Winning four races in the J-Cup IRC 1 Class series and going into the final day with half a point lead, the J/122E JUNO sealed their victory 5.5 points clear, showing great consistency over the regatta.
Cyclops Marine had the opportunity to catch up with skipper Toff Daniels and his mainsheet trimmer Keiron Hill to ask how SmartTune helped in their dominant win. A jubilant Toff cut straight to the point, “it is a big step forward in trimming a race boat.”
On the mainsheet, Keiron emphasized the reassuring influence of the wireless load sensor. “The forestay load data was a really useful second check for my trimming. Looking at the main leech, I would sanity check what I was feeling with the forestay load.”
Referring to the loads, Keiron went into more detail: “we tended to set up for the lulls upwind, with forestay around 2.1 tons. In the solid pressure, we would go to 2.5/2.6 tons using the backstay and mainsheet tension. If I got to 2.7 tons, it was too much and we really flattened out the main. It was great having the headstay number to help with this, then we looked at jib cars to de-power.”
On further discussion, Kieron pointed out one of the challenges with race boats is the balance of achieving max forestay load without over compressing and bending the mast and starving the mainsail out. “Having marks on your backstay is not enough as your mainsheet load is such a factor in inducing load on the rig, too. The whole rig is working as a dynamic structure and it is essential to have accurate data as to the impact of the loadings.”
He went on to talk about having accessible data, “without a load sensor [SmartTune], you are just guessing. We love the product as we know it is accurate and we don’t have to mess about with wiring or calibration… it’s just wind on to the existing headstay toggles and go! It's that simple, truly a no-brainer.”
For J/122 and J/122E owners, here are the basic fast tuning numbers:
- Base forestay settings on the dock = 800kg (0.8T)
- Upwind max power (9-12 kts), hard leeches on mainsail for max power– forestay 2.1T (2,100kg). This is where they transitioned from J1 to J2 jibs.
- Upwind overpowered 13–18 kts– forestay up to 2.5/ 2.6T using combination of backstay and mainsheet. Once at 2.7T, it was too much mast compression and the main flattened out too much. At that point, above 18 kts it was time to switch to the J3 jib.
