Weekend with Gryphon: What I Learned Crewing for One of the Best J/105 Teams During the
Chicago NOOD
By Muieen Cader
For the Chicago NOOD weekend, I was invited to sail with Bruce Stone on Sam Power’s J/105
Gryphon #29. If you are planning to crew as mast man, this is what you will need to know to
make sure the spinnaker runs as effectively as possible during every hoist and douse. So
effective, you will wish things like airport security or companies like American Airlines ran as
smoothly as your spinnaker.
Preparation: You want to start by running the tapes before you do anything. Start at the clew,
running the yellow tape along the foot of the spinnaker to the tack. After, start over at the clew,
running the red tape along the leach of the spinnaker to the head.
Managing the main controls and especially the vang: while the mast man sets and eases the
cunningham and outhaul, the most important control is the vang. In the prestart (and later
when sailing upwind), you have a hand on the vang in case it needs to be blown to duck another
boat, and tend it when sailing downwind for the same reason. With a lot of wind, easing the
vang can help avoid a broach when a gust hits or you go into planing mode.
Hoist: your bow person opens the hatch and pre-feeds the tack to the bow, then returns to the
hatch to control the spinnaker from flying out too soon. Gryphon has a thin line running across
the deck to a Wichard shackle at the low side, so you can release the spin halyard for the high
side. At the last second prior to the call to hoist, you want to pull the line to remove the halyard
from the shroud. Be careful not to do this too early into the rounding of the weather mark, as
your halyard risks getting fouled on either of the shrouds. If the offset mark is abeam or
downwind, you can do a pre-hoist, where you sneak up the spinnaker 3-4 feet out of the hatch
to prevent it from getting fouled on the jib. If the offset is upwind, you should not prefeed until
rounding the offset, as this is not aerodynamic. During the prefeed, the mast man pulls the
halyard from both ends of the block to prevent the halyard from running afoul during the hoist –
in other words, do not let the slack in the halyard gather at the block at the base of the mast.
As the skipper is generally the only person able to see the mark, he or she counts down to the
hoist. At that point, you want to pull as fast as you can hand-over-hand. During this time, being
in sync with your pit person comes in handy, as the faster the pit can tail, the faster the hoist
and the less likelihood of the halyard running afoul, or the spinnaker making the dreaded
“hourglass” shape during the hoist. Once the spinnaker makes it to the top, you then yell out
“made” and adjust the outhaul and vang to your downwind settings. (During practice, put
electrical tape on the spin halyard where it emerges from the mast so you know it is fully
hoisted without having to look up.)
While the spinnaker is flying, you want to look behind your boat and see what is going on in the
back of the course: are you getting covered, did other boats decide to gybe after the rounding,
where is the wind coming from. If the helmsman needs to head up to protect his wind from a
trailing boat, call out something like “head up for traffic.” If you see better pressure to leeward
or to windward, then it is “soak (or head up) to stay in the best wind” or “you are in the best
wind on the course.” This is a bit challenging, as you are moving with the wind. The trailing boats
are a good tell, indicating more pressure is coming as they might be soaking lower, or it is a lull
and they are sailing higher. The trimmer and driver need this info instantly.
Look for shaded spots on the water and see how they are moving. There are three things you
want to spot: is the wind going to lift or knock the boat, would it be better to gybe to stay in
better pressure, or should you maintain your course with the wind. To illustrate this, tactician
Nicole Breault drew the following diagram (which I have since recreated):
In the diagram above, when the header is coming, you should announce it to your trimmer to
give him an idea of when it should be coming. The nice thing about most J/105s is the wind
indicator at the top of the mast. The wind arrow gives the trimmer an indication of when the
shift has reached the boat, while the anemometer cups spin faster or slower as the apparent
wind accelerates or decelerates. Supplementing this, the main trimmer also has two parts of the
mainsheet in her hand and advises the helmsman of pressure changes. On some boats, the
helmsman holds the mainsheet and can feel this directly.
The bow team looks for the leeward mark or gate to give input on laylines and to plan for the
approach. With flood or ebb, the layline may come early or late. You try to aim for a spot
upwind of the middle of the leeward gate to provide options. The bow team should always
know which side of the boat the spinnaker has to come down on for the next leg/set and should
be ready for whatever type of douse is required to get it there (windward, leeward, Mexican,
Canadian).
Jibes: the mast person tractors the lazy spin sheet to prevent jams at the blocks, and then gets a
hand back onto the vang to help prevent a broach. This responsibility tends to keep him or her
from helping roll jibe the boat, but, if the other five crew members are rolling to the low side,
then one person on the high side attending to the lazy sheet is not a problem.
Douse: Before the douse, since wind speeds may have changed, it is important to ask the
tactician if the jib leads need to be moved before going back upwind. Also, ask how much
outhaul and cunningham are desired prior to the rounding. Leaving the outhaul and cunningham
only partially engaged adds power in a slow leeward mark rounding, and they can then be pulled
tighter when going upwind.
Open the hatch, laying it down softly to not stress the hinges. Our team has a pool noodle tied
across the hatch to give it a soft landing, while some boats have tennis balls. When the call
comes to pull the jib out, the bow or mast person pulls on it to make this go faster and puts the
lazy sheet behind the hatch.
A clean douse will save you time in the sewer, prevent you having to run the tapes while going
upwind, and makes your next hoist easy-peasy. The way douses work on Gryphon are quite
simple; you generally jump down the forward hatch with the lazy sheet in hand. Toss your hat
into the sink. Trimmer blows the sheet, and pit person eases 6-8 feet of halyard so you can start
the drop by hauling down the leach of the spinnaker, bringing the clew down to the port side of
the forepeak. As the red tape goes taught and it is clear you are in control, your bowman then
asks for the halyard to be blown and you start squirreling, hand over hand, pulling continuously
on the red tape as fast as you can. Every time you let go of the spinnaker, it has the potential to
blow out. Once you get to 4-6 inches from the head, you want to get the head into the
starboard side of the forepeak. Last, you pull the foot and push it into the bow. Avoid standing
to the right where the pole will retract during this process. Bow person closes the hatch. Grab
your hat and with it in hand, return to the deck via the companionway. Don’t wear your hat
below or you might crunch your neck on the doorway to the head. Note that if you were in
heavy seas and took on water during the drop, you might briefly pump the bilge on manual,
then reset it to auto.
Hopefully this works as an effective guide for those planning to do mast on any J/105. The most
painful aspect of being a mast man is getting through the tedious amounts of airport security.
