All Wet, But Far From Washed-Up: Salsa Rules The Day

I’m sure, had we racked up a couple of double-digit scores, I’d feel differently about last night. But 24 hours later it still feels like one of the more satisfying nights of J/24 racing I’ve had. The rain held off, for the most part, the breeze stayed on, and the racing was super tight, with passing lanes galore. On the sail in, we all remarked that it felt like we’d done much worse than we did on the Crack of Noon (a 6 and an 8). I would have to take off my shoes to tally up all the mistakes we made. But we kept plugging away, got some timely—and possibly undeserved—breaks late in both races and came away with two keepers. The conditions, and the closeness of the fleet, forced you to be engaged in the race from start to finish. Fall asleep for a second and you were likely to pay with a spot or two in the pecking order.

In the first race, we picked off a handful on boats on the final beat, nipping three of them at the finish by half a boatlength. We ducked two boats with just 200 yards to go to the finish, but that enabled us to get to the right side and control the favored boat end of the finish line. Phew. There was barely enough time in between races to get my heart rate back below 100. In the second race, we just held off a group of three boats in the last quarter mile of the run. A half boatlength less and we'd have found ourselves on the outside of a large pinwheel and outside the top 10 at the finish.

You’d think that a race course like Y(p)S(p) wouldn’t have a ton of passing lanes, being as short as it is. But that was certainly the case last night. Upwind and downwind there were plenty of opportunities to make or lose boats. A few times I only thought one move ahead and paid for it with a crash tack, ill-timed duck, etc.

One team that didn’t set a foot wrong was Salsa, not that anyone is surprised. They were so far ahead by the second mark of the two-lap first race, that you could've assumed they were in a different race. We posed a few questions[in bold] to Jens Hookanson, who was back at the helm of USA 1964. His responses are below. Take it away Jens:

It was a beautiful night for racing this Thursday. Well, maybe not a beautiful night with regard to the weather, but it was a beautiful night with regard to the conditions. And I must say that the race committee did a great job setting up a proper starting line and a great course as well. My crew for the night was Jock Hayes, Will Donaldson, Ralph Kinder, and Mark Wiss. I decided to helm for the night so I could get a little practice before heading off to Block Island Race Week next week [where Jens will be driving Robert Armstrong’s J/100 Good Girl, with a posse from the U.S. Virgin Islands]. Some nights you find that you and your crew are “in the zone” and that’s how it felt for us last night.

Can you tell us a little bit about your genoa set up last night? We had flat water, especially for the wind strength. How did you set the halyard? How were you playing the jib cunningham. Everyone seemed able to point extremely high. How do you sail the telltales in those conditions?
Last nights conditions saw a steady easterly breeze in the 14- to 20-knot range with flat water. Typically the breeze dies as the evening progresses, but due to the nasty weather conditions we believed this was not likely to happen. Before leaving the dock, I set the rig tensions at 27 upper and 24 lower which I thought would be a good setting for the breeze. I also knew that my mast step was in a light air setting (fairly far aft) so after a brief upwind jaunt before the start, I went down below and moved the step about 3/8 of an inch forward for the breezier conditions and flat water. Now the boat felt set up properly for the conditions. With regard to settings on the boat, we were at max weight so we set the jib leads in at max power. The jib halyard was pulled on to about 90-percent of max (good to have a lot of jib halyard tension in breeze and flat water) and we never used the jib Cunningham at all. The breeze was not only strong, but quite puffy especially as you got closer to Goat Island. Therefore, it was critical for one person to call the puffs and lulls before they hit the boat (have them paint a picture of the anticipated breeze over the next 30 seconds or so), which allowed me to sail the boat steady and flat. In a breeze like this, I totally disregard the telltales and sail primarily by feel of the boat, keep a good lane and try not heel too much in the puffs. If the boat gets hit by a big puff and heels way over, you not only slow down but the keel stops working and the boat goes sideways. This is really slow!

In both races, I believe you favored the left side off the line. What was your game plan for the course?
We always have a game plan for starting and playing the first beat and this is generally discussed with the crew briefly prior to the start to get feedback from everyone. The tide was high at about 4:30 p.m., so we figured the tide would be ebbing during the entire evening. We did not see as much flow as we expected, but did see some. We also noticed that the flow was coming out of the harbor as we sailed out to the starting line, which meant we wanted to avoid going right immediately after the start. The starting line was positioned in the cone of Rose Island and we noticed a slight flow moving easterly between Rose and Goat Island. This would favor starting near the port end and going left initially, but not too far left. Lastly we noticed the puffs were mostly left-hand heading puffs as we sailed in toward Goat Island. This meant we would likely see nice port tack lifts along the Goat Island shore. Lastly, we thought that the starting line was slightly favored at the port end. All of these factors together made for a game plan of starting at the lower third of the line, continue on starboard until we got into max current and some heading shift and tack when we had a clear lane. On the first start, we were not challenged at the pin so we took that spot and carried out the leg according to plan, working even better than we expected. On the second start, we saw no reason to change the plan—what works once, should work again, right?—only we knew that we would likely see more boats this time going for the same plan. This was certainly the case, but rather than being pin end boat we were the second boat from the pin with Bob Kinsman at the pin (who finished second in the race). Bob was going really well, but I think we had more weight on the rail and inched him out at the windward mark.

In the first race especially, you were able to grab the early lead and then extend. What is the key for building upon an early advantage in those variable wind conditions? How much did you play the wind vs protecting against the fleet?
I think the key to keeping and extending on a lead is having the confidence to sail your boat as fast as possible while at the same time minimizing the risk of losing the closest boats behind you. Keeping a lead is one thing, and extending on that lead is another. To extend on the lead you need to keep pushing the boat and crew around the course and have the confidence to keep sailing your own race, rather than let the boat behind decide your tactics for you. Of course, it’s always smart to keep a loose cover, but you want to make sure that if you do split tacks with the boat behind you that you are going the right way. Since you have the lead you should be able to control this tactic and if you are correct in your choice, then you should be able to extend on the lead. If you are happy with just keeping your lead, then simply try to stay between the boat behind you and the windward mark with a loose cover. If you try and cover too tight this could lead to a tacking dual, possibly having the boat behind you get off to the favorable side of the course and losing your lead. I often think that the best strategy is sailing your boat to the best of your ability and taking advantage of any possible wind shifts and currents up the leg. Try not to let the competition get too far away while doing this and generally it will pay off in the long run.