"A Charming Little Princess"(Genoa, Italy)- The J/70 was exhibited last week at the 2013 Boat show in Genoa. According to Paolo Boido, "The 23 footer won the interest of the public and the honor of being a winner on stage. J/Boats Italy showed up with two J/70's, one in the Stand and one ready for sea trials-- special thanks to Quantum Italy who supplied sails and assistance for the sea trials.
In five days we sailed fifty-seven times with all kind of sailors, most of them unknown and in all types of weather conditions; including the last two days when it blew up to 30-35 kts! It didn't take long for us to record some nice reports from the enthusiastic J/70 sailors:
- a Genovese university professor of foreign languages wanted to go for a test sail. She was very embarrassed, admitting that she never gone sailing in her life! But, when she saw the J?70, she decided to give it a try. She was not properly dressed for sailing, soon she was totally wet in a cold afternoon with 25-27 kts of breeze. Remarkably, she loved the experience and enjoyed sailing the J/70 so much we had a hard time convincing her to sail back!
- a business executive showed up for a test sail properly dressed for a day at the office with suit and tie! When he got back to the dock, he showed us the new Velocitek he just bought in the show. He explained that he turned it on at the beginning of test sail-- it showed an average speed downwind of 17.8 kts in winds of just 15-25 kts. At first, he looked at the numbers in disbelief, thinking that he just bought a new instrument that was wrong and was planning to make a warranty claim and get a new one! He showed it to the Velocitek guys, they tested it and said it was fine! The man's jaw dropped in disbelief-- 17.8 kts average downwind!
- a Star Boat sailor friend of mine decided to take a test sail with his 11 yrs old daughter who's an active Optimist pram sailor. The little girl, all of 60 lbs of her, was allowed to steer in 30+ kts breeze and she didn't want to give back the tiller to her Father! In fact, she sailed very fast downwind under spinnaker!
The J/70 demonstrated once again the versatility of the boat for all ages groups and experiences-- it was a great show of power, stability, speed, safety, performance, and easy handling! Thank you Alan and the J/Boats design team! Amazing boat!" Regards, Paolo. For more J/70 one-design speedster sailing information
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