J/111 New (Faster) Kid?
(Lymington, England)- Andrew Hurst, Editor of SEAHORSE, wanted to know more about how the J/Boats Design Team identifies target markets, brain-storms the creation of the design and develops the ultimate sailing boat for a given marketplace. With the imminent launch of the new J/111 in June, Andrew wanted SEAHORSE readers to have a better understanding of that development process and focused on those critical factors that define the character of the boat-- the optimization and trade-offs inherent in any design with regards to hull shapes, keel and rudder design, rig configuration, choices for deck layouts and the use of modern technology and materials that enable J/Boats to build a modern high-performance sailboat for better price/ performance. Read more about the SEAHORSE J/111 article here. Learn more about sailing the J/111 One-Design here. Please visit SEAHORSE for more international sailing news.
J/22 Great Lakes Trophies
Waterline Systems Great Lakes is pleased to announce they will be sponsoring two perpetual trophies honoring the individual and fleet season champions in the Great Lakes J/22 Fleet. The Waterline Systems Great Lakes J/22 Circuit for 2010 will consist of 6 regattas contested on 4 lakes, in two countries, over a period of 6 months.From the opening event on Canandaigua Lake, to the closing event in Rochester, teams will need to overcome a wide variety of sailing conditions; from the big water sailing of Lakes Ontario and Erie, to the crazy shifts of Lake George and Canandaigua Lake. Additional hazards to master will range from the blender storm in Cleveland, to a semi-formal dinner at Lake George. The winners of these prizes will be pretty well-rounded.
The purpose of these awards is to promote and encourage J/22 teams to travel and enjoy the hospitality and camaraderie of our regional J/22 fleets. WLSGL hopes that the establishment of a regional circuit will help regatta organizers promote their events to the region. Waterline Systems is also committed to assisting regatta organizers and competitors through sponsorship and participating in or organizing pre-regatta clinics.
The US Watercraft Top Boat Perpetual Trophy will be awarded to the boat with the lowest cumulative score using the final individual regatta rankings. A regatta win is worth 1 point, 12th in a regatta is worth 12.
The Waterline Systems Top Fleet Perpetual Trophy is designed with two goals in mind; to get fleets to encourage their members to travel, and for the fleets to help their members get better. Scoring is the same as in the individual trophy, but the top three scores of the fleet count. It does not need to be the Same 3 boats at each event... just the top three.
The Waterline Systems Trophy will display the names of all the boats that scored points for the winning team. You can take pride in winning the team trophy and tell some amazing sea stories about how you overcame the Loch Ness Monster ("Missy"(?)) and other such extraordinary tales of bravery and seamanship on your way to the season championship. For more information on the Waterline Systems Great lakes J/22 Circuit contact: Will Harris, will@waterlinesystems.com, 716-531-6088
Regatta & Show Schedules:
May 27-30- J/80 Copa Espana- Barcelona, Spain- http://www.rcnb.comJun 4-6- J/MedCup- Ill de Porquerolles (Hyeres), France- http://www.k-yachting.com
Jun 5-6- Sprit Fest Regatta- Breakwater YC- Sag Harbor, NY- http://www.spritfest.org
Jun 10-13- J/80 Italian Championship- Lake Garda, Italy- http://www.j80euro2010.it/
Jun 19-20- J/Fest Northwest- Seattle, WA- http://www.sailnorthwest.com
Jun 21-26- J/80 European Championship- Lake Garda, Italy- http://www.j80euro2010.it/
Jun 20-26- Block Island Race Week- Block Is, RI- http://www.blockislandraceweek.org
Jun 27-26- San Francisco NOOD Regatta- St. Francis YC- http://www.sailingworld.com
Jun 25–27- Long Beach Race Week/ J/120 NAS- Long Beach YC- Long Beach, CA- http://www.lbrw.org
For additional J/Regatta and Event dates in your region, please refer to the on-line J/Sailing Calendar.
J/Regatta News
The Sun Never Sets on J's Sailing Worldwide
This past week of sailing seemed to be all about one-design racing in the smaller J's- the "three big dogs" of international one-design keelboats- J/22s, J/24s and the J/80s. That theme carried throughout Europe as well as the Americas. In Europe, the Italians have their J/80 circuit ratcheted up a few notches with their circuit rolling along in the beautiful Mediterranean seaside villages of Portofino/ Santa Margherita. Their Spanish colleagues continue racing avidly off Santander, Palma de Mallorca and La Coruna. Their J/80 friends across "La Manche" in England have their Eastern circuit going and the northern Europeans in Germany, Belgium and Sweden are well on their way to getting their summer series rolling. In the Pacific Northwest, the Portland, OR crowd sailed their Oregon Offshore Race, the feeder for the NW offshore classic- the Swiftsure Race. The J/22s sailed the Jack Rabbit Regatta on one of upstate New York's gorgeous, picturesque lakes. And, also enjoying spectacular vistas while bashing and crashing arounds the cans were the J/24s sailing their North American Championships in majestic Puget Sound off Shilshole Marina, Seattle, WA. Read on! More importantly, if you have more J/Regatta News, please email it or upload onto our J/Boats Facebook page! Below are the summaries.
3 BIG DOGS Win J/24 North Americans
Invasion By Santa Barbarians Successful!
(Seattle, WA - May 23) - Thirty-five teams competed in the BITBURGER J/24 North Americans hosted by Seattle's Corinthian Yacht Club. It took solid, consistent sailing to finish well in this year's event sailed on the tricky waters of Puget Sound with lots of shifty winds and plenty of current to contend with over the course of the three days of racing. The ultimate winner, Pat Toole's 3 BIG DOGS, were sailing well enough on Sunday to win over local Seattle favorite Keith Whittemore sailing TUNDRA ROSE. It was the first victory in a major regatta for "The Dogs" who sail out of Santa Barbara Yacht Club.
"It was a great day of sailing, it's our best ever," Pat said after the win on Sunday. What was the key for 3 BIG DOGS? "It wasn't our starts", Pat said, "In fact, the last start was horrible. But even when we got bad starts, we were able to duck sterns and get in phase with the wind shifts right away and sail a long, correct board. That was it." The 3 BIG DOGS finished the regatta with a total of 27 points in 10 races sailed over three days. His finishes were 3, 1, 4, 5, (15), 1, 3, 1, 5, 4. Finishing second was Keith Whittemore of Seattle and his crew on TUNDRA ROSE with 33 points, third was local Scot Milne sailing TREMENDOUS SLOUCH, fourth was Argentinean Fernando Gnozdz skippering LUCA, fifth was Mike Ingham sailing BRAIN CRAMP. What was nice to see was Japan's Hideyuki Miyagawa have his practice pay off from sailing the weekend before in the J/24 NW Regionals, they finished 8th overall!
Both Scot Milne on TREMENDOUS SLOUCH and Keith on TUNDRA ROSE were in the hunt going into the racing on Sunday. In fact, Milne and team on TREMENDOUS SLOUCH were leading going into the races on Sunday after winning all three races on Saturday. However, both teams hurt their chances by getting out of phase with the wind shifts and the current on Sunday and bombing a few races to drop out of contention. The wind Sunday was from the south and shifty at 8 to 15 knots.
Whittemore congratulated 3 BIG DOGS for their victory and said the competition was tough throughout the regatta. "At the top of the fleet, getting by people was almost impossible," he said. "You had to have a good start and go the right way, and if you didn't do that you were back a ways. The three leaders were all up and down, but the 3 DOGS guys sailed the most consistent series."Tom Niccoli, TREMENDOUS SLOUCH trimmer (rounding the mark at right), said the of the racing: "It was phenomenal. I thought we did well, but it was harder today (Sunday) to get the settings right. It was up and down and there was a lot more wave action that made it harder for us to find a groove and get settled in. The DOGS were always going the right way with great boat speed and great sailing."
Toole's previous high finishes in big J/24 regattas included a third in the 2008 North Americans in Marina Del Ray and a third in the Nationals last year on San Francisco Bay. His crew included Les Wolff (bow), Chris Stankevitz (mast), George Witter (pit), and Dale Turley (trimmer-tactician). "This yacht club and these volunteers did a spectacular job," Toole said. "It takes a lot of work to put on an event like this."
The top three finishers in the regatta win spots in the 2011 World Championships in Buenos Aires. Bitburger, one of Germany's largest brewers, which wants to expand its U.S. market share, was the title sponsor of the J/24 North American Championship. Other sponsors include Fat Bastard wine, Kvichak Marine Industries, Northwest Yachting Magazine, Quantum Sails, Cheap Diver, Shilshole Bay Marina, Skyweb Express, Harken, Team McLube, North Sails, Web 1 Marketing, CSR Marine and Seattle Yacht Club.In this picture at right during the awards ceremony- from left-to-right- regatta director Joy Okazaki, Jim Florio of Click Wholesale Distributing (representing title sponsor Bitburger Beer), the crew of 3 Big Dogs, George Witter (tactics), Les Wolff (bow), Chris Stankevitz (mast), Pat Toole (helm) and Dale Turley (trimmer), and regatta racing director John Mason. For more J/24 North Americans sailing results and information.
J/80s Racing "Sail-East" Regattas
(West Mersea, England)- The first of the season's five Hutton Construction and HCC Insurance International sponsored Sail-East Regattas took place on the River Blackwater estuary over the weekend of 15th and 16th May.The event organised by West Mersea's Dabchicks Sailing Club. 26 yachts from around the region took part, with Saturday's first race sailed in a light breeze, before the strong tide and fickle air in the second race made for extremely testing conditions. The wind then increased to a steady force three for Sunday's race, which blew away hangovers from Saturday evening's traditional party and ceiling walking festivities (Michael Jackson "moon-walking" upside down??).
Taking the top position in the J/80 class was home club skipper Nick Glanvill sailing his newly acquired J/80 JALFREZI, which had race placings of second, twelfth and fourth. Typifying the usual closeness of Sail East inshore yacht racing, only two minutes covered the top eight positions in the final race of nearly two hours.
Sail-East now looks forward to the second event of the season, the Felixstowe Regatta on 3rd and 4th July, when two days of sharp racing round windward/leeward courses is promised. For more Sail East regatta and sailing information.
Whitmore Wins J/80 Saltsjobad Regatta
(Saltsjobad, Sweden- May 25th)- The J/80s are warming up in Sweden with some of the leaders of this fleet aiming to get in enough sailing to perform well at this year's J/80 World Championships in Newport, RI. One crew in particular that is hoping to sail in Newport is Tom Whitmore's on HUNDEN sailing for KSSS. They've started off their 2010 Dynamant Cup season long championship very strongly, leading this series by winning the Saltsjobad Regatta with a 2-5-1-6-1-2 score. In second for the regatta was Christer Faith-Ell, sailing brilliantly at times and at others seemingly having the wheels fall off the shopping trolley. Christer's 1-1-8-1-4-5 for 20 points was insufficient to overcome Tom's more consistent sailing. Third was Viking Kjellstrom racing VADERLEK to a 5-2-3-3-6-3 record for 22 points, just beating out by one point the team of HEAVY DUTY sailed by Pontus Tornlund. Fifth was Jonas Dannaeus sailing A2.In the J/80 Dynamant Cup 2010 season series, Lars Gellerhed on MK-PRODUCKTER has dropped to second overall behind Whitmore's HUNDEN and Pontus Tornlund's HEAVY DUTY has ascended into third overall. For more J/80 Sweden sailing info.
J/80s Racing Santa Margherita
BEAR J GUZZI and JENIALE Winners
(Santa Margherita Ligure, Italy)- It was a busy weekend for the J/80 class in Santa Margherita, with the final races of the Winter Championship Trophy and the Trofeo Grand Hotel Miramare being sailed in the azure Mediterranean waters just off the beautiful harbor and delicious cafes of Portofino.The Italian Navy League of Santa Margherita were the perfect hosts, who are committed for five years to an event that keeps growing every year and is becoming a favorite of sailors in the region. Two races were completed on Saturday with some difficulties due to the lack of wind; forcing the committee to shorten the courses both times. However, on Sunday a strong ENE wind veered into the SSE gusting to 16-18 knots with beautiful white-capped waves. As a result, everyone had tremendous fun surfing down the waves and sailing two challenging races.
On Saturday, JENIALE sailed to a 1-2, convincingly winning the J/80 Winter Championship. Second was BEAR J GUZZI and third was OLD SPIRIT sailed by Hatamuri Rajola. Sunday was a completely different story racing for the Trofeo Grand Hotel Miramare. After sailing to a 1-1, JENIALE later found out that one of their firsts was an OCS premature start, dropping them down in the standings to second. Instead, the final results of the Trophy Grand Hotel Miramare are then: first BEAR J GUZZI, second JENIALE and third JOCONDA MIRELLA ARATA. If you get a chance, please check out the NEW J/80 Italy website! Amici, buon lavoro!
Odenbach Dominates J/22 Jack Rabbit Regatta
(Canandaigua, NY- May 15-16)- Great news from one the pretty Finger Lakes in upstate New York this past weekend. 25 boats sailed in the Jack Rabbit regatta in varied conditions. Travis Odenbach and his team won with four firsts in six races!Will Harris reports: "The inaugural Waterline Systems Great Lakes J/22 Circuit event was the Jack Rabbit Regatta, hosted by the Canandaigua Yacht Club. The weather was great; sunny with breeze ranging from really light, to pretty windy. Typical for a Finger Lake, the wind direction varied from really shifty to psychotically shifty.
The racing was extremely close, the shifts lead to plenty of position changes. No lead was safe, especially if Travis was lurking anywhere near it. Travis and his team of John Newell and Billy Farmer sailed a great regatta, winning 4 of the 6 races sailed. They didn't win the races by a lot, but they won a lot of races!
Jimmy Barnash sailing with Gunnar Richardson and Mark Sertl aboard were 2nd. Vic Snyder, Kevin Doyle and Marcie Lake on Mo' Money completed the podium. Sarah Enwright's team took home the wine and rum awarded to the mid-fleet finisher.
25 Teams from nine different clubs made it to the regatta. Special mention should go to Hudson Yacht Club in Montreal. 3 teams from their new fleet made it down and were very competitive. CYC did their usual great job, the courses and hospitality were all first-rate.
Bully Hill Vineyards was the presenting sponsor. Admiral Nelson Rum and Waterline Systems also supported the event. Wine, Rum and boat service... should be easy to support the sponsors! For more J/22 Jack Rabbit sailing info. See more commentary from Will Harris at North One-Design.
J/130 ORIZABA Wins Oregon Offshore
Prelude to Swiftsure Offshore Classic
(Victoria, BC, Canada- May 13-16)- The J/130 ORIZABA sailed a great race and repeated her 1998 performance as she won first in Class A and the Overall trophy for the Oregon Offshore Race, the traditional "feeder race" for the renowned NW offshore classic-- the Swiftsure Race. The first-to-finish boat was the ULDB WYLIE 70 called RAGE, finishing the course in 1 day, 13 hours, 19 minutes and 6 seconds, followed by the ORIZABA, John Hanna's J/133 from Portland, Oregon finishing at 2:30 am, just three hours behind RAGE.The Oregon Offshore was first run in 1976 as a result of a challenge set forth by Jack Gainer (Raindrop) and Richard Kipp (Vagabundo) to all the Portland area sailors. They wanted an event that would put the Oregon racing community into "offshore" racing rivaling Seattle, British Columbia and even California. The first race was from Astoria south to Newport. It started at buoy "2" off the entrance to the Columbia River and went to buoy "Y" at Newport, Oregon. The distance was 100 miles. Over the years, the course has changed to the present one which takes you from the channel buoy off Cape Disappointment, Portland, north to buoy "2", off the treacherous Cape Flattery at the tip of the remarkable Olympic Peninsula (home of the infamous "Sasquatch"), then southeast down the Straits of Juan De Fuca to Duntze Rock buoy then into Victoria, BC for a course of 193 nautical miles.. More Oregon Offshore Race and sailing information here.
Race For The TWO Cases of Rum!
DOUBLE VISION = Double Case!
(Lloyd Harbor, NY- May 22-23)- Leave it up to the creative characters at Lloyd Harbor YC on Long Island to come up with a "down island" themed regatta and, with pirates lair, gear and all start their summer sailing season with the annual "Race for the Case". A nice fleet of 24+ boats showed up for the event with ten J's represented, ranging from the J/80 and J/105 one-design classes to the PHRF handicap division that saw J's range from the J/24 to the J/44!Winner of the "Double Case" was DOUBLE VISION, for this J/24 had two owners that sounded like your regular high street law firm- Walters & Suss. Their record of 1-1-3-1-1 was sufficient to beat out Don and Rick Rave sailing their beautiful J/44 RESOLUTE with a 2-2-1-2-3 tally. Rounding out this PHRF Spinnaker racing division were the US Merchant Marine Academy Sailing Team racing their J/35 HYPNOS, tied for third with nineteen points, but winning the tie-breaker over Bill Maher's J/29 RIFT.
In the cruising canvas division, Daniel Montero's pretty J/34c BODACIOUS took third overall on a tie-breaker with another boat.
In the one-design classes, John Storck, Jr along with Mom and the gang won the J/80 class, sailing their well-traveled RUMOR to a four firsts and one second. An outstanding performance! Second was Richard Rubel's SOUL REBEEL with a 2-1-2-2-3 score, followed by Ansgar Chorhumnel sailing KIA ORA to third with a 3-3-3-4-2 record. In the J/105 class, the master campaigner himself, Damian Emery on ECLIPSE, sailed to an unbeatable perfect score of five firsts! Second was Jordan Mindich sailing SHAKEDOWN. For more Race for The Case sailing results and information.
J/Community
What friends, alumni and crew of J/Boats are doing worldwide
* SALACIA, the J/160 owned by the Australian couple, Stephen and Cyndy Everett, have embarked on their life long dream of sailing from San Diego (USA) to Brisbane (Australia). They started initially from San Diego and headed down to Puerto Vallarta by racing in the Puerto Vallarta Race earlier this year. SALACIA had "local" Jeff Brown on board from San Diego's JK3 Yachts to help guide them down to PV, competing with great aplomb and in the best of the corinthian spirit-- JB said the food and drink were "simply remarkable". Just yesterday, the Everett's caught their first wahoo fishing off the back of the boat! Check out SALACIA's sailing and cruising blog here.
* Santa Barbara J/105 owner of ROCK & ROLL, Bernie Girod, has recently been named President of the J/105 Class. Bernie has been a very active in both California J/105 sailing (the SoCal circuit and St Francis YC's Big Boat Series) as well as on a National level racing J/105s, including the most recent Key West Race Week. Last weekend, Bernie and crew on ROCK & ROLL were sailing on Sunday off Santa Barbara in a 20-30 knot wind, gusting 35+ kts. They happily report they made it safely downwind with no broaches and pushing nearly 20+ knots planing downwind on some huge waves. Rock on amigos! For you J/105 sailors, check out the SBYC's Fiesta Cup- they have an amazing cook-out on the beach celebrating with tasty Mexican tortillas, enchiladas, tacos with gallons of genuine Margaritas and a great band-- you really shouldn't miss it! More Fiesta Cup sailing information here at SBYC. * Sailing in the dark (e.g. sailing blind)- "Up two degrees ... hold it there," says tactician Al Spector to Mitsuhiro Iwamoto, steering a J24 race boat sailing a beeline toward another boat. "Tack on a long count. Three... two... one... tack!" "Good call," says Danette Davis. "Good call to avoid collision?" answers Al. "Right. Hiro, beautiful driving."
It sounds like typical regatta chatter. But these tactical calls are especially important. Iwamoto is blind. That boat they just missed - with four other boats bearing down? All driven by blind crew members.
The event was the first California Invitational Blind Sailing Regatta, organized on the Oakland-Alameda Estuary by the Marin Sailing School and Island Yacht Club. Teams represented Boston, Japan, Canada, New Zealand, the Bay Area Association of Disabled Sailors and Iwamoto's team, called California 1.Under international blind-regatta rules, the person at the helm is blind. A second blind or vision-impaired person handles the mainsail. There's a fully sighted tactician and a fully sighted crew member handling the foresail, but neither can't touch any other controls except in an emergency.
Crew members build a mental map of the boat with a systematic, hands-on tour, and they race on virtually identical boats loaned for the occasion. They turn their heads to feel the air on their nose and ears to tell them which way the wind is blowing. Despite maneuvers just feet apart, collisions are rare. There's not even extra insurance required, though the boat owner or a rep was allowed aboard for this regatta. -- SF Chronicle, read on here.
* Argentinean J/24 sailor Fernando Gwozdz- Fernando's five-man J/24 team from Buenos Aires was among the competitors in the J/24 North American Championships in Seattle, hoping to land one of their nation's spots in the 2011 Pan-Am Games while encouraging sailors to join them in Argentina for the 2011 J/24 Worlds. The team, three of whose members sailed a J/24 to a second-place finish in the 2007 Pan Am Games in Rio de Janeiro, sailed well in this year's regatta. Here's an interview of Fernando just before the start of the J/24 NA's:"We think it's going to be pretty hard,"said Fernando Gwozdz, the helmsman, who has finished his degree in business management and currently coaches sailing, mainly 470 sailors, in Argentina. "I am new to the team, but our trimmer has done a few regattas already and knows some of these guys, so we expect the fleet to be pretty competitive." Other members of the team are tactician Sebastian Peri Brusa, who is studying meteorology and sails 49ers, trimmer Gustavo Gonzalez, a builder, owner Sergio Armesto, a lawyer, and bowman Joaquin Duarte, who is studying naval architecture and spends a lot of time in sailboats.
They have nothing but good things to say so far about the sailing venue at Shilshole Bay Marina and on Puget Sound. "We love it," Gwozdz said. "The setting is beautiful, the mountains are fantastic, and the hospitality is great as well. The people from the club have given us a hand with what we needed so we were impressed in a good way. The facilities are good as well. This club has everything you really need to sail."
Their home club is Yacht Club Argentino, which will host the World Championships for the J/24 class next year. The top four finishers in Seattle will qualify. The Seattle event will produce two qualifiers for the Pan-Am Games. "Our venue is great, the Rio de la Plata is a great place to sail," Gwozdz said.
* Scott Snyder- Winner of the J/24 Class at Bermuda Race Week- has an interesting interview about sailing his first regatta in Bermuda: "Being invited to Bermuda International Invitational Race Week is a tremendous honor as the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club truly knows how to organize a world class international event. What we've learned from previous visits as both crew and captain is that the week-long regatta guarantees to dish up a wide range of conditions, competition and unfamiliar water that will challenge the metal of even the most seasoned team. With that in mind, we approached this year's invitation by assembling a team that would first be lots of fun to sail with, and second, included crew with great versatility and experience. I wanted to put together a team that was unselfish on the water, and fun off the water.Having discussed this regatta for some time with my good friend and world-class sailing Photographer, Tim Wilkes of Rochester, NY, together we put a team together that consisted of Brian Simkins of Long Island, NY, Michael Dannecker of Denver, CO and Greg Schertz of Denver, CO. Interestingly enough, all five team members are great drivers in their own right.
Despite our attempts to get a practice regatta in a month prior to the regatta, knee surgery for Brian Simkins kept him on crutches until just a week before the regatta. It's also cementing his role as driver for the week as we had originally planned to co-helm the regatta. It's a decision that paid off immediately as everyone on the crew really focused on their role for the week. Even our practice day before the regatta was blown out due to winds in excess of 40 knots. We dedicated a few hours the evening before the regatta to verbally review roles and team work process verbally before heading out to the course on the first day of the regatta without ever taking a single tack together as a team.
I've never been a part of such an unselfish team before. The entire week was full of great communication, clear lines of decision-making, proactive crew work, and great fun. As our victory was such a great team effort, we've decided to participate in this interview as a team as well." Read more about their team's sailing experience here.
Featured Boat
QUESTAR- Immaculate J/46 Ready to Go Sailing!
QUESTAR is an immaculate and extremely well maintained J/46. Commissioned for an avid and seasoned yachtsman, she is thoughtfully outfitted and well equipped. QUESTAR has never been raced and has been cruised very lightly for an annual trip to Catalina.The J/46 may be the only investment grade sailing yacht of its size not requiring professional crew to sail at designed performance levels--- or to maintain. Two people can easily manage her upwind and downwind to achieve the same 8 knot passage-making speeds under sail that is possible when motoring with 76 hp diesel auxiliary. The perfect boat is, after all, a goal we believe every owner ultimately seeks. To insure that good sailing days are spent sailing rather than scrubbing and varnishing, J/46 is designed to be virtually maintenance-free. To learn more about this exquisite sailing yacht, please contact Jeff Brown (jeff@jk3yachts.com) at JK3 Nautical Enterprises (http://www.jk3yachts.com) or call work-(619) 224-6200 or cell-(619) 709-0697
About J/Boats
Started in 1977, J/Boats continues to lead the world in designing fun-to-sail, easy-to-handle, performance sailboats that can be enjoyed by a broad spectrum of sailors. The International J/24 has become the most popular recreational offshore keelboat in the world with over 5,400 J/24s cruising the waves. Today, there are 13,000+ J/Boats, ranging from the International J/22 to the J/65 and ranging in style from one-designs to racers, cruisers to daysailers and, of course, the ubiquitous J sprit boats- J/Boats' innovation in 1992 for easy-to-use asymmetric spinnakers and retractable carbon bowsprits (J/80, J/92, J/95, J/105, J/109, J/110, J/120, J/122, J/130, J/133, J/125, J/145, J/160).J/Boats has the best track record in sailing for innovation and design as evidenced by: 15 Sailing World/ Cruising World Boat of the Year Awards in 14 years; 2 SAIL Awards for Industry Leadership; 2 American Sailboat Hall of Fame Designs (J/24 & J/35); and the three largest ISAF International One-Design keelboat classes (J/22, J/24, J/80).
Counting crew, every year there are over 100,000 friends to meet sailing J's, populating the most beautiful sailing harbors and sailing the waters of 35+ countries around the world. Sailing is all about friends. Come join us and expand your social network everywhere!
For more information on J/Boats.
The current champion and US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics member, Anna Tunnicliffe (Plantation, Fla.), recently received US Sailing’s highest honor as the 2009 Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year based in part on her accomplishment of winning the 2009 Rolex IWKC. 'Since US Sailing and Rolex created the Rolex IWKC in 1985, many accomplished women sailors have been part of this regatta’s 25-year history,' said Taran Teague (Annapolis, Md.), chair of US Sailing’s International Women’s Keelboat steering committee. 'In fact, since its founding, this regatta has hosted more than 2,500 women representing 23 countries.'
* San Diego J/Fleet Having Fun! Sailing Anarchy's Scot Tempesta continues his efforts to grow and "save sailing" in the SoCal 'hood. Here's a quickie on what they've done with the local "paper" yacht club- Cortez Racing Association- to enjoy the gorgeous conditions often found off San Diego. Says Scot, "We haven't done a local knowledge piece from here in Dago for a long time, and here's one about the Cortez Racing Association's Opening Day race. CRA is a 'paper club' that has been running fun, mostly bay races here and on ANARCHY, we have sailed a bunch of their races this (and last) year, because they, maybe more than any other SD club, have the fun factor nailed down. This race was a 53 boat, 12 mile mostly light air bay/ocean pursuit start that was a kick because it had a little of everything long beats, 
long runs, actual need to navigate and the fun of passing boats all race long. (Is passing boats never not fun?). As much as the multi-day, 5 or 7 race series are challenging, the CRA races are for us, just more fun and that's why we race sailboats, isn't it? It would be great to get more of the sporty-type boats out for their races - just six showed up for this one... In addition to their fun Beercan series starting May 26, there is the West Marine Challenged America - a great cause if there ever was one. So this is the call out to get as many SD boats, sporties and otherwise, out for this event. No excuses. Sign up, be a part of a worthwhile event, and have some fun! Photo credits- 
