J/30 Class Association Forums J/30 Forum The Boat, Sails and Equipment Pole Downhaul

So Ok ... We continue to get fewer and fewer "educated" spin people so "the program" has to be really tightened up.

When you are dealing with early teens and senior citizens ... you have to simplify on top of simplify.
One of the rules we have is
same thing
same way
everytime.
we don't do a lot of upscale variations. And everyone is supposed to do things the same way. Then all the other crew has a hint as to what each other is doing. If something doesn't work ... we try to figure out how to make it simplier.

This month after seeing how my foredecker forgot some stuff over the summer, and my 13 year old crew kid was struggling to raise the pole by himself as we were short crew.

we are trying this program:

1. The pole is always first attached to mast before raising, and always dropped to the deck before detaching from mast. there is an arrow on the mast as to where the pole is supposed to be.


2. added block to base of mast ... just lashed on.
this way someone raising pole has the topping lift in left hand and can push the pole up with right hand ... which allows a safer footing on the deck. instead of pulling down they are pulling up ... which is a more stable position with boat motion.


3. the downhaul is premarked ... so there will be no need to figure out how high to raise the pole ... you just raise it till it stops. I hate it when they ask is the pole high enough.

Will see how this works out during November. Our goal is the 8 second pole rise ... everytime. Don't laugh ... you have to have a goal.