J/30 Class Association Forums J/30 Forum The Smack Safety related, Chicago to Mackinac 2011 Tragedy Report- US Sali

J30 folks, This report was just released and has some very interesting information for all sailors.


http://media.ussailing.org/AssetFactory.aspx?vid=16940

A pretty good read on what happened and an awareness on what should be done for safety preparations - individual, crew and skipper.

Does anybody know what the stability index for a J/30 is? It's probably on an IMS Certificate. If I remember correctly, it's relatively low.

I would guess that offshore races, like the Mac, will enforce some minimum SI, regardless of the experience of the crew.

Dennis - this note from Rod Johnstone from a post about the Marblehead to Halifax race requirements. David Bows was on the organizing committee and even though the case for the J/30 was pleaded, it did not meet required stability requirements for that race.

The J/30 meets the requirements of (a) with a displacement of 3.2 tonnes displacement in IMS measurement trim (empty boat) which is well over the 3.0 tonnes requirement of OSR 3.04. I believe it would also meet the ISO requirement under the paragraph (b) as long as deck and cabin are included. I am copying this to Al J for him to confirm whether the J/30 meets this requirement and/or the RORC STIX of 32.

A post by Larry on Sailing Anarchy sent to me by Dennis Bartley has a great picture of the J/30 Columbine in the 1983 Mac race. Based on the sail number, it is hull 207 Koeshtkah now owned by Doug Marshall.

Columbine. Harry T. Colfer. MBYC. J30. 1983 Chicago to Mackinac Race. IOR Section 5, rated 25.7.

Dennis,

I seem to remember from the discussion in the Marblehead/Halifax thread its 105ish for a J30. I think the main problem is best illustrated when the lower limit is removed takes WingsNuts to 74.4 when many other boats stayed the same. See below:

Figure B-4 illustrates the value of the Capsize Increment without the lower limit. There are a
number of boats effected but Wingnuts has a value that is notably different from the rest of the
fleet. If the full negative value of this design trait was applied to the equation, the Kiwi 35's
stability index would have dropped from 100.7 to 74.4. (Figure B-5). None of the other boats in
the Chicago Mac Fleet would have seen such a drastic reduction if the full increment correction
was applied to their stability index