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Shorthanded Midwinters 2014/2015

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BobJ said:
Now Dura Mater . . . you never know what she'll show up with:
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I'm ready for all of you: today I sailed almost all the way to Richmond out of Berkeley. I attached the spinnaker pole to the mast jaws up. Thank you, Bob, for the spinnaker pole. I attached the shackles of the second set of jib sheets to the bow pulpit and led them back to the cockpit. Thank you, Pat, for those! I attached the topping lift to the upper ring of the pole and the downhaul to the lower ring. Changed out my reefing lines for the topping lift and downhaul so everything was led through blocks and line organizer to the cockpit. Made sure all the lines were above the spinnaker pole and in front of the topping lift. Put the boat on a beam reach and engaged Mary Margaret (the autopilot), went forward and put Pat's jib sheet through the jaw of Bob's spinnaker pole, crossed my fingers, hoping that everything would work the right way, went aft, turned downwind, pulled the topping lift line and .... voila!!!!!!!!!!! Nothing blew up! the boat didn't sink. I didn't fall overboard, and then! I lowered the spinnaker pole, went forward and switched out the jib sheet to the other side of the boat and ..... it worked on that side, too!!! So exciting. Admittedly it was only 6 knots of breeze, but there will be some of that in Midwinters. So, I'm ready. Bring it on.
 
Sounds good Jackie. A few things to make it simpler and easier:

You don't usually need a downhaul when using the pole as a whisker pole. Try it without a downhaul and see how it goes. You may not need the topper either, except in light air when the weight of the pole is pulling down the jib's clew too much.

Since you have to go forward to maneuver the pole anyway, I wouldn't bother with re-routing the reefing lines to have cockpit control of the pole. If you have a place to make the topper fast on the mast, just do that.

I assume you're using the second pair of sheets to lead them aft (outside the stanchions, etc.) when the pole is set? You may not need to do that for short runs in light air, unless the primary jib sheets are led inside the shrouds.

I larks-head (slip knot) a loop of line through the clew of the jib and clip the pole into that. Especially when the sheets are led well aft, the pole tends to slide down the sheet in light air. Clipping it into a loop instead of the sheet prevents that.

Finally, it's usually jaws (open) up for a spinnaker pole, but jaws down when used as a whisker pole. Try it both ways and see which is easier to release.

Good going!
 
Jackie, There's an old Santana 22 technique I used for poling out the jib on my Newport 30. All S22 jibs come with a small wire loop in the clew cringle. You attach the whisker pole to that ring instead of putting in on (yes, jaws down) jib sheet. That way you don't have to detach the pole from the sail while jibing. 1) Standing by the mast, unhook the pole from the mast ring; 2)pull the pole back just behind the forestay, keeping your end in front of the mainsail but parallel to the bow-stern; 3) push the front end of the pole forward on the opposite side of the forestay; 4) clip the pole back on the mast ring. Then go back to the cockpit and trim the sheets.

I used a short length of small diameter line to make a loop through the clew cringle. It needs to be large enough for the pole-end fitting, but not too "loopy" so there's too much slop.

I found that much easier than trying to "catch" the lazy sheet in the jaw of the pole. I could jib the pole in few seconds from the mast, which I leaned against for support and balance. If your jib sheets are outside the shrouds you only need one set rather than two. -- Pat
 
Good point, Pat. My tuna's used jib came with a vinyl covered wire loop in the clew eye. It's pretty easy to grab, even with the tiny jaw on the whisker pole.
On the Santana, I find it easiest if, right after pointing nearly ddw and bungeeing the tiller fast in place, I lock both jib sheets so the clew is stuck in the middle of the boat, right next to the mast. The loop is then an easy target for the pole I had sitting ready on the cabin top, and the jib is well-behaved since it isn't catching any wind. Release the sheets, jump forward to push the pole and jib clew to the windward side of the forestay and set the pole on the mast bale, then jump back and trim. Jibing works as you described.
Probably harder to execute with any elegance on a bigger boat with a large genoa and a hefty pole, so caveat emptor. Also, my sail handling methods have garnered no profits thus far, so doble caveat emptor (or whatever is Latin for double).
 
Thanks, Bob, thanks, Pat. If I put the jib sheet through the jaw rather than using the "loop" method I can furl the jib right up to about 6 inches, then drop the spin pole gently to the foredeck without leaving the cockpit. In wind higher than yesterday's 6 knots I will employ that technique for awhile until I feel wilder and crazier.
 
Over at RYC today, boats were being emptied out, bottoms were being polished, etc. in anticipation of tomorrow's friendly competition. There was also lots of ratchet-jawing going on. It seemed the blue boats were receiving most of the attention. This is to be expected.

Looks light for tomorrow.
 
Well my bottom hasn't been done since Vallejo, so that should make me the 'friendliest'. She is going to the yard Sunday evening for new paint.

I also have my non-sailor Corinthian crew tomorrow as snacktician/spokesmodel.
 
Sounds good. I'll have my usual band of nutjobs aboard: The main trimmer thinks the mainsheet is percale, the pit is the pits, the trimmers couldn't trim a hedge and the foredeck couldn't find it if he was standing on it (he will be). The driver would be better off trying to drive a tractor up a tree. (Yep, I'm singlehanding.)
 
Boooo..... now the arms race has begun. As in 4 arms, not 2. Thought it would be nice to singlehand these midwinters but there were wayyyyyy to many doublehanders in the faster SH division. Lead all the way around the course but could not hold off a longer boat with doublehanded crew once the wind was above 20k after the last leeward mark. I will be doublehanded the rest of the series I guess to be competitive, bummer. Wish there was some sort of singlehanded credit but without that I don't have a choice.
 
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We felt for you Greg. We had a hard enough time with two people. But the wind was a little stronger than predicted...
solosailor said:
Horseshit/Boooo..... now the arms race has begun. As in 4 arms, not 2. Thought it would be nice to singlehand these midwinters but there were wayyyyyy to many doublehanders in the faster SH division. Lead all the way around the course but could not hold off a longer boat with doublehanded crew once the wind was above 20k after the last leeward mark. I will be doublehanded the rest of the series I guess to be competitive, bummer. Wish there was some sort of singlehanded credit but without that I don't have a choice.
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Yeah, I thought the Archie 35 was racing full crew but apparently not. They must have set on the second run - I didn't see a kite but by the second time around, both of you were too far ahead to see. You definitely got a workout Greg.

Having different courses for the two shorty divisions will make it hard to cook up our own scoring tweaks, plus these other (non-SSS) boats don't know what we're thinking.

Sorry I didn't head down to the club for horse devores. The Richmond Riviera was looking mighty good after the fog rolled in! GREAT day though - I was expecting a raft-up after looking at the forecast this morning. Thanks to all of you for coming out to play. Any "stories" to tell?
 
They must have set on the second run
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They did not. I was going to set again but with the limited visibility and small boats all over the place I didn't want to come screaming down at 14-16k and have an unfortunate situation. Would have certainly done so doublehanded.
 
Having different courses for the two shorty divisions will make it hard to cook up our own scoring tweaks, plus these other (non-SSS) boats don't know what we're thinking.
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Can't see any possible ways to combine divisions nor for any shorthanded/doublehanded spin/no-spin. If there was going to be scoring tweaks we should have had that already worked out, no?
 
BobJ said:
Any "stories" to tell?
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Bob-

Thanks for organizing this. Very good turnout. What happened to the forecast? I was expecting 5 kn NE.

I memorized the course, but then I forgot it, because I was expecting to finish after the 2nd Windward Mark. I crossed line. They gave me no horn, but I figured that was just the way they did things in Berkeley. Then I tried to get sailing home and stay out of the way of any other finishers, but there were no more finishers, then I realized what happened. The penalty is one place for that infraction. I am glad it is not DSQ.

This was my first race with the J92S. My goal was to finish the course and avoid contact. So that worked out well.

Todd
 
Well I have again studied the SIs and I can't see how I (and perhaps Tijd) managed to DNF, unless the RC simply did not see us. We did not get a horn crossing the finish. We overstood the finish by quite a bit , and so approached the finish at a very shallow angle, but definitely passed between OCX and the RC, on port tack. A bit ahead of Lightspeed FWIW. We sailied Course 4 S - W - R - L - F, following a number of others in our division.

Super nice day on the water, though the 16 kts at our finish and the 20kts reaching home with our 150% #1 were quite a bit more than advertised. I'm not used to such short legs -- setting the kite at those reaching leg angles did not seem like it was worth it for a sym boat. I'm surprised though that the J92S did not set. Perhaps the RC gave us the reaching DW course to keep us out of the crewed fleets traffic pattern.
 
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