J/30 Class Association Forums J/30 Forum The Smack A couple of warm, slow starts ... from the retired guys.

between cold fronts, a nice warm weekend with marginal wind with 1/4 in. sheets on a .5 spin. No twings needed as had crew member hold the sheets to steady the clew. with much of the races dropping under 2Kt. after two slow starts. Marco Island YC Winter Regatta Day 1. we practiced getting snuffed out and snuffing. ran out of cold beer.

ContourHD head cam. uses a wide angle lens ... action outside the boat is closer than it appears.

Despite the light air, interesting footage for those of us languishing in several feet of slowly melting snow.

Start 1 at the one minute mark on the video, about 40 seconds until the start. You have speed on T-Bone, who you could see was not going to let you in. (Personally I'd keep clear of a boat with a name like that.) There's a nice hole under him, so put your bow down, ease, foot under and hook him instead. OK, so you don't win the RC end, but you still get a decent start.

Alternatively slow down. T-Bone looks to be 10 seconds early at 1:24, when you got peeled you off and had to tack away. Your main was luffing, but you'd have been better off blowing the Genoa sheet. If you had slowed down a little, he would have to put his bow down with ten seconds to go leaving you a nice hole between him and the RC. If he slows too, the worse thing that could happen is you follow him past the RC and tack away.

Of course post race commentary ranks with 20/20 hindsight. Video helps in this learning experience.

Once I saw the video I realized that my "aggressive" bow man [an ex S2 9.1 racer for 15 years before he retired] had lead me astray and I should have ducked. light wind but gulf stream current setting me to the start line. Jason [T-Bone] got that boat with insurance money after a Beneteau 46 took out his Coronado 26 three years ago. Good kid and the only reason I am racing spin down here.

But let me tell you reviewing what you do from a head cam is more of a learning experience than you would think ... even when you get to be just shy of 70. I recommend to any skipper catching up with this tool ... way cheaper than brand new sails every year and probably way more productive when you see yourself screw up.

Had a newbie port trimmer just getting up to speed with clockwise around the winch ... will add a few more "shorts" from Sunday later. I had a somewhat more experienced and way cute gal on port with J28 non spin racing background.

Here's another 13 boat spin start from the Marco Winter ranging from a Santa Cruz 37 [phrf 39] to S2 7.9 [phrf 168] and including 3 Melges 24s and 2 F27s. Those barging F27s got boxed in by Vee Jay crossing the line and two other Spin B boats forcing them to stay over. If you turn the audio up you can hear some of the yelling just like in a typical Newport race.

Multihulls have a hard time tacking when being set by a little current against the wind ... so the lead F27 just slowed down and got rear ended by the F27 following it in. Great entertainment for the Vee Jays. The camera only has a wide angle lens so stuff outside the boat is closer than it looks.

Shock [Wavelength 30] is the one forcing them up. Skipper Dave is 72 and hard as nails during a start ... also serves as Vee Jay's coach for off shore races and capsizing F31s.

Are you driving and shooting video? Impressive!

Once you get used to having it on it, it becomes a non issue.
Will use it this summer to keep Bill Rhapsody under control at the JYC starts on Tues. night.

biggest problem is keeping it centered [straight out], and not wear it like this [slanted]. the horizontal alignment is rotateable but just easier to keep it aligned to head from start.