The most recognizable ­spinnaker in the US J/70 fleet is arguably the white one with a stylized red stick figure. And it is immediately recognizable because Brian Keane’s Savasana has been a fixture of the class since 2012, usually near the front of the fleet and found wherever J/70s gather in numbers. Keane and his teammates have won plenty of J/70 regattas over the years, but never a world championship. Close, yes, but never No 1.

However, his current cast of teammates—Thomas Barrows, Ron Weed and Conner Harding—have their collective minds set on the impending Worlds in St. Petersburg, Florida, in November. There’s no reason to doubt this could be their year to win the big one, especially considering they ran the table on the Miami J/70 winter regatta circuit with three big wins and then followed up with another at Charleston Race Week.

You might think this peak in Keane’s long sailing career, which includes Junior National Championships, All-American honors and the Hinman Trophy, and has spanned eras in the J/105 and J/80 classes, is the result of some ­game-changing sail development or magic bullet. But you’d be wrong. The difference is Keane’s present battle with cancer.

“Fewer things bring about clarity, focus and purpose than knowing you have been diagnosed,” Keane says when we speak by phone in April after winning the J/70 Midwinters. “I can say for sure that has helped me this year because I want to win. It’s a focus. Millions of people have cancer, but it’s real, and I’m confident in a full recovery. That purpose is important to me.”

That is certainly a far ­bigger challenge than battling at the top of a pro-stacked one-­design fleet.

“A lot of people may feel the J/70 class is overly pro-ed up, and I can understand that. But for myself, I want to go against the best of the best, and I love the fact that the class is not being dumbed down. It’s still exciting for me, and many of the newer teams to the fleet to go against some of the people they’ve been reading about or have heard about.”

What’s on the road to the Worlds for Savasana?

So far this year, we’ve done two Davis Island events, then the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta in St. Petersburg, the Bacardi Invitational in Miami, the Midwinters and Charleston. We’ll do [HHSWRS] in Annapolis and Marblehead, North Americans in Chicago, and then we’ll be spending some time in St. Pete in October before the Worlds.

Given that most well-­attended events like the winter ­regattas are 50- to 60-boat affairs, what do you find are keys to success on these crowded racecourses?

First is the team ­mentality. To have any chance of winning, every team member must understand what their job is and do it to the best of their ability. At the same time, each of us needs to understand what every other person’s job is and what the interdependency is. That interaction is super important to our team and our time in the boat. At any point in the race, for example, I know what Thomas or Ron is doing, and that simplifies the language on the boat. We are always together during events. We learn together, we eat together, watch movies at night and talk about sailing all the time.

The second thing is communication, which does sound trite, but there are two categories of this: communicating what’s happening outside the boat and what’s happening inside the boat. This is all routine for us at this point. For the outside stuff, for example, before starting each race, I’ll start off the questions: What do we see? What’s our opinion? What do we see on the water? How does it compare to the forecast? What did we learn in the last race? What side of the line and why? During the race, communication shifts to our speed and height relative to the other boats around us. In the big fleets, I’m not looking around, and a lot of it is how quickly you can find a free lane after the start. So, it’s so important to have the team looking around and providing real-time feedback on the wind, current, boat performance and tactical situation.

Inside-the-boat communications is about making sure we’re set up for the given conditions. Before the race, we ask about the rig, the backstay, the jib tracks, making sure we’re in the right gear off the line. The gear you set up in for the start may be a different gear than you’re in 10 minutes later, so it’s imperative you always start in the right gear.

During the course of the race, we are a quiet boat; just talking about how the boat feels and taking a lot of input. I’ve been on a lot of boats where it seems the only person who has a valid opinion is the tactician, but we have four good sailors on the boat, so it’s important to hear how everyone feels and what they think is important. I think we do that as well as anybody.

The next category is adjustments, and I think we’re at a new level this year. That’s making a difference. Especially in the challenging conditions of Miami, with the waves and the wind, it is so essential to be always adjusting. The J/70 has so many tools, but the tools are useless unless you use them. With adjustments, we think of it from front to back: jib halyard, jib track, the ratio between the primary (sheet) and the inhauler. The traveler, backstay, vang and cunningham—in that order. Whatever we do with the headsail drives how we set up the main and how I drive the boat. Even a windspeed change of 2 knots or a modest change in wave state will require one or several changes of these tools.

We keep getting better at this and knowing what each of us will do and knowing what those adjustments are. The key to that is we compile comprehensive notes after each practice day and every race day, and it all goes into a repository. That becomes our baseline, and it allows us to be at that point where we can sail by the numbers. For example, if we are high and slow, the reaction is, “OK, let’s do X, Y and Z, and if we’re low and fast, let’s do A, B and C,” but we already know what the playbook is. Any team that’s serious has to have this database of notes so things become intuitive.

We also have numbers all over our boat. Let’s say we’re sailing in a regatta using the J/9 jib. We know how it should be set up in terms of the jib track; then we start focusing on the ratio between the primary and inhaul sheets, so these go into the notes as numbers. For example: jib track at 6, primary at 3.5 and weather sheet at 8. During the race, we’re talking numbers, and if someone is feeling something, we might say, “Let’s go primary to 2. 5 and weather to whatever.” It’s knowing what the numbers are. A lot of teams just go into the boat and trim by eye or feel. We go to settings. It makes our life easier.

I imagine that makes things a lot easier for you to strictly focus on driving.

It’s been a huge change for me. I grew up as a singlehanded sailor, and in college sailing, the skipper does everything, and I don’t do that. I focus on driving, but I have the base of knowledge, and that’s why when everyone in the boat is talking about what’s going on and we’re problem-solving, I may chirp in with an observation. The goal is to get to the point where everything is happening naturally. For example, as we’re approaching a wave set, Conner is easing the jib halyard, and Thomas has already eased the backstay. We may adjust the jib halyard 20 times in a given windward leg. It’s very dynamic, and that’s not how we were sailing three years ago.

Do you play your own mainsheet?

I used to do it, but I have not for the last five years or so. It took a while to get used to, but you eventually realize you have two people to play three lines, and given how dynamic we are, I bet I am by far the most active person in the fleet when it comes to the traveler. It’s moving nonstop. I will drop the traveler an inch or two, and our level of heel does not change. That leads to more direct efficiency on the keel and rudder.

Take us through how you sail through puffs on the J/70.

Conner’s calling puffs; their strength and direction, and whether it’s a lifting or heading puff. The traveler is always uncleated and in my hand, and what we try to do is be dynamic with steering. Thomas is trimming in the backstay just as the puff is coming on with one hand, and his other hand is on the mainsheet, so he and I are playing all three at the same time. One of the effective things of a traveler burp is you can burp it out with the initial puff and almost within a second start trimming it back in; the heel-­angle change is imperceptible. If we do that right, we’re going to gain half a boatlength with every puff from boats that don’t.

How about the jib adjustments?

If we are coming into either a big puff or chop, the weather sheet comes off, which gives me a bigger groove. The halyard is being played with every up and down change in velocity or any wave-state change that’s going to affect our speed. Flat spots are just as important as puffs and waves; if we approach the flat spot with speed, we can go with a little extra trim on the main and banjo the weather sheet for about 15 seconds to be able to feather up and gain a bit of height in that one flat spot.

Confident breeze calling is important to this style of dynamic sailing.

Yes. One of my pet peeves is when people become talking heads, and 80 percent of what they’re saying I feel no difference in my tiller or face. In that sense, sometimes less is more because if you are saying something, it has to be important. Along that note, whenever I have a substitution for an event, I remind everyone that we will all make mistakes, so no barking. Just carry on and do our job.

Share some thoughts on starting in this class, especially with everyone using GPS starting devices these days.

We can continue to get ­better here. In general, what works for us is to set up around our spot early, but setting up early comes with its trade-offs. You have to have the skills to defend against port-tack poachers and really be able to defend your space—doing double tacks and basically doing what you can to push away boats on both sides so you leave yourself enough runway so that when it’s go-time, you can go faster than the boats around you. If you’re late to accelerate because you are too close to the line, boats around you that started two lengths before will own you. For me, the big thing is if we don’t have a lane off the start, I will happily take as many sterns as I have to in order to get out and get a lane. We have confidence in our speed, so at that point in time, say 30 seconds after the start, you’re still within five lengths of the leading boat, and that’s not so bad. So, we’ll give away a few lengths by ducking to get a lane, and sometimes finding that lane may take two or three tacks. But if you have a leg that is 1.5 miles, it’s worth it. Plus, in big fleets, there is that phenomenon where the wind is coming down the course and the entire wind mass rises above the wall of masts and sails. It’s good to get away from that wall.

Winging has become a ­powerful tactical tool in the J/70. Your thoughts?

It’s been around for a long time, but right now some sailmakers, like Doyle, have a kite that’s made to be a better winger. It’s critically important, but you have to do it at the right time. You have to be going 5 knots before you’re even thinking about doing it. Secondly, if you’re rounding near the front of your fleet, it’s dangerous to wing too early because the wind block from the cone can be deadly. You can make good gains by letting the cone thin out a bit, do a full jibe, go for a minute, and then pop the wing. At that point, you are one of the first to go over, and you are far enough out to get the clear air and then able to go straight to the mark. But you have to earn the opportunity; you have to fight for the spot to make it happen, then wait for a breeze and then pop it.

The post Winner’s Debrief: Brian Keane’s Savasana appeared first on Sailing World.

At the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series in St. Petersburg we mic’d up Andy Horton and Travis Odenbach on the J/70 for the practice race. Listen in to hear how the top sailors get around the racecourse with fleet management, tactics and strategy calls.

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Peter Duncan’s Relative Obscurity has prevailed over 60 other teams and challenging wind conditions to capture the 2021 J/70 World Championship title at California Yacht Club, today. In a five-day series that tested the skill and patience of top-notch competitors from 11 nations, Duncan – sailing with Willem van Waay, Morgan Trubovich and Victor Diaz de Leon – secured a top five position in the beginning of the regatta and never let go.

“I’m elated!” said Duncan as he returned to the dock, bustling with activity. “That was a tough day out there. We didn’t start very well but had a bit of a break with a header on the first run of the second race that let us get close to everybody and sail through some folks we need to sail through,” he explained. “We have a lot of fun onboard – joke and laugh and keep it light – and that worked in our favor when we had to grind through. Everybody knows what their job is, and these guys do them exceptionally well.”

The leaderboard changed with every rounding during Races Seven and Eight, as the top contenders scrapped for honors. “It was very cool that there were four boats who could have won this thing in the last race,” Duncan added. “To me that’s really fun, exciting sailing.”

Duncan is no stranger to the podium. Recently he won the J/70 North Americans in Annapolis and triumphed in the 2017 J/70 Worlds in Porto Cervo, Italy. “This competition was really great, and the Race Committee did a terrific job getting the races in with the breeze we had. I’m really pleased. Cal Yacht Club did an awesome job.”

At day’s end, the top tier was separated by just eight points with Bruce Golison taking second place. His team Midlife Crisis was primed with a solid win in the Pre-Worlds last month. One of only two teams to get bullets in the tightly matched Worlds this week (along with Magatron) Golison sailed with Steve Hunt, Erik Shampain and Jeff Reynolds.

Laura Grondin and the team of Dark Energy, just one point astern, took third. Grondin only recently began competing in the J/70. A competitive Melges 24 sailor, she switched to the J/70 when the boat’s popularity exploded. “If you really want that fleet racing experience, this is the boat,” she said. “I decided to go for it, and when Taylor Canfield came along, my husband Rick suggested we take this opportunity and just do as much as we can and see where we go.” Where it has taken her, is third place in the J/70 World Championships.

In contrast to her life as a business owner and CEO, Grondin noted, “On the racecourse, I am really just another member of the crew.” Unlike her corporate life, she laughed, “Here, I don’t have the final say. But these people are far more experienced than I am, so why wouldn’t I listen to them? And if I can do my job in a way that allows the rest of my team to do their jobs to the best of their ability, that’s a win for me. And that is the same in business and in sailing. It’s very exciting and rewarding.”

The Ducasse Sailing Team of Santiago, Chile, triumphed in the Corinthian division. “We are having a really nice time, and this is so good for us, because the level of competition is so good,” said Francisco Ducasse, who is sailing with his father and three brothers: Andres Ducasse Soruco, Ignacio Ducasse Soruco, Rodrigo Ducasse Soruco, and Andres Ducasse. Hoping for better wind – because they are sailing with a team of five instead of four – he said they were pleased with their result.

Ducasse noted the effort it took to bring the campaign from Chile, and their good fortune in chartering a sound boat. “We had really good training in the Pre-Worlds,” and added the team is in it for the long-haul. “The level is so good, we are practicing and adapting a lot with very good teams. We were hoping for a top ten finish, and then to do better the next Worlds. We are shortening the average.”

The J/70 World Championship regatta began Wednesday August 11 with enthusiasm: a characteristic that would continue throughout the week and result in multiple General Recalls and the hoisting of the U flag and Black flag. Breezes of 6 to 8 knots greeted the fleet, but by Thursday the wind vanished. The Race Committee attempted to pull off the desired two races, but deterred by the shifty zephyrs, abandoned racing for the day.

A slight improvement in velocity Friday allowed for one race – just skimming the Class’ lower limit for breeze. A championship regatta isn’t always about heavy weather, many competitors pointed out, saying it’s just as vital to conquer light and shifty conditions, as heavy air. And the masters of the fleet proved that over time.

Saturday’s forecast rang true, with a breeze that started at 6 knot and filled in to 14 knot by the end of the day. Principal Race Officer Mark Foster squeezed out three races, despite repeated General Recalls which threatened to trim the number of races. But organizers already had the requisite number under their belt to constitute a World Championship and allow for throw-outs.

Late Saturday, drenched and exhausted, the fleet returned to the yacht club for a ‘California Dreamin’ style buffet with music. The frontrunners had consolidated their positions with Duncan’s Relative Obscurity in the lead followed by Dark Energy, Savasana, Midlife Crisis and Catapult. The final day of the J/70 Worlds Championship Regatta would bring fair winds averaging 7 – 10 knots to Santa Monica Bay, with a number of shifts that kept racers and Race Committee on their toes.

Plans for the championship regatta had been on the books since 2018, according to Chair Marylyn Hoenemeyer, and slated for July 26 to Aug. 1, 2020. By early that year the entry list was brimming at 96: nearing the 100-boat limit, with half the fleet hailing from around the globe. Then the pandemic turned everything upside down, and the event was rescheduled.

“This has been a tremendous effort and success,” added Hoenemeyer. “The racers, Race Committee and entire organization have been so patient and tenacious, and I would like to thank everyone involved. This was a full club effort. I think we’re aware of the volunteers on the water, but less aware of the volunteers onshore, and the impact on the members. We’re thankful for the support of the Cal Yacht Club membership and our terrific staff. We’re no different than other organizations that are working short staffed these days … they’ve pulled together a really tremendous effort and we are proud of the experience we’ve provided these racers, both on the water and off. “

The last J/70 World Championship regatta had been held in Tor Bay, England, with GBR’s Paul Ward and Eat Sleep J Repeat besting that 77-boat fleet in a grueling 14-race series. Ward finished seventh in the 2021 event.

Click here for complete results of the 2021 J/70 World Championship

The post Hard-Earned J/70 Worlds Win for Duncan and Crew appeared first on Sailing World.

Ed Baird checks in from the 44Cup’s first event (in a long time) in Portorož, Slovenia, where the racing is about to get underway; Jonathan McKee downloads on the J/70 North American drift-fest and Gary Jobson tries to explain the New York YC’s surprise Challenge protocol issued last week and Peter Isler’s getting ready for a summer packed from Classics in the East to Transpac in the West.

The post Around the Sailing World, Episode 41 appeared first on Sailing World.

Go for a tear on a MOD70 with unseen onboard footage and check your cloud knowledge with a teaser of Marine Weather University in this week’s episode of Around the Sailing World. Plus, Tony Rey checks in with some Miami J/70 updates and Gary Jobson talks priorities ahead of upcoming World Sailing meetings. There’s movement on the water, says panelist Steve Hunt, as sailing comes back to life.

The post Around the Sailing World, Episode 9 appeared first on Sailing World.

Have you ever come around a leeward mark only to find that the genoa halyard is not tight enough? To make matters worse, you now have to grind it up under tremendous load. This can be largely avoided by having accurate settings marks for the halyard. Hoist the halyard to the mark, and you’re done—no questions asked. The same is true for almost every other adjustable line or car on your boat. Markings immediately tell you exactly where everything must be. Your trimming will be more consistent from tack to tack, plus, you’ll save time studying the sails, allowing you to get your head out of the boat much sooner.

A common and accurate way to mark jib or genoa halyards so that the tension can be easily replicated is to place a scale on the deck with a marker or decal and then mark the halyard. I use a 12-inch scale on deck, marked every inch. I set it up so that when the jib or genoa is raised and tensioned hand-tight, the mark on the halyard is even with the No. 2 mark on the scale. This allows for a slightly looser halyard in light air and much tighter halyard in breeze, while still being on the scale. At a weather mark, the pit person notes what number the halyard is at and then, at the leeward mark when the jib or genoa goes back up, the pit person can pull the halyard to the same mark.

RELATED: Headsail Furling Tips

For spinnaker halyards and tack lines I simply pull the halyard or sheet as hard as I can and mark the maximum up or out locations. When using a clutch, I generally mark the rope in front of the clutch so it is never hidden in the clutch. When using a cam cleat, I mark the rope just behind the cleat.

There are many ways to mark jib and genoa leads, and you need to find what works best for your boat. If you’re sailing a one-design, there’s likely a common way your competitors mark their tracks. Using the most commonly accepted system helps you better when settings with friends or competitors. On the J/70, for example, we mark the deck even with the aft end of the car and then number the marks based on the preferred tuning guide. That way, the marks are highly visible and the car position is easy to reproduce. Some boats mark the deck even with the pin on the car. On boats with purchase systems rather than pin-stop cars, we number the entire track with marks spaced 3 to 6 inches apart, depending on the size of the boat.

Mark Your Sheets

On small boats, we mark the spinnaker sheets so they can be cleated at the spot on the rope so that, when the spinnaker fills, it’s not over trimmed. It really helps the trimmer know where the clew needs to be before the spinnaker actually fills. It’s also helpful in light air on boats where the spinnaker trimmer may be busy during the set: just pull to the mark, then deal with the other details.

Jib sheets are often marked one of two ways. One way is to mark the sheet at the edge of the winch drum when maximum trimmed. Or, like the jib halyard, you can whip the sheet and use a scale on deck. If you have this setup, you will likely need a slightly longer scale than you used for the halyard. If your boat has in-haulers, mark them so that you are symmetric.

Marking the mainsheet provides an important reference point. If you’re going fast, note where it is. Later, if you’re not as fast, note where the mark is relative to where it was before. If it’s different, maybe it’s time to return to the original position. A mainsheet mark also helps at the leeward mark. The main can be easily trimmed back to where you had it on the previous weather leg without having to study the sail shape to hard.

Control-line Marks

On our J/70, we have three colored whipping marks for the outhaul noting light, medium and heavy settings. We also use colored whippings or colored tape marks on our vang. However, we use more whippings to cover a larger range of settings, since there is a much larger difference between tight and loose in the vang. Whether you are vang-sheeting upwind or controlling twist when planning, the vang must be set accurately.

For boats with symmetric spinnakers and longer poles that require dip-pole jibes, mark the topping lift at its standard height when sailing in all-purpose conditions as well as where it must be to allow the pole to swing through the foretriangle without hitting the lifeline or forestay. Also, mark the mast so the mast man knows where to put the butt end of the spinnaker pole. If your bow person is always complaining when you pull the afterguys out of their hand before they can “make” the guy in the pole, then mark the guy at the winch when it’s loose so you know they have enough slack to make the pole.

For boats with runners, marking helps maintain consistent tension between tacks and also helps the runner trimmer find quick, accurate tension after each tack. Putting marks on the traveler also helps repeatability from tack to tack.

Making marks is easy and you certainly do not need expensive graphics. You can get away with colored thread, colored electrical tape, a stencil kit and black markers. If using markers, go with the “Industrial” or Sharpie’s “Extreme Fade Resistant” markers.

The post On Your Marks, Get Set, Go appeared first on Sailing World.

The J/70 is a bit narrower than some of the other sportboats out there, so it’s a little tricky upwind because it’s more tender—it goes from being a boat that’s pretty underpowered in light air to a boat that needs to start depowering once the wind gets around 8 to 10 knots. It’s got a big jib, but the main is relatively small. The main has a nice roach profile, but it’s still not a big main by any means. In fact, there’s only around 3 feet of mast above the headstay, which is not a lot.

As a result, it’s a struggle for power in light air, constantly working hard to power up—you start by making the main full and loosen the rig tension, so you can sag the headstay to power up the jib. By 8 to 10 knots of wind, you’re already starting to depower. At 17 knots, you’ve already hit the rig’s max depowered setting. So the boat quickly goes from one extreme to another. As a result, everyone’s building versatile sails—relatively flat jibs and relatively average depth mains so that both sails can be flattened in a breeze and yet be powered up in light air. That requires a correctly set-up rig. Get it wrong, and you’ll struggle. In a way, it’s like a lot of other boats with single swept-back spreaders and a backstay.

Whether I’m coaching J/70 teams, watching J/70s race, or setting up my own boat, the first thing I always look at is the amount of mast pre-bend. That’s because, if you get the pre-bend wrong, the rig will be wrong—in every condition—which affects mainsail shape and headstay tension. The nice thing about the J/70 is that rig tension gives you a lot of control over headstay sag. That makes the J/70 work kind of like the J/24, but even more so.

When I’m coaching a J/70, one of the things I key off is the tension on the leeward shrouds. In breeze, as you’re pulling on the backstay, you’re bending the mast, which slackens the leeward upper and, if anything, tensions the leeward lower. That’s because there is a fulcrum action around the intersection of the headstay and the mast. The load on the headsail is the force sagging the forestay as the wind speed builds, while the combination of shroud, backstay and mainsheet tension are helping to support the headstay from sagging too much. The spreaders and combination of upper and lower shroud tension work together to keep the mast from overbending while tensioning the backstay to maintaining the correct amount mainsail depth and headstay sag for each windspeed.

I’m very careful about making sure that the pre-bend stays relatively consistent through the whole range of rig tension. Here’s the problem. Let’s say you’re sailing with too much pre-bend. All it takes is a centimeter or two of too much pre-bend. Then, even in 5 knots of wind, the main will be too flat. Instead of the camber at the middle stripe being 13 percent, it’s now only 12 percent or less. It takes shape and power out of the whole mainsail. The middle stripe is no longer setting up correctly for the windspeed, and that in turn affects depth at the upper and lower stripes as well. Basically, the whole sectional depth of the sail gets out of whack. So, too much pre-bend, at any rig setting, and you won’t have enough power in light air; the sail will just be too flat and wash out as you add backstay and headstay may still be too saggy. Remember, at 8 knots you’re pretty much at max power. After that you’re depowering. With too much pre-bend, you’re depowering the main too much from the start, no matter what the wind velocity and the headstay is still sagging too much. The mainsail in this scenario get washed out quickly and breaks up and the boat is overpowered because of too much headstay sag making the headsail too full.

At the other extreme, let’s say you don’t have enough pre-bend, which is rare, but let’s consider it, just to help understand more about how pre-bend works. Too little pre-bend means the uppers are too loose and the lowers are too tight (mast too straight ). Now, the main will be too deep. In light air, you won’t be able to get the leech to open—it will be shut down. The middle stripe would then set up too deep at over 15-percent cord dept, and the leech can get shut down and stall. That’s not that bad for max power in 7 to 8 knots of wind, but at 10 to 11 knots, it’s too much power. In less than 7 knots, the main gets too deep and shut down. With too little pre-bend you can’t flatten the main enough. You can’t go up even turns on the uppers and lowers because the middle of the main is too full relative to the top. The boat will always be overpowered. You end up using too much backstay and the bottom two-thirds of the main will be too deep, the backstay just flattening the top stripe and the headstay too bound up—everything’s out of proportion.

My rule is that with only shroud tension, and no backstay, I don’t want the mast to have more than 4 centimeters of pre-bend at the dock. To measure pre-bend, bring the main halyard down from the top and hold it against the track at the gooseneck. Measure the distance between the halyard and the mast at the spreaders. To make it easier, you can hoist up a little pre-bend gauge up the track with the spinnaker halyard.

Let’s say you’ve set up the mast with a Loos PT-2 gauge reading of 17 to 20 on the uppers. With that, the pre-bend might be 2 inches. Now tighten the lowers a few turns, and the pre-bend will drop to 3 to 4 centimeters—about an inch and a quarter to inch and a half. That’s what I’m always looking for. That seems to be a fast setup.

Keep in mind that the amount of spreader sweep affects how much you have to tension your shrouds to get the right amount of pre-bend, so it’s important you know that dimension. Theoretically, the sweep is identical on all boats, but the class has a kind of unpublished spreader sweep tolerance, which everyone knows. It’s around 14.25 inches to 15.25 inches. If there’s too much sweep, you have to ease your uppers a bit to compensate for that. If your spreaders are near the low end, that’s good because it means you can use more upper shroud tension at your base setting. My old boat started out with one sweep and increased slightly over time just through wear and tear. I don’t know if the holes elongated or everything just settled in. But it meant that we had to be careful how we set up our base setting. If I get on a boat and I notice there’s a problem, it’s generally because they have the tension ratio of uppers to lowers wrong. The more you tension the uppers, the more the mast bends. Tension the lowers more and the mast straightens out. Every turn you take on the lowers makes a dramatic change in pre-bend. It almost comes down to half turns, with the uppers usually going through twice the range as the lowers. Because the lowers have such an impact on pre-bend, I always set up the lowers in the 8 to 10 range on the Loos gauge and then adjust the uppers. That’s the base setting. The reason I don’t set up the rig with a lighter base setting is that you can’t get a good reading on the tension gauge on the lowers. Anything below 5 on a tension gauge is a non-reading. So you need something between 7 and 10 to get a good reading, which is why we use that as the base setting.

My base setting is for 10 to 11 knots. If I have a mast that’s bending too much, I’ll ease the uppers a turn or two to get rid of the excessive pre-bend, and if I don’t have enough pre-bend, I’ll keep tensioning the uppers until we have the right amount. It’s usually in the 17 to 20 range on the Loose gauge. Again, if you get the pre-bend wrong, it will be wrong in every condition. That’s why it’s important to start out with a correct base setting and then go for an even number of turns up or down from there. That will maintain about the same amount of pre-bend through all conditions and allow you to keep the boat at top speed.

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The 2019 Helly Hansen National Offshore One Design Regatta at Marblehead Race Week returns to Marblehead, MA, July 25 to 28. Boston Yacht Club will host more than 150 teams across 14 fleets.

Rolex Yachtsman of the Year, Jud Smith (Swampscott, MA), won the 2018 Marblehead NOOD and the 2018 J/70 World Championship in the same venue. “It’s a new year,” says Smith, “and a lot of good boats are registered. We have three past world champions in the fleet, including myself, Peter Duncan, and Joel Ronning, so the top end of the fleet is going to be stacked.”

Training and preparation were vital to Smith’s past success, and this season he plans to share his knowledge as a coach and mentor. Smith notes the importance of working out the kinks throughout the season so teams can peak at the right time. “The best method I’ve seen is to do a regatta every month or so, with intensive training in between. With the wind and currents in Marblehead, the NOOD will serve as a perfect training platform for the World Championships in Torquay [England] later this season. Marblehead is one of the top ocean venues in the country, and with the NOOD Regatta coming here each year, it keeps the area at the forefront of one-design racing. It’s the biggest regatta of the season for many of us in New England, so everyone gets really excited to go out and compete.”

Kim Pandapas (Marblehead, MA) is a favorite among a number of top teams in the Rhodes 19 Class, which is a long-standing fixture of the Marblehead NOOD. “We have a whole bunch of combinations of family members sailing together,” says Pandapas. “Most boats sail with just two people, so the barrier for entry is much lower than the bigger boats.”

Most of the Rhodes 19s in the fleet were built before 1965, but the fleet remains relevant today. “They’re relatively slow compared to some of the newer fleets, but there’s a lot of nuance to sailing them,” says Pandapas. The Rhodes 19 fleet has always emphasized community, social activities, and good old-fashioned fun. “They are just as competitive as any boat in town,” says Pandapas. “The longevity of class is proof of that.”

The 2019 Helly Hansen NOOD Regatta in Marblehead will also feature the 2.4 Meter Class for the first time. A one-person keelboat, the 2.4 Meter has been used globally for adaptive sailing. In 2000, the class was designated as the singlehanded boat for the Paralympics, but with paralympic sailing being taken out of the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo, the fleet is looking for new outlets for competition.

Shan McAdoo (Essex, MA) is relatively new to the 2.4 Meter class, but uses the fleet to stay competitive as he overcomes his physical challenges. “I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis 22 years ago,” says McAdoo, “and the 2.4 Meter is the perfect boat for me to stay active in the sport. The fact that sailing has been taken out of the paralympics is a tragedy, because sailing is the perfect mental game for disabled athletes.”

A veteran of the Etchells, J/24, J/22, Rhodes 19 and Snipe classes, McAdoo continues to adapt to the 2.4 Meter. To sail them, sailors sit forward facing in the boat and operate everything with their hands. “Once you sit down in the boat, everybody’s physical disadvantages disappear,” says McAdoo. “I barely have use of my legs, but this format allows me to keep sailing. The regatta organizers have been very accommodating in getting this new class started at the NOOD, and the racers couldn’t be more excited to come to Marblehead and mix it up.”

The Marblehead NOOD will produce the final contestant for the Caribbean Championship sponsored by Sunsail in the British Virgin Islands on October 27 to November 1.

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Around the Eastern YC the night before the J/70 World Championship was scheduled to begin in Marblehead, Massachusetts, there was a tremendous amount of nervous energy among the 91 teams preparing to race in one of the most talent-laden one-design events of modern times. More than 25 teams had coaches on hand, and 56 teams were racing with two or more professionals on board. The J/70 is a simple boat, but there would be nothing simple about getting to the front of the fleet.

As emcee at the opening ceremony, I looked out over the crowd of 500 sailors or so and wondered, What is it going to take to prevail in such a star‑studded field?

In the end, Marblehead native and hometown favorite Jud Smith and his crew won by a single point after 11 races contested in strong, shifty and extremely light conditions. It was a special victory for this 61-year-old skipper, but it didn’t happen by accident. Smith and his teammates spent a year preparing for what he knew would be a battle of attrition.

With 11 races and one throw-out over six days of racing, it was essential to avoid major mistakes in any form. In the end, 10 individual boats won at least one race, and Smith finished with a 10.5-point average, which sounds high, but is an ­indication of how difficult it was to win this regatta. In a densely packed fleet on relatively short beats, Smith says, it was challenging to find clear wind and open lanes. Nothing on the course came easy, he says, but his meticulous preparation gave him confidence they could improve his position every leg.

A year earlier, Smith had crewed for American skipper Peter Duncan when they won the J/70 Worlds in Italy. For that regatta, the team raced in several events in Europe and learned how to sail faster. “The 2017 Europeans and Worlds were both heavy-air planing regattas, and most European teams race with heavier teams of five,” Smith says. “Because we were a lighter four-up team, we worked hard on our heavy-air tuning and trim in the 15- to 30-knot races to be as fast upwind as the best five-up teams. Being lighter was better downwind. We were also one of the few teams using a higher-clewed jib in the 2017 season and still in-hauling in the fresher conditions. In-hauling with the weather sheet made for better pointing and less heel. Better pointing and less leeway means we sailed less distance, which got us to the weather mark in to the top of the pack every race, even against the heavier crews in the large fleet.”

With the 2018 J/70 Worlds contested at his home club, Smith wanted to sail his own boat. His first move was to acquire a new boat because he felt his first boat, which was built in 2012, was not as good downwind as the European boats. Duncan and Smith both purchased new 2018 European-built boats and shipped them together to Miami for training in winter 2018.

One of Smith’s crew, Will Felder, block-sanded the keel to perfection. He also upgraded all of the boat’s halyards and lines with heat-set Dyneema SK99. “We went with tapered sheets and a minimum-diameter backstay with a taller bridle,” he says. “It’s important that all halyards don’t stretch, and that nothing breaks.”

The next item on his list was to recruit a young and agile crew. “The average age of my crew was 30, which really helped,” he says. “Our crew worked hard at pumping the spinnaker downwind, and we were fast. When you have a great crew, it’s easier for the helmsman to sail fast.”

Over the past 36 years, I’ve tried to recruit Smith to race with me in a variety of regattas because he’s one of the best with rig tune and trimming, so it was fascinating to hear how hard he had to work to recruit his own crew. “It started with Lucas Calabrese, who won a bronze medal in the 2012 Olympics in the 470 class,” he says. “Will Felder, another professional sailor, joined the team next, and the one amateur on our boat was Marc Gauthier, who is a professional ship captain and a graduate of Maine Maritime Academy. The crew is the key to doing well in this fleet.”

Did local knowledge play into the team’s success? Of course, but not as much as one would think. It was simply a matter of knowing beforehand what to expect in the bigger picture.

“As I looked into the weather we could expect for the Worlds, I went back 20 years to see if there were any trends during that 10-day period in late September,” Smith says. “The NOAA website has excellent weather-buoy history. I learned that 90 percent of the time you could expect a windy northeasterly, 80 percent of the time during that period there would be a frontal passage and 50 percent of the time there would be one day with no wind.”

The regatta featured all three weather events. “We prepared for heavy air,” Smith says. “Most people thought it would be light all week because the summer regattas were generally lighter.”

Over the course of the year, Smith and his team sailed in seven major regattas and many regional ones, and he arranged two- to three-day training camps conducted every few weeks. “We usually had two to four boats on the water together,” he says. “We learned how to trim the jib and position the leads, narrowed down rig settings, and learned how to steer the boat in all sea states. The training camps were helpful because we were able to pick the right rig setting prior to each race of the Worlds.”

There’s a fine line between having enough power and helm upwind and being over­powered and heeling too much, he says. “We basically set up the J/70 to a point and then make sure we are fast enough forward without heeling too much,” Smith says. “In the short, confused sea state we had in Marblehead, we were basically trying to recover speed after every wave, especially on port tack, with the waves on the bow. This technique requires constant mainsheet ­adjustments and a straight enough mast with enough rig tension to support the headstay and not have the main wash out. You can’t twist and ease main effectively on a mast that is overbent and washing out. The nasty waves put a premium on supporting the headstay with rig tension and backstay load without overbending the mast. Will [Felder] would then ease the jib in-hauler in the bad waves and bow-string it back in when we’d hit the smoother spots. He did so all the way to windward. The big waves and variable velocity required constant trim adjustments to accelerate after each wave without heeling too much.”

Throughout the lead-up to the Worlds, Smith raced Etchells when he could in preparation for the Worlds in Australia, scheduled a month after the J/70 Worlds. While the two classes are dissimilar, Smith capitalized on a few subtle similarities between them. “The boats are similar base shroud tune,” he says. “They often sail with the same number of people, and the same things happen on the racecourse, like the need for getting off the starting line cleanly, or managing a big fleet on a closed course.”

One of the differences in the J/70 class, he says, is the use of GPS-based instrumentation, which tells the competitor where he or she is relative to the starting line. “With a two-part starting line, most teams relied on two instruments,” he says. “It’s now more difficult to get a good start because all the boats are pushing the line, but the devices take away the need for line sights.”

The fleet had so many black-flag races because there were too many general recalls, he says. “I don’t think these devices help to become a better sailor because when you rely on it you’re not using your own judgment, and just as many boats or more are being black flagged as without the GPS devices.”

The short starting line also contributed to OCS starts among Smith’s competitors, even those using GPS devices. Smith, however, doesn’t support the race committee practice of having a single long line with the signal boat positioned at its center. “Having 90 boats on a short course is too many,” he says. “I prefer to split the fleet in half and have a gold fleet and a silver fleet instead. The racing would be better. The course lengths for this size fleet are too short, especially with two lap races that are only 60 to 75 minutes long. That’s a windward leg of 20 minutes or less, maximum 10 minutes on each tack. It’s hardly enough time to find any clear lanes to sail in and easy to get forced out beyond a layline looking for clear air.”

Smith did not employ a coach for the J/70 Worlds, and instead, he says, invested in training camps before the regatta and made sure his team was up to speed before the first race each morning. “We went sailing early every day and worked with Peter Duncan as our tuning partner,” he says. “He’s really fast and high upwind in all conditions. We would do a full windward leg before any of the other boats were out there.”

In understanding how he could possibly maintain a consistently high average score with so many boats on the course, he says his team’s approach was to avoid being “flashy.” Any result in the top 15 was good enough.

“We tried to stay away from the favored end of the line because it was so crowded,” he says. “Sometimes it paid to give up the favored side to sail in clear wind. We went up the middle and tried to avoid getting pushed out to the corners. It seemed like a game of attrition as other boats around us would get into trouble by taking chances on an edge. The main thing was to avoid taking risks and stay out of the protest room at all costs because it burns you out mentally.”

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At first, despised the winches that came stock on every new J/70 when it first debuted. The darn thing was always in the way; and many a crew had leg bruises to prove it. As class legal and class mandated, however, there was no getting removing them. Instead, teams got creative with soft, protective covers and used them sparingly, if at all.

Change comes slow with such established one-designs, however, and thankfully, the engineers at Harken have come up with a solution, with a low-profile ratcheting winch that’s proving to more than a simple replacement.

“The SnubbAir can replace winches, but in other applications it could act more like a really large ratcheting foot or cheek block or even a ratcheting line diverter in the pit,” says Greg Hartlmeier, lead engineer on the project. “The SnubbAir provides lots of line-holding power even without a winch handle. That muscle could become very popular on an A Scow or a powered-up sportboat where the spinnakers can be more than a handful. Even better, you can just flip the sheet off the drum and jibe. If you need even more holding power, wrap the sheet around the SnubbAir twice or use a winch handle with the optional adapter.”

“The Classic Harken plain-top B8A winch has proven to be a great product on boats all over. But take one walk down the dock at a J/70 event and you see the whole array of creative ways crews try to pad or cover them up. We started to think that changing out the B8A in that application could improve crew performance – and reduce the amount of bruising the trimmers endure,” said Jim Andersen, Harken’s U.S. Sales Manager. “Give credit to J Boats. They wanted to keep the winches and maintain the ability for mixed and different sized crews to continue to sail the boat at a high level. They recognized that some form of load holding assistance was necessary. That leads us to SnubbAir.”

According to a product announcement released in January, following J /70 class approval, the SnubbAir comes with four integral threaded studs placed to match the bolt pattern of the B8A winch on the J/70 deck. “Early experiments indicate that start-to-finish, swapping out the two winches for SnubbAirs takes less than 10 minutes. All washers and Nylok nuts required for mounting are included.”

The SnubbAir can be ordered with an optional winch handle adapter that lets crews use any conventional winch handle. It weighs less than half of the B8A plain top winch and is 30 percent lower to the deck. It features two races of Delrin ball bearings like a block, which assure it operates with very little friction.

“We named it the SnubbAir because it’s a modern spin on an old-school snubbing winch,” Hartlmeier said. “And its low profile, wide drum diameter and large hole in the center make it look a little like our Grand Prix Air winches.”

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