Boat preparations

Focusing on boat preparations, I met with Tim - very likely our best expert of J/80 and her maintenance. Thanks Tim for your time - and especially for coming by bike, in the worst mid-day heat!

We discussed so many things! Here is just a subset of the conclusions and decisions:

Steering / tiller:

• Fixing the tiller lock (steering line cleat) on the tiller is indeed not ideal - while great for solo sailing, it will go in the way of regular sailors. But there is no need to fix it permanently! The cleat can be attached with a strong double-side tape, and wrapped around together with the tiller with a duct tape - this will more than strong enough, and can be removed after the Translemanique, thus not affecting normal boat users.
• For the tiller extension not to be disturbed by the cleat, let's lift the extension base by adding below an old base (bracket), and fixing with longer screws (currently ~32mm long, 4mm wide). Same below the extension holder, if needed (to be able to put the extension on top of the tiller when not used).

Spinnaker:

• Add a pulley for the spi halyard, at the bottom of the mast (currently the spi just goes through a metal loop).
• Before doucing the spi, first fix the spi halyard on the starboard jib winch and take it off the cleat on the mast - so that I don't need to go to the mast in the middle of the doucing manoeuvre.
• Spinnaker bag - if possible, it's better to fix it hanging in the gangway - we discussed how to fix it.
• Wind conditions for various spinnakers we have. No particular restriction for our J80. The regatta spi is a safe bet in most conditions. The "big" spi (J80SpiBig16) is very big - not for strong wind, and also not for very light wind either (it goes into the water and becomes wet and heavy!) - best for low/medium wind. BTW in low wind, flying the spi "butterfly" way (on the windward) could be a nice option, quite efficient VMG-wise to really go downwind.

Other:

• RaceMaster device just uses the solar power (+ internal rechargeable battery). However, it reads data from the speed sonde - which requires power to be on (key turned as marked - but apparently, "instruments" don't need to be turn on on the switchboard). If the RaceMaster says "no power", it actually mean that the speed sonde doesn't get the power.
• Cleaning the hull - same as Michel and Pierre-Yves recommended before, the easiest in this weather is to take the boat out to a buoy and then clean it while swimming / snorkling around.
• It's best to have the engine on board, but to take it off the transom for the race itself, and store it inside the cabin (in the correct position - handle up)
• Buy a new emergency blinking light floating beacon (the one that should work in the vertical position). The one we have is broken - it works even upside down.