J/95 Demos in Full Swing

Go to Sunny, Warm Florida, Texas and Chesapeake!
After the strong showing at the Newport and Annapolis Boatshows, interest in the J/95 continues to grow as sailors look to expand their sailing and cruising horizons with J's newest, innovative design- a 31 foot shoal-draft sailboat that draws 3 feet, can go upwind at 6.5 knots, surf off-the-wind at 8.5+ knots with the simple asymmetric spinnaker and can be turned on a dime with its twin-rudder wheel steering system.

Be sure to contact the J/Dealers for a showing and/or demo of the incredibly fun and cool J/95:

- Florida- Crosscurrent Marine- Craig Crossley- P: (401) 330-6135/ E: craig@crosscurrentmarine.com

- Texas- J/Boats Southwest- Scott Spurlin-  P: (940) 591-7040/ E: scott@jboatssouthwest.com

- Chesapeake- Northpoint Yacht Sales- Ken Comerford- P: (410) 961-5254 / E: ken@northpointyachtsales.com

For more information, please contact J/Boats at Ph- +1-401-846-8410 or email - info@jboats.com.

Go Sailing at New York's CITY SAIL Sailing School!

CitySail is a learn-to-sail organization that introduces city youth to the sport of sailing every day.  There are inumerable examples around the world.  Nevertheless, here is a heartwarming story that we felt should be shared with the J/Communithy:  "Simone is 15 and too old and too cool to be bothered with all the boys seeking her attention (pictured at right).  She won’t come to our after school center because she feels like she is too old for that stuff.  But she’s just the right age to sail.  This summer her mom signed her up for City Sail and she reluctantly came to the first class.  We were teaching nautical terminology to all the kids.  Simone was one of the quickest kids in the class.  Later that week when for the first time in her life she stepped on to a sailboat, she feigned indifference.  But once a boat leaves the dock, all the fronting stops.  Kids either beg to go up on the bow and get rocked by the waves for the sheer joy of it, or they hang on for dear life.  Simone was one of the former.  All the layers of smug superiority melted off her face as the wind and the waves pulled the laughter and surprise out of her.  By the middle of the summer I was trusting Simone with the tiller in an 18 knot wind.  On one such occasion I leaned over and asked her how many of her friends at school had ever sailed in such a wind.  She smiled the smile of someone who has just realized their own achievement and said, “NONE!”

She wasn’t quite right.  Over the last five years we’ve taken out over 100 Jersey City school children.  This is a huge privilege for us.  Although the kids live within a mile of some of the most exciting visually stimulating sailing around, they literally never get out on the water.  They might as well live 1000 miles from the water for as much as they are able to enjoy it - until City Sail.  "Without City Sail I'd never have learned to sail," says Derrik age 14.  Dozens of children entered our free sailing school and competed for points through three
levels of seamanship.  Our top point scorers this year were invited to apprentice for a week on a working 80 foot schooner.  Next year we would like to make this opportunity available to even more kids.  We are looking  to add a J/24 to our fleet.  Anyone interested in helping us can contact us at citysail@gmail.com.  All contributions or boat donations are fully tax exempt.

KOS Sailing Photos Among World's Best?

Every once in awhile, we come across some extraordinary achievements by friends of the J/Community that ought to be recognized.  "Kos" happens to be one of them. Back in 1991, Stu Johnstone was sailing his J/44 J-HAWK in the Spi Ouest Regatta in La Trinite Sur Mer.   Working with Stu at the time to take care of J-HAWK was a young Englishman, Rick Deppe (see PUMA media site).  Another friend came along and said a young English girl named "Kos" needed some help on a photo shoot.  On a spectacular sunset evening after racing, Stu, Rick and Kos took off on J-HAWK to help Kos complete her photo assignment.  Since then, Kos has grown KOS PICTURES into the principal photo library/ stock house for over 200 yachting/ sailing photographers around the world.  To celebrate that talent, take a moment to appreciate this extraordinary J/80 photo.

Texas J/80 North Americans

Klinger Grabs Three-Peat
(Houston, TX- October 23-25)- Kerry Klingler has been sailing J/80s for a number of years.  Yet, despite the talent and the CV that might favor a "three-peat", Kerry was perhaps the least confident of the class leaders going into this year's J/80 North Americans.  With six previous J/80 North American Champions in attendance, including a current J/22 International Class World Champion Terry Flynn, it was not readily apparent who would come out on top of the heap of such a talented group of sailors.  As Terry said. "it was closest competition ever in NAs amongst the top 10....it could've gone either way."

The first day was perhaps the best for the fleet as it was a windy, puffy northerly gusting to twenty knots on Galveston Bay.  It made for difficult conditions to stay consistently in the top five against the tough fleet of NA Champions.  On the second day, there was no wind in the morning and the fleet had to wait for a light, shifty sea breeze to develop out of the southeast.  By the third day of racing, a solid sea breeze filled in making for extremely tight, fun racing amongst everyone-- the very tight mark roundings had an enormous impact on race outcomes. 

Prevailing through the smoke and fog of battle was Kerry Klingler and team again aboard their J/80 LIFTED with a  1-4-1-5-[13]-1-4-5 record for  a total of 21 points.  Hanging tough was Terry and David Flynn, finishing second with a 3-1-[8]-7-1-5-3-2 for 22 total points! Third overall was Glenn and Reese Darden sailing LE TIGRE to a 4-2-6-[10]-5-4-2-3 record for 26 points.  Special mention must be made of Jay Lutz- the victim of an extraordinary accident at the J/80 Worlds in Santander, Spain.  Now fully recovered, Jay "feels like new again" and sailed to a respectable fourth overall onboard the appropriately named PAINKILLER JANE with a  6-[9]-4-4-3-3-7-1 tally for 28 points.



For more sailing information and regatta results.

Manhasset Fall Series Weekend Blowout

(Manhasset, NY- Oct. 17-18 &24-25)- The Manhasset Fall Series concluded with a wild and woolly weekend sailing on Western Long Island Sound.  True to the forecasts, Saturday blew hard with 20-35 knot winds from the Southwest with driving rain and uncharacteristically warm weather.  Sunday dawned bright, cool and clear with 10-20 knots shifty and puffy from the northwest, dying as the day wore on and shifting more north.

Amongst the fifteen boat J/105 One-Design Class, Kevin Grainger and the gang prevailed against all competitors and sailed well to win overall with fourteen points on their J/105 GUMPTION 3.  Strong Long Island Sound sailor Damian Emery and his contingent onboard ECLIPSE finished with eighteen points.  And, Nathan Boyle sailing his JOYSEA finished third with 28 points.

In the fun, competitive J/44 One-Design Class, Jeff Willis took CHALLENGE IV to an overall win with thirteen points.  Following closely behind was Bill Ketcham on MAXINE.  Jim Bishop and crew on GOLD DIGGER managed to hang in there with some tough competition and finish third with seventeen points. 

A trio of J/122s continued to race after their J/122 North Americans, the Stamford- Vineyard Race and the American YC Fall Series to close out their Northeast season with the Manhasset Fall Series.  Andrew Weiss' CHRISTOPHER DRAGON won IRC3A Class with eight points and just behind were Jamie Anderson's AVALANCHE from Port Washington YC with sixteen points and George Marks' GEORGETOWN III from North Shore YC with twenty two points.

For more sailing regatta information and results.

J/24 Europeans Start Sailing in Stormy Weather

(Bay of Souda, Crete, Greece)-  With twenty eight entrants from all over Europe, racing started on Tuesday for the J/24 Europeans.  Competitors came from six different European countries, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Hungary, United Kingdom and Greece.

The first day of racing had three races completed in difficult weather conditions. Despite the changeable winds, the crew of the HELLENIC POLICE (be careful with them!) with skipper Alexandros Tagaropoulos managed to finish first in the first race of the day with good sailing choices and very good boat speed.  The German boat GUNNI, with Matthias Garzmann on the helm won the second race and the English boat RELOADED with Gavin Watson and his crew, won the last race of the day.

On Wednesday, the crews didn’t manage to finish even one race because of the lack of wind and the very strong rain. The Race Committee tried to start a race but the big wind change made the accomplishment impossible. Then the rain started again.  For the evening the Organizing Committee honored its Sponsors with a Party in the restaurant-bar "Cozmo", at the old port of Chania.

More news on the race, the party, the venue and the incredible Greek hospitality later.  For complete sailing results and regatta information: http://www.j24euro2009.iox.gr/

Garmin Hamble Winter Sailing Series – Week 4

The Garmin Hamble Winter Series, run by Hamble River Sailing Club, remains on track after delivering another full programme and excellent day’s racing in the Solent on Sunday. The fourth day of racing of the Garmin Hamble Winter Series 2009 took place on Sunday, October 25th.  The 16 boat fleet saw 17-25 knots from the south west and the sun was quite warm whilst you were in it, giving perfect conditions for a longer course to be set. 

In contrast to last weekend’s drifting conditions in bright sunshine, Sunday delivered typical Winter Series conditions above forecast with a constant 20 to 25 knot south Westerly across both Black and White fleet courses.  Amongst the Black fleet one-designs ‘JOURNEYMAKER 5’ scored a win in the J/105 fleet.

Within the J/109 fleet it was business as usual as ‘J-DREAM’ scored a fourth race win with ‘SHIVA’, making her first outing in the series, coming home second.  At the start J-DREAM (David & Kirsty Apthorp) saw off the challenge of SHIVA (Matthew Boyle) but was held out left waiting for JUMPING JELLYFISH (David Richards) and JUST SO (David & Mary McGough) to tack right, to stay on the plateau and in less tide.  East Bramble was the first windward mark and then the fleet had an excellent run back to Hamble Yacht Services before a shorter 2 lap windward/leeward course between Air Canada and Hamble Yacht Services.  At the first windward mark, J-DREAM led from SHIVA, a position which she extended for the remainder of the race, winning by nearly 4 minutes.  At the halfway stage of the event,  J-DREAM has 4 points, ARIA 12 points and OUTRAJEOUS 17 points, while places 5th to 8th are only separated by 4 points.

Over on the White fleet course all three races went off as programed, despite gusts up to 28 knots. A few competitors headed for home before but the start of the third race, but most seemed to relish the tough conditions. ‘Oi!!’ scored a consistent 2, 1, 2 in the J/80 fleet maintaining her overall series lead.
Out for the first time in a J/80 was Robin Fielder and his crew. Paul Fuller, who was part of Robin’s crew had this to say;

‘Well, what a weekend for a test sail !  We were slightly apprehensive about the challenges of three races on a breezy Sunday – a new crew and an owner who hasn’t sailed competitively for two years.  However, with some expert tuition from Paul Heys, we quickly got up to speed and by the last race were thoroughly enjoying ourselves, finishing with a win.   The J/80 was excellent fun to sail in a breeze and very stable downwind.  We found it relatively easy to sail and as test sails go, to come away with a 3, 2, 1 was fantastic.  It says much for the layout and the handling characteristics of this great little sportsboat that a new crew can jump onboard and race competitively.’


For more regatta sailing results and information click here.

J/97 Chicago Demos

Rich Stearns reports they've had a number of excellent days for demonstrating the J/97's extraordinary performance in a wide variety of conditions.  For those of you in the Great Lakes region, now's a great time to get down to Chicago to get a chance to take a demo sail on a terrific, comfortable, easy-to-sail boat-- customer reactions are similar to what's been heard in Newport and Annapolis- "amazing interior", "great cockpit", "feels like a 40 footer"!  Please email Richie Stearns at "rich@stearnsboating.com."

J/80 Tour Update

Word on the street is that upwards of a dozen J/80s have been bought  for competing in this years' upcoming J/80 Tour that starts with the Nautica Key West Race Week in Key West, Florida and ends with the J/80 World Championships in Newport, Rhode Island.  J/80 Class leaders at the recent J/80 North American Championships in Houston, Texas have seen strong enthusiasm for the J/80 Tour.  For more information on this circuit, please contact J/80 Class reps at the J/80 Class Association- http://www.j80.org

New J/111 Speedboat Info

For more details regarding J's latest 36 footer, please check out the J/111 webpage.  You'll find an Interior layout depicting the comfortable weekending accommodations, navigation station, galley and spacious dining/ living area.  The deck and cockpit plan give you an idea of how we've integrated some of the better features of past J's to give you excellent comfort for day sailing as well as enough ergonomic elbow-room to race a boat of this size.  Finally, the profile and baseline technical specifications for DSPL/ Length and SA/ DSPL Upwind and Downwind provide insight as to the horsepower and upside speed potential of the J/111.  No question, this will be a fun, easy-to-sail boat that has an extraordinary turn-of-speed when you want it to-- planing off the wind in with finger-tip control on a 60" wheel will make the J/111 a joy to sail.  For more information, please contact J/Boats at Ph- +1-401-846-8410 or email - info@jboats.com.