Regatta Debrief: 2024 Quantum Snipe Nationals

Quantum San Diego’s Carter Cameron checks in with his observations, then sits down wth 2024 Quantum Snipe Nationals Champions Trevor Davis and Justin Callahan of Bad Panda Racing. 

It’s always fun sailing in a tightly competitive One Design fleet where pursuing the slightest speed advantage over your competitor can make all the difference. The 2024 Quantum US Snipe Nationals at Jubilee Yacht Club in Beverly, MA, was no exception to that testament. Carding my best US Nationals finish to date since joining the class, I walked away from the event confident in my speed and my equipment. Here are a few things I did at the event to set our team up for success.

I firmly believe that the more time you spend at the venue before the regatta starts, the more comfortable you’ll be when racing rolls around. I arrived 4 days before racing started to let my body acclimate to the 3-hour time change, find close restaurants and grocery stores, and really feel as relaxed as possible.

I also had a list of boat work to accomplish because I didn’t get as many opportunities to sail or work on my East Coast boat since moving to San Diego. Some things my crew and I did to our boat in those four days were to wax the bottom and topsides, put silicone in all screw holes to prevent water leaking into the tanks, rigged and spliced all new continuous control lines for the crew's position, lubricated all blocks, install new board bumpers to keep the daggerboard as far forward as possible in the trunk and replace a few worn out bungees.

The boat I used is Persson 29940 from 2002, which I’ve owned for 4 years. One of the great things about the Snipe is that you can be competitive with an older boat if taken care of properly. I’ve put a lot of time and effort into this particular boat to make it competitive, and it’s been fun seeing my results improve as I take more care of my equipment. I still have a few other things to replace, but the boat is certainly now at a competitive level.

As far as tuning goes, I put my base setting at 20 tension on a PT-1 Loos Gauge using 3/32" Dyform shrouds, 21'7" rake, 16 1/2" length, and 30" sweep on my spreaders, mast butt pin at 10' 8 7/8", and had my shrouds attached on the second hole back on the chainplate. I only did that last part because I'm scared of my chainplate bolts tearing out. I could have replaced them, but it's one of the things I ran out of time to get done.

I took special care to ensure my rig was centered in the boat by running a tape measure up the main halyard and measuring the distance to each chine immediately under the chainplate on each side of the boat. The measurement needs to be almost the same from side to side. If your rig is not centered in the boat, simply tighten the longer side and loosen the shorter side one face on the Staymasters at a time until they are within 3 mm of each other. I've found that to be a tight enough tolerance to have the same performance tack to tack.

Once your rig is centered in the boat, you need to shim the mast in the partners so there is no more than 2mm of play side to side. Be aware that the mast may not be centered in the partners and that you will need to use different-size shims on each side to achieve this tolerance of play. On my boat, I needed 6mm of shims on port and 4mm of shims on starboard to achieve 1-2mm of play side to side.

I used the RSJ-8B jib throughout the event, the X-1 main on the first day, and the C-5B main on the next three days. The first day was the windiest, anywhere from 10-15 knots, and the X-1 was a flat enough sail for me and my crew's total weight of 295 lbs to hike down. The last three days were all 10 knots and under, so I used the C-5B to help generate power in light air and mostly choppy conditions.

Another fun thing about the Snipe is how responsive to control it is. I had a couple of situations on the water while racing where I could quickly adjust my controls and instantly feel a difference. The first time was when I was tuning pre-race against Justin Callahan in about 4-6 knots in flat water. I was set at my base setting described earlier. He was to leeward of me and slowly gaining height and was about to pinch me off. Growing up sailing Lightnings, I knew that if I ever needed to gain the ability to point, I needed to tighten my forestay, so I reached down and pulled about another inch of jib halyard on, then I was pointing the same and holding speed with him. With that setting, I went on to win the next race by a good margin.

Another instance was sailing the first upwind in race 6 in 6-7 knots and choppy conditions. I was about a boat length to windward and a touch bow back of my good friend Wade Waddell. My crew, Ryan Ratliffe, looked up and suggested that we tighten the outhaul a little bit as the main looked a little deep, so we pulled it on about an inch. Then suddenly, we were higher and faster than Wade, and we went on to round the first windward mark in second place.

The moral of the story here is that you must be willing to make adjustments during the race if the boat isn't performing how you want it to. If you make an adjustment and you start going slower, simply reset that adjustment you just made and try something else. This is why having good reference marks is crucial to getting repeatable settings. At the end of the day, we're all in the pursuit of speed, so feel free to experiment! You may find something to be fast that you never thought would have been in the first place.

I talked to Justin and Trevor about some things that contributed to their success through the event. Here are some thoughts from each of them about what they focused on together and what they focused on in their individual positions.

Trevor Davis

Upwind, Justin wanted to focus on good technique to make the boat move well through choppy and dynamic conditions. If it were marginal conditions where I couldn't fully hike, I would keep my shoulders outboard and low and focus on moving my hips inboard and outboard to press down the boat when it wanted it and scoot in when we would hit a lull. Along with moving my body, I was constantly adjusting the jib sheet. When we had pressure, and I could sit out a bit more, I could trim the jib sheet a bit tighter, but as soon as I had to scoot in or we were about to hit chop, I would ease the jib sheet back out. My range was max ease to the spreader tip and max in until it almost touched the spreader. The entire goal with all of this was to keep a constant angle of heel where the boat was always sailing on the leeward chine. The more dynamic I was, the more Justin could focus on driving the boat fast and keeping his head out of the boat. It was only in full hiking conditions that I could get my head out of the boat more often, as I didn't need to move around as much.

Downwind, I was more static with my body, and Justin was more dynamic. When coming into chop, I would grab the lazy jib sheet and the vang and hold them tight to keep the sails from bouncing as much as possible. 

Our base setting we sailed at for the last 3 days was at 21' 6 ¼" rake with 20 tension on a Jibetech. We had our spreaders at 16½" length and 30" sweep. On the windy first day, we had 1½ turns on and pulled to the same mark, so we ran 21 tension instead of 20.

We had little time to practice at the venue before the event. Still, Justin and my experiences in collegiate sailing this past year, as well as my experience sailing the Brazilian Snipe Nationals back in January, taught me how to sail the boat well in choppy, marginal conditions. All of the sailing we've done since this regatta last year made us confident going into the event.

If there's anything I can say to improve your regatta immediately, it's to get a good starts. In our pre-start routine, Justin and I were constantly thinking about how to get a good start in open space towards the favored end of the line, but not necessarily at it. To determine how important it was to be at the favored end of the line, we'd use our compass to determine line bias. Once we knew that, we'd find open space in that area.

We only needed to get off the line clean and going the right way so we could rely on our speed to get us to the front of the fleet. Once we were off the line, we found large, clear lanes to sail fast so we could sail our own race.

Justin Callahan

We focused on moding a lot and using our body weight and sail trim to adjust to that. If we wanted a high mode, I'd tell Trevor to trim the jib in two clicks and let the boat heel over just a touch more. When we wanted to go bow down fast, I would call for two clicks of ease and to press the boat down flatter. This was especially effective coming down from the top of a wave. Most importantly, we were focused on trimming the sails together.

We were also constantly talking about how the boat felt. If we felt sticky, we would automatically just ease the sheets out a couple of clicks and press the boat flat to get moving again.

Trevor and I divided roles throughout the regatta. While we both have been sailing the Snipe for a few years, we were using Trevor's boat, which has won a few regattas in the past. I trusted that he knew the best settings for the specific mast and boat. I took care of the big picture and final boat prep—ensuring we had our food for the day, water bottles filled, and our spot in line for the hoist.

Something that's part of all of this is trusting your teammate. Trevor and I don't sail together too often, and we also have different sailing styles, but he's someone I trust to sail well and set up the boat correctly. At the end of the day, tuning isn't everything. While he's very good at tuning the boat, I was confident that we could sail the boat well at either of our preferred settings.

Our division of roles switched between upwind and downwind. I was focused on tactics upwind, while Trevor was focused on speed. This allowed us to keep talking about how each other felt in our respective departments. We said a slow boat is a quiet boat, and constantly saying what the other feels allows us to keep the boat at the highest level of performance.

Downwind, Trevor was in charge of tactics and, most importantly, making sure that we were in a good lane. This let me focus on the waves and ensure we were moving well through the water. This goes back to trusting your teammate. I trusted Trevor to put us in good lanes downwind, and he trusted me to make the boat go fast.

The division of roles went beyond the regatta venue as well. Steve Hunt has taught me the importance of having a routine off the water. He's the reason I make my bed every morning before a regatta. Every morning, I would make our beds while Trevor made us breakfast. Then, I would make our lunches after. Steve says every detail matters, especially keeping the same routine, and I cannot stress this attitude enough. When you feel prepared in all aspects of your sport, you can feel the rest of the pieces fall into place.

Furthermore, Trevor and I really appreciated Carter Cameron’s help as we progressed through the regatta. Carter gave strong opinions on how our sails looked and felt on the water, was a great tuning partner, and helped us gain confidence in our speed.

Some people may consider tuning and boat speed among the most important parts of a regatta, but as Justin and Trevor told us, there are many factors that go into making a successful event. While I felt very prepared for this regatta, I certainly plan to take some moves from their playbook to prepare myself for my next big regatta and, most importantly, stick to a routine during the next one.

Carter here! Whether you want to talk tuning, sailing, coaching, or just want to know what the weather’s like in San Diego (it’ll be sunny and 75 every time), feel free to reach out to your sailmakers at Quantum San Diego. We’re here to help you enjoy sailing.

Photos: Bruce Durkee