Good things come to those that wait, or so my parents used to tell me when I was younger. But in this case, they were right. Monday morning we received some excellent wisdom from one of the best J/24 teams in the world (they won the 2004 World Championship after all), Team Salsa, led by Jens Hookanson and PJ Schaffer. Oh, they also tend to do fairly well on Thursday nights. Salsa crushed the fleet in Race 1, flying the big genoa. We had to know how they did it. Thanks PJ and Jens.
Last night was one of the windiest Thursday nights we’ve had in while. Many teams chose the blade jib for the first race, you guys went with the genoa. How did you come to that decision?
Jens Hookanson: We decided to go out without a headsail hooked up so we could make the call when we got out on the course based on the conditions. I knew if we went out with one of the sails already hooked up this might influence our decision. I prefer not to pay any attention to what other boats are doing and just make the decision based on our own situation. There were a few things to consider last night that went into our decision making process.
We did not have either Jock Hayes or Larry Colantuano (our normal cockpit guys) to pull the genoa. I steered and PJ decided to do the cockpit. The fact that we did not have our normal guys to pull the genoa was in the back of my mind, but I knew PJ could still do a good job at it and we had almost max weight on board and very competent crew.
It was indeed windy, but PJ brought up a good point that normally the breeze lightens as the evening progresses, and in fact it did just that.
We hate to change jibs between races on a Thursday night. I had a feeling that if we started with a blade then race 2 would likely require a change, and we wanted to avoid that scenario like the plague.
Since the tide was ebbing, this opened up the full race course tactically, meaning we could choose to minimize our number of tacks. No short tacking up Fort Adams required.
One thing about the J24 is that you can de power the boat quite easily. We tightened the shrouds to accommodate the windier conditions (about 29/29 on the Loos guage) and we moved the genoa lead back about 6” from our normal powered up setting. Once we decided to go with the genoa, we went upwind for a bit and I felt we were fine with the boat a bit de powered.
The genoa allows you to point much higher than with the blade and one of the things that I hate is not being able to hold a lane. Holding your lane often enables you to sail the race you want to sail rather than have your tactics decided for you by another boat.
How did you keep the boat on its feet with the genoa? Could you tell us a little bit about how you depowered the boat when a puff hit?
JH: One thing that really helps is having your crew call the puffs and lulls. This enables you to power up or depower as necessary. Last night was a critical night for this as it was windy and there were a lot of puffs. I find it really important to sail the J/24 as flat as possible and sometimes this requires pointing higher than normal to keep the boat on its feet. If the boat heels too much, the keel does not work and the boat slips sideways and that’s very slow. It’s the typical saying on a J24 that when it feels like you’re going slow and the boat feels like crap; you’re really going quite well. Sometimes I have a good bit of the genoa backing in the puffs, but this is actually fine and often quite fast at the upper end of the genoa. When sailing in the upper range of the genoa, one thing that we often do is ease the genoa 4-6” in the big puffs. This becomes necessary especially if the main begins to luff and the boat heels too much. I generally pull the mainsheet on quite hard and use the traveler and backstay to de power in the puffs and when the puff subsides, power back up so you don’t lose your pointing ability. Move the jib leads between tacks if you think the wind is trending up or down.
A big concern in heavy air with the genoa is tacking. What are the keys to a good tack in these situations?
PJ Schaffer: The biggest thing to remember is that “tacking” is a team sport. There is a common misconception that you have to be a big/strong person to tack the genoa in heavy air but the keys really are timing and coordination. The most important part of the tack is making sure the helmsman does not overturn the boat. The goal is to keep the boat moving through the tack while allowing the genoa to cross sides and lie within the opposite side lifelines. The cockpit trimmer must release just after the tack has started (slight backwind) so the sail “pops” thru the foretraingle. At this point the helmsman must slow the turn enough to allow the tailing of the sheet to catch up with the clew now on the new leeward side between the shrouds and lifelines. If the sail is heavily loaded on the new tack there is a good possibility the boat was turned too much thru the wind.
To help the trimming, the #3 (middle) must overhaul the released sheet to make sure it doesn’t wrap around the winch or snag any obstructions. Once the sail is trimmed as much as you can pull in, it’s three (for heavy air, two for medium/light) quick wraps around the winch and get out and hike. The helmsman will remove the weather side winch handle from the holster and wind the sheet in to desired trim. The bow man may need to skirt the jib but should wait until the cockpit trimmer is hiking and the helmsman calls for the skirt. Other keys are picking a good spot to tack (flat water, no puffs, etc.) and making sure the genoa sheets are as short as possible.
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