J/30 Class Association Forums J/30 Forum The Smack Winter Series starts January 4th!

We race near Nashville at Harbor Island Yacht Club. Luckily our winters are fairly mild except for a couple of cold fronts. Our winter series starts Saturday with The Change of Watch Regatta. We have short races every Saturday for eight weeks, then a few longer spring races.

The course is on Old Hickory Lake, part of the Cumberland River system. Our longest rides are around ten mile stretches. Our area makes a big bend, going south, west, then north, and back a couple of laps. Lots of tacks and some hilly shoreline to keep us busy.

The forecast is for a high temp of 45 with south winds at 15 knots gusting in the 20's. I will be bumping the shrouds up to 1800 lbs first thing in the morning. We use a 155 genoa and will have around 1200 lbs of crew. They'll be hiking quite a bit, so I'll get to sit ahead of the traveller all I can. We usually get spin runs at 160 degrees for short times as we make the river bends. Then we drop the pole low, forward, and carry her as far as possible.

We are currently in the PHRF B fleet, and our main competition are Northstar 500's in lite air, Swiftsure 33's in heavy. We should have them covered in the heavier wind. We actually chased down the A fleet in heavy air recently, starting 5 minutes after they did.

I really appreciate all the tips and technical info on this web site. Any issues I've had reworking #130 are all documented here by you.

If you're ever in Nashville, look us up and come out for a ride!

Hey did you guys get out, or am I the only one still sailing this winter?
v

Yes sir.
We had to use the jib with constant 18+knot wind gusting up around 30. There was a good start for the fleet, and we pulled away over the first leg. Luck or talent, we picked the perfect line heading south to the gradual starboard curve in our lake. We were pointing around 28 degrees and kept in the groove while all the other B boats were tacking. I believe they tacked 4 times on that stretch. Our curvey course often dictates that we sail upwind to and back from the first mark. We couldn't get a spin run until we made the curve heading back north. We had a great set and 160 degree run, while the air let up to 12 knots. Getting near the next mark the wind got back up to 20 knots - great time for a speedy and clean douse. The finish was almost head on into the wind, so we tacked several times to the finish. I had trouble tacking a little too far & lost the helm 2 or 3 times. I remembered that the traveler needs some more work...
We won the B Fleet by 520 seconds after the correction calculations. Looking at the A Fleet times, we beat their winner by 150 seconds.

The second winter series was the same heavy air conditions. We were sure to win this one.
Going out of the harbor we broke the headstay at the upper eye fitting. The cable broke right at the edge of the upper swedged eye fitting, part of the wires were broken a half inch inside the fitting. In the chaos of getting the extra jib halyard tied to the bow, the furler line fell off the boat. When I put her in gear to motor back, the furler line wrapped around the prop & ripped the rear block and some toe rail off. We sailed in with the main.
Our local diver came out with his dry suite and got the line cut away, so no major damage there. The water temperature was 41 degrees.
I see that Hall Spars has forestays listed. Probably need to get shrouds too. I have no idea of the age of the rigging.
Mine measured 34 ft 8 inches, from the eye to the end of the swedged turnbuckle fitting.

let's see if we can read between the lines here.

headstay broke with roller furling attached. which left the jib halyard holding everything up? including the unfurled sail/ blade?

and then somehow you lowered the forestay, roller unit, and sail to the deck or were able to furl and secure? with wind driven short waves 2-4 ft?

sounds interesting. 30 years ago I would have appreciated the challenge. which was two fold -- having crew who could handle it and a driver who could support that foredeck effort.

One of my greatest fears with the old harken rollers {which I had one for 25 years on #505} was that once they were built you could not easily check the swage joints. The new units slip over the forestay and can be removed completely.

v

#130 came equipped with a ProFurl C-290 furler. It assembles over the original headstay, so the lower swedge can be seen by loosening the drum unit & raising it up the foil. The upper swivel unit was very stiff to spin. I removed the heavy thick grease and mclubed it, but the seals were very tight. I used a die grinder to barely shave the lips of the seals to make it much more user friendly - easier to spin and still water tight.
We hand furled the jib without much trouble. Of course the whole thing came down between the main & topping lift. My main guy just unhooked the topping lift so we could tack, and let the headstay and sail down to the deck. He even hooked it back up so we wouldn't knock anyone out back at the dock! The waves weren't over a foot or so.

I called John at Hall Spars this morning. He asked all the pertinent questions about my broken headstay. I emailed pictures to clarify what I couldn't clearly explain, to be sure we were on the same page. The new headstay has shipped so we can get OVERLORD back together Wednesday, weather permitting. Not a bad turnaround time at all.

Many thanks to John and the riggers at Hall Spars!

The third race was same 20 knots as last two weeks. Very cold today with windchill below 10 degrees. The new headstay from John at Hall Spars fit and worked great. I shortened it by about an inch and a half to get rid of some weather helm. That really helped upwind in 18 to 22 knots. Still having trouble getting over 6 knots of boat speed in that heavy air.
We beat two J32's to the first mark, right behind a J105. We had a flawless spin set and stayed with them. The J32's just beat us to the next mark, we covered the J105 who had trouble finding the air. It was a very close finish. I think we were second over the line. We were on port and a J32 tacked over us like they were trying to hold us off. We just fell off a bit and crossed their stern, then pointed up over the line while they had to tack again. Too bad for them....

Rick - congrats on the great finish. Just make sure you set the mast butt in the correct position - the front of the mast base should be 1" back from the vertical molded surface. This will help you tune the rig (and headstay) for optimal. Backstay tight in the heavy air if you didn't do that already. You can search these forums for other tuning tips, and look on the class website where there are a number of sailmakers tuning guides stored.

Thanks Bill,
I did have to move the step forward about an inch and a half when I first got her. I played the backstay quite a bit in these heavy air races. At one point yesterday, I actually eased it just a little and it helped the ugly bubble in the main. Full outhaul, vang, and cunningham. Shrouds set at 1800. We tried the flattening reef, but i still need to learn more about it (never have actually reefed the main). I have the old school traveler rigged 3:1, but really need to up the purchase power.

We have studied the information on your web site for hours. From rig settings, to oil filters, to bilge pumps, there's an incredible amount of information here!