(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
