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Old 02-02-2002
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Jeff_H Jeff_H is offline
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J120 Crew Responsibilities

That is a huge crew for a J-120. Normally, I would expect seven or eight on a boat that size and with an assymetrical chute some would be simply rail meat.

From the bow you would have a foredeck person, mast person, pit, two jib and spin trimmers, mainsail trimmer and helmsman. You might carry a couple people for rail meat and they can help on drops.

Their roles are as follows:
Foredeck person: Calls the line on statrs, prepares sails for raise, runs foot of chute aft on jibes, goes below and stuffs the chute on drops. (Should be light and strong.)

Mast person: Jumps halyards, makes sure that old sheet is running free on jibes, gather chute on drops, sometimes plays vang.

Pit: makes Halyard, vang, outhaul, adjustments, feeds out halyards on drops, watches the instruments and tracks lifts and headers calling out wind and boat speed chances, as well as, lifts or headers of more than a few degrees. The pit person does general housekeeping of all line passing over the house.

Two jib and spin trimmers: They alternate jobs depending on tack, every other tack they trim jib sheets, adjust jib sheet leads, call jib halyard tension, the ''lazy trimmer'' extends the pole and retracts the jib on a leeward rounding. Down wind the working trimmer moves forward out of the cockpit and the lazy trimmer does housekeeping and grinds the sheet winch in heavy air. The trimmer calls wind pressure and should talk the helmsman up or down. On beats the trimmer is the furthest to leeward and so calls crossing boats coming from leeward. One of the trimmers often act as ''deck captain'' calling out the type of douse or anything special that needs to happen to prep for a raise of douse and act as a second set of eyes to make sure that things are run properly and ready to go for the next raise, drop, tack or jibe.

Mainsail trimmer: Adjusts the mainsail and traveller, calls main halyard, cunningham and outhaul tension, is often the tactician or at the least funnels info coming back from other sources to the helmsman. If there is a remote backstay adjuster (ideal), the mainsheet trimmer adjusts the backstay, otherwise he calls backstay adjustments.


Helmsman: steers, makes final calls when there is conflicting information coming aft. With transom mounted backstay adjusters the helmsman adjusts the backstay tension. The helmsman''s primary focus should be on the sails and immeadiate wave action, or a compass course or marker in point to point racing.

Rail meat: Rail meat are responsible for monitoring and adjusting heel angles. They keep their eyes out on the course and call relative headings, boats coming in from windward, trends and wind patterns. They call larger waves from ahead on a beat or from astern on a run. During tacks with they help roll the boat and help make sure lines run free. In light winds they help support sheets reducing weight on the clew of the sails. The help gather chutes on douses. With ''euro'' style mainsheets they jump the mainsheet at leeward mark roundings. They may also help grind the sheets during roundings. They will also watch for lanes let the mainsheet trimmer or tactician know when there are good lanes to dig back in. They also block spray for the afterguard so big heavy people are preferable 8^).

120''s are neat boats-
Good luck out there,

Jeff
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