History: Each major regatta, J24 technical committee puts special focus on particular parts of the boat. As example, Norton, CT Worlds in 2004, the V-shape on the bottom of the keel was defined more clearly in the measurer’s handbook, which caused a large # of competitors to re-shape their keels. In Mexico, in 2007, keel shapes and stanchions were the focus with 15 Mexican boats having the re-do their keels and large # of competitors had to re-cant their stanchions inboard, as they were leaning outward. In addition to this, they forced everyone to tighten their lifelines to rule spec “taut”.
This year, the emphasis is on bows. For 2 main reasons:
1. if you use a long ruler vs. short ruler to determine the length of your J, because of the rocker (the curve in the bow), it produces 2 different measurement points
2. Because of bow damage caused by collisions, which is then repaired, changes the shape fo the bow, which then consequrently impacts the J measurements.
The technical committee is working to standardize the process and bring the fleet into compliance.
The interesting backstory of this Worlds, is the evaluation fo the Pentex vs. the Aramid fiber sails. We’ve seem multiple designs with different materials from North, Quantum, Ulman and Z sails. The top 3 boats at the NOODs, were using Aramid sails (Quantum 1st and 2nd/3rd were North. Aramid sails took 7 out of the top 10 places.
In our experience for speed testing in lighter wind ranges, Pentex had equal performance.
We’re taking our new sails out of the bag tomorrow for the Worlds practice race after using our 2-year-old sails up till now. We will be using North San Diego GP7 Genoa, KW1 Jib, AP 2 Main and our new FR2 Spinnaker.
Hi TMC–go fast! I sent an email to Mark Fiegel at Quantum Sails regarding sponsorship of the Nationals so if you see him, chat him up.