When it comes to boat speed smarttune eliminates one variable
by Lou Johnson 30 Jul 2020 07:24 PDT

Juno enjoying the conditions during the JOG Great Escape © Christopher Daniel
We are back racing, perhaps not as we had planned, but starting guns are sounding and yachts are back competing. Short-handed sailing is having a resurgence, as households and crew bubbles take to the water. One owner who is making the most of this time is Christopher Daniel and his J/122e Juno.
In 'normal' times, Juno would compete with a crew of 10, however, currently they are sailing four up with a focus on getting out on the water and working on their boat set up with a view to competing in the Rolex Fastnet Race 2021.
Juno, an early adopter of smarttune, is starting to gain more rig data during sail trials and local JOG racing in the Solent. Christopher explains how there is a steep learning curve, as they now have access to data they have never had before. With the help of David Swete and Pete Redmond of North Sails, he is converting their visual and gut feel sailing method for their rig settings into quantifiable and repeatable data.
"Sailing to the polars is about the rig, trim and helm," comments Christopher Daniel. "With smarttune our rig settings will be much more accurate, and we can replicate them rather than going on gut feel. If we know the rig is right, any discrepancies in actual speed to our polars can only be down to our trim or helm. smarttune has eliminated one variable."
Juno competed in the Great Escape hosted by JOG, where the crew finished third in IRC Class 1.
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