J/70s Sailing Video- Mile-High Andes Mountains!

(Lake Panguipulli, Chile)- A new fleet of J/70s have been sailing on Lake Panguipulli high up in Chile’s Andes Mountain range.

This J/70 sailing video was taken during their recent Chilean LAND ROVER J/70 Nationals the weekend before last. Enjoy the spectacular scenery and nicely done footage.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGiNSewrsH8

PILGRIM Takes Chilean J/70 Nationals

(Lake Panguipulli, Chile)- The inaugural Chilean J/70 Nationals took place this past weekend on one of the world’s most picturesque lakes.  Situated on the Puyumén Peninsula, Lake Panguipulli is surrounded by the majestic peaks of the famous Andes Mountain range.  While sailing in shirts, shorts, & shades, skiing on snow-capped mountains is happening in some of Chile’s famous ski resorts!

On the first day, the fleet of J/70 sailors were met by high temperatures, clear skies and moderate winds ranging between 7-11 knots from 250 degrees with minimal shifts of 10 degrees, conditions that were near perfect for sailing on the lake. In fact, the weather was so nice, a small navy of motorboats gathered around the fleet to watch racing for most of the day!


The R.C.’s P.R.O. managed to deliver three races and, when the results were tabulated, there were few differences between the teams.  The first race of the day began with a dominating performance by Nadja Horwitz, followed by Juan Eduardo Reid’s BLACK JACK and PILGRIM skippered by Benjamin Grez. In the last two races it was clear the PILGRIM/ MBI VOLVO team led by “los hermanos Grez” had figured out the formula for success and managed to score two bullets to take over the regatta lead with just 5 pts.  Eduardo-Reid’s team on BLACK JACK also sailed consistently well enough to hang onto second with a 2-3-3.  Another boat that also figured out the “formula” was Jorge Gonzalez and his team on ALLEGRO, posting a 5-2-2 to jump up to third place for the day.

The second day of sailing dawned with a gorgeous sunrise, but light winds that never exceeded 5-6 kts; it was clear the forecast was somewhat accurate and that meant it was going to be difficult to get in more than 2-3 races.  Despite a number of valiant attempts at getting more races going, the P.R.O. could only manage to get one fair race in for the day.  And, it was one unbelievably close race, clearly upsetting the standings for nearly everyone in the top three!

The team of Benjamin Grez, Christopher Grez, Miguel Perez and Jorge Lama, aboard PILGRIM/ MBI VOLVO just managed to stay out of trouble by finishing 4th in the last race to be crowned the first J/70 National Champions in Chile!  Just behind them by only one point was a tie-breaker, the result of a titanic battle for the silver between Gonzalez’s ALLEGRO and Eduardo-Reid’s BLACK JACK.  Getting the upper hand at the finish was the very happy ALLEGRO team, winning the race and, as a result, winning the tie-break on 10 pts to snag second overall.  Third place then went to the BLACKJACK gang.

The regatta was organized by the J/70 Class Chile and WindMade, with support from the Municipality of Panguipulli and LAND ROVER Chile as a sponsor.  Interestingly, this was also the first J/70 National Championship to be held outside American soil anywhere in the world!   Sailing photo credits- Berni Grez
For more J/70 Chilean Nationals sailing results.

Chile J/70- Mile High Sailing

(Santiago, Chile)- J/70s continue to pop-up in some of the most amazing places to sail in the world and are also doing some amazing things in even the most common places to sail in the world.  On the highest order of magnitude of “coolness” has to be the two J/70s that are sailing on Vichuquen lake, 350 kms south from Santiago, Chile way, way, way up in the spectacular, breath-taking Andes Mountains.  Here we find J/70 #76 sitting safely high and dry on her “dry-sail” cradle on a dock- “sweet” to have this baby sitting behind your “crib” a mile high on this gorgeous lake!

Sailing on the ever-popular Galveston Bay is a rapidly growing fleet of J/70s.  While not sailing one-design events, some have been sailing the Galveston Bay Icicle Series in the PHRF handicap fleet- a series of “pursuit-style” races over several weeks.  Recently, Michael Byrne posted a YouTube sailing video of their J/70 flying a Code Zero in this PHRF handicap pursuit race!  Apparently, the J/70 was simply flying!  According to Mike:

“We were in the PHRF staggered start race, we used a Code 0 built from the Galveston Bay UK loft.  The race started off pretty tight with an apparent about 50 degrees, but ended up around 60-65 degrees.  The pole was out just about 2.5 feet.  Wind was around 6-10 kts true.  Boat speed averaged about 7.5 knots C.O.G in flat water with no current.  A J/109 with a Code 0 took forever to overhaul us, they ever so slowly rolled us to leeward with an extra 0.5 knots of boat speed, but chalk that up to the extra 13 feet of waterline!”

It sure looked like it was a fun day on the water. Last week the J/70 was the first boat across the line.  Enjoy their YouTube J/70 sailing video here.

J/70 Awarded ISAF International Class Status

(London, England)- Over 500 delegates from more than 60 nations gathered together in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman for the 2013 ISAF Annual Conference. Held from 9-16 November, the ISAF Council made decisions that affected the sport of sailing in the immediate future.  Most importantly, the J/70 one-design class was awarded “International Class” status.

As one looks back on the history of one-design classes that have achieved International Class status with ISAF (and its precursors like International Yacht Racing Union), never has a boat from any nation achieved “international” status in less than eighteen (18) months from its initial commercial introduction to the world’s marketplace.

Remarkably, the J/70 is now sailed on five principal continents that are part of the ISAF World of Sailing (North America, South America, Europe, Asia & Australia).  To date there are over 500+ boats ordered in some of the world’s best places to go sailing anywhere.    For more ISAF Conference information   For more International J/70 One-Design Class sailing information

J/70 World Class Developments

(Newport, RI)- As the J/70 class continues to expand worldwide at a frenetic pace, easily the fastest growing sportboat ever, there are even more exciting developments to look forward to headed into 2014.

So far, American J/70 sailors have established nineteen fleets spread across the country, with representation in virtually every major sailing center.  The likelihood of fleets developing in places like Edgartown YC in Martha’s Vineyard and in Stonington/New London, CT with US Coast Guard Academy sailors participating is quite certain; pushing the total fleets over 20+ for 2014.  More news on these fleets and others as they develop.  The larger fleets so far happen to be on Chesapeake Bay (Annapolis, Richmond and Fishing Bay- over 50 boats); in the Great Lakes (Chicago, Rocky River, Canandaigua, Erie, Youngstown & Rochester- over 50 boats); on the Pacific Coast (Seattle, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Newport Beach, San Diego- over 40 boats); and in the Northeast (Marblehead, Edgartown, Fishers Island, Ridgewood, Southampton and Newport- over 50 boats).  Southwestern USA is growing fast with fleets established in Forth Worth and Houston, Texas— nearly two dozen boats!

The European scene is catching up quickly with fleet development already taking place in virtually all major sailing centers across the UK and continental Europe.  While the strongest fleet so far has been the Solent-based J/70 sailors in the UK, their cross-Channel colleagues are creating enormous momentum.  J/70s enjoyed excellent fleet growth in Italy, hosting the first EuroCup on Lago di Garda for sailing teams from Germany, UK, Monaco, Netherlands, France and Russia.  Expect to see fleets growing in the Benelux/ Netherlands region, France, Germany, Monaco, Scandinavia (Sweden, Norway, Denmark) and Russia.  The German J/70 fleet has generated significant interest due to their Deutsche Sailing Bundesliga (watch real-time Berliner finals this weekend here).  Perhaps the most exciting development may be taking place on Lake Constance (the Bodensee).  There, fifty-five sailing clubs that border it’s picturesque shoreline (Germany, Switzerland, Austria) have agreed, as part of the Lake Constance Sailing Association, to grow the J/70 one-design class on the lake— more news on this exciting development soon!

Looking out further across the world of J/70 sailing, a number of J/70s are already sailing in South America (Peru, Chile, Brazil) and Australia (Sydney).  Perhaps the most exciting developments are taking place on the Asia/ Pacific Rim; it appears that multiple fleets with dozens of boats are organizing in China, spearheaded by their provincial Ministers of Sport & Tourism to help catalyze the lifelong sport/ recreation of sailing across Asia!  More news soon!

J/70 sailors themselves have been documenting the extraordinary amounts of fun they’re having with their boats.  Perhaps one of the coolest 70 sailing videos to date comes from Annapolis photographer Sara Proctor, practicing her skills as a videographer at the monstrous J/70 North Americans recently held on the Chesapeake Bay with nearly 90 boats!  Sara’s “music sailing video” includes nice choreography with ALT-J’s popular BREEZEBLOCKS tune (the Leeds, England–based trio that fittingly has a new album called “AN AWESOME WAVE”- postmodern pop that mines the best elements from folk-rock, garage rock, dub-pop, indie rock, vintage cinema scores, and a-cappella harmony before constructing layered, angular arrangements with sonic overtones). Sweet!!  Watch Sara Proctor’s sailing video tour’de’force here.

There are several other J/70 sailing videos for your couch-potato viewing pleasure, including:

- Team JUGADOR Sailing the British J/70 Nationals- just your basic 12-15 kts of sailing on “cruise-control” with bursts to 17-18 kts plus!

- A J/70 sailing San Francisco Bay- extreme upwind sailing in 25+ kts of breeze.

- Matt Romberg’s J/70 speed-sailing trials on a beautiful, windy day on Lake Travis- sailing with his Dad and Jon Baker and featuring a nice wipe out in the middle of the segment.

- Peter Winkelstein recently sailing on the Niagara River on a beautiful fall day in October.  It’s on-board video of the J/70 EOWYN approaching the mouth of the Niagara River during a beautiful Fall race.

- Alex Watters sailing a J/70 in the Bras d’Or Narrows- a 15 mile northwest arm of the lakes- it was very shifty with huge puffs. Says Alex, “We need to get to the left side of the narrows to honor a navigation mark, all the while being swept straight seaward by a 3-4 knot current (meanwhile, we’re flying the Code 0). At exactly the wrong time we get slammed by a huge blast, which was also a knock, making this one of the messiest roundings ever...but we made it!!  Yeah, mon!! Our class was the last start, like 30 min after the first class, and we are leading the 40 boat fleet at this point as the smallest boat in the race (biggest was a Swan 48)!!.”  Pretty amusing video seen here!  Sailing photo credits- Erik Simonson/ Pressure-drop.us

J/70 Sailing in Chile!

(Talcahuano, Chile)- We recently got an updated report from our friends "down under" in South America regarding J/70 fleet development.  Juan Eduardo-Reid sent us a report and photos of demo-sailing on the spectacular Panguipulli Lake nestled into the western part of the Andean Mountains during their summer!  Juan's commentary follows:

"We have finally had the chance to show the J/70 in four different places this summer:

- Talcahuano- along the Pacific Coast where the Soto 40 World Championships were recently sailed by some of the world's best sailors.  We only exhibited the boat since we were still waiting for our sails!

- Ranco- it's a very big lake and sailing area, small sailing activity, but we sailed the boat four days there!  Great interest because it was so easy to sail!

- Frutillar- we went racing the 8th to 10th of February there and have the J/70 in a very good position at the club, with the J70 winning most of the time!

- Panguipulli- this is where I rigged and sailed J/70 #156 with the customer and also sailed with 5 or 6 potential customers there. In Panguipulli, it's the lake with the greatest potential as there are over twenty J/24 sailing teams and another group of good sailors, too.

We're focusing on bringing in new people to sailing on the lakes and so far the effort is bringing nice results!  More news in the near future.  J/70 is a very nice solution for Chile, easy to tow behind a car, easy to ramp launch-- very, very important here in Chile-- we have no hoists!"

Chile J/70 Promotion 2013

(Santiago, Chile)- J/70s have arrived in time for Chilean sailors to get a taste of the great fun that American and European sailors have been experiencing with their boats; the Chileans are especially enthusiastic after seeing the reports and gorgeous photos of J/70s frolicking in the aquamarine waters off Key West during Race Week.

We recently got an update from Juan Eduardo Reid, the Chilean J/Dealer, regarding recent interest in the J/70, regatta participation and fleet development.  Juan commented on those activities:

"This past weekend from Jan 27th to Feb 4th we had a very well-received exhibition of the boat at the Soto 40 Worlds in the emerald waters of  Talcahuano Bay.  We had many people requesting to sail the boat and we have setup demo sails on Vichuquen and Pangupulli Lakes in the near future, more on that in a moment.

We since participated in the the Frutillar Regatta on Llanquihue Lake last Friday-Saturday-Sunday.  I sailed with 3 Chilean Naval Academy students/ midshipmen.  We were 1st overall in the coastal Cruiser-Racer class! There where 5-6 coastal boats (Hunter 35, McGregor 26, Dufour 34, Bavaria 30) and nine J/24s.  In fact, we plan to run the first J/70 Nationals in Chile next year in the same time period.

For J/70 class development, we are providing boat tests on Monday and Tuesday, Feb 18-19, on Vichuquen Lake.  Already sailing on this lake quite a lot since December 2012 is J/70 #75.  Then, on Saturday and Sunday, Feb 23-24, we will be doing both racing and testing of the J/70s on Panguipulli Lake and we expect to have two more boats delivered by that date for more fun sailing in the Andes Mountains!  For more J/70 Chile sailing information and demo sail, please email Juan Eduardo Reid

TRICALMA Wins J/105 Chilean Nationals

(Algarrobo, Chile)- One-design sailing continues to grow quite dramatically in the Southern Hemisphere.  It's a result of the efforts of numerous sailors and sailing clubs in the region that see sailing as a family activity. In general, the local sailing community continues to grow and foster development both at the beginner levels in Optimist sailing as well as in more advanced levels of offshore keelboats.

A testimonial to that development evolution is the growth of the J/105 fleet in Chile over the last two years.  There is no question the Chileans have some magnificent sailing areas both on the Pacific Ocean as well as in the many bays and island archipelagos in the southern parts of their gorgeous country.

With nineteen boats on the starting line, the 2012 Chilean J/105 Nationals were sailed this weekend in a wide variety of conditions that challenged the sailors during the six races sailed. On the first day, the J/105 teams experienced nice steady 10-12 kts Southwest winds, enabling the PRO to run three races.  On Sunday, the wind shifted into the Northwest and got lighter during the day with winds ranging from 5-10 kts, the fleet again enjoyed three good races.

Most of the boats sailing had family crew onboard, including lots of women and kids as crew.  In fact, several boats had husband/wife combinations and a few even "engaged couples"!  The camaraderie amongst the sailors was evident as all had a lot of fun both on and off the water.

The racing was very very close for the fleet with both 1st and 2nd and 3rd and 4th determined by tie-breakers!  Finishing first was TRICALMA sailed by Daniel Gonzalez, the J/105 Chile Class President.  Second was RECLUTA III sailed by Miguel Perez, also with 15 pts.  Third on the podium was BIG BOOTY sailed by Miguel Salas and losing the tie-breaker at 17 pts was Patricio Seguel's GRAND SLAM, taking 4th overall.  Rounding out the top five was Sergio Baesa's family team with 21 pts-- in fact they had perhaps the most family on one boat, Sergio Baesa father & son, Sergio Jr's wife, daughter and two friends!  Their hull #173 was the first J/105 brought into Chile fifteen years ago!  Today, there are now 24 J/105s in Chile, most in the Algarrobo/Valparaiso sailing harbors.

The next event for the J/105 Chile fleet is the "Bio Bio Circuit" at the end of January 2013. For those of you familiar with the disastrous earthquake/tsunami that hit almost 3 years ago on Feb 27 2010, they will be sailing  at "Zone Zero", the waters over the epicenter of that massive earthquake!  Oh, and here's the photo of the the sneak attack by the J/70 on the 105 fleet loaded with pirates!

J/70 Class Update

(Newport, RI)- Class development is accelerating dramatically around the world.  In the USA alone, there are over a dozen J/70 fleets that have formed already with nearly twice that amount in the formative process across America. 

The J/70 Regatta schedule has expanded considerably, here's a short-list of what's happening in the 70 world for 2013.

J/70 Regatta Schedule
January-     Key West Race Week- Key West, FL
February-   SW NOOD Regatta- St Petersburg, FL
March-       Bacardi Race Week- Miami, FL
April-         Charleston Race Week- Charleston, SC
                  Warsash Spring Series- Solent, England
                  SPI Ouest France- La Trinite sur Mer, France
May-         SW NOOD Regatta- Annapolis, MD
June-         Bacardi Regatta- Newport, RI
                  Sail Newport Regatta- Newport, RI
                  Cleveland Race Week- Cleveland, OH
July-          Leukemia Cup Cleveland- Cleveland, OH
                  Youngstown Level Regatta- Youngstown, NY
                  New Englands/ Marblehead NOOD- Marblehead, MA
August-      Cowes Week- Cowes, England
September- Europeans- Lake Garda, Italy
                  North Americans- Annapolis, MD
October-    Fall Brawl Regatta- Annapolis, MD
                  SoCal Championships- San Diego, CA

More regattas are coming on-line all the time. Teams out West are working out the PCC's and SoCal Championships.  J/70 owners in Texas/Gulf Coast are forming a Texas Circuit rolling between Forth Worth, Austin, Houston.  In the Midwest (Chicago, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio) teams are forming their circuit plans, too. The European 70 teams were discussing at the Paris Show and soon the London Boat show plans for the J/70 European Circuit. In Europe, fleets are developing in the United Kingdom, Belgium, Netherlands, Sweden, France, Austria, Switzerland, Italy and Germany.  South America also has boats and fleets are in development in Chile, Argentina, and Peru.  Also in the Southern Hemisphere, it looks like J/70s may become popular in Sydney, Australia and even in Perth-- can you imagine a J/70 flying home downwind in the "Freemantle Doctor"!?  That would be insanely fun.

Read more about J/70 class development on the newly formed J/70 Class Association- J70class.com or learn more from owners on the J/70 Class on Facebook- http://www.facebook.com/J70Class.

J/Boats @ South American Boat Shows

Peruvian Boat Show- Nov 29-Dec 2
Spring skiing!! How is this for an idea.  Since it's already after the peak winter season in the Andes, you can travel down to South America right now, get in some awesome spring skiing in Peru/ Chile/ Argentina and take a peek at the J/111 in Peru. 

Two J/70s will be arriving shortly, so you could enjoy some late spring/ early summer sailing in the Pacific or some gorgeous lakes in Peru-- how about Lake Titicaca? World's highest sailable lake?  Maybe a future J/70 South Americans or J/70 Worlds site?  Easy to trailer and ramp launch, even from exotic Miami Beach! 

For those adventurers, please be sure to contact German Fuchs in Lima, Peru at gfuchs@topsa.com.pe or ph# 511- 989-146-428.

J/70 First Sail off Chile!

(Santiago,  Chile)- J/70 South America "Numero Uno" Launches in Chile!  Juan Eduardo Reid reports that J/70 interest in Chile is simply huge!   Juan had the opportunity to assemble their first J/70 in their harbor SW of Santiago, Chile and take it out for a sail in moderate conditions.

He reports there is strong enthusiasm for a boat that can trailered, ramp-launched and sailed in less than 20 minutes in these parts because mooring and dock space are at a significant premium.

The J/70 promises to fill an enormous vacuum in the Chilean sailing marketplace. Watch this space!  Juan is hoping they can create a J/70 South American Championships in the near future and create a series that includes Peru, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil!