San Juan 21 Class Association

It can take a long time for a rush of water over the gunnels into the cockpit to drain. And water in the cabin can bring these boats down - because there's not nearly enough buoyancy. So maybe the open transom is a worthwhile safety feature. The only issue might be objections should you enter a one-...

I'd still suggest you check your rake and if less than faster boats, try adding rake with an extender or shackles.

Most likely: 1) You wrote, "I have raked the mast aft as far as the turnbuckles will allow." Chances are your stays are not original, so maybe the replacements were cut to an incorrect length or had shorter turnbuckles, allowing insufficient rake. This would be especially true of the forestay. Maybe...

As you describe it, sounds like a great place to hold a Sj21 Nationals. Although I guess strong winds are not to be regularly expected there.

If you have to crank up the keel a bit to get the keel and trunk lock down pin holes to align, you can thicken the "stop pin," the pin on which the keel rests when you let it down. That pin has a rubber gasket around it to absorb some of the crash should the keel cable break and the keel falls. That...

The genoa is almost entirely a thing of the past on Sj 21's. The past few years the "All-Sails" fleets have been racing jibs and spinnakers, no genoas allowed. Our Calgary fleet - which gets up to 18 boats on a Wednesday night starting line, still allows genoas, but hardly anyone uses them anymore -...

I get an aluminum piece of exactly the right width from stock at one of the used metal stores, and they cut it to length. A SS hinge can be bought on-line or from most sailing supply stores, although I've also used a galvanized or brass hinge from Home Depot. Rather than an elaborate catch piece at ...

One boat in our Calgary fleet set up a launcher on the deck...basically a sausage bag. Not wanting others to feel that was cheating, he stopped using it. But it did work.

Perhaps we should ask the Class Measurer for a ruling on a scoop or other whatever method.

Ben, make sure that wherever you have the eye, when you winch there's upward pull rather than downward. If upward, the boat will move along the bunks fairly easily. If downward, not only will there be too much friction, but you'll compress the hull on the bunks, causing them to dent.

Bear in mind that weather helm is greater as the boat heels more. It can be that you have lee helm when the boat is flat, but weather helm once you hit whatever degree of heel. If you're sailing with a jib you'll probably go best with about 20" of rake. Most guys measure from the bow tang to the top...