J/30 Class Association Forums J/30 Forum Events and Scheduling North Americans

I just wanted to thank everyone who worked on putting together the North Americans this year. They did a great job!

I had and excellent time and it was great meeting so many people from these forums. It just re-enforces how great this class is and what a great boat the J/30 is after all these years.

Congrats to team Zephyr!

David
#397

It was great to return a third time to sail the J/30 NA's at Cedar Point YC. It is sailor's club and it shows in excellent race management and easy access to shore side social events. CPYC's J/30 fleet continues to grow with an impressive 10+ boats lined up on one dock. I can't help chiding our missing friends from nearby RI and Massachusetts, excepting David Bows who crewed on the J. Doe entry from BVI/Chicago/Larchmont that came together through the power of the web for the event.

Having the benefit of hindsight, here are a couple of thoughts on the NA's for both club and class. Given the forecast for scant breeze the rest of the weekend, I would have tried to sail four races Friday. The SI's did not limit the number of races per day making this an RC call. Four races of 4 legs x 1.5, 1.75 or even 2 miles would have allowed boats spread out, get some leverage, and allow for a few more passes. I didn't see many position changes on the last lap of those 6 legs x 1.3 mile courses.

Having four races Friday would have taken some pressure off completing two Saturday, both shortened to 3 legs. That might have allowed one four legger to finish. The decision to abandon the first start Sunday was pretty easy. In my mind the forty-degree shift on the first leg of the restart should have been enough to do likewise, though it did result J. Doe/Teresa's win, the feel good story of the regatta. Can't recall if the next mark was changed, but I'm assuming it was since CPYC did a good job moving marks when needed. Race Committees are only perfect when racers don't notice them and I certainly think CPYC did an excellent job.

My annual case against the throw-out race is bolstered by the fact that no finish positions would have changed had all seven races counted. There were no throws in the first 15 NA's, all of which were 5 race series. Since then there have been six or more races with one drop race except 1997 at the Newport NOOD.

In my experience throw-outs primarily reward starting line risk takers and those who refuse to do turns only to take a penalty or get disqualified in the protest room. That includes my boat in both 1995 and 2003. I saw some red flags out there, but never saw anybody doing turns. I don't believe there were any hearings other than for redress (which from what little I knew was handled correctly). People argue that drop races are for breakdowns, but in 26 championships there is only one case where that has come into play. In 1982, Robbie Pierce of Newport led the regatta going into the final race, broke the head foil of his loaner boat and did not finish, but won anyway.

Bob - I think you are right on with the extra race on Friday. I was very curious why we did 3 races of 6 legs vs 4 races of 4 legs. The course was pretty steady and we were already wet. (-:

And for future reference for people that may not be able to get their boat to future NA's, I went and sailed on a charted boat with a bunch of great people. None of us had sailed together as a full crew, we had a mish-mash of sails on a boat that we took from crusing mode to perocial racing mode in a week and a half and it was a blast! Don't not go to a regatta like the NA's because you do not have a bonafied racing crew or a top notch ready for racing boat, go because this is a great fleet with great people and you *will* have a great time. There will always be J/30 people you can pull together and have fun for one of these races.

dbows
#397

Hi All-

Just my 2 cents here-I didn't understand the leg and course lengths (especially Friday) given by the (very well run) CPYC committee. I also don't understand the 7 race limit in the rules for NA regattas. I just tracked the J-24 NA's in which 11 races were completed, Farr 40 Worlds with more than that, why are we afraid of a high race count regatta? My theory is that the Barrington NA's when we had 11 races/three days/.75 mile upwind legs first day...scared everyone. The stack ups at the weather mark were pretty amazing in that one. But as a remedy, why not set a minimum (and maybe maximum) leg length in any given race, but allow as many races as possible?


As to Bob R's comments-

"Having four races Friday would have taken some pressure off completing two Saturday, both shortened to 3 legs. That might have allowed one four legger to finish. The decision to abandon the first start Sunday was pretty easy. In my mind the forty-degree shift on the first leg of the restart should have been enough to do likewise, though it did result J. Doe/Teresa's win, the feel good story of the regatta."

First thought-we had a regatta with three out of seven races finished as three leggers with upwind finishes. As a boat that seems to be a bit suspect on speed upwind, and pretty solid on speed off, I feel that we (and others) were placed at a disadvantage by the many shortened course finishes. Our fleet (as with most OD fleets) seems to divide into heavy air fast/light air fast, and upwind fast/downwind fast. I would strongly advocate for a rule stipulating that an even number of legs be required for any race scored, to ensure that no boat with a particular speed advantage up or down gains an unfair edge.

Second thought-no amount of up or downwind edge (including a fourth leg) would have helped us catch the "JDoe" gang in race 6-but I can't agree that the race should have been abandoned. JDoe dug all the way right into a huge shift, but the rest of us mixed it up in very tricky but not unfair conditions-I was part of a group that went left, but managed to find our way back into the game (along with several others) if not into the top three.

Finally-none of this probably would have helped any of us against the Zephyr gang-they are just that good.

Part of the reason I would prefer a more modest number od races is not only the boats are getting long in tooth, but so am I. After 3 six legged races on Friday, I was beat.

Another facet is that I come not just for the racing, but to meet some old friends. It's a social group almost as much as racing.

Five may be to few, 11 too much (for my taste at least).

Upwind finishes seem to me to be tactically more interesting... and besides, we're often a better upwind boat than down, so I vote for all upwind finishes In Chicago at least, when the wind is from the west (from the city), we usually finish the last race of the day upwind... we have to go that way anyway to get home. Otherwise, it's an equal number if windwards/leewards.

So who's going to step up and challenge Z in Annapolis next year... assuming there's a Zephyr to race against? Will White Boat make the trek up the Chesepeake?

And do we know a tentative date yet for Annapolis? We are trying to coordinate our OD schedule for next season on LIS, and it would help to know.

Have to agree-Steve Buzbee's Blue Meanie was noticeably fast downwind and that races should finish where the next one will start or close to home in the last race of the day.

You're likely to see the white boat, aka "Two Weeks" and maybe 1-2 others from Hampton in Annapolis next year. I heard some scuttlebutt at the NA's that with most of Zephyr's crew scattered far from New Orleans even pre-Katrina and skipper Scott now in Louisville, KY, their next J/30 might be the x-Sea Biscuit in Annapolis. We'd welcome them into our fleet, bearing in mind we do have a qualifying series for the NA's in addition to Class requirements to sail two regattas within sixty days of the champs.

Date is not nailed down, but here are the possibilities: Annapolis Race Week will be Sat 9/1- Mon 9/3/2007, Labor Day weekend. My preference is not to sail two three-day regattas less a week apart, so we'd typically choose 9/14-16 or 9/21-23. The first conflicts with Rosh Hashanah (09/13-14/2007) the second with Yom Kippur (09/22/2007). I'm not Jewish but this may be a factor to some potential competitors. The breeze is better here the later you wait, so I would not be adverse to 9/28-30 or later, though that is likely the start of the three-weekend Annapolis YC Fall Series. J/24 East Coasts are likely to be 10/26-28/2007 at Severn Sailing Assoc and J/105s NA's are set for 11/1-4/2007 at Eastport YC.

I like the idea of more races. 9 is probably the upper limit but the format should be 1 race a day for 9 days. This would leave plenty of time to party and socialize. Remember: The liver is evil and must be punished!

I think the last weekend in September sounds very good. The Jewish holidays are an issue for some of my crew, and scheduling a major regatta to conflict with those holidays would be a bit insensitive.

Also, the earlier September dates would make it difficult for LIS area boats to race the NOOD and do a water delivery down to Naptown.

We'll put this web site on a link soon. Bob helped me put this together. It is a history of the first 25 NAs.

J/30 North American Championships