Team FUN’s road to the J24 Worlds 2006 

18 months ago Alyn Stevenson and Peter Stevens decided to join forces to qualify for the J24 world championships 2006 to be held in Melbourne Australia. 

Sailing Sledgehammer AUS108 the team started to travel interstate to chase the competition and gain experience in larger fleets. 

The team traveled to NSW and Wa as preparation for the 2005 Nationals.

Sledgehammer finished 14^th at the Nationals and as first S.A. boat qualified for the Australian team for 2006.

After the Nationals we analyised our weak areas and set about eliminating them one at a time. Our first Interstate regatta after the Nationals saw a dramatic improvement in performance in Sydney with more speed and high pointing. 

As part of our preparation we decided to rebuild Sledgehammer and rename the boat “FUN” and form Fun Yacht Racing.

During the winter the boat was stripped and the hull and keel faired ready for re gelcoating. At time of writing this article we have put 300 hours into the boat and expect another 200 to complete FUN.

A special thanks must go to Brett Young for his support in providing a place to rebuild the boat. 

During the winter ours plans changed as we qualified for the 2005 worlds in the UK as 7^th ranked Australian. Although our budget didn’t allow us to go it was decided we needed to go and find out all about the International competition and gain some hard racing prior to 2006. 

The 2005 J24 UK Nationals and 2005 J24 Worlds 

Having now decided to go to England we needed some financial support for the project and this was provided by    and also

J24 South Australia were also very generous in paying our nomination fees.

To keep costs down and make the project viable we joined with a local team out of Plymouth sailing JU JU.  

The trip got off to an unusual start with Alyn having to unpack a bag at every stop . Packing inflatable life – jackets with canisters is a no no. 

PLYMOUTH

Arriving at Heathrow, we made our way to Plymouth to spend four days working on JU JU and to go sailing with the local team Sue Proudfoot – Bow , Ian Parkinson – mast and David Stone – tactician. 

After having a sail on day one the boat was lifted out on day 2. After an hour the yellow and brown hull was transformed into a brilliant white hull much to the amazement of the locals. The O&H people did pay us a prompt visit to see what we were using, but we assure them it was safe and we bought it at the local chandler. 

We quickly learned that they are very strict at marinas with what is allowed to be used.

Trying to buy Gel coat in the UK is almost impossible but we managed to secure it from a local builder for a few beers. Peter then worked for the next 2 days tidying up the hull while checked the mast. 

Experience has taught us to check sheaves as they are always problem spots on any J mast. Ju Ju was no eaxception with all the sheaves shot and the Genoa sheaves totally broken. We need to have the sheave remanufactured by the local spar maker prior to leaving Plymouth.  

Ju Ju was a 1994 built Italian boat weighing the minimum of 1270kgs and certainly was a quick boat. The boat was the best out of Plymouth but had a poor deck layout for Regatta racing and this was later to cost us many places. 

We were both fascinated by Plymouth and its history and enjoyed staying in the historical docks precint particularly at night.. 

Day 5 and we made our way to Portland Harbour the new UK Olympic venue which was to be our home base for the UK Nationals. On arriving we met the Virgin Islands team (who went on to win the worlds) and both teams started to do full keel fairing jobs on the charter boats.

Peter used Gel coat and talc and did a magnificent job whilst the Virgin Islands team used expoxy with a professional doing the keel. Unfortunately for the Virgin Islands team the expoxy would not  go off despite us supplying a tarp to wrap around the keel and them pumping hot air into the bag.

The next day they had to miss the first 2 races and redid the keel with gel coat.

 The start of the Nationals

Day 1 : with 43 boats in the British Nationals we where looking forward to an improvement on our effort at the Aussie Nationals.

Race 1 :JU JU had 2 great starts, with two general  recalls, and we started for the 3rd time under black flag ,we looked good but got into irons and stated 10 boats lengths behind the entire fleet. Due to one of our targets of speed and pointing we gradually sailed through the fleet to tenth.

Race 2 : We made a good start and we maintained 14th spot most of the race. We had sensational pointing and equal speed upwind, but gear failure contributed to some disasters  late in  the race. We lost 2 halyards on the last run  and when we finally retrieved one we could not hoist the Genoa fully.

We eventually finished 17th but were disappointed as a boat we were in front of for most of the race finished 9th. The biggest lesson of day 1 was that we were quick and could outpoint the fleet with speed.

Race 3 was delayed for several hours with the breeze continually moving around. We eventually had a poor start and struggled to finish 28th.

Race 4 was sailed in 5knts of breeze and we had a great start but struggled  for power all race, however some good work by Peter and David our tactician got us up to 18th. We were baffled by the lack of speed and after rechecking the rig realized the rig was incorrect for the conditions.

Race Day 3: With a more determined effort the team put in a great performance finishing 11 - 7 -10. Our starts were excellent and we must have been close to OCS in all races. We rounded the top mark in each race in 4th or 5th position but our foredeck work was not good enough for this standard of competition.

We revelled in the 17 - 20 knots and certainly  were quick downwind and were as good all round the course as any team. The main difference is concentration for the entire race. Our best race could have been 4th but we messed up the finish by not going all the way to the committee boat end and dropped 3 spots by half a boat length.

Race Day 4 : Sailed in 12knots we made a good start towards the pin end which was favoured by 11 degrees. Despite our reasonable start we paid the price of not blasting out of the line and eventually had to do a few tacks to clear the air.

We went left and sailed into less pressure while the USA team only 50 metres to windward tacked and worked the middle of the course. At the top mark USA led with a good margin and we rounded with 20 others at the same time.

We moved up and down the fleet during the race and eventually finished 19th for the race and equal 13th for the series.

We now started the process of replacing all sheets halyards and moving a few systems to make it easier for all.

The team who had not sailed together before did a great job but need ed a bit of polish on  technique.

Sue, having moved from her normal helming position did a great job on the Bow and we had no problems during the entire regatta but it just needed to be quicker.

Ian on mast was giving the important task of weight control downwind ,something they hadn't used before and it certainly helped our downwind speed.

David Stone our tactician was sensational and got it right almost all the time. I was amazed at his predictions at what the breeze would do and when.

Peter was his normal HARD AT IT and trimmed well all regatta, and with replacement of some gear will find the job easier for the worlds. The Plymouth fleet, JU JU's home club couldn't believe what Peter had done with the boat, and SUE and Ian were dreading what was about to be done with a new keel job on the program.

Alyn on the helm kept out of trouble for the entire regatta and we only had one crash tack during the series. We focused on ducking with early planning .

In summary we were extremely competitive but have to learn to change gears a lot quicker as this cost us 5 or 6 places in every race. As a preparation for the 2006 Australian Worlds we are on track as our performance is substantially better than last years Nationals.

Back to our boat yard to prepare the boat for the Worlds.

The Japanese Team won the regatta sailing their local boat Siesta by sailing consistent and keeping out of trouble, with Brazil in second place. The USA Virgin Islands team won 3 races but due to the epoxy on a keel fairing job not curing in time missed the first race day. This USA team will be a force for the Worlds.

THE TORTURE SESSION

4 DAYS OF MEASURING for the Worlds( Peter)

After packing the boat up from the nationals, we have focused on world mode.

Alyn spent monday as part of the measuring team and I spent the day working on re-fairing the Keel. We loaded it up with 4 coats of Gel coat and left for the night to return the next days to finish off.

After a full day of sanding I finally had the keel finished to my satisfaction.

Cool Stuff we were happy and plugged Ju- Ju into measuring mode.

Boat Weight - OK , Keel Check - Failed. Rudder OK.

Bloody hell I think as we have a low on the section 4 template. - ok we have to build it up 1 mm each side, and the trailing edge is too thin and has to be built up 2mm more in thickness.

Out comes the poly filler and we get to work. after a couple of hours we are ready to go again.

This time - FAIL . We pass on the chords but the trailing edge is still too thin.

Its time to hit the bog again and I need to go out and borrow some filler which I find from some of our pommy mates.

This time I make a template and get it right. We call over the Italian measurer and we pass.

We have worked hard all day to get the keel to pass. BELLA BELLA. One job off the list.

The Italian measurer comes over and checks and says finito !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have passed and share a joke. Hi 5's all around.

Tomorrow Thursday is rig Day. We are confident we will pass with no problems.

We haul the boat in to the measuring shed and unload the rig.

We weigh the spinnaker Pole which is carbon and guess what its a kilo under weight. I go and scrounge some lead again from our mates and proceed to fix the pole.

Meanwhile Alyn is looking after the rig measuring process.

Now the Rig Measuring

Well the hard part was supposed to be over and we rocked up to the measurers only to have 2 black bands fail. That was easy.

Out the yard we go the mast is too short the forestay to long, the safety rails to loose, the boom black band in correct.

Hell I just want to go sailing. Anyone in South Aus that reckons I was a hard measurer has not seen anything.

After 4 days only 5 boats, one being ours had passed through measuring.

We are excited as we found the problem with the mast we couldn't locate during the Nationals. Someone had put a 10mm spacer under the mast making the mast to long and the forestay too tight.

The Worlds 2005

Our regatta couldn't have got off to a worse start with a penalty in the first race. Serco Defence took a major dive to clear a boat and forced JU JU to infringe another competitor and we had a yellow flag penalty.

The second day of racing saw us struggle off the start line and whilst we were close, its amazing that 40 boats go around the top mark within 30 seconds. Race 2,3 and 4 were sailed in 5 to 10knots and whilst we had great boat speed and pointing we lacked big regatta experience.

We were in the top of the fleet early in the race but would lose 10 places on the approaches to the windward mark. All the tactics books don't really tell you how its happens, but we learned quickly that you have to overlay the starboard approach or you just get buried in dirty air.

Day 3: We reviewed what we were doing and discussed our tactics for starting and approaching the top mark. Our leeward rounding's were great and we gained plenty by dropping kite early and going wide then in tight.

With more breeze 15knots we had great starts and were better around the top marks, and showed fantastic improvement around the course. Our results continued to improve 56, 45, 38, 33, 28 , 20,19 as we gained experience in close situations.

Day 4 and 5 blew 25 to 30 knots and poor deck layout cost us plenty.

What a start. We waited all week for the breeze and 3 mins before the start we blew the vang apart. Despite this we made temporary repairs which failed several times during the race

Sailing with no pole downhaul  (tweekers only) we had plenty of moments downwind and couldn't jibe quickly and this certainly limited our tactical opportunities. Out starting was getting aggressive and we would stay behind the line and plan for a hole in the line. We then powered into the hole at full speed. We certainly learned if you don't get off that line your history (even half a boat length away is disastrous).

Well we came away with 2 19's that could easily have been 10's if not for losing spots downwind and the vang exploding, but were happy with our upwind performance.

The last Race saw us blast off the start line with a perfect start and after a minute we looked great but a loss of concentration and hitting one bad wave allowed the Argentineans to sail over the top of us.

We still managed to be 12th around the top mark and hold onto this for the next 2 legs, but blew our race when hit by a gust when rounding the top mark for the second time. We hit the mark and dropped 10 places after doing a penalty and sailing a poor last leg.

Summary: We got what we came for, and that was to get big regatta experience. We have made fantastic progress since our Nationals and were as quick as most boats on the course. We know we have to have a "class" crew for Melbourne to allow us more tactical power around the course.

Certainly we learned quickly about sailing in a Worlds and changed our approaches to the top mark. One area we have to practice is sailing very close to other boats for long periods .

The layout of our boat will be different to what it has been to optimize it for big regattas. A new boom, rudder, winches, stanchions, and total refit will see FUN properly prepared for our next campaign.

The Australian team had a good regatta with Sean Kirkjiaan NSW 4th, Doug Mcgain 16th, Sean Wallis WA 23rd Alyn Stevenson 29th.

Sean Wallis was presented a special prize for travelling the most miles to get to regatta.

A special thank you must go to Peter Stevens for the magnificent job on JU JU, Peter did a full keel and hull job on the boat and impressed even the experts with the finish.

I'll finish by congratulating the Virgin Islands team for winning the Worlds they were great. This team were the professionals arriving weeks early, totally refitting and re fairing the boat. There preparation was meticulous and the race preparation was thorough and they were good blokes as well.