Singing the Genoa Blues, and Wisdom from Rob Lambert (USA 3360)

A number of years ago, I offered to trim jib for a J/24 at the San Francisco NOOD Regatta. That experience, which featured three days of short tacking the shore to avoid the strong flood tide, gave me two things: 1. A deep appreciation for the intricacies of trimming the genoa on this one-design. 2. A severe case of tendonitis in my left elbow.

The years since have erased the pain in my elbow and any sense of how hard it is to really tack the genoa on a J/24, especially in any kind of breeze. I can look back from my spot on the twings (now there's a challenge) and tell our genoa trimmer, with a straight face, how much it would really help us if he could get it inside the lifelines on the next tack.

Or at least I could do that. Last night, after three light-air Thursday nights, we got a load of breeze on the one night that none of the top three trimmers on our crew depth chart could make it and I was forced to fill in.

If there is one benefit to being the jib trimmer, it’s that you can swear with impunity. I did plenty of that, especially on the final tack of the night when I thought I’d finally gotten my technique down pat and the jib sheet somehow got caught around the latch on the companionway slider. How did that happen? I’m still mystified.

Tacking the genoa on a J/24 might be among the toughest headsail handling jobs in the sport. Think about it: modern boats like a Melges 24 have only a 100-percent jib. That couldn't be easier. If the boat is any bigger, and has a genoa, you usually will have help in the maneuver, and you’re not likely to cross sheet. Nope in the J/24 the jib trimmer is all alone, just you, two winches, 20 feet of squirming sheet, and four sets of eyes watching you knowing they could do it better.

But aside from my struggles with the jib sheets, what a fabulous night of sailing. The choice between the blade and the genoa was quite interesting and if anything I came away with the sense that the windspeed range where either sail is pretty effective might be larger than many of us had thought. After all, the first race, which was the windier of the two, was won by Salsa (USA 1964) carrying a genoa. The second race, when the windspeed dropped a bit into the mid-teens, was taken by Barfly (USA 3360) with a blade. (Quick note: Don't forget that sailing with the blade means EVERYONE on the crew MUST WEAR LIFEJACKETS! The RC will DSQ you if you don't follow this part of the SIs. More than a few boats learned this the hard way last night.)

Rob Lambert, from Barfly, was quick to get back to me with his thoughts on the evening. Those are below. Hopefully someone from the Salsa Syndicate will do the same today or over the weekend.

How many days until next Thursday? Oh yeah, same as on every Friday, six!

Winner's Wisdom from Rob Lambert of Barfly

Many of the teams that sailed with the blade in the first race switched over to the genoa for Race 2. You didn’t and, despite a slight drop in windspeed, won the race. What was your thinking in staying with the small jib?

Rob Lambert: Though we did not have a great race on the first one, we thought that we had plenty of power with the blade and our speed and height, when we were in clean air, was good. For me personally I have learned the hard way that I have trouble going as fast as the some of the pro boats like Salsa at the top end of the No. 1. We have had better performance with the blade in 14 knots then the genoa. This is somewhat against the norm, but it is extremely hard, for me, to drive the 24 with the genoa in 15 knots. We noticed the drop in wind speed between races and seriously considered changing up. The deciding factors were that we were confident in our speed with the blade from the first race, thought the wind might come back up, and the water was relatively flat so we thought we did not need the power in the genoa. I think we also got a little lucky because it seemed to get a little more breezy right around the start of the second race.

Did you change the set up of the boat at all between the races to accommodate for slightly less breeze?

RL: No change in the rig, we had it set for the North Sails 14 to 17 wind range. No change in the car position for the jib. The major difference was the backstay, max on the first race, about half way on for the second race.

Can you give us a quick rundown of your strategy for the first beat. Most teams worked the right side of the course, presumably for better current and maybe an evening right-hand shift. You played the left side.

RL: Our fundamental idea was to ride the current as much as possible. We wanted to stay away from the south side of Rose Island where we thought there would be less favorable current. Holding starboard tack off the line, staying in the current, was key. This took us between the two large anchored yachts where we got some more favorable tide push from the water dumping out of Newport harbor. The port tack put us from there in the middle of the bay where we anticipated the most current.

What about on the run? What was your thinking there?

RL: Get out of the tide, get inside position. Coming into the windward mark we decided that we wanted to stay close to the Fort Adams shore to get out of the current. We were able to stay there for a while, but a couple boats from behind began to gain as they were covering us. As it seemed they might get inside position on us we jibed out to maintain inside position and tried to keep as close to the shore as the other boats would allow. In the end it turned out that we were neck and neck with On the Beach for about half the run, but the inside position established in the beginning of the run paid off as we were able round inside at the leeward mark.

What I Meant To Do Was...

One of the stories I’ve been editing for the July/August issue of Sailing World is Part II of a series on sailing downwind in light air by America’s Cup veteran Tony Rey (warning: small plug coming—the first part is in our June issue, which should be on newstands soon). I’ve read the story four or five times and spent countless hours dissecting Tony’s advice and trying to make it as clear as possible. I can recite the key points from memory.

Of course, when put into a position to use this information, I totally screwed up.

The first race was a disaster. We got squeezed out at the boat end, and then managed to screw up virtually every key decision the rest of the way. The second race didn’t start much better as, when the starting gun fired, we were two boatlengths off the line and going slow. But then the night started to turn for us, we took a conservative path up the beat, playing the shifts, and crawled back into the race. Learning from our mistake in the first race, we played the Newport side of the run and jumped into the top half and the other side ran out of wind. We would finish ninth, dead in the middle of the 17-boat fleet, but we had a chance to finish as high as seventh. I woke up this morning thinking about those two places.

One of Tony’s tenets for a light air run is to be wary of coming into the mark on layline as it makes it very easy for other boats to jibe on to your air. It’s best to jibe a little shy of the layline and give yourself some flexibility toward the end of the run.

My first mistake was ignoring this advice and hitting the port-tack layline for the leeward mark two-thirds of the way down the run. This wasn’t an easy call. USA 3360 banged the corner on that run and went from behind us at the windward mark to sixth at the finish. But my decision to hit the layline would hurt us.

As we converged on the mark, it became clear that we were going to be very close with My Heine.

My initial thought was to sail low—we were coming in on a hotter angle and had better speed—and try to get to the mark first. This was my second mistake. In those conditions, sailing through a windshadow is all but impossible. Another of Tony’s key bits of advice for light air is about always keeping your air clear.

Realizing this wasn’t going to happen, we then made the decision to fight for the overlap. We won the battle, getting the inside overlap, but lost the war. We rounded slow and with My Heine planted on our leebow. We had to tack away and eventually lost one more boat at the finish. Ugh.

A third nugget of advice that Tony offered in his story is the singular importance of a clean rounding, with speed, even if it means going to the unfavored side of the gate. We had neither. I often chide myself for not being aggressive enough when approaching leeward marks—especially single marks as opposed to gates. But this time, once we realized we would not get through My Heine’s windshadow, we should have focused on a clean rounding, with speed, right on their transom. This might have enabled us to live on their windward hip. There was so little port tack in the final beat that we didn’t need to stay there long to ensure we could beat them to the tack and have a chance to beat them across the line.

It seems so easy in hindsight.

It was great to see 18 boats out last night. Let’s hope for some breeze next week. We are definitely due. Enjoy the long weekend.

Last night's results can be found on the Ida Lewis webpage.

Winner's Wisdom from Jeff Johnstone and John Mollicone

A two-fer of good advice today, first from Jeff Johnstone who took Race 1 in dramatic fashion. Second we have some nuggets from John Mollicone, who had a more conventional (start first and extend) win in Race 2. Thanks to both of them. Also, if you have any additional questions or comments, drop them in the comments section, all you need is a gmail account, which is free.

Jeff Johnstone (USA 5356)

We all know tide is a huge factor in Thursday night racing. Last night’s first race was especially tough as the tide was switching as we started, so it seemed hard to get a read. You had a good beat, but the winning move appeared to come halfway down the beat. With the top half of the fleet virtually even, you jibe to port, took a number of transoms and headed to the right side (looking upwind) of the course and won the race. Can you tell us what you were looking for?

The decision to jibe out and take all those transoms to get west downwind was due to a mistake we made on the beat. We started at the pin with plan to go left, because pre-start we noticed old flood current in the middle of the course while the new ebb was working its way across from the left. We got the pin and extended nicely, then tacked to port to stay with the fleet, which had mostly headed right. As boats crossed the current line we saw them lighten and drop to leeward. We were licking our chops. Then we made the error of crossing the line before tacking back left. When we tacked 30 seconds later we were fighting a line of flood current, and by the time we got back into the ebb, Crack of Noon, who we had earlier crossed by many lengths, had us by several. On the run, we figured that that same patch of old flood (or at least neutral current) was still along the same line (only further west). As the breeze lightened near the fort, and with Crack of Noon and Smokin’ to our right, we jibed and ducked Tasmanian Devil and two other transoms, then saw the current line and decided to do a hard duck on another 4 boats in order to cross the line. About 30 seconds after we crossed the current line we made an immediate huge gain. Pipe Dream saw this and was next to jibe out. We then picked a spot later to jibe back to consolidate and were able to cross the big pack. All I can say is it was good there weren’t 25 boats out there.

It’s not the first time we’ve seen you outfox the fleet. What is key to getting the best of the tide? Experience is important, but what other keys can you use to take advantage of a variable tide situation like we had last night?

I think we used all our luck and brain cells in the first race, because we neglected to keep track of the current lines pre-start into the second race and overlooked that the full ebb had worked its way across the bay. Races during the mid-tide cycle (2-4 hours after high or low tide) are pretty straight-forward and most of the fleet is dialed into where the best and worst current is. However, when you are within 1- 1.5 hours of a tide change plan on having to more carefully sail across the course pre-start and pay particular attention to any lines and the current on either side. It’s just a habit with us that if we see a current line near the starting line, we’ll sail across it constantly to reaffirm whether its favorable or not, and then set up our starting strategy accordingly (either to get into favorable quicker or to avoid the foul). Also don’t assume that because high tide is 5:30 p.m. that the whole bay is ebbing at 6 p.m. Last night at 6:25, there was still flood current in the middle of the channel.

We won a race last year in just the opposite sequence of tide. It was low tide at 5:45, lightly flooding at the start at 6:15, and so most of the fleet hit the Fort Adams coastline. We headed out towards bell 13 and picked up a narrow river of ebb current and managed to close reach into mark #4 in true Sugar Plum fashion. We had seen both Pete and Scott win this same kind of race over the years, but never had the guts to try it!

John Mollicone (USA 5256)

You had a great comeback in that first race, finishing second. Tell a little about your plan for that race and how you got back in the lead group?

Our gameplan was to stay on starboard off the line and head towards the Newport shore. We thought there was more breeze on the left and we also thought the current was fully ebbing on the shore, but not so sure about the right. We had a bad start, but we were still able to get left and at least round the weather not too far behind the leaders. There was a nice left shift on the beat, and, it seemed, more pressure. I think the current started to change in the channel (deeper water) during this race, and was ebbing hard towards the Newport shore.

The second race started in a bit of a shifty breeze. Tell us a little how you approached the start and was your plan was for the first part of the beat?

The starting was a bit skewed and a little difficult to cross on starboard tack. Port tack was the long tack by far, and with the current ebbing hard, our gameplan was to tack onto port right away near the boat end. Being towards the boat, we thought we would get to the shipping channel right away towards Jamestown and in the strongest ebb. The best pressure also seemed to be middle right as well, and port was so lifted.

Very light air, flat water. What's the best way to set up the J/24 for those conditions? And how do you trim to it upwind?

Since it was so light, we went a half turn off both the uppers and lowers from our base setting, which is 20/15. We usually do this in under 5 knots, when we have a body or two down below. We call this our "super setting."

Downwind was very tough in the second race as the wind was very up and down, occasionally going really light. How aggressively were you changing your course to keep the spinnaker drawing? Tell us a little about the dialogue that goes on between the spinnaker trimmer and the driver?

Luckily, we had a decent lead at the weather mark (in the second race). It went real light on the run, with the current starting to go out real hard and against us. Staying aggressively towards the Newport shore but not too close was key. There was a current line that you needed to clearly stay inside of, but if you hugged the shore too close it would get real light. Our trimmer, Peter Henderson, was very vocal about pressure on the sheets and I would always respond slowly with some tiller and with our crew weight in or outboard. Being so light it was important to have very gentle tiller movements, if any, to head up or down. Our tactician, Rob MacMillan, would also be vocal about lane management and if there was pressure coming.

Welcome to Newport

We had a new member aboard Crack of Noon last night. Derby Anderson isn’t just new to the boat, she’s also new to town, having moved here just a few weeks ago from Annapolis. However, she’s apparently done her research. As we were tuning up for the race, she said: “So I hear it’s all about the tide in this fleet?”

She picked a heck of a night to say that.

Last night was quite an interesting race. The tide turned at 5:38 p.m. in Newport, which means that by the time we started racing it was just beginning to ebb. Most of the fleet went right, toward the deeper water to the west of Rose Island. Our plan from the outset was to go left as I felt that was a quicker route to the tide. A poor start put us in a hole and we were a quarter of the way through a tack when I decided to stick to my guns and asked Ian to go straight. (Thanks again to www.iWindsurf.com for the wind readings from Rose Island)

As it turned out, the best thing that happened to us on that leg was a windshift to the left and some better pressure on the left side and we rounded the windward mark in second. But that was the beginning of the end. A third of the way down the run I looked to leeward and saw half of the 13-boat fleet lined up, bow to bow. It was a classic restart and we were on the wrong side of it this time. Jeff Johnstone made a radical move toward the cone of current relief south of Rose Island, taking a number of transoms to get there, and won the race. We ended up 11th. Ugh!

By the time we got the second race underway, the tide was beginning to really move, and it seemed to create all sorts of weird eddies up the course. We tried to be patient, and sailed the long tack—port tack—as long as we could. At one point we were looking quite strong, but fell out of phase at the top of the leg and rounded midfleet, which is where we finished. Better, but still plenty of room for improvement. John Mollicone and Rob MacMillan led wire to wire for the win.

Nice work by the race committee getting as much out of the breeze as possible. It died completely before we reached the dock at Newport YC.

Results for 5/15: 1. USA 5256 (2, 1) 2. USA 355 (5, 2) 3. USA 3969 (3, 5) 4. USA 5356 (1, 8) 5. USA 5291 (8, 3) 6. USA 4453 (6, 6) 7. USA 3360 (10,4) 8. USA 3328 (4, 11) 9. USA 3688 (11, 7) 10. USA 1600 (7, 12) 11. USA 4687 (9, 10) 12. USA 3148 (13, 9) 13. USA 3294 (12, 13)

Winner's Wisdom from Anthony Kotoun (USA 2934)

One of the best traditions of Newport's Laser frostbite fleet is the weekly words of wisdom, where the winner from the previous week shares a few tips on what was working for him. Hopefully we'll be able to do a similar thing with the J/24 fleet. Technically Anthony Kotoun didn't win the first night of sailing, losing on a tiebreaker to Charlie Enright's Rooster. But I didn't have the results at the time I sent the questions out and as a former world champion in the class, Kotoun is definitely no slouch. So I sent him three questions. Here are his repies.

Stuart Streuli: With a strong incoming tide and a moderate southerly, last night featured some very flat water on the bay. How do you adjust the set up of your boat for conditions where the water is flatter than expected for the wind speed?

Anthony Kotoun: We were at 24-21 but were overpowered and had 100-percent back stay on. Kind of got caught when the breeze increased there the last few minutes and should have tightened the back stay adjusters. As for flat water, we all know the answer: pinch! You have to use the mantra of, “If it feels like crap, you are going well.” Every once in a while the crew should have to pull up their feet to keep then out of the water. Mainsheet was really, really tight. Biggest thing for me though is someone good calling puffs. When the puff hits, in a perfect world the boat should never feel it because you have pulled on the backstay, and pinched a bit and the genoa guy has eased 7 inches.

SS: We don’t often start in the cone of tide relief south of Rose Island. Conventional wisdom said you needed to get right to get out of the tide as fast as possible, but in the second race you were not among the first group to head right, and instead chose to come in from the middle/left side two-thirds of the way up the beat. What was your thinking there?

AK: I could see that the boat was going to be very crowed with about 1 minute to go so I chose the avoid and safe route. I was confident in our speed and wanted to be patient. Most importantly though, it wasn't my boat and I wanted to avoid a potential crash. As we saw, a big collision is no way to start of the season!

Current-wise though, the western channel is deeper and I thought it might be stronger over there. I think the left would have worked but the breeze went 7 to 10 degrees right up that beat. When we tacked onto port two-thirds of the way up we were looking good but it faded and we had to put a really weak leebow on Will Welles, who eventually rolled us at the mark.

SS: Downwind was a fetch, but just barely. What did you feel was the key to having a successful run?

AK: I hate fetches. They are so boring. We worked hard on our lane last night and it was semi helpful. More important though is to know ahead of the rounding if it is going to be a fetch or jibe set and be ready to set up your lane appropriately.

First Night Done Right, Sort Of

The forecast called for the breeze to fade and go right. From the time we got to the boat around 4 p.m. until we left the dock at 5:15, the breeze dropped steadily, just as the forecast predicted. It seemed to level off around 10 to 12 knots as we sailed out to the course, checked our numbers, and did a few spinnaker sets. So we backed off the rig a bit, down to what is our traditional Thursday-night setting. Then, of course, the breeze kicked up for the first race. Feeling like we were slightly overpowered at times on the first beat, we went back up on rig for the second race and, well, the breeze faded again. (The image is a section of last night’s wind readings from the Rose Island sensor, courtesy of www.iWindsurf.com/www.SailFlow.com)

While it would’ve been nice to be in better sync with the breeze, the real key to last night seemed to be getting off the line. With a strong flood tide, the beat was relatively one-sided and the run was basically a fetch. With each course being upwind, finish downwind, there were few passing lanes.

The Crack of Noon team struggled in both starts and that put us in catch-up mode for the rest of the race. We made up a few boats in both races by tacking shy of the starboard layline and avoiding the parade. This always makes for a slightly hairy final approach to the windward mark—tack, find a hole, tack, pinch to make the mark—but it worked for us in both cases.

Personally, the best move I made all night was throwing a vest into my backpack before I left the house. I was fine without it for the racing, but sucking down the suds afterward was another story. Early May in Newport is always a little chilly once the sun goes down.

It was great to see 13 boats out for the first night. Unfortunately two of them retired after a thunderous windward mark collision in the first race. A fine how-do-you-do to start the season. Hopefully it won't keep either of them off the water for too long. As for those of you who weren’t there, where were you? I’ve always maintained that the key to a Newport summer is ramping up all the summer activities in May. Otherwise you spend June and July trying to find your rhythm and August wondering where the summer went. See you next week.

Preliminary Results for May 8: 1. USA 4274 (1, 3) 2. USA 2934 (2, 2) 3. USA 4116 (4,1) 4. USA 4453 (5,6) 5. USA 4446 (3, 9) 6. USA 2991 (7, 5) 7. USA 3688 (6, 7) 8. USA 3360 (11, 4) 9. USA 355 (10,8) 10. USA 4687 (8,11) 11. USA 3969 (9,10).

Lovely Night for a Launching

It’s hard to think of a better night for launching a boat than last night, especially in Newport in May. Just three of us made quick work of getting Crack of Noon in the water (that's Dave Reed on the right delivering the boat to its slip at Newport YC). By 8 p.m. we were comfortably seated at the Mudville Pub toasting the impending start of the another season of J/24 sailing. Psyched would be an extreme understatement.

It’s strange that the more sailing I do and the more traveling I do, the more I look forward to Thursday nights in Newport. Though I always seem to remember the water being closer to 70 than 50.

Last fall at the annual awards banquet, I spoke with the incoming fleet captains, Will Welles and Brian Smith, about improving the intra-fleet communications. We thought a weekly blog would be great. So in this space each Friday morning, I’ll be sharing a little recap of the previous night. We hope to have the results up as well, and we’ll also do some impromptu interviews with a strong performer from each week to help share a bit of the collective knowledge of the fleet.

Anyone with a gmail.com account will be able to add comments (the account is free and easy to sign up for, and so far, no junk mail!) and if you get sick of hearing about the travails and triumphs of the Crack of Noon crew, feel free to volunteer to sit in for a week and tell everyone how it went down on your boat. You can reach me at stuart (dot) streuli (at) sailingworld (dot) com. Or just email any of the fleet officers, they can also post stories to the blog.

As nice as the weather was last night, it’s still May, and it looks like we’re in for something a little more typical for tomorrow night’s opening race. The forecast from iWindsurf.com says we can expect strong SW breezes during the day with a possible fade into the evening. Showers are possible as a front moves through.