fully crewed.

Shorted handed, different story.

 

[Scott T-Bird]

As a Bob Seger fan, I say nice boat name!

Thanks for that. I stayed up last night watching Youtube vids of Bob Seger and now I need some sleep! He was the Midwestern version of Springsteen before Springsteen! The 70's weren't all bad! After watching his version of "If I were a Carpenter" I branched off into a whole line-up of 60's rockers at Woodstock (and the classic Proud Mary rendition from Ike & Tina - she likes to finish "rough"). I got a little too amped-up for sleeping!

 

[Jackdaw]

Thanks for that. I stayed up last night watching Youtube vids of Bob Seger and now I need some sleep! He was the Midwestern version of Springsteen before Springsteen! The 70's weren't all bad! After watching his version of "If I were a Carpenter" I branched off into a whole line-up of 60's rockers at Woodstock (and the classic Proud Mary rendition from Ike & Tina - she likes to finish "rough"). I got a little too amped-up for sleeping!

Used to drive down from Michigan a Tech to catch his shows at Cobo. Always 5 sold out shows in a row. Rockin' Rob.