J/95 in Stonington For Demo Sails

Schedule your introduction today on this incredible 31 footer!
J/95 #2 was recently launched in Barrington, RI and after a Newport stopover, sailed to Stonington, CT. J/95 designer Rod Johnstone is conducting demo-sails for the coming month out of Stonington Harbor. The J/95 combines great performance and finger-tip steering control with as little as 3' sailing draft. Please contact J/Boats to schedule a demo sail or to visit J/95s in production in Bristol, RI. Find out more about the J/95 here.

J/122 Continues Growth Worldwide

North Americans @ BI Week, One-Design @ NYYC Regatta, IRC Champions in Europe!
The J/122 continues its winning ways in regattas this spring. With that rare combination of speed, comfort, great modern looks and competitively rated in IRC and PHRF, J/122 owners continue to collect silverware and have increased participation in events this year.
In the USA, Robin Team's TEAMWORK won PHRF A going away in both Charleston Race Week and the Ft Lauderdale-Charleston Race. Andrew Weiss's CHRISTOPHER DRAGON won the J/122 One-Design class in the American YC Spring Series. In the Caribbean, Jamie Dobb's LOST HORIZONS was dominating Antigua Race Week. In Europe, PEN AZEN sailed by Frenchman Philippe Delaporte continues to dominate, winning IRC1 in the prestigious Obelix Trophy. And, John Patterson's PANACEA was overall series Champion at the RayMarine Warsash Spring Series in England sailing against all the newest IRC boats in the 37-44 foot size range.
This solid, all-around performer continues to be the best combination of cruising and racing in the 40 foot category. Competitive boats are "niche-oriented" and become "type specific" in terms of breeze/conditions they're targeted at-- many are extremely tender, hard-to-sail "twitchy" boats. If you haven't tried one, hop aboard a J/122 in your local area, see them at the J/122 North Americans at STC Block Island Race Week or the New York YC Annual Regatta in Newport. Or contact J/Boats for a dealer/owner near you who can fill you in on why the J/122 has been such a fun, competitive boat to sail. Find out more about the J/122 here.

American Yacht Club Spring Series

Damian Emery's ECLIPSE wins J/105s, Fleet Endures Light Airs and Heavy Current
(Rye, NY- May 9-10)- The AYC Spring Series held on Long Island Sound had 91 boats spread across 10 fleets. The weather for both weekends was less than satisfying, a weak High pressure dominated all week long so both weekends were generally light airs fighting current to get around the marks. The J's dominated the one-design fleets, 48 J's representing 52.0% of all boats sailed 4 classes- the J/105, J/109, J/44 and J/122.
In the handicap fleets, the J's fared well in IRC and PHRF. In IRC 3, the J/120 AVRA sailed by George Petrides finished 2nd, just beating out Tom Carroll's J/133 SIREN SONG. In PHRF 4 class, the J/100 SKIPJACK sailed by Joe Matteo earned a respectable 5th overall-- quite good considering she was designed to be the "gentlemen's easy-to-sail, elegant, short-handed daysailer!
In the J one-design classes, the competition was strong in all four fleets. The J/105 Class had the largest turn-out with 21 boats. Damian Emery and team sailed ECLIPSE very well in the highly variable conditions to win overall "by the hairs of their chinny chin chins". One point back was the duo of Joerg Esdorn/ Duncan Hennes on KINCSEM and 13 points further in arrears was Peter Rugg's JADED. The J/109 Class had 6 boats competing and Adrian Begley sailed their renowned MADS DOGS & ENGLISHMEN to first overall ahead of Al Minella's RELENTLESS and Bob Schwartz's NORDLYS, 2nd and 3rd respectively. In the 6 boat J/44 Class, Jim Bishop and the GOLD DIGGER crew were outclassed by Bill Ketchum on MAXINE by only one point, finishing 2nd and 1st respectively. Not too far off the pace were the dynamic duo of Don and Rick Rave on RESOLUTE. Finally, the J/122 Class of 5 boats were shown their way around the course more often than not by perenial campaigner Andrew Weiss and his capable team aboard CHRISTOPHER DRAGON, comfortably winning by a six point margin. Mike Bruno's WINGS hung in there for 2nd with John Chapman's team on board SCREAMING EAGLE finishing 3rd. For more info, news and scores see the American YC's site.

J/122 Repeats Obelix Trophy Win

J/122 PEN AZEN Winner Against "Best of IRC" in Europe
(Benodet, France- May 2-3)- The Obelix Trophy is one of the most prestigious events on the French offshore racing circuit each spring. Repeating a performance of previous J/122s, Philippe Delaporte's PEN AZEN continued her winning ways taking a highly competitive IRC1 Class. The J/122 beat the latest IRC-influenced offerings from several builders, including the new Beneteau 41, Archambault 40RC and others. It's clear the J/122 continues to be the "boat to beat" in international and regional IRC competition.

San Diego Yachting & Leukemia Cup

J/105 and J/120 Classes Have Great Competition
(San Diego, CA- May 2-3)- The San Diego Yachting and Leukemia Cup had a very nice turnout for this very worthwhile cause and event. 97 boats competed in 11 classes; the 38 J's constituted 39% of the fleet with great one-design class action in the J/105 and J/120 fleets.
In the handicap racing, the J/125 DERIVATIVE sailed by Mark Surber won PHRF2 while the J/145 BAD PAK owned by Tom Hothus finished 3rd. In PHRF5, the venerable J/29 RUSH STREET owned by Larry Leveille sailed nicely to finish 2nd and Nicolas Landauer sailed his pretty J/34 MARLEN to 3rd place in the division.
In one-design class racing, J's had the two largest classes in the event. The J/105s with 17 boats had the largest fleet and it made for some great racing. Ultimately, it was Bill Logan on-board PHOLLY that beat Tom Hurlburt's TRIPLE PLAY by a 5 point margin. In 3rd was Dennis & Sharon Case's WINGS. For the J/120s, Charles Nichols' team on CC RIDER overcame the 11 boat fleet to just win by 2 points over John Laun's CAPER in 2nd and Peter Zarcades MELTEMI in 3rd. More info at SDYC's Yachting Cup site.

J/24 Worlds XXX

South Americans triumph yet again, Brazil's Santa Cruz wins 3rd time!
(Annapolis, MD- April 3-10)- The sun came out at last, the wind finally arrived and the 2009 J/24 World Championship came to an exciting end with three races jammed into the final day of competition.
With the vital worst-race throwout in play once the sailors had completed the day's first contest, standings shuffled quite a bit, and as 1996 World Champion Chris Larson of Annapolis and his National Sailing Hall of Fame team finished third in that race thet took the lead by the narrowest of margins, tied on points with Canadian Rossi Milev and his Clear Air crew.
With a third-place finish in the next race, Larson and his team, which included Dave Hughes, Moose McClintock, Steve Frazier, and Curtis Florence, pulled ahead a bit more, establishing a 2-point lead over 2006-2007 World Champion Mauricio Santa Cruz and his Brazilian team on Bruschetta, who now found himself winning the tiebreaker with Milev and setting up the final race as a real nail-biter to see who would emerge at the top of the highly competitive 76-boat fleet.
In the end, Santa Cruz and the Bruschetta crew, with a third in the seventh race to Larson's 11th and Milev's 14th, came away with a third J/24 World Championship, making him the second-most successful J/24 skipper in class history (Ken Read still holds the record with six titles) and the first non-US sailor to win a Worlds in this country. More info @ J/24 Worlds site. For cool videos check out Sailgroove.com or the T2P Video sites.

RayMarine Warsash Spring Series

Superb climax to this classic spring series warm-up in England
(The Solent, England- April 25-26)- There could not have been a better finale to the seventh Raymarine-sponsored Warsash Spring Series - glorious sunshine and a decent south-easterly breeze that built gradually during the day. They were ideal conditions for close and challenging racing for the 220 boats entered. The weekend also saw the final two days' racing in the Spring Championship for "Big Boats", J/80s, J/105s and J/109s.

The Black Group fleet were set long courses, using much of the central Solent, from a start line at Flying Fish buoy. John Patterson in the J/122 PANACEA had taken a healthy points lead into the day's racing and while he finished behind all the bigger boats, he was close enough to the leaders to recoup his time and take the IRC1 handicap honors. This gave him the IRC1 Series win by six points from Bill Blain's BATFISH III, a well-sailed J/133. The Big Boat class included J/133s, J/122s and other competitive IRC designs - Comet 41, Farr 52, TP52, Ker 39 and Corby 40 and new Santa Cruz 37.

The remaining Black Group one-design classes enjoyed a largely similar course. The J/109s had a general recall and were sent to the back of the sequence but all other starts were clear. In the 19-strong J/109 class only Adam Wright's JOUSTER/ VELVET ELVIS won two races. The title went to David and Kirsty Apthorp in J-DREAM who counted no result lower than third.
In the final J/105 race, Charles Rolls forsook his own J/109 BARBAROSSA to helm Andy Hill's ONLY JUST to victory by over two minutes. In the Series there was only one point between each of the top three boats: FAY-J (Paul Griffiths), VOADOR (Simon Curwen) and JAVA (Rob Dornton-Duff).

With the wind in the southeast, the White Group courses could be laid head to tail along the Meon shore. The J/80s had enjoyed some very tight racing during the Series but usually behind JOYSTICK (Vic Gregory and Rob Larke), who won 13 of the 17 races completed. Like many scorelines, this fact belies the closeness of the racing. Often victories were by a handful of seconds. The main opposition came from Charles Somerset's LOUDWATER and Ian Atkins' BOATS.COM. In the final reckoning they were a single point apart in Somerset's favour. For more news and scores see the Warsash Spring Series site.

J/97 Cruiser/Racer Launches in France

The first weekend of May saw designer Alan Johnstone & J/Europe project manager Frederic Bouvier put the new J/97 through its paces off Les Sables d'Olonne, France. With the Bay of Biscay serving up a variety of conditions from flat water and offshore breeze to large rolling swells with a brisk onshore thermal, there was a good variety of conditions and three beautiful days of sailing for the initial trials. Upwind, reaching and downwind the J/97 performed beautifully with a light touch on the helm, terrific acceleration out of the tacks and a downwind ease and simplicity under her blue asymmetric spinnaker.

The new J/97 will make a perfect couple or family boat for weekend cruising plus has the versatility to compete on the race course. With an open, innovative interior design, aft head, six foot standing headroom and sleeping for six it can comfortably accommodate the whole crew. Please take a look at the latest gallery of photos of this exciting new cruiser/racer.

J/Europe will be conducting both press and demo sails in Les Sables De Olonne during the month of May and the first boat is expected to arrive in the US this summer. Please to contact your dealer to learn more or visit the J/97 web site here.