How Class Rules impact participation

It is a healthy exercise to consider what impacts participation in the sport, and Scuttlebutt found the jib in-haul system on the J/70 Class boat to be an adjustment with marginal benefit that makes the boat harder to sail across the fleet. John Baxter from North Sails adds to the discussion:

While in-hauling non-overlapping jibs is nothing new, the method of in-hauling on boats like the J/70, J/105, and others is flawed. As a result, the gap in these classes continues to widen as it becomes more and more difficult for good club-level teams to keep up.

Why in-haul on non-overlapping jib boats?
• The jib track is often too far outboard, mostly due to the cabin top arrangement, which creates a wide sheeting angle. In some boats, this angle is wider than on boats with an overlapping genoa.
• Each boat has a desirable sheeting angle, and if needed, tightening the sheeting angle can help, for example, to power the boat up out of a tack sooner and help point higher into the wind.

The issue is not so much about jib in-hauling, but how it is being done. Due to Class Rules not allowing a proper in-haul system, the weather jib sheet is being used, which is a flawed approach that requires a more skilled and knowledgeable crew.

By using the weather sheet for jib in-hauling, you not only pull the jib clew inboard but also forward, and this makes the jib foot too full. To compensate for this, the jib lead must be further aft than normal, but this can be slow too.

For example, when top crews come out of a tack, the weather sheet is pre-tensioned to the in-haul position before the primary sheet is made. If you miss this step, you come out of the tack on a jib lead that is too far aft for acceleration.

Being skilled at adjusting both sheets for jib trim, particularly during a tack, is a big advantage which the higher skilled crews benefit massively from, and it has become a case of the rich getting richer. While there are some really good Corinthian teams that have mastered this, it requires significant repetition to get the edge.

What I find interesting is a number of years ago, the J/109 Class modified their Class Rules to allow a proper jib in-haul system to be installed after a few boats came up with a clever way around the Class Rule without adding any hardware. The Class was quick to realize the benefits and made a change to allow a proper jib in-haul system.

This was not an expensive upgrade, and the systems are all very similar. The result was better racing as now all the boats could achieve the desired benefits without needing extremely skilled trimmers. It actually simplified in-hauling so that it was easy to do, and more importantly, easy for “regular crews” to understand, without having to teach bad habits.

As a result, the competitors were all able to benefit equally from this upgrade, making the boats easier to sail in light and heavy winds which improved overall performance across the fleet.

The magic formula, which Scuttlebutt referred to, is still there in that sailing the same boats against each other is a great experience. However, what gets forgotten is how to keep the competition as equal as possible.

The advantages of jib in-hauling are well known, and if allowed, it is necessary for any team to do it easily. That will tighten the racing up and hopefully make it more compelling for new people to give it a go and encourage others to continue sailing.