J/80 in St Pete

We raced a J/80 at the St Pete NOOD last weekend. We did not do quite as well as we hoped, finishing tied for third in a field of 10 boats. And we lost the tiebreaker(s).

We had some speed issues in heavy air that we could not quite get resolved. And we had a couple brain farts in the light stuff. I’d like to do the regatta again today. I think we’d do much better. I was having trouble with where to place my feet on the maneuvers and how to throw my weight. The boat seemed like it was trimming me, rather than the other way around. 

Apparently, I’m not yet good enough to jump on an unfamiliar boat, head out to the race course, and dominate the fleet with my mad skilz. A little pre-regatta practice might be in order next time.

The Stanford Campus Looks Like a Mexican Food Restaurant

See the post directly below this one for more details.

I did some research; with The Google.

Holy Crap! It does look like a Mexican food restaurant.

Do you think they know? Surely they know. The resemblance is uncanny. You can’t do something like that accidentally. You have to do it on purpose.

A Brief Conversation I Had With My Precocious Teenage Daughter Shortly After She Returned From a Trip To Stanford

Me: So how was the trip?
Precocious Teenage Daughter: ok.
Me: Just Ok?
Precocious Teenage Daughter: just ok.
Me:
Precocious Teenage Daughter:
Me: Well, what did you think of the Stanford Campus?
Precocious Teenage Daughter: It reminded me of a Mexican food restaurant.
Me: A Mexican food restaurant?
Precocious Teenage Daughter: yep.
Me:
Precocious Teenage Daughter:
Me:
Precocious Teenage Daughter:
Me: Like, it was all adobe and arches and neon and stuff?
Precocious Teenage Daughter: Dad, the whole campus is based on the Mexican restaurant theme. I was constantly tempted to order a bean burrito.
Me:
Precocious Teenage Daughter: with rice and a side of guacamole.
Me:
Precocious Teenage Daughter: They did have an on campus restaurant called The Treehouse.
Me:
Precocious Teenage Daughter:
Me:
Precocious Teenage Daughter:
Me: What kind of food did they serve there?
Precocious Teenage Daughter: Mexican.
Me: Is that ironic? Or just bad luck?
Precocious Teenage Daughter: Both. I’d say.

Time For a Change

I finally put my money where my mouth was yesterday, and ordered my first set of UK sails for the J/22.

We’ve been using Quantums for the last 2 years, and we’ve been consistently off the pace in light air. I think most of my light air speed problems are driver/tactics related. But it’s starting to get in my head a little bit. And I needed a change.

My understanding of the UK design is that the sales are cut with a little more twist, and not quite as full up top. The main has the clew moved a little higher than other designs, in order to give the sail a little more roach while still staying within the class girth restrictions. The idea being that we’ll get sail area up high, where it can help us in light air.

You may be thinking, “With all this light air optimization, you could suck in heavy air.” The thought did cross my mind. But heavy air sailing, for me anyway, has always been more about effort than anything else. So I’m hoping we can maintain our performance there.

One big potential problem is that none of the top boats in the area sail UK, so we’re gonna be writing our own tuning guide. Not really sure if we’re up to that, but we’ll tighten the leeward upper til it stops wiggling and go from there.

Once More, Into the Breach

Speaking of campaigns, I finally got permission from Dana to revive my J/22 circuit campaign. I was thinking of skipping the year, but an inordinate amount of begging combined with some cagey requirements from Dana led to a resurgence… Nay.  a Renaissance! of my flagging J/22 effort.

So I’ll soon be seeing some of this:

And some of this:

You haven’t really raced until you lose 20 boats at a single leeward mark rounding.

The Girls’ Big Adventure

I just set up a blog to promote a 2007 RIWKC campaign that Dana and Chelsea are doing with some friends this year. You can see it here: Rift 2007

Pay special attention to the Make a Donation button on the page.