"Skip" Baldwin
from England bought an old J/35 they found living a life of benign
neglect in Liverpool and resurrected it- it is a VERY amusing story
(about as good, if not more remarkable than the J/30 RAFIKI story).
And, one that ANY boat owner can empathize with. You can read about
their travails of really living the "phoenix from the ashes" experience
on their website. Here's an excerpt of their first major event this
past year. As Skip explains- "Bank Holiday weekend, we decided to sail
"The Bank of England Regatta", how appropriate. It was all smiles in
the land of OUTRAJEOUS as the midweek forecast read sun and warm winds
from the south west 10-15 mph. Fantastic we thought, ideal conditions
for our first regatta of the season, weather to break us in to the new
season gently. Oh how wrong we were....In our first race, the winds continued to build...this was "Gucci sailing". The boats now in view were boats that had started 45 minutes in front of us. Looking at the anemometer the wind was now 30-35 knots (that to the non-seafaring readers out there, means it was blowing dogs off chains!) the kite was full to bursting and we were on fire - 9 knots, 10 knots (Samantha Mumba's), 11 knots, 12 knots finally topping out at 13.7 knots... YAHOOOOOO!!!! The old Girl was smoking..the mark was approaching quickly, very very quickly in fact and the wind was constantly shifting 20-25 degrees, now all we need to do is get the kite down, simple? Well maybe not so simple, the wind shifted and we broached violently, the 30+ knot winds pinning us to the sea, the guy got wrapped around a window catch so could not be released, the halyard too had jammed, we were nailed to the Solent harder than cheap shuttering to a broken window... Moments before this, Skip in his infinite wisdom had gone to steer from the leeward side, better vision into the mark, great! Unfortunately the leeward side by now was underwater, along with him.. eventually the kite exploded and we were able to haul in the shattered remains..." Read more about OUTRAJEOUS's tales of delight and disaster, for anyone who's ever owned a used sailboat, you'll die of laughter! I promise. :) More outrageous sailing stories of the J/35 OUTRAJEOUS here.