J/70 Sailing Annapolis

(Annapolis, MD)- After traveling south to Charleston this past week, the J/70 is headed north and will be sailing on the Chesapeake Bay for the next few weeks.  Be sure to swing by and see the J/70 speedster sailing out of Back Creek at Northpoint Yacht Sales in Eastport (Annapolis), next to J/World Sailing School.  For sailing demo's be sure to contact Ken Comerford at ph- 410-280-2038 or email- ken@northpointyachtsales.com

Also, our J/Dealer in the Chicago area, Richie Stearns @ Stearns Boating, put together a nice sailing video "review" of the J/70 for you to enjoy on YouTube.  Enjoy the video, some entertaining sequences sailing the J/70 as well as practical descriptions of the various parts of the boat.

And, while you're in the entertainment mode, don't forget to check out the J/70 Sailing Music Video, a wonderful perspective on how easy it is to sail the J/70.  An oft-heard refrain coming from those who've sailed the J/70 in winds ranging from 5 to 25 knots is "man, that's an easy boat to sail FAST, you always feel like you're in complete control!", commenting on it's ability to hit 5.8 to 6.3 kts upwind across the wind range and how J/70 starts planing downwind in 8-10 kts of wind going as fast as the wind.  Enjoy!
For J/70 speedster sailing information

J/70 Southern-style Sailing

(Charleston, SC)- J/70 has completed its extensive sailing trials north of the "Mason-Dixon" line in the cool, windy, sunny climate of northern New England.  Time to blaze some smokin hot contrails down south.  This week, the J/70 travels south to the warm and comfortable confines of South Carolina for Charleston Race Week.  After a charming week on Lake Norman, the J/70 will be shaking off its recent fresh-water bath for the salty mid-Atlantic Ocean and running tides in Charleston Harbor.  Be sure to swing by and see the J/70 speedster at the Charleston Harbor & Marina (next to registration & walkway onto the docks).  For sailing demo's be sure to contact Don Trask at cell# 510-385-4094 or email- djtboats@aol.com

SAIL's J/70 Boat Test

(Newport, RI)- Adam Cort and his colleague Meredith from SAIL Magazine made their way down to the famous seaport town of Bristol, Rhode Island to take their first look and test sail of the latest "baby J" on a nice blustery, challenging day for sailing.  Adam's report follows:

"There’s nothing more disappointing than test sailing a high-octane sport boat in a drifter. But that wasn’t a problem with the new 22ft, 9in J/70. For our sail trial we had a steady 20-knot southerly, gusting over 25 knots and kicking up a sharp chop off Bristol, Rhode Island. Because J/Boats was only about a week into its boat trials at the time, company President Jeff Johnstone decided it might not be prudent to fly the A-sail, but it didn’t matter. Beating out toward Popasquash Point, the boat proved both nimble and manageable. It accelerated in the puffs and had an easy helm, even when we buried the lee rail. At one point I overshot a tack, but I never felt we were completely out of control, thanks to the boat’s ballasted keel and large transom-hung rudder. The fairly high boom and spacious 11-foot self-draining cockpit made getting from one side to the other while tacking a piece of cake—-- a far cry from the 24-footer that first put J/Boats on the map.  Then it came time to bear away---".  Read more here on SAIL's website.  For more J/70 sailboat information here!

Adam and Meredith also put together a sailing video of their experience in these 20-25 knots winds- you can watch that sailing video and J/Boats interview with Jeff Johnstone here.

J/News Sailing Summary- April 14th, 2012

The Sun Never Sets on J's Sailing Worldwide 
With the advent of April and Easter and all the festivities associated with this time of the year, it's also a time of closure and celebration in the sailing world.

Down Under in the Antipodean sailing world of Australia and New Zealand, as well as in South American sailing waters of Chile, Argentina and Brazil, their summers are coming to a close, fall is rapidly approaching and all the efforts put forth in sailing summer series are being celebrated by many in such diverse locations.

While the Chilean J/105 fleet rescheduled their Chilean Nationals to October (due to weather challenges), the J/111 in Sydney had a successful summer racing their Offshore Series.  Also in the Pacific, a J/109 and J/145 sailed the Rolex China Sea Race and had cause for celebration for the Easter Weekend.

Keeping within that same theme, the J/24s had fun sailing a long-time Easter "classic", the Easter Regatta in Columbia, SC.

The Caribbean J sailors on a J/122, J/95, J/109 and J/120 were busy divining the Wind God's wild breeze rolling off the enormous cliffs and hills of St Barths during the Les Voiles St Barths.

Finally, over in Europe, the French were hosting their largest regatta, SPI Ouest France off La Trinite sur Mer, offering amazing sailing on Quiberon Bay to an enormous one-design fleet of J/80s and a strong one-design fleet of J/111s.

Just across La Manche (the English Channel), the RORC sailed their Easter Challenge on that famous body of water called "the Solent", a unique regatta that features real-time, on-the-water coaching while you sail around the race-track-- helpful to many J/122, J/133, J/111, J/80, J/109 and J/97 sailors!

Read on! The J/Community and Cruising section below continue to enjoy the Caribbean and the South Pacific, staying warm while others are trying to stay warm up north.  Check them out!  More importantly, if you have more J/Regatta News, please email it or upload onto our J/Boats Facebook page!  Below are the summaries.

J/111 @ Strictly Sail Pacific Boat Show

(Oakland, California)- This year the Strictly Sail Pacific boat show from April 12 - 15 - the only all sailboat show on the West Coast - will serve as the San Francisco stopover for the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race fleet.  Even more importantly, Sail California will have a great selection of boats at the show including a J/111, along with detailed information on the newly released J/70. If you are interested in a personalized tour of the boats we'll have at Strictly Sail Pacific, call Norm Davant and crew at 510-523-8500 and make an appointment. We'll see you there!

Sailing The J/70 Gets Real!

The SAILING WORLD Test
(Newport, RI)- Dave Reed and crew hopped on board the J/70 recently for a test drive on a very spring-like day in New England.  Some excerpts from what Dave had to say about the new J/70 speedster sailing, "After a quick rig we were off and sailing in a puffy 10- to 15-knot spring southerly. When I slid into the driver’s seat, grabbed the tiller, and sheeted in another click on the floor-mounted ratchet block, my immediate impression was the responsiveness of the rudder: micro-movements gave instant results. And when I found that groove somewhere between high and pinchy and bow-down fast, the boat came alive. With the three others sitting casually, legs out, I let the tiller extension float above my open hand, and the helm remained balanced, the boat practically sailed by itself. When a puff would hit, a small amount of mainsheet ease kept it tracking. J/Boats tend to focus first on having good upwind traits, and the J/70 is no exception.

It turned swiftly through the tacks, even without any attempt to roll, and because of the narrowness of the cockpit, the high boom, and plenty of space behind the traveler, I only had to take two steps to go from sitting to sitting. It was a very natural flow, and I never felt any tendency of being tossed off-balance mid-tack."  Read more on Sailing World website here- http://www.sailingworld.com/sailboats/the-j70-gets-real

J/70 Music Sailing Video

Enjoy J/70 Music Sailing Video- http://youtu.be/bkGsQhBxJtA

J/70 Speedster Performance Update

(Newport, RI)- After another week of sailing the new "baby J", it's pretty clear the performance is exceeding all expectations.  A fun boat, indeed, the J/70 Speedster is.  Teams from North Sails and Quantum Sails have had a chance to sail them in a wide range of wind conditions, from 3-5 kts up to 25-28 knots.  J/70 handles the wide-range of conditions with ease, far greater ease than many had imagined.  Team Quantum has reported sustained bursts up to 15.8 knots on their GPS trackers in just 17-18 kts of wind, read more about that experience here- Norm Davant's "Early Adopter" report on SA.

A recent demo is indicative of the J/70s performance envelope around the track.  Starting in just 4-6 kt breezes building to no more than 8-13 kt winds-- the J/70 averaged 6.7 knots over an 8.96 nm track that took 1 hr 19 min 46 secs.  Top speed was 10.8 kts downwind while average speed upwind ranged from 5.8 to 6.5 kts-- pretty quick for a 23 footer!  In short, we sailed 4.5 nm upwind, turned around, set the chute and sailed 4.5 nm downwind.  The track can be seen here on Phillipe Kahn's MotionX-GPS software (Phillipe's a fellow J/100 owner in Santa Cruz, CA)- http://bit.ly/H06lmO. For more J/70 Speedster sailing information