J-70 gets a work out at Key West Race Week

by Sail-World on 21 Jan 2015 Top US magazine Sailing World's editor Dave Reed describes his experience racing the J-70 at Key West Race Week. The J-70 class has attracted a fleet of 74 boats racing in two divisions.

The J/70 has this sensation when it happens, as if the boat gets lighter, and it just sort wiggles upwind. I remember this feeling well from a few years back when sailing with Tim Healy at the first Key West Race Week for the J/70 class. Healy is a magician with the boat, there’s no doubt about it, and he had this technique down. On Gregg-Earl’s Muse, we can only hope to have a bit of his speed voodoo this week.

Of course, the other part of the squeeze is the ease, and in my role as the mainsheet trimmer for Gregg-Earl for the week, after a day of practice I now know my shoulders will be getting their daily workout. Crossfit meets sailing.

The magic, says my crewmate Stuart Johnstone, is to work the main with a vengeance: big dumps in puffs to keep the boat at 20 degrees of heel, followed instantaneously by big, aggressive tugs on the sheet to load up the sails again. I was finessing my adjustments, and that’s not how it’s done on the 70. With a slow ease, the boat is instantly heeled and drifting sideways. No finesse. Work it, Johnstone reminds me.

I got it: Big ease. Grunt it in to grab the power of the puff.
In. Out. In. Out. In. Out. In.
'Nice. That’s it. You got it.'
OK, I can feel it now. I’ve got the throttle in my hand this week, so it’s going to be full focus, full time, and I’m looking forward to it.

It’s the next best thing to driving, right? Gregg Earl, one of the best Corinthian skippers in the class since its inception, is also the class’s first North American championship, and as a skilled skipper to begin with, she’s spent the last few years honing starts, communication, and understanding the boat’s 'modes.'

The J/70 is hypersensitive to being in the right mode downwind: planning versus displacement, and on our first day’s practice, we focus on the subtleties between the two: shifting weight by inches, small adjustments in trim, and being alert to not getting stuck in either one too long.

So that’s what we worked on during a few hours of practice on a beautiful, sunny, 10-knot day off Key West. With Stuart Johnstone’s lead we orchestrated the maneuvers at the front of the boat with our forward crew, Patrick Powell, and we began to develop the groove between Gregg-Earl and myself. It was a quick and productive three-hour practice with a long sail back to the harbor, which is an excellent time to get to know each other, share a few laughs, and begin what can be a long and fruitful week of racing.

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