More good questions.
Downwind steering: tell your helmsman to try not to turn the rudder. Rudders should be thought of as brakes and the one on the J30 is a big one. Steer the boat downwind by shifting crew weight from side to side. More weight to port, boat turns to starboard, etc. This shifting weight idea can be used in any wind condition.
Surfing: its usually hard to get a J30 to surf in light winds (under 8 kts). But you can always try. Have a spotter watch behind the boat for waves. As one approaches, turn the boat up to gain speed (pole goes forward, main comes in a little). When the wave gets to the stern, turn down and ride the wave. As you approach the trough, turn back up again to avoid burying your bow in the back of the wave ahead of you.
Crew weight: in light wind, keep the crew forward over the keel. The idea is to lift the stern out of the water giving you less wetted surface and therefore less drag. The same applies going upwind as down. Some diehards like to put the crew down on the cabin sole to reduce pitching moment going up wind. IMO you gotta be pretty desperate to subject your crew to sitting below. But to each his/her own. If you do put your crew below going upwind, they can still help to heel the boat if needed. Heel the boat about 5 degrees to leeward to reduce wetted surface and help the sails fall into there designed shape.
I dont know what is to be gained by easing the spinnaker halyard. Anybody else want to try that one?
