Calling all PHRF J/Boat owners!

BoomerangJ · May 23, 2013, 02:54:44 PM

Over the last couple of years it seems like the J/Boat OD classes (J/22, J/24, J/70, J/80, J/105, and J/109) have been hanging in there and actually growing! Where are the other J/boat owners? There are a number of J/s such as J/27, J/29, J/30, J/92, J/40, J/44, J/120, and J/122's that all of us would like to see participate more in the Rum Races, Shoe, GBCA Performance Cup, Texas Week, J/Fest Southwest and others.

I do not even have a complete list of folks to pester! Can all of you help me flush out the various J/Boat owners and provide contact information? I'd like to get them on a mailing list and see what we can do to help get the participation up in our regatta's.

Love to also hear any ideas? Thoughts on courses? etc. Whatever we can do to make the fun quotient high enough to get them out!

Looking forward to this dialog!

Scott

sailfastliveslow · May 24, 2013, 08:41:50 PM

Excellent idea. Just put them into the appropriate PHRF class (B).

BoomerangJ · May 25, 2013, 11:02:23 AM

Heard from Bryan Colby yesterday. He owns the J/27 "Fast Chicken". Plans on ramping up his race program and is going to up his skill set through race instruction. Good Stuff! Plans on participating in the local events. We need more of this!!! Way to go Bryan! Looking forward to watching your progression.

STuma · May 27, 2013, 07:46:32 AM

Scott,

I think we need to go "old school" here; run larger triangle windward/leewards to gets them out. An idea that was told to me was run the spinnaker fleet on a "rum race" triangle and add an extra windward/leeward. For the non-spin; run them to "J", high-range, #2 and then a windward/leeward. Run the club-handicap group on the same course SE non-spin, or set a tetrahedron 3/4 the way to "J" and have them goto that mark.

We need to remember many of the people that don't race much, or at all, don't have the boats set up like the competitive non-spin boats do; whisker poles, newer sails, or a racing bottom. It gets very frustrating to try to compete when you know you have no chance at all. Also, it is hard to justify spending $8k on faster sails, about $500 on a pole and a few more thousand on another bottom job.

I think, and will probably get blasted for this, we need to focus more on cruising style courses, large Gold Cup, to get families and new people out. Also, it will give the rest of us something different and exciting. Just a thought from what I have heard from beginners, families and some experienced racers.

sailfastliveslow · May 27, 2013, 08:02:30 AM

B FL

Christopher · May 27, 2013, 08:32:05 AM

All of the clubs have been offering distance courses around government marks and dropped tetrahedrons in each of their regattas. HYC and LYC set up quadrangle courses; GBCA uses triangles and reach/reach or W/L involving J, H & E. For the Spring Regatta, we ran the distance course around the Rum Race course one day and then around the Icicle course the other day. There is not a lot of turnout for these. Each year there are fewer and fewer boats. We've even tried discounted registration fee for the distance course class, since they generally get half as many races or RC support; but, just as much after race party.
These are still fun courses as there have been some of the "race" boats opt to run them instead of the W/L due to insufficient crew to compete in the W/L, or insufficient number of boats to form a class in the W/L.

GETEMOUT!! Even if it doesn't have a "J" on it.

BoomerangJ · May 27, 2013, 09:31:30 AM

Chris and Scott-I Agree! I think easier courses that are fun to race will help. Chris-I hear ya that there might be less and less participation. We have to pitch in and work harder on that. I have the e-mails and send a newsletter out to J owners-but want all boats to go race. I just don't have any marketing stuff going out to the others-however anyone is invited to subscribe to our newsletter and we do promote all regatta's around the SW in it.

My goal is to get the owners out that aren't racing OD to build up the PHRF classes. Probably need PHRF committee members to weigh in and help out.

Hamburger No 1 · June 02, 2013, 07:36:22 PM

Everyone contributing to this string is a hard core racer. Let's hear from those who we're talking about! What will it take for you to bring your boat to the party? All the clubs want to promote broadening the fun and are ready to change things up to get that accomplished. We're always open to new ideas! Let's hear it!