J/30 Class Association Forums J/30 Forum Events and Scheduling J/30 North Americans @ Marblehead, MA

I really learned that if there is breeze - everyone is happy!

As for building the fleet I think it is only positive - We only had 4 boats from our distict participate but I think that would be 8 if we held it next year. The other big surprise is how many people not in the fleet knew about the regatta and saw the regatta. One reason I wanted it in August was so that the other OD sailors in Marblehead saw the fleet, saw the boats and saw the party. Hopefully the translates into the J/30 getting on the short list of some of these sailors next boat - the head is a big seller. The only OD boat like it around here is the 105 and we are talking 5x the price.

The other note is to everyone that fears that if they race in OD races they are going to get their boat smashed. We sailed in 15+ most of the weekend and I can only remember a single collision, and it was between a J/30 and the committee boat - they were fouled and won the protest. The racing was very close for sure but I really did not see anyone being too agressive for the conditions. I have seen way more crazy stuff in PHRF since all the boats are going different speeds and angles.

The other big thing that is so obvious at each one of these events I have been to is how good friends everyone is. That is the best thing.

David

Inventor of J/24 Lopez blocks?

Yes, that Steve Lopez.

Jon hinted at but left out much of the boat prep. We broke two halyards at the Cedar Point OD this year followed by another break later that same week. Ordinarily we would just shorten and use the same lines but after that week we went all out with not only all new halyards but service for the shivs, fix the broken traveler, adjust the vang so it is actually adjustable, redo the outhaul so it doesn't take superman to adjust, throw-out the useless old piece of **** cunningham.... You get the point; we had a lot of very old equipment that did not adjust well (if at all).

I believe we would rather see J-Wow but that is a great thought. Maybe we can get the Situation against Ronnie in a tacking duel.

So OK here is two minutes of a "textbook" action by Blue Meanie agressively attacking Fat City at a NA2010 Start.

Duh ... only problem BM leaves Fat City as the over early boat near protest action by Vee Jay for not keeping clear. Sort of a double team on Fat City.

Disregard my crews comments to aim directly for the middle of Fat City and its untrimmed genny trying to beam reach across the boats starting on time.

Hi all-

Sorry for the lack of response, but I'm away in Maine with spotty Internet. First, thanks everyone! It was a great regatta, and a great win for us after all these years. We seem to have the boat pretty dialed in (although Fuzzy still seems to have an edge on starboard in light-still trying to figure that out). The fairing of the keel seems to have noticeably improved performance, and the aforementioned tweaks thanks to the hard efforts of a few members of the crew along with Steve L. Gave us a better "transition" game.

Lopez is a great addition to the crew when I can get him to stop sailing with other RYC boats-as Neil (Misthos) said, he helps me keep my focus on the steering, and is great setting up the sails as conditions change. Not to mention that his tactics were spot on until the big ugly shift on the last day-which a lot of us missed.

Finally, and most importantly, my team is fantastic! On bow, Neil Feldscher is without question the best bowman I've ever had, on mast Jeff Easton is a solid reliable presence with a great eye for breeze, on spin trim Wilma Friedman is perfect despite sailing with a damaged Achilles tendon, in the cockpit I have Jon Pope (who comments above) and calls the scary port tack side crosses with great confidence, and Lou Rugulo, who trims great and also does invaluable maintenance work on the boat that is beyond my skill set. Lastly, (besides Lopez), Donna Webber is as good a pit person as could ask for, flawless on the race course, a master bartender post race, and our crew organizer par excellence. Not to mention, we are all great friends and enjoy each others company immensely.

Looking forward to Annapolis!

Steve left out our key backup - Brad Carl.

Brad came up to Marblehead for the delivery back to Perth Amboy, a very long slug, mostly with wind & waves on the nose, arriving about 4:30 Wednesday afternoon, accumulating about 10 hours of sleep since leaving Marblehead. He then stripped all that cruising gear off and had the boat prepped for our 6:20 Wednesday night race, in which he did foredeck. With a guest driver (some other J/30 owner - he has that grey one) we crossed tacks with MHOB J/29's throughout a 6-leg W-L in 12-15, getting our second bullet out of 3 races in this series. Too bad we had to take a DNS last week - but we do get a throw-out.

When?

I spoke with Leighton yesterday. He needs a few more days. He had a friend pass away so he had to deal with that earlier this week.

Thanks for correcting my omission Jon-Brad's effort definitely merited special mention.