A Beginners Guide to J109 racing?

August 21, 2006 15:07 by Marko Heuchan | 1 comment

Last Monday I got a text from Palma-based boat-builder Pete Bresnan, asking me if I fancied sailing the J109 nationals on his father’s boat Newton’s Wonder. His father (Pete senior) also lives in Spain, and hence the boat has been used for exactly two weekends since they bought her last year. Obviously with no practise, or regular crew, this was not a text-book ‘how to do a regatta’ story. A quick practise session on the eve of the regatta revealed that we had rounded up a crew with collectively about 20 hours in a J109 under their belts, and more worryingly with 4 Peters and 2 Simons in the communication melting-pot. The last minute nature of the event meant we also used 3 different bowmen and 2 tacticians over the three days.

The first race saw the class form-boat Zelda show the fleet a clean pair of heels to win by nearly two minutes, and we struggled downwind with all the tack-line and angles variables. After losing places on seemingly every run we came 7th, but gradual experimentation sorted out downwind problems, and we improved to come 2nd in the 2nd race, and win the 3rd to move up to third overall behind the very consistent Zelda (always in top 3) and Johnny Blue.

Unfortunately for us the wind piped up rapidly before the 4th race, and we found out that the code 1 was overpowered in 20 knots (no shit Sherlock), and the nationals was no place to learn how to do windy gybes. By the next race we had a more prudent headsail, and gybing sorted out (kite then main) to grab a third spot, leaving us in joint 3rd with fast-improving Shiva, with Andy Green and Paul Hayes among her crew.

The final day found us in medium airs, and with the two Peters (Kay and Bresnan) doing a great job of finding the breeze lines downwind, we came a very useful 2nd behind Shiva. However, in the last race we got a bit buried at the start, and again went slightly large on the headsail, to come 6th in the race, and 4th overall behind Zelda, Johnny Blue and Shiva.

The learning points were clear – our two worst results came in the first light and first breezy race, as we had to work out the right modes to race the boat. More practises would have made a big difference as we felt that with the Quantum sails we were always fast and high upwind. Many thanks to all the class regulars who made us feel welcome and offered advice, and to Royal Southern and J boats for running a really neat event.

Hopefully we will use the boat a little more in 2007.