Racing success / perrformance

[sy_Anniina]

Motivated by our first real coastal/offshore race (55NM Helsinki-Tallinn-Helsinki) I would like to open a thread about performance of our family cruisers.

I was positively surprised by our standing (12/19) in double-handed class, IMO the fastest of "family cruisers", the majority of 11 boats faster than us were First 31.7s, J-class, Salonas & equivalent.

We even managed to win a Hanse 370 with 100m2 gennaker as well as a First 47.7 (although they didn't have downwind sails).

Where we struggled the most (compared to others) was close-hauled upwind legs with steep 1.5m chop & 10-12m/s wind, while we were surprised that our relatively heavy cruiser managed to pass a couple of boats on downwind leg in light airs (2-5m/s).

I would be more than happy to learn from your racing experience, especially hints for upwind performance on 2000ish J&J designs. No - we are not transforming into pure racing, but it seems to be a nice add-on to recreational cruising .

BR,

Tommi
s/y Anniina
Bavaria 40 AC 2001 J&J

[elias]

Hi !
Great news ! Us we are also in the process of an ORC Club certificate to race in our local club . Our J & J 44 needs first a lot of unloading to be competitive. I believe is a wonderful experience and you learn a lot about the sailing performance of your yacht , actually you are racing against your theoretical perfect self with these handicap systems like ORC

[sy_Anniina]

Ours was also effectively an ORC Club race, with some local rule modifications.

We emptied water tanks, but did not go through the trouble of relocating anchors (2) & chain(1 x 50m) to midships, a procedure I saw some competitors performing pre-race.

Surprisingly, we saw ~>0,5kn difference in close reaching when the crew ( 2 of us ) were on windward coaming, rather than centerline behind helm and leeward at sheet winch.

BR,

Tommi
s/y Anniina