First Regatta | TheaterFire

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Playful_Pen_9055@reddit

If there are other competitive J/24s at your club start a testing program with them. Set both boats up exactly the same, change one thing on one boat, line up on the water and see what’s fast. The best thing you can do is be confident in tuning your boat for the conditions. Also, prepare yourself for mayhem on the start line and mark rounding. You need to be very confident in your knowledge of the RRS and class rules.

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Mysterious_Research2@reddit

These should help with tatical considerations. The best boats in any fleet will have a plan on where they want to go.

Things that may help form a tatical plan:

Find any venue guides such as these: [https://www.sailjuice.com/categories/venue-guides]
Read race reports from the venue, Do they state what way the lead boats went? or what impacted the races.
Find local wind reports. any live wind direction and speed data, Does the wind typically follow a pattern, have a sea-breeze or thermal influence.
Look for any gps tracking for previuous regattas at the venue, Study which way the winners went, But understand why in relation to the shifts.
Study charts of the race area, try looking at: https://www.c-map.com/chartexplorer/

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wrongwayup@reddit

I would try and do a couple away regattas beforehand. On-the-water practice and fitness is one thing and you’ll get lots of good advice on that. But planning and logistics matter too. You want to eliminate as much of the “home team advantage” that other boats will have, namely so at setup and tear down, quickly adapting to local conditions, even eating/sleeping properly. Are Charleston Race Week or Florida Midwinters possibilities for you?

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fastautomation@reddit

There is no better preparation other than time on the water. While a J24 can beat you up, it is not a physically demanding boat so endurance isn't really an issue other than sailing multiple races for multiple days in a row. That is more mental than physical.

For your first away regatta, be prepared for a lot of things to be very different than your local club, especially if not a lot of folks travel from your club.

Show up at least one day before the regatta and get some sailing in with your entire crew. Get 3-4 hours at the very minimum. Since this is your first travel, plan to arrive 2 days prior. Setup first day. Practice day before.
Make sure your J is legal. Read every line of the class rules. The required and optional equipment is very specific and you cannot race if you don't meet it to the letter.
Race management: expect very strict adherence to the racing rules, and race committee management. Read past J24 N/A sailing instructions, and even find some from the host club. Know all of this before you leave the dock and don't expect to ask the RC any questions or get any answers from competitors on the water. Know the start sequence, sounds, flags and marks (both ends of start, and any marks and offsets).
Competition level: If you don't have a competitive fleet of folks that travel in your club, expect to be shocked by how fast you fall behind. Expect competitors to be ruthless in the start sequence and at mark roundings. Local weds night racing is usually polite to a fault. At a N/As, you are a threat to everyone's point total, especially the top sailors. Don't even think about port starting, or barging in at the committee boat end.
Know the rules, especially downwind entry to mark roundings and finish. Entering the leeward gate with 30 other boats dowsing spinnakers is not the time to wonder about who has rights.
Be prepared for sailing regardless of weather. There is usually no upper wind limit or rain that will postpone a N/As. If it is beyond your ability, just sit out the race rather than endangering others.

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spooky-funk@reddit

This is excellent advice!

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Weak-Beautiful5918@reddit

Good stuff

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jaxn@reddit

I learned a lot from watching boats just walk away from us at the start at my first large travel regatta.

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Saltyoldseadog55@reddit

prepare?

sail the boat daily. any and every condition. tack and gybe until it's automatic. sail changes so it's butter.

when i raced cats we trained after work til sunset every day. we used 2 cans and did a figure 8 around them. one tack, one gybe. for hours. until we could do them standing on our heads with our eyes closed.

that's plenty of exercise, and it's muscle specific.

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ncbluetj@reddit

Practice with your crew as much as possible. Get your spinnaker sets and douses to be as smooth and seamless as you can. Just get to where your crew works like a well-oiled machine.

Clean your bottom.

When you get there, try to identify the fastest boats on the course as early as possible. Pick one and cover him like white on rice. Match his every move as closely as you can. This is the technique that has always served me best when competing against others of unknown (and often superior) skill level and experience.

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PelagicSojourner@reddit

That stick with the best boat is great advice. I did Cowes Week last year, and our Skipper and helm would not do this. We started well enough but ended up in the bottom half at the end of the week. It was very dispiriting, we'd traveled a long way as an experienced crew, and watching these guys put us OCS due to not watching the tide was infuriating. Meanwhile, the best boat had it judged to absolute perfection. If we had just followed them we were good enough to come maybe 2nd or 3rd, instead we came 7th I think.

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CulpablyRedundant@reddit

Looks like they're in Houston at HYC next year.

Top TX boats, and probably will be up there at the NA's as well, are: LOL and Bad Moon.

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Scratched_Nalgene@reddit

Be prepared to get DFL in the event. Not saying don’t go but you might be surprised how much better the average traveling sailor is than your local beer can guy

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nogoodalternatives@reddit

I like to bring energy chews and keep them in my pockets and snack between races. Low blood sugar = mistakes and you do not want to be the one to make a silly mistake.

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drroop@reddit

"Get a hair cut, and get a real job. "

If you work (real work, like force over distance) for a living, and are work hardened, that might be the kind of stamina you need. Being able to go all day, each day.

It's like if on Wednesday, after you cross the line and douse the chute, you're back in sequence for the start. x4.

There might be something said for travelling on Thursday. First night in a new spot, you're inclined not to sleep well. Do your running around after work Thursday, get there get some troublesome sleep. The Friday morning, splash, run to the store to get your wind vane, or the numbers for your new sail, go for a sail, make sure everything works, you have everything while there is still time to get it.

Then help your competitors splash as they arrive, build some good will, check them out, make some friends.

"Clean your act up like your big brother Bob" J24 have a reputation as a boozy bunch even among sailors which is saying a lot. Buy the next round, but have water for yourself. (providing you've already weighed in) Not being hungover, esp. Saturday morning, is going to give you an edge. Saturday morning, you should be getting to that line bright eyed and bushy tailed, bored with waiting for the start rather than hung over and frantic.

Youtube videos from the backstay cameras of J24 regattas are some of the best sailing videos out there. No commentary, just watching a team work smoothly. J24 are particular beasts, a lot of nuance in the little things. Might pick up some ideas from watching other guys like that. Maybe even you get an idea of how your competitors do it from their youtubes, if they'll avoid the collision or not etc.

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PossiblyBefuddled@reddit

J/24 crews are limited to 400kg total, and there will be a weigh-in. If you're crew, let your skipper know your accurate weight and then don't lose or gain! In windy conditions, it's good to be close to the max, but if you go over, someone will be left at the dock.

Definitely learn the Racing Rules of Sailing. You'll be better crew if you know them. Pay a lot of attention to the prep flags, especially the ones that are never pulled out for Wednesday races. If there are a lot of boats on the line, there may be a general recall, for example, instead of individual recalls. The more eyes looking out for those the better. Also learn how the Race Committee signals changes in the course - again, that doesn't happen on Wednesdays, but it's likely to happen at nationals.

Have fun! I've never competed at a national, but I've volunteered at a couple, including one J/24 event, and they're loads of fun. It's definitely an opportunity to level up your skills.

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3-2-1_liftoff@reddit

The signaling for course or mark changes is key, and it is important in light air as well as in heavy air. And keep your eyes wide open!
Mostly, though, have fun. Big races are a gas, you and your crew will pick up a huge amount just by osmosis, and if you’re anything like us (on Tripp 26) you’ll come away with a few new rail bites, hiking bruises, and a lot of laughs and stories.

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BrendanIrish@reddit

It totally depends on what position you're going to have on the boat. J24s are certainly physically demanding boats in strong winds. I've crewed (sheeter) on one for 15 years and you need to be in decent shape for those windy days.

There are so many 'it depends' factors that your question is tough to answer correctly.

Whatever the case, enjoy your first regatta and hopefully you'll be back for many more. They're a great boat to sail on and the class usually attracts top class sailors wherever in the world you sail (on) one.

Good luck!

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Fred_Derf_Jnr@reddit

Make sure you calibrate all of the rigging beforehand and walk through the derigging/rigging process, writing checklists if unsure. Nothing worse than arriving to realise you have left a sail/spar at home!

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LameBMX@reddit

consume alcohol. It's probably a good idea to get that tolerance built up higher than you are thinking. them cats can drink, and the booze will be flowing. it's almost like they are using hangovers to weed out the competition hours before the start sequence.

source, trust me bro

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Blue_foot@reddit

What are you paying for vs crew?

Some skippers pay room and some meals. Some expect that from the crew. Discuss with your team. You probably have some idea of their finances.

You are not gonna win. Make conservative starts, barging will get you pushed over early.

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Bmkrocky@reddit

you will be going up against people who have been traveling to national and regional races for years so prepare yourself for going up against far superior racers - so practice before and try to get everything smooth and then enjoy the day or days - also realize in those regattas you will be out a long time so prepare for that level of exertion.

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Mehfisto666@reddit

Make sure you have down super good colregs and regatta rules for right of way at sea. I've never raced but the though of being so close to so may other boats unsettles me. I've always only been solo sailing though so i normally have to handle everything myself

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Tommy-Schlaaang@reddit

Assumptions but expect much higher level of competition obviously and many more boats. When I’m in regattas with people that are much better than me (which is everytime…) I don’t try to win the start sometimes. I’ll take 2nd row speed w/ speed d at the line where I want to be.