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The ultimate J Class yachtspotter’s guide
The J Class is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful and powerful classes of sailing yacht in the world. An original fleet of 10 was constructed in the 1930s for the purpose of competing in the America’s Cup, but in a sad twist of fate, only a few were able to survive the cull for metal during World War II. Some were later salvaged from the scrapheap and rebuilt as modern-day racers while others were constructed as replicas by owners who admired their classic lines and racing credentials. Nine J Class sailing yachts race today but could you tell an original from a replica? Could you identify which J Class yacht is which by its sail number? Here's an essential guide to the J Class fleet...
Sail number : JK3 Length : 36.5m Year of build : 1929
With more than 80 years under her keel, Shamrock V is one of the most historic sailing yachts still afloat today having been built by Camper & Nicholsons in 1929. Her current owner bought Shamrock V in March 2016 and in the process inherited a legacy. This 36.58 metre is the original J Class yacht and the only one with a wooden hull to have survived to the present day. Her original owner Sir Thomas Lipton is remembered as the lovable loser of the America’s Cup , having unsuccessfully challenged on five separate occasions between 1899 and 1930, taking each defeat with characteristic good grace.
Sail number : JK4 Length : 39.56m Year of build : 1934
Endeavour was launched by Camper & Nicholsons in 1934 and is hailed as one of the most iconic sailing yachts in the world . Commissioned by Sir Thomas Sopwith, this 39.56 metre design was a highly rated contender heading into the 16th America’s Cup, but ended up losing 4-2 to Harold S. Vanderbilt's Rainbow . However, this is widely acknowledged to have been more down to tactics than design or performance. After spending the better part of 50 years languishing in obscurity, she was meticulously restored by Dutch yard Royal Huisman in 1989 and was most recently refitted in 2011 by New Zealand yard Yachting Developments .
Sail number : JK7 Length : 38.5m Year of build : 1933/2016
Velsheda was built in steel in 1933 for WL Stephenson, the chairman of Woolworths in Britain, and named after his three daughters Velma, Sheila and Daphne. This 38.5 metre yacht is the only original J Class not to have been built for the America's Cup . Between 1937 and 1984 she languished in a mud berth on the Hamble River before scrap-metal merchant Terry Brabant rescued her and chartered her on a shoestring budget with no engine, mostly in the Solent but also in the Caribbean. In 1996 she was purchased by Dutch fashion entrepreneur Ronald de Waal who commissioned Southampton Yacht Services to rebuild her. Since then de Waal has raced her extensively .
Sail number : J5 Length : 41.55m Year of build : 2003
Ranger is a 41.55 metre replica of the J Class yacht of the same name, which was built for the 1937 America’s Cup by a syndicate led by railroad heir Harold Vanderbilt. Starling Burgess and Olin Stephens had been asked to produce eight sets of lines and the one selected as most suitable for the conditions expected off Newport, Rhode Island — design number 77C — was one of Burgess', although Stephens later helped with some refinements. Known as 'The Super J', the original Ranger comprehensively beat Endeavour II in the Cup and won all but two of the other 33 races in which she competed that year. She never sailed after that and was broken up in 1941. With the design optimised by Reichel-Pugh , the new Ranger was built in steel — true to the original but unlike the subsequent modern Js — by Danish Yachts in 2003 for an American owner.
Sail number : JK6 Length : 42.1m Year of build : 2009
The reincarnation of the 1937 launch Endeavour II , Hanuman was launched in 2009 by Dutch shipyard Royal Huisman . This 42.1 metre yacht features her predecessor’s original Charles E. Nicholson design, while the underwater geometry is courtesy of Dykstra Naval Architects . After completing the rebuilds of Endeavour , Shamrock V and Velsheda , Hanuman was Dykstra's first J Class new build project. Commissioned by serial yacht owner Jim Clark , Hanuman is named after the son of the Hindu wind god, which it flies on its spinnaker, and her regatta performances have backed up this name. She took first place at the 2017 St Barths Bucket , which saw six J Class yachts battling it out on the high seas.
Sail number : JH1 Length : 43.4m Year of build : 2010
Lionheart is based on Burgess and Stephens design number 77F, which was one of those rejected in favour of 77C for the 1937 America’s Cup. However, after extensive research by Hoek Design Naval Architects , 77F was considered to be the best set of lines for the variety of racing conditions likely to be encountered at regattas around the world today. Lionheart was built in aluminium by Bloemsma and Claasen Jachtbouw in Holland, and was launched in the summer of 2010. Her first owner's business commitments forced him to sell her and she was purchased in mid-2011 by Dutchman Harold Goddijn, the founder of Tom Tom. At 43.4 metres overall and with a stunning 17 metre overhang, she is the second longest J afloat. Lionheart became the first Hoek-designed J to hit the race course and made its debut at the Superyacht Cup in Palma.
Sail number : JH2 Length : 39.96m Year of build : 2012
The original Rainbow was launched in 1934 at the Herreshoff yard in New England after a mere 100 days under construction and went on to win the America’s Cup in the same year. However, she was requisitioned during World War II and eventually scrapped. The modern Rainbow is an altogether more high-tech affair — built at Holland Jachtbouw in 2012 as the fourth of the new generation Js. She was built for an experienced sailing yacht owner to a design by Dykstra Naval Architects and is the first J to be fitted with a hybrid propulsion and power system. Rainbow is currently listed for sale . When heeled over, its red underside is a dead giveaway for yachtspotters out there.
Sail number: J8 Length : 42.62m Year of build : 2015
Topaz is based on an unbuilt 1938 design by Frank C Paine, the son of the three-time America’s Cup winner General Charles J Paine. Her modern aluminium incarnation measures 42.62 metres and was launched by Dutch yard Holland Jachtbouw in 2015. Hoek Design Naval Architects, who styled Topaz inside and out, describe her as “a good all-round performer”. She was the longest J by waterline length at the time of her launch but was later dethroned by Svea .
Sail number : JS1 Length : 43.6m Year of build : 2017
The newest and longest member of the J Class fleet, Svea was launched by Dutch yard Vitters in February 2017 measuring 43.6 metres. Her design by Hoek Design Naval Architects incorporates an integrated traditional long keel from the original 1937 drawings by Swedish designer Thore Holm, which were unearthed by yachting historian John Lammerts van Beuren. However, the designers have brought the 75-year-old design right up-to-date with an aluminium hull and 53.75 metre carbon fibre main mast. As a result, Svea displaces just 182 tonnes — two tonnes less than Hanuman and six tonnes less than Ranger .
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Launched January 2017
Design: Tore Holm
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Svea is the newest J Class yacht in the current fleet and was launched in January 2017. At 143ft/43.6m Svea has the longest LOA by 15cms.
Her original designs were drawn in 1937 by Swedish Olympian and renowned 6 and 8 Metre boat designer Tore Holm along with compatriot boatbuilder Gustav Plym, but war put paid to any hopes of a Swedish America’s Cup challenge. The designs were left untouched in a drawer until they were discovered by Dutch yachting historian and 8 Metre boat enthusiast John Lammerts van Bueren.
Designer Andre Hoek and a group of Dutch enthusiasts including an owner bought the designs and, after careful analysis and refinement in line with their VPP modelling, the hull and deck were built. But the owner pulled out. The project was bought by an American owner who, after having sailed on four other J Class yachts, wanted to compete at the 2017 J Class America’s Cup Regatta and the inaugural J Class World Championships in Newport that year.
While the two halves of the hull and the deck were built at Claasens, the build was completed at Vitters on a very tight schedule in order to be in Bermuda on time for the J Class America’s Cup regatta.
Svea encompasses powerful traditional lines infused with the latest race boat technology. She has a very low freeboard and an extremely clean deck layout and a notably low boom. One trademark is a very large wheel which is set into a deep recess. There are two big working cockpits split by a small doghouse. The halyard and spinnaker trimming winches and crew work out of the forward cockpit.
Svea’s first races were at the America’s Cup Superyacht regatta in Bermuda in 2017. In 2018 after changes to the keel, a longer boom, bigger main and smaller jibs, Svea won the class at the Saint Barths Bucket in 2018.
In 2022 post pandemic Svea passed into the hands of two passionate Swedish yachtsmen, both accomplished racing enthusiasts, who were inspired to bring Svea – which translates as Mother Sweden – under her native Swedish flag.
After a short, intense week of training under tactician Bouwe Bekking, Svea proved her speed and power over the two main regattas they sailed that year, winning The Superyacht Cup Palma in June 2022 and then winning the class title at the Rolex Maxi Yacht Cup.
Svea is helmed by the owners at events sharing steering duties between them. Seven times round the world racer Bouwe Bekking is tactician, Steve Hayles is navigator and Tim Powell is project manager and mainsheet trimmer.
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2017 America’s Cup Superyacht Regatta, Bermuda
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2023 J/70 World Championship at St. Petersburg Yacht Club - Overall
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St. Pete To Shine Again
- By Dave Reed
- February 14, 2024
The St. Petersburg Yacht Club and the western shore of Florida’s Tampa Bay will be the epicenter of sailboat racing this weekend when more than 240 teams across 13 one-design classes and five handicap-racing fleets get races started for the first event of the national Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series in St. Petersburg . Now well into its third decade, the regatta will also mark 10 years with its title sponsor.
The Sunshine City’s motto is that St. Pete is “Always in Season,” and that is certainly the enticement for many teams traveling in from colder climes with the promise of warm breezes, stiff competition and a nightlife that’s never been more vibrant.
One such northerner is David Mierzwa, of Lake Placid, New York, who on Tuesday was behind the wheel and racing to get south of a big storm burying the mid-Atlantic and Northeast in snow and ice. Behind him was bitter cold, but ahead of him was warmth and the anticipation of his first Melges 24 Midwinter Championship at the regatta.
As a newbie to the demanding Melges 24, Mierzwa says his primary goal is to “stay out of everybody’s way,” but ultimately, he and his teammates are on a mission to learn the nuances of this high-performance keelboat from his peers.
“We’re going so we can hunt for tips, tricks and whatever makes us better,” Mierzwa says. “It’s about having the opportunity to do an event of this caliber with likeminded people, because while sailing is the goal, being surrounded by others that do the same sport is sometimes better than the sport itself.”
As the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta in St. Petersburg will be his team’s first major event, he recognizes they don’t have a high enough racing pedigree to vie for the Midwinter Championship title—yet. “The only way we can get to that point is to go out there and race,” he says.
And race they will, from early Friday morning through late Sunday, alongside several other one-design classes that are the regulars of this February classic, including the S2 7.9s and the Hobie 33s , both of which will also be vying for their midwinter championship titles.
The S2s have the returning champions of Tom and Mary Bryant’s “Team Matros” from Holland, Michigan, which won seven of eight races in 2023 to earn their berth at the Helly Hansen Sailing World Caribbean Championship last October. At each of the series’ five events one team is selected to compete in the British Virgin Islands for the overall season title.
The Hobie 33s also have their champions returning to defend— Craig and Deborah Wilusz’s “Hoof Hearted”—but this year there’s a new and unknown challenger from Waxhaw, North Carolina, and it’s a boat with a nefarious name: “Bad Bunny.” Its new owner, Sean Rhone, says he’s looking forward to meeting and racing with other Hobie 33 owners for the first time and “taking a peek under their hoods.”
Rhone has been primarily racing his Hobie 33 in singlehanded events and low-key races on North Carolina’s Lake Norman, and like Mierzwa, he’s not sure how well he’ll fare, especially with a five-person team that’s been assembled by way of social media message boards, and whom he’s never met.
“It’s cold in Charlotte,” Rhone says, “and I’m getting tired of the cold weather, so when I saw that the fleet was having its midwinters in St. Petersburg, I thought it would be nice to go and race against some other Hobie 33s for once.”
Mierzwa and Rhone may pass each other on an interstate somewhere on the way to St. Pete, along with a sizable Canadian contingent of Contender dinghy sailors making their annual pilgrimage from across the northern border. The 16-foot Contender, which its loyalists claim to be “The Sexiest Singlehander in the World ” was introduced in 1969 and continues to be popular internationally, as well as in Tampa thanks to local sailmaker Ethan Bixby. Bixby, a champion of many classes, continues to rally the troops to the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta and the fleet has doubled for this year’s gathering. Bixby, who won all races last year, will of course be among the 11 trapezing sailors.
Sharing the same racecourse will be eight teams racing the doublehanded Windmill class, which is new to the regatta lineup, but another cult classic sparked in the 1950s. Class measurer Pat Huntley, of Erie, Pennsylvania, is now a decade into Windmill racing, and says he’s eager to enjoy some fast sailing in St. Pete and good times with his fellow Windmillers. “It’s such a fun and cool group,” Huntley says. “And the Windmill is such a bad-ass skinny and fast boat. It can handle the chop easily and is really fast.”
Five teams racing in the 20-foot Flying Dutchman class (first built in 1951) will hail from California to Tennessee and hosted by local FD ace, Lin Robson, the 2023 class winner. The doublehanded bonanza, however, will be the Melges 15 class, which will feature an impressive 31 teams, nearly double from 2023. The new one-design class has exploded in popularity across the country since its introduction three years ago, and midwinter regattas elsewhere in Florida have maxed out at nearly 100 boats.
Among the Melges 15 ranks in St. Petersburg will be New York’s Iris Vogel, who has traditionally raced the regatta with her larger one-design keelboats over the years (a Soverel 33 and a J/88, both named “Deviation”). Vogel is now enjoying the challenge of big-fleet racing and exhilarating downwind sailing.
Racing with her partner, Tim Longo, Vogel helms and Longo handles the front of the boat, and over the past year they’ve been working their way up the scoreboard, but have a long way to go to the top. “This is a totally new thing to sail in such a big fleet,” Vogel says. “J/88 events typically get a dozen boats at best, and the racing is much slower paced. The tactics are completely different and boats are fast downwind so it’s a ton of fun, but we are still learning a different style of racing. Having the smaller fleet [at the Helly Hansen Regatta] will give us a chance to work on our boatspeed.”
While the out-of-town armada is significant, local sailors look forward to the regatta every year, especially Tampa Bay’s PHRF sailors who’ve made the event a key fixture in their Suncoast Boat of the Year Series. For these fleets, which now comprise the regatta’s largest group with 38 entries across four divisions (Spinnaker, Non-Spinnaker, Racer-Cruiser and Cruising) organizers have added two days of long-course racing over the weekend. Depending on the wind strength and direction of the day, the race committee will plot a daylong course to test each team’s navigational and sailing skills, as well as their perseverance and desire to be first to the dock and first to the yacht club bar.
Local sailor Tim Landt, who has been an active sailor on the Tampa Bay waterfront for decades, is a registered competitor in the Cruising division in his new-to-him Nightwind 35, “Charisma.” He’s excited to see the regatta’s blossoming distance-race fleet and says the local growth and interest in racing older-generation yachts is good for the sport and for the Tampa Bay racing scene.
But it’s not all classic plastics in the distance fleet. In the Racer-Cruiser division will be the sparkling new Neo 43, owned by Ken Mungan of nearby Isles Yacht Club in Punta Gorda, Florida. Mungan purchased his sleek Italian-built 43-footer in 2022 with big plans to take on a few of the sport’s marque distance races, and local events like the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta offer he and his team an opportunity to learn the boat in a racing environment.
“When I turned 40 I needed a hobby and took up sailing,” Munger says. “I’m always trying new things and got into racing 2019. I did the Melges 24 for a while, but the Neo, because it’s a shallow-draft boat, allows me to do more local long-distance racing and we’re learning a lot.”
For this weekend’s regatta, Munger has more crew lined up than there are roles on the boat, but that’s fine with him. “We’re going to be overloaded, and I am anticipating a level of skill and organization that we don’t quite have yet,” he admits. “We’ll have two coaches and a new set of racing jibs that will be used for the first time, so it will be fun, and I’m looking forward to it.”
While the long-course racers are making their way around the bay, closer to shore, will be the multihulls: the high-tech A Class Catamarans , which have two divisions (Classic and Foiling) totaling 33 competitors, and the Weta Trimarans , with a smaller contingent from years past, return with nine boats, and among them is two-time defending champion and local Pete Merrifield looking for a three-peat.
The iconic Lightning Class is one of the regatta’s largest one-design fleets, with 25 boats, five of which will be raced by members of the Starck family with a few world champions among them. Hall of Famer, Augie Diaz, of Miami, and Ched Proctor, of Southport, Connecticut, both world champions as well, always add to the high level of racing and camaradarie Lightning sailors enjoy all winter. The Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta in St. Petersburg is a key warm-up event for the Lightning class’s hotly-contested two-regatta Southern Circuit with March events in St. Pete and Miami.
Sharing one racing circle immediately off the city front will be the 29-boat J/70 fleet and a reemergent J/24 fleet, both of which will no doubt provide quality racing for both professional and amateur sailors. The same will be true for the ever-competitive ORC fleet, with 11 entries, which will be racing further south. Bill and Jackie Baxter’s J/111 “Fireball,” from Stamford, Connecticut, which has won all of its events this winter will return to defend its 2023 ORC title, which it earned with ease, winning seven of eight races.
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New York Yacht Club to host Team Racing Worlds in 2025
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The New York Yacht Club, which sparked the keelboat team racing revolution with the creation of the Hinman Masters Team Race in 2000, will see this discipline attain the highest competitive level in the sport when it hosts the World Sailing 2025 Team Race World Championship, May 28 to June 1, at Harbour Court in Newport.
The first team racing world championship in a decade will be sailed in the Club’s fleet of 23-foot Sonar keelboats in a two-on-two format. While not as widespread as the three-on-three format that is used in scholastic and collegiate racing in the United States and elsewhere around the world, the two-on-two format has won a lot of support with its easy-to-understand scoring format—whichever team finishes in last position loses the race—non-stop action and smaller team size.
“When this came forward, when the bid package came out, we said of course we’d want to run this,” says Susan Daly, co-chair of the New York Yacht Club’s Team Racing subcommittee. “It’s a natural fit for us given our history both with keelboat team racing and having run a team race worlds in 2005 in Vanguard 15 dinghies. This world championship is a great way to kick off a packed 2025 regatta calendar at Harbour Court.” In addition to the Hinman Masters regatta—for which skippers must be 45 or older and crew must be 40 or older—the New York Yacht Club runs three other highly regarded team race events each summer: the Morgan Cup, the New York Yacht Club Grandmasters and the Women’s 2v2. The Club also created the Global Team Race Regatta and hosted it in 2018 and 2022. The Club expertly maintains a fleet of 22 Sonar sailboats that are reserved for team racing and the occasional fleet race regatta. In the four team-race regattas hosted by the New York Yacht Club, spinnakers are used. But the format for the world championship will mandate the jib-and-main-only configuration. A dozen teams are anticipated, including one from the host New York Yacht Club. The remainder will be qualified through their member national authorities. For United States sailors hoping to compete, a qualifying regatta is anticipated in early 2025. The NOR for the 2025 Team Race World Championship can be found here . The next edition will be held in August 2026 at the Gamla Stans Yacht Sällskap, Stockholm, Sweden, and is supported by the City of Stockholm and the Swedish Sailing Federation.
Teams meeting the eligibility requirements set out in the Notice of Race may submit a Request for Invitation using this link .
For more on previous editions of the Team Racing World Championship, click here .
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I Loved Tudor’s Sailing Watch Even More While Aboard an Actual Racing Yacht
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The weather report in Barcelona wasn’t looking particularly promising last month as I boarded a vessel on the Mediterranean. Leaving the Spanish coast behind me, storm clouds gathered overhead as the Swiss and French teams geared up to face off in the 37th edition of the America’s Cup. Then again, I was reminded, a bit of wind was a welcome sensation—without it, this regatta couldn’t get underway.
If you’ve never been buzzed by an AC75, the class of racing yacht used during the current America’s Cup , it can be difficult to imagine the sensation. I no longer had to imagine as the Alinghi Red Bull team’s AC75 reached its top speed of 50 knots (58 mph) and seemed to be nearly levitating as it lifted out of the water. And if it’s flying in anything resembling your general direction, this can be quite unnerving.
Even if you’re not a sailor, you’re likely familiar with America’s Cup anyway because of how frequently it intersects with the watch world. Tudor , Omega , and Panerai have all gotten in on the action, the logos of their storied brands featured prominently on mainsheets attached to each vessel’s 26.5-meter mast. For each edition of the Cup in which one of these maisons is sponsoring a team, said company will often debut a special watch, sometimes with a dedicated sailing complication such as a regatta timer. Two of the most compelling of these watches were introduced just last year: Tudor’s Pelagos FXD and FXD Chrono Alinghi Red Bull Racing Edition . As I discovered earlier this month, they become even more compelling aboard the actual yacht they’re inspired by.
The racing yacht wasn't the only thing that made me feel like a member of team Alinghi that day. I also got a chance to wear the FXD from Tudor's Pelagos line. The Pelagos collection comprises the brand's most professional diving watch, complete with heavy-duty specs, some military influence, and perhaps a bit more character than the brand’s flagship Black Bay collection. Introduced in 2012, the Pelagos line has seen continuous improvement, culminating in the recent “ FXD .” (The “FXD” is for “fixed,” a design with military provenance that secures a strap to the wrist without possibility of spring bar failure.) The black-dialed FXD immediately stole my heart upon its release late in 2023, when I dove with it in Florida.
I wasn’t the only one wearing this purpose-made FXD. The entire Alinghi Red Bull racing team—from team owner to engineer—was kitted out with them. For me, it’s a cool watch; for the sailing team, it’s essential gear. Timing is everything out on the open water. “We use a watch [the Pelagos FXD] that’s in complete sync with what we do here,” says Jaume Triay, a young engineer on the Alinghi Red Bull team who’s spent the past two years living in Barcelona to prepare for the competition. “It’s a low-weight, high-performance watch, and it’s made out of the same materials [as the AC75]; I think there’s a nice synergy.”
Everything about the Alinghi FXD is made with yacht racing in mind. The watch is made from carbon fiber to mirror the carbon-hulled AC75 yachts, with matte blue-purple dials to match the Alinghi Red Bull livery. The numbers on the bezel are arranged in the reverse orientation from those on a dive watch. Why? On a yacht, one needs to quickly calculate countdowns, which is why the numbers go from 60-0 in a counterclockwise direction, rather than the more common 0-60. I had never spent much time with either of the new FXD watches before, but had the opportunity to wear the time-only version during my time in Barcelona for the 37th edition of the America’s Cup. I’m officially a fan.
The dial is a classic Tudor affair: Done up in matte Alinghi Red Bull blue, it features a snowflake handset and matching white indices, all of which are nicely lumed with plenty of Super-LumiNova. (The indices, hands, and all bezel hashmarks glow ice blue in low light.) A red second hand matches up with red “Pelagos” text—no doubt in a reference to vintage Rolex models and in keeping with other Pelagos watches—and the rehaut, which contains the outer minute track, features the words “ALINGHI RED BULL RACING” in the upper quadrant.
“Timing is important in many aspects [of what the team does],” Triay says. “It’s important in planning, such as how much time we need to train before competing, and how much time we have to design the boat. But then also, you can think about maneuvers: Are we going to do a slow, nicely controlled maneuver, or a sharp turn executed as quickly as possible? What is best, and how do you find replicable timing in order to analyze different strategies?”
Indeed, timing was everything as we sailed out into the open ocean outside Barcelona aboard the yacht in order to watch Alinghi compete against the French team. The Swiss needed to win this particular race, lest it be forced to win three in a row in the double-round robin of the Louis Vuitton Challenger Section Series—or face elimination. I was eager to try aligning my bezel to properly time the race countdown as announced aboard the ship’s television, where the race was being broadcast live.
Stepping out onto the deck in the rain (we picked a poor day for sailing) Alinghi’s AC75 was visible in the distance, tacking hard in the driving wind and water. Its complement of ultra-skilled sailors, however, proved their competence and seamanship, crossing the starting line just as the countdown ended and gaining a significant start on the French team. Roughly 20 minutes of hard sailing later, up and down a course established by remote-controlled buoys to align with the direction of the wind, the Swiss team captured its much-needed victory.
After the win, high-fives were swapped, congratulations were offered, audible sighs of relief were exhaled. As we sailed back into harbor, we passed the AC75 furling its sails, yelling our collective “mazel tov” at the team and chase boat crews. I glanced down at the FXD and thought back to my childhood summer camp experience and the activity I most enjoyed: Sailing small Sunfish dinghies on Plunkett Reservoir. I haven’t sailed in over 20 years, but the thought suddenly crossed my mind: Maybe it’s time to sail again—Pelagos fixed firmly on wrist.
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The J Class Association was founded in 2000 to protect the interests of the Class, present and future, and organises an annual calendar of racing for these magnificent yachts. 2024 Calendar. 19-22 June.
J Class yachts Velsheda, Topaz and Svea downwind legs. The J Class is one of several classes deriving from the Universal Rule for racing boats. The rule was established in 1903 and rates double-masted racers (classes A through H) and single-masted racers (classes I through S). From 1914 to 1937, the rule was used to determine eligibility for ...
Toby Hodges profiles the world's most beautiful fleet of classic racing yachts - the J Class
J/Boats is the world leader in high-performance sailboats- designed for cruising, day sailing, offshore racing, one-design racing.
Only ten J Class yachts were built before the Second World War stopped the movement in its tracks, but in the last 20 years they've made a comeback
Toby Hodges sails the newest J Class yacht Svea, and finds an elegant J crossed with a modern maxi grand prix yacht. Photos by Carlo Borlenghi
Toby Hodges was aboard Shamrock V, the oldest existing J Class, as seven J Class yachts raced for the first time ever. See the action from onboard the J Clas...
Some of the most amazing, fabulous, epic J Class yacht racing footage with beautiful music for you to enjoy during #quarantine #covid19 #stayhome #thankyouho...
The ultimate J Class yachtspotter's guide. The J Class is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful and powerful classes of sailing yacht in the world. An original fleet of 10 was constructed in the 1930s for the purpose of competing in the America's Cup, but in a sad twist of fate, only a few were able to survive the cull for metal during ...
The oldest video footage of J Class yacht racing. The America's Cup starts next week so it is a good moment to dig through our huge video archive to see the oldest footage from the beautiful class used for this competition between 1930 and 1937. There are 32 videos from the years 1914 to 1937 but here we just list the top ten.
Explore the features, specifications and histories of the magnificent yachts that belong to the J Class Association, a unique and prestigious sailing club.
Svea is the newest J Class yacht in the current fleet and was launched in January 2017. At 143ft/43.6m Svea has the longest LOA by 15cms. Her original designs were drawn in 1937 by Swedish Olympian and renowned 6 and 8 Metre boat designer Tore Holm along with compatriot boatbuilder Gustav Plym, but war put paid to any hopes of a Swedish America ...
The spectacular J Class - Only 10 were ever built from just 20 designs and their reign lasted less than a decade. In the 1930s they were the most technically...
J/99 Shorthanded Offshore Speedster sailboat- A next-generation 28-footer easily handled by a friends & family crew.
2023 J/70 World Championship at St. Petersburg Yacht Club - Overall. Tom Mallindine and Charlie Thompson's Brutus III (GBR), with team Chris Grube, Ben Saxton and Elisabeth Whitener, are bringing the J/70 World Championship title to the United Kingdom from St. Petersburg Yacht Club in Florida. Ten races were sailed in spectacular conditions ...
The history of the J Class is directly intertwined with the America's Cup. With the exception of Velsheda, all the original Js were built for the purpose of America's Cup racing.
For example, whereas the J/111 is beginning to venture up into "big boat" range with its 9,300lb displacement, 36ft 6in of LOA and 663ft2 of sail, the J/88 remains refreshingly nimble with its 4,990lb displacement, 439ft2 mailsail and LOA of just over 29ft. Similarly, while the 22ft 9in J/70 is almost dinghy-like, with its lifting keel and ...
The St. Petersburg Yacht Club and the western shore of Florida's Tampa Bay will be the epicenter of sailboat racing this weekend when more than 240 teams across 13 one-design classes and five ...
Regattas Address: 11 Central Avenue, St. Petersburg, FL 33701 | 2301 Pass-a-Grille Way, St. Pete Beach, FL 33706 Phone: 727-822-3873 Pass-a-Grille 727-360-1646
The New York Yacht Club, which sparked the keelboat team racing revolution with the creation of the Hinman Masters Team Race in 2000, will see this discipline attain the highest competitive level in the sport when it hosts the World Sailing 2025 Team Race World Championship, May 28 to June 1, at Harbour Court in […]
http://www.superyachtmedia.com/The J Class Sailing fleet racing in St Barths 2012
Discover J Class yachts with Yachting World. From race results to yacht profiles and videos, we have the definitive guide to the 2015 J class calender.
The racing yacht wasn't the only thing that made me feel like a member of team Alinghi that day. I also got a chance to wear the FXD from Tudor's Pelagos line.
Yacht Scoring is a featured packed 100% web based regatta administration and scoring system that simplifies the task of competitor registration, event management, competitor and media communications while providing results in near-real time to competitors and the World following your event on the internet.
Watch our unique footage of sailing the 1934-built J Class Endeavour. Yachting World's Toby Hodges had the chance to sail her and takes a look around Becom...