Low wind racing in Founex

Yesterday I had another training on J80, this time it was a race, part of Semaine du Soir de Founex regatta. Sure, I was not alone on board - I had Natalie, Krzysztof, Lajos and Franklin as crew members (thanks for sailing together!). We had an excellent race, and we have finished first among the green group (TCF3 and TCF4), both real and compensated time. :-)

There was almost no wind at the beginning. We did a beautiful squeezing into a gap at the committee end of the starting line, but then one bad tack that costed us a few places (with our YCC friends on J70 in front of us!). We caught up nicely thought, and had a very tricky, no-wind passage at the upwind buoy (that included tacking with no course change, just moving the weight and the sails to the other side of the boat - the wind was so light and confusing!). The wind then turned 180 degrees but fortunately pick up. The race was shortened for the green group, which we've noticed and realised (thanks Krzysztof!), but very few others did - so we went for the finishing line while boats behind us and a few bigger in front of us continued racing to another mark :-). A fun race with an excellent crew!

For me, this race was a very useful refresh on J80 low wind sailing and sail trim. We did roll tacks, and that helped a lot - it's something I will not be able to do efficiently alone. Overall, J80 behaved very well in low wind, was more responsive than I had remembered from the past, and the regatta mainsail battens flipped easily. The mainsail often gets stuck with the the backstay, but a simple pull/shake of the backstay fixes it.