Prior to purchasing my J30 I did a lot of solo sailing on my 23ft Beneteau. However, I'm wondering if any boat modifications or special equipment are advisable prior to doing so with the J30, or is it just trial & error? I'd appreciate any advice, including successful techniques on raising/lowering sails, mooring, etc.,

Thanks,
Ed Gillen

The biggest problem I've had when doing shorthanded (yes, even single handed) sailing is folding the main afterwards. One answer is to use hanks, and simply roll the main. A small change I've seen on some boats that makes that a lot easier is to place a small removable plate over 1/2 of exit on the mainsail track on the mast. This way the slugs can't come out, and it's a (relatively) simple job to roll the main.

I bought my J30 in 1985 primarily for singlehanded racing. There was very little that needed modification. I had the bow pulpit modified with an additional rail about halfway between the deck and the top rail (so that I couldn't fall through it) and had a 1/4-in. stainless crossbar welded inside the front of the top rail so that I could attach halyards to it.
To keep headsails on deck I drilled holes through the toe rail so that I could have light line lacing on the lifelines as far back as the second stanchion. About 1 ft diamonds. To securely hold the sails down I attached 3/8-in. shock cord with plastic hooks port and stbd from the bow pulpit through the first stanchion base to the second stanchion base.
When lowering a sail, I would make sure the halyard was free to run through the rope clutch and turning blocks, then pull it forward from where it exited the mast so that I could control the halyard while I was on the foredeck.
Singlehanding the J30, you reef and change jibs based on autopilot performance. The main thing is to keep the boat balanced so that the autopilot doesn't self destruct trying to maintain course. The boat is hard to sail flat in much wind because there is no crew weight on the rail.
There's more, such as schemes for getting aboard from the water, disabling the autopilot from the water, etc, but I think the major issue as far as singlehanding the boat is concerned is changing jibs.

Jim,
I'm looking to do more singlehanding or short-handed sailing on my J30, #469. I've been looking at different autopilots, but could use some advice: What kind to you use?

I use an Autohelm ST2000 Plus as my primary unit. My backup is an old Autohelm ST2000 which has proved to be more or less bulletproof, but corrects a little too slowly. Off the wind if the seas aren't confused, the ST2000 Plus steers pretty well. Upwind they both do fine.

We have competed in the Newport Solo/Twin race for the past two years. We do it double-handed without spinnaker. We've had good luck. THe first year we won our division and last year we placed second...right behind a monster Nelson-Marek 42 footer. They beat us by 12 minutes...most of it gained in the first half hour of the race since it was a drifter to start. They got to the new wind before we did. Anyway, we've been very competitive.

Changing headsails is the only thing I worry about when we are offshore. We have an arrangement whereby we have shockcord with plastic clips that are used to hold the genny down. It's the same arrangement we use for racing when we have the kite up. The shockcord is affixed to the lifeline stantions rather than drilling holes in the teak trim. You drop the genny and pull the chords from each side of the boat toward the centerline and then affix the two with the plastic clips. It works fine.

To reef the main, we have lead the reef line through a turning block at the base of the mast and then run it back to our set of Lewmar rope clutches near the companionway. We have a Boomkicker vang which holds the boom up while the leech of the main is cranked in during the reef. Works great.

I have a mainsail for cruising that has slugs. When we use it we have two thin stainless plates from Schaeffer that affix on the aft side of the mast. When we drop the main, the slugs are held in the track by the narrow plate on either side of the track. When we race, we use a main with a bolt rope. Two screws hold each plate in place. They are simply removed and stored until the cruising main goes back on.

Bob Rude
#352 - "Mmmmm"

I have an ST2000. I have really only used it while motoring. How long can you operate it before having to recharge your battery?

I typically run the engine for about an hour every 12 hours or so when racing and that seems to keep everything up just fine. My experience is that the autopilot uses over 1.0 A on average rather than the 700 mA advertised. Once when I couldn't get the engine to start, I got about 36 hours of autopilot usage out of the two batteries before they were too dead to run it. Of course other loads were there on a rationed basis: running lights, interior lights, windex light, radio, etc. Sort of a how long is a piece of string question.

It was a piece of string question. However, your answer was just what I was looking for.

Thank you