Rough rounding.

[deeman]

Just came to say - great video!! As a guy who just started to crew for a Fall series it was a fantastic video to show how all the members of the crew handle their respective tasks. I must have watched it 20 times.

I see your YouTube channel has good stuff too - but do you have more race videos? I liked the still shots edited in a series, but the camera view and system you have setup is awesome for capturing great video!! Can ya post some more?

[Tweegs]

Thanks, I appreciate that!
My wife does all of the editing, she has a passion for it.

Don’t use us as an example of fine seamanship during a race though, we’re still trying to get the hang of it and use the video as a training aid, there’s a lot of what-not-to-do’s in those videos.

This is the camera we use, mounted to the backstay:
GoPro Products - Record & Share Your Most Memorable Moments
Small and has a waterproof case, great little camera.

These aren’t race videos, just some the wife put together:
Just Sailing - YouTube
End of the Season - YouTube

We have more footage of our races, but the wife hasn’t done anything with them yet.

Here is a video from one of our club boats, Snake Oil, a J105.
This boat and crew are among the top performers in our race series.
Since the video is up on youtube and made public, I’m sure they won’t mind me sharing it here:

J105 Snake Oil Sailing on Lake St Clair Michigan in heavy air - YouTube

The spinnaker broach is awesome!

[paulk]

lots going on here. As far as the rounding... you say that the J/30 had an overlap at the outset. You were obviously on the outside. If the overlap existed when you were 3 boatlengths from the mark, then you needed to give him room to roiund the mark in a seamanlike manner, based on the conditions present at the time. It looks like you did, so there's no harm, no foul. Since the course to the next mark is a reach, cutting inside the J/30 might not have been a good idea, even if you'd been able to. In any case, you then proceed to pass everything in sight. Nothing wrong with that!

[Tweegs]

Over a couple of beers, we found out exactly what happened on that rounding.

The first boat to round had a new guy on the foredeck. Because we were in heavy air, their intent was to reef the main at the rounding, but the halyard fouled and they stalled, which set up a chain reaction.

The skipper of the J boat started to round but had nowhere to go. He knew if rounded and tried to go windward of the first boat, he’d broach. He held course a few extra seconds to round and pass leeward of the stalled boat. Since his attention was focused on avoiding the stalled boat, he didn’t realize we had made the turn, were powered up, and hard charging for that same spot of water.


My bowman, who is also new, didn’t properly asses the unfolding calamity ahead and call it back to the cockpit, where the rest of us were focused on sail trim (and should have also been watching ahead).

The skipper of the J boat, after seeing us, decided he could survive a broach much better than a broadside hit from a 10 ton boat, and threw the tiller over. We eased sails and fell off.

Close, but no harm, no foul, no protest.