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

I think the bubble may be the backstay inverting the mainsail. Tighter lower shrouds will firm up the mast and force the bend toward the top of the mast. The flattening reef removes the foot round from the mainsail and raises the boom, which makes it easier to see to leeward. The old traveler is a real liability in puffy conditions when you want to use it to control heel.

Thanks Bob,
How much do you trim the flattening reef, 6 inches? I'm assuming ease the main sheet to make it easier to trim. We're getting balanced pretty well, and this sounds like a key ingredient to help us in this heavy air.
How about 1800 on the uppers and 2000 on the lowers?

Rick,

If you have the lowers tighter than the uppers, I think that leads to the main inverting and the bubble you see. Most of the tuning guides have tension on the lowers equal or less than the uppers. A good check is to have someone sight up the mast when it is under load. You should see it the mast in column with a slight drop to leeward at the spreaders. The top will fall to leeward just by the design of a fractional rig.

Start adjustments with the mast in column at the dock and get your base rig tune. Take measurements with backstay loose, then look at the difference with backstay tight. Once that is done you can make equal adjustments to the turnbuckles underway. I mark the deck with arrows by each turnbuckle so there is no doubt which direction is tighten or loosen.

You'll find the tune may be different if you have different mains.

Release vang and ease mainsheet until the sail luffs. Pull outhaul on hard, then strap the flattening reef tight to the boom. Tension vang and the boom will set about one foot higher since you've taken about that much distance out of the leech. So flattening reef is either full on or off.

Agree with Bill that most tuning guides have the lower shrouds tensioned less than the uppers in light to medium air (for a bit of leeward sag) and converge to lowers/uppers tensioned the same in higher breeze. Earlier this year we did an 18 NM point-to-point race in 2.5 hours with steady breeze of 19 knots and gusts to 28. 41 on uppers and lowers which is about as tight as I can get on our turnbuckles and off the charts on the meter, but probably translates to 2400 lbs. It may be tougher for you to adjust the headstay with roller furling but in that breeze I would also go +15-20 turns from max. Goes without saying #3 jib.

What I was describing in the previous post was too much mast bend, where the luff curve is pulled so far forward that the main is flat. Could also be that the jib was back winding the main.

I never tried the lowers tighter than the uppers, just needed a little clarification. I did go to 2000 uppers and 1800 on lowers. Definitely want to try maxing them all out at 2400, but would hate to leave it that high too long after the race - I'm afraid my beam would end up 9 feet! I can adjust some more turns in the headstay.

We had to replace the old halyard after breaking the headstay. It held up the furler, but really took a beating, almost cut through. Replaced the furler line also - the prop ate half of it.

I recommend jam (thin) nuts at the turnbuckles. McMaster-Carr has 316 stainless 3/8-24 left and right hand thread. You can get really close for future changes by counting turns & checking with the gage (three half turns tighter, looser, etc).

We had another great forecast last Saturday, but I wimped out with the flu... Luckily, only a couple of boats went out in the cold & snow. We hope to win the series, so far two firsts and two DNS. Two of our competitors have one win each, when we didn't get out. They also have DNS's. The weather has been tough so far this season.

Saturday morning the temperature was a forecast high of 63 and south wind at 18 knots. The water was mostly thawed around the boats, but the cove still had from a half to a couple inches of ice. We tried breaking it up with the committee boat, but it really looked and sounded nasty.
Race 5 was cancelled. That was a first, as long as I can remember.
It did make a good time to dig through the old blocks and up the traveler purchase to 4:1.

Race 6: no wind... My good friend and main trimmer moved to St Thomas. Looks like we're looking for crew again...

Race 7: no wind. We had great weather the last few years, but not this time.

Final race number 8: no wind. We won the series points by finishing first twice!
Back to longer races on every other Saturday starting next week.

I think you have done very well for what we were told was one of the worst winters in recent history.

Wind has been light down here as well, but when out of the south we can race up the Gordon River Channel. Boat in bottom two frames is a Capri 30 and somewhat similar Phrf to the J/29