J/80 Spanish Championships

Morales Wins, Bodes Well for J/80 Worlds

(Puerto Calero, Lanzarote, Spain- June 5-7)- 26 J/80s participated in this year's Spanish Championships hosted by the beautiful club at Puerto Calero in the Lanzarote region of Spain. The regatta was largely seen as a prelude and warm up for the J/80 World Championships that will take place shortly at Porto Santander, Spain with 130 J/80s on the line.
Sailing as TEAM GANADOR with his two kids aboard, Alfredo Morales and family won the J/80 Spanish Championships over a three day of incredibly variable winds and sea conditions- from flat and light air to lumpy and blowing 18 knots. In second was Rayco Tabares sailing his J/80 HOTEL PRINCESA YAIZA. Finishing just off the pace was Pichu Torcida sailing his ECC VIVIENDAS to third overall. For more info Photo credits- Maria Muina

Elvstrom J/80 Summer Championships

Joystick at Full Throttle for the Summer Season

(Hamble, So'ton, England- May 16-17) The Elvstrom J/80 Summer Championship was hosted by the Royal Southern Yacht Club in Hamble. This is the sixth year that Elvstrom have sponsored the event, which acts as a warm-up for the UK Nationals.

The fleet woke to howling gales on Saturday unfortunately, and after a postponement ashore, the Race Committee, under the careful guidance of the PRO Tony Lovell, decided that discretion was indeed the better part of valour and racing was cancelled for the day. The J/80 fleet were in agreement; much as the J/80 is a fabulous boat in a blow, no-one much fancied the 40 knot plus gusts which were battering the race area.

With everyone hoping for lighter airs on Sunday, but with forecasts differing in opinion, after an hour’s postponement ashore and once a 50 knot squall had blown past the Royal Southern pontoons and the readying fleet, the class set sail to do battle. Just two races were sailed, or perhaps ‘survived’ by the hardy J/80s, enough to constitute a series, and the eventual winner of the Elvstrom Champs, Rob Larke, who co-owns Joystick with Vicci Gregory. Behind them were Terry Palmer and Caroline Cooper on Just Do It by three points and in third was Andrew Ashworth steering Jammy Dodger. More J/80 regatta news. For more UK/Euro J/News.

90 J/80's Entered for Spi Ouest 2009

The J/80 class dwarfs all the others with a remarkable tally of ninety boats now entered for the 2009 Spi Ouest Regatta to be held over Easter Weekend in northern France at La Trinite.

The huge turnout for the first European event of the season bodes well for the upcoming 2009 Worlds to be held in Santander, Spain in early July. According to Paul Heys at J-UK, there could be as many as fifteen boats from the UK in Santander for the Worlds. Pro rata that figure for other European countries and add in other expected overseas entries and the worlds could top 100 boats. With 78 boats entered to sail at the J/24 Worlds in Annapolis next month, one-design racing is alive and well! J/80 World's website J/24 Worlds website

Inside the Storck Family's J/80 Success

Stuart Streuli of Sailing World magazine caught up with Kaity Storck at Acura Key West Race Week last week to learn more about the family's successful defense of the J/80 Midwinters aboard RUMOR, which also won Boat of the Day honors on Friday.

What's your job on the boat? We actually have a really cool thing. I sail with my dad (John, pictured with Kaity) and usually my two older brothers. We all sort of rotate through positions. This week I am the second most forward person and I'm pulling the spinnaker up, taking the spinnaker down, and helping call tactics. I'm also calling waves and puffs as we go upwind.

Give us the history of this team? My dad has sailed Key West I think probably six times in the J/80, maybe seven times. This is my fourth year in the J/80. We basically started sailing together as a family four years ago. My dad was sailing a PHRF boat, and then he realized that if he got a one-design boat, we would actually sail with him. So he did, and then we did. I also have a younger brother and we've sailed with all five of us once, and that was at Block Island Race Week two years ago and that was cool because I got to drive.

The J/80 is a tight one-design boat, but is there any one piece of equipment that is particularly valuable? Our personnel is our key tool. We have a new jib that seems to be working pretty well. We've had UK Halsey sails since we've gotten into the boat and they've always done really well. This one seems to have a little more shape at the bottom than our older jibs. This is our first time sailing with it, so we're just figuring it out.

Who would be the MVP of the team today? The one thing our team has always done really well, is that everyone focuses on doing their own job and just their job. I think that's a problem that a lot of boats have difficulty with, especially when you have a lot of really good sailors together. It's hard for everyone to focus on doing just their job. More often than not, it's not that you run into problems with people messing up their job, but people sort of overstepping boundaries. So everyone always does a really good job on our boat. But probably with the conditions being so shifty and up and down , we were seeing easily 10 knot ranges and the really big shifts, I think John, my brother, who was driving the boat, probably gets the MVP for keeping the boat moving.

What sort of advice would you give to another J/80 sailor looking to sail at Key West Race Week for the first time? Try to put together a team that has sailed together before so you can be really focus on going fast for the regatta, and everybody knows what they're doing. I will not hesitate to say our strongest point is our speed. If you have a good mix of all-stars and people who have sailed the boat before that's definitely better than all all-stars that maybe have never sailed before because things can get done a lot better. Like I said before, the most important thing on a boat is everybody doing their job. They've got to be good at their job, so they've got to be an all-star at that. But, yeah, speed is really important down here.

Sailing World KW Blog

J/80 One-Design Racing in China

Eight teams from eight countries participated last week in the first International J/80 Invitational Regatta in Xiamen, China hosted by J Boats Asia and J World Xiamen. This marked the first ever J/80 one-design event in the Pacific Rim.

Team Belgium captained by Barry Hayes and skippered by China’s Olympic Yngling skipper Song Xia Qun won the five race no-throw out series over Team Hong Kong, Team Singapore and Team USA. Other countries included Philippines, France, China, Taiwan, and Australia. Sailors enjoyed the use of brand new J/80s right off the production line of J Boats’ new Asian builder, Hudson Yacht Industries of Xiamen. Jeff Johnstone of J Boats was on hand to measure boats and run the sailors (most of whom were new to the J/80) through a pre-regatta speed clinic.

“We couldn’t be happier with the turnout and the high quality of the competition,” said Jeff Brown, president of J Boats Asia and the event chairman. “Xiamen is a beautiful sailing venue and the perfect location to launch a new J World sailing school (pictured to the right) and the J/80 Asian class. We look forward to welcoming new students when the school officially opens in 60 days and to hosting even bigger J/80 events in the future.” Results & Info

Spaniard Crowned J/80 World Champion

J/80 sailing has exploded in Spain over the last two years, and the Spanish have shown just how quickly they’ve mastered the boat. After a near sweep of the 2007 Worlds in La Trinite, France, the “armada” sailed into Kiel, Germany and captured 1st, 3rd and 6th places at the 2008 Tutima J/80 World Championship. Ignacio Camino Rodriguez with his crew of Alberdo Padron, Gomez Jose Luis and Armando Gutierrez aboard ESP 899 NEXTEL ENGINEERING sailed a nearly flawless series from start to finish to capture the world title. But their task was far from easy. Runner-up Jeff Johnstone, USA, sailing with the all German crew of Henning Mittelmann, Bo Teichmann, and teenagers Stella Mau and Florian Föh, narrowed the gap to only 2 points after winning race #11 while Rodriguez suffered a black flag disqualification, which he was able to discard to preserve the victory.

Sailing conditions were dynamic with winds from 10-25 knots, big shifts, alternating rain and sun on a daily basis, not to mention 64 boats from 12 countries on one starting line with liberal use of the black flag penalty to keep the fleet in check. Rounding out the top five were Carlos Martinez of Spain in 3rd, followed by Patrick Bot of France in 4th and Kevin Sproul of UK in 5th. 6 different countries finished in the top ten, including hosts Peter Hecht and Uli Muenker from Germany aboard NEEDLES and PINS in 9th. Spain will host the 2009 Worlds in Santander June 28th-July 4th. Results.

J/80 Worlds Preview

64 teams from 12 countries will be competing this coming week at the Tutima 2008 J/80 World Championship in Kiel, Germany. Never before have so many countries been represented at this pinnacle J/80 event, now in its 8th year. Kieler Yacht Club and the German J/80 Class Association look forward to welcoming competitors to Kiel for the week long event. Several of the top teams from last year’s worlds will be in attendance including Ignacio Camino (Spain), Uli Muenker (Germany), Kevin Sproul (UK) and Patrick Bot (France). Regatta news and results will be posted here during the week.

Pellissier Wins J/80 Class @ Spi-Ouest

In the Bay of Quiberon off of La Trinite, France no less than 79 J80s arrived for the Easter weekend of the 30th annual Spi Ouest Regatta in France. The talent level was very high and the first 10 in the overall standings battled until the last race. Sylvain Pellissier and his crew were first, followed by the German Ulrich Muenker and Luke Nadal, a mainstay of the class. Under extremely cold conditions and strong wind (especially on Saturday), the forest of white mainsails at the start of each of the five races offered a magnificent spectacle to observers. The J/80 class has clearly arrived and the 2008 season is now off to a great start.

In the IRC 1 division, J/133 Jivaro with an all amateur crew finished a respectable 6th place in a fleet of over 44 boats while J/122 J/Lance 4 skippered by Didier Le Moal finished 8th. The J/Lance team suffered sail damage in the heavy air of race 1 which forced them to withdraw. The 44 points proved too much of a deficit from which to recover a podium position, but the crew gave it their best effort for the final three races. results & info.

J/80 Across the Atlantic

“The rough wind had brought up some nice waves rolling in from astern and with storm jib and main our J/80 was constantly planing with top speed above 15 knots. The full moon gave full control over the big waves and I could freely choose which waves to surf down. I thought that this night’s sailing alone was worth all the effort and hard work preparing for this trip when I suddenly see something dark by the side of the boat. It takes a few seconds before I realize that the boat is surrounded by dolphins. Sometimes three to four dolphins jump just in front of the bow, sometimes side by side with the boat. I am actually playing in the waves with the J/80 together with the dolphins. Amazing! I woke Andreas down below (who hadn't been able to sleep anyway in the racketing noise) he looked up and realized where the whistling and clicking noises he had heard actually came from.”

Two good friends and fellow sailors Jens Utbult and Andreas Granberg from Sweden have taken on the challenge to sail to the West Indies from Portugal aboard their J/80 Roxen.com and are just now nearing completion of the crossing/odyssey. Why, you might ask? “The idea of sailing to the West Indies was born during a warm summer night on our way to Fårö. A J/80, is an eight meter long racing boat with the same conveniences as a two-man-tent and is so fast that it even leaves some 40-feet boats behind. J/80s have been sailed in races like Gotland Runt and other ocean races many times but still, no one has crossed the Atlantic Ocean in one. We will change that during 2007.” Follow their adventure here.

J/80’s 1-2 in Asian Sportboat Champs

The J/80 recently debuted in Asia at the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club's Maersk Asian International Sportboat Championship, where two out-of-the-box J/80 yachts took the top two spots, finishing ahead of a mixed fleet of custom and production built sportboats from China, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore. Jeff Johnstone of J Boats and his all-Hong Kong crew edged out colleague Jeff Brown of San Diego to complete the one-two sweep. Brown, with partner Hudson Wang, recently opened the J Boats Asia dealership with an office in downtown Hong Kong and with plans for a mainland China office in 2008.

The Asian debut comes at a time when J/80 activity is booming worldwide. The recent J/80 World Championship in La Trinite-sur-Mer, France had 124 competing teams - a record for the Class, and momentum continues to build. "The J/80 is a solid all-around performer that’s really easy to sail," Johnstone said. "It's more stable than most sportboats, and so attracts and rewards sailors from a wider age and ability range."

Brown is equally enthusiastic about the J/80's Asian debut. "We see Hong Kong, China, and Asia as great opportunities for J/80 sailing and for the J/80 Class," said Brown. "There is no better small keelboat for new sailors - the J/80 combines the speed and responsiveness of a small boat with the comfort and stability of a larger yacht. With momentum so strong around the world, we're hoping to host the J/80 Pacific Rim Championship in a few years!"

The J/80 will be on display at the Shanghai International Boat Show next April.

J/80 2007 NA Championship

Kerry Klingler sailing his J/80 Lifted with crew including Doug Lynn, Neil Bresnan & John Bowden recently won his second consecutive J/80 North American Championship and third J80 NA title overall by winning the final show-down race where a single point separated the top three boats.

Just six weeks before the J/80 NA Championships the J/80 Class organization faced a terrible problem. Lake Norman, N.C., where the regatta was scheduled to take place was drying up because of the severe drought in the southeast USA. With too little water to launch boats and race it was panic time! The class’s first call was to Kristen Robinson to ask if Eastport YC, in Annapolis, could host the regatta. The club accepted and started organizing a first class event in record time. The class embraced the move and teams from as far away as California changed plans. The end result was a true championship regatta, raced by 33 competitors who love the boat… Complete wrap-up.

Venue Change! J/80 NA Championship

Due to the very low water levels in Lake Norman, NC the 2007 J/80 North American Championship regatta has recently been moved to Annapolis, MD. Eastport Yacht Club will now host the event. Dates for the regatta remain the same, Nov. 9-11, and if you have already registered, your registration fee and application will be transferred to the new race organizers. If you have not already registered, please do so now! Annapolis is the Sailing Capitol of the World and promises great race committee, great parties and a great atmosphere. Details, including a new NOR, schedule of events and information on visiting Annapolis, will be posted shortly. Please help Eastport Yacht Club, Fleet 18 and your J80 USA Executive Board in making this a great National Championship! for latest info www.j80.org

New J/80 Production in USA

J/80 momentum is cranking along worldwide and production has resumed in the USA with new 2008 models shipping from Pearson Composites in Rhode Island. Current J/80 Midwinter and former J/80 World champion Kerry Klingler picked up Hull #1001 last month (pictured). Designer Rod Johnstone sold his bigger J and will be sailing a new J/80 at the North Americans in November. The 2008 model incorporates several new features: new style rails and stanchions reduced to the 450mm class minimum height; molded companionway step; tack line clutch; Sparcraft France J/80 anodized spar package; J/Europe style bowsprit and end fitting; all California gray deck; Harken carbo block upgrade; Ronstan jib tracks and plunger cars. A special boat/trailer package is available this fall from your local J Boats dealer.

Ole! Spanish Armada takes on J/80 Worlds

First a great showing at the America’s Cup, both as host country and a leading challenger, and now Spain has shown its stuff at the top of the one-design world with 3 out of the top 4 placings in the 2007 J/80 World Championship. Spain is the newest country to adopt the J/80 as its one-design keelboat of choice (100 new boats delivered in the past 14 months with another 30 on order) but you wouldn’t know it by the way they handled the windy conditions and a record 124 boat fleet off of La Trinite, France last week. Spanish skippers Jose Maria Torcida Seghers and Ignacio Camino battled against each other until the last and decisive 11th race. Torcida Seghers aboard ECC VIVIENDAS emerged as the new J/80 World Champion with an impressive 5 wins in 11 races.

"We came here with very limited objectives knowing we would face the word's best. We've only been sailing seriously and competitively in the J/80 since last October. We decided to train as a team with the entire 30 boat fleet gathered in Santander. All that hard work has paid off."

Germany's Ulrich Muenker's third place overall prevents the Spaniards from heading home with a unique grand slam in the J/80's World history. For the very first time, the Worlds winner did not come from the organizing country. The 2008 Worlds will take place in mid-July in Kiel, Germany.

Overall top six (results...)
1. Jose Maria Torcida Seghers, ESP, 29 points
2. Ignacio Camino, ESP, 46
3. Ulrich Muenker, GER, 57
4. Rayco Tabares, ESP, 61
5. Sylvain Pellissier, FRA, 65
6. Glenn Darden, USA, 66

J/80 Class Growth Explodes in Europe

Spi-Ouest Regatta in France will serve as the official European kick off for 2007 J/80 one-design racing season and (as of this post) has registered over 77 boats, a record for the class and an explosive 40% growth rate over the fleet at the event last year. Needless to say this will be the largest class at the event for the second year in a row.

J/80 demand is on the rise in a major way with over 100 new J/80s being built this year alone and production set to resume in the USA at Pearson Composites. J/80 is the official Royal Yachting Association training and match race keelboat, the choice training boat of the French Naval Academy, the latest new fleet in America’s Cup host nation, Spain, with a newly established J/80 one design fleet now in Italy. It is also the training boat of choice for J/World Sailing Schools around the world. J/80 is coming of age and 2007 promises to be a great year! more on the J/80.

J/80 Class Nearing Milestone

Now in its 14th year, the J/80 is in more demand than ever. 45 boats were recently shipped to Spain and another 50 are on order for England, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden and the States. By year’s end, over 1000 boats will be sailing worldwide. The French Navy selected the J/80 for use at their Naval Academy and sailing clubs, and last year hosted the Military Sailing Championships. The Royal Yachting Association (UK) picked the J/80 as their sole keelboat for training, match-racing and corporate sailing. The Swedish Sailing authority (SSSR) features the J/80 for its match-racing development program, and J World Sailing School uses J/80s at its locations in Annapolis, San Francisco, San Diego, Puerto Vallarta and Stockholm. Class racing is booming and the 2007 J/80 World Championship will be sailed in La Trinite sur Mer, France July 1-7. 70+ boats expected from at least 7 nations.

Large J/80 Fleet for Spi Ouest

The annual Easter weekend regatta based in La Trinite, France is the highlight sailing event of the year for most French sailors. The International J/80 class participation has grown each year and in 2006 was the largest class of the regatta with over 50 boats. This year promises to be even larger with over 60 boats (30 of which have already entered) in the first event of the 2007 French J/80 Annual Circuit. In early July, La Trinite will also host the 2007 J/80 World Championship where over 70 boats are expected to attend. J/80 sailors who wish to charter a boat for the worlds are encouraged to contact J/Europe directly in order to make arrangements to reserve a boat.

Kerry Klingler Wins J/80 NA's

J/80 Fleet One hosted a fleet of 29 boats for the J-Jamboree 2006 J/80 North American Championship Regatta held on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire on September 8, 9 and 10. Friday’s racing was cancelled due to lack of wind, but breeze slowly arrived on Saturday and less so on Sunday to make for some challenging racing. Kerry Klingler of “Lifted” took first place overall with 8 points, followed by Blake Fleetwood of “USA 352” in second place with 9 points and Les Beckwith of “FKA” in third place with 19 points.

At the awards ceremony winners were presented granite trophies in the shape of New Hampshire, along with other J-Jamboree items. Bob Knowles was commended with a plaque for his leadership of the event. Bob thanked the attending boats and praised the volunteers who helped make the event a success. www.j-jamboree.org

Darden Wins J/80 Worlds

Texas is famous for having the biggest and best of many things. Now they can add J/80 talent to the list. After 10 races and four days of racing at Corpus Christi Yacht Club, Glenn Darden emerged as the 2006 world champion, out gunning fellow Texans John Kolius, Scott Young and Rick Schaffer plus the rest of the international fleet. Windy conditions prevailed for most of the event and the leaderboard was deep, with notable former class champions Kerry Klingler (USA), Ruairidh Scott (GBR) and Jay Lutz (USA) finishing up 5th, 7th and 9th respectively. http://www.j80worlds.com

French Sweep J/80 Europeans

Benjamin Diouris and his crew of Nicolas Pauchet, Felix Pruvot and Thomas Le Breton, sailed a nearly flawless regatta to capture the 2006 J/80 European Championships held over the May 26-28 weekend in Brest, France. Representing the event host (ECOLE NAVALE), Diouris and team bested 37 boats from four countries (France, UK, Germany and Spain) in the 12-race, 2 discard series. Fellow countrymen Victor Lanier and Remy Arnaud took 2nd and 3rd place respectively, just ahead of Kevin Sproul of the UK. http://www.j80european2006.com/