Greetings and Happy New Year to all of our fellow J/30 sailors and all those visiting our website. All J/30 sailors know the J/30 is not only a great racing boat but also a great family cruiser and day sailing boat. It can be fast in light air and can with stand and sail fast in high winds and large seas. While one-design sailing in J/30's is preferred, many of us sail PHRF against other boats. The J/30 is consistently competitive in PHRF all across the US and Canada.

We would like to personally thank all of the J/30 Board of Governors, local fleet leadership and the many volunteers dedicated to our class events. Without the work and dedication of these individuals, we would not have the successful class that exists today.

NORTH AMERICANS:

The class is entering it's 37th year. We have come along way from our first North American Championship in 1980 at Holland, MI to the 36th NA's held this past September at Eastport YC in Annapolis, M.D. If you don't like competing in PHRF, you MUST race in a North American Championship. There is no better exhilaration than a starting sequence in a 19 boat J/30 fleet in 20 plus knots of wind.

The 2016 championship was a great event with challenging conditions of current, winds three knots to twenty-five knots and incredible competition with 19 boats and five previous North American Champion skippers.

By winning four of seven races Scott Tongius and Team Zephyr sailing loaner boat Mondial, claimed their sixth J/30 North American Championship. CONGRATS Team Zephyr.
In 2nd Place was Cannonball 2.0 - Doug Wallop (Previous Champion) Annapolis YC
3rd Place- Bebop - Bob Rutsch (5 time Previous Champion) and Mike Costello Annapolis Yacht Club
4th Place - Total Mayhem - Doug and Amy Stryker from Eastport Yacht Club previously Raritan YC , NJ
5th Place- Blue Meanie - Steve Buzbee (3 time Previous Champion) from Raritan YC, NJ
Thank You to Eastport YC and Tristan Keen for planning and hosting a fabulous regatta.

1st - Zephyr - Scott Tonguis
2nd - Cannonball 2.0 - Doug Wallop
3rd - Bebop - Bob Rutsch
4th - Total Mayhem
Doug and Amy Stryker
5th - Blue Meanie - Steve Buzbee
Take One for the Team Award
Tristan Keen

2017 NORTH AMERICANS and BEYOND:

The 2017 North American Championships will be held October 19th -22nd at the New Orleans YC ( home of Zephyr). NOR | Sponsors The 2018 Raritan, Bristol and Barrington YCs have expressed interest. RFPs must be received by May 1st, 2017. The 2019 to be hosted by the Chesapeake Fleet based on three year rotation plan.

We have developed many friendships over the years at the North American Championships. Let's keep this spirit alive. If you participate at NA's please keep attending, if you have never attended, you MUST in the future. The competitive racing, the fun, the parties, the comradery, the lifelong friendships , It is addicting. The J/30 Class will remain successful as long as its membership is active and participating.

UPCOMING J/30 ONE-DESIGN EVENTS:

July 13th - 15th, 2017 - Eastern Yachting Circuit , Henderson Harbor YC , NY - Lake Ontario
July 28th-29th , 2017 - SAIL Oswego Regatta, Oswego YC, NY- Lake Ontario
August 1st-6th , 2017 - Lake Yacht Racing Association Regatta, Rochester YC, NY - Lake Ontario
August 12th -13th , 2017 Southern New England J/Fest @ Sail Newport, RI
October 19th - 22nd, 2017 - J/30 North American Championship @ New Orleans YC NOR | Sponsors October 27th - 29th, 2017 - Lake Pontchartrain Racing Circuit @ New Orleans YC http://saillprc.org

CLASS NOTES

At the Board of Governors (BOG) meeting held on September 22nd at Eastport YC the following business was conducted.

• We established a new Honorary Life Membership Category for Fleet members with a significant amount of time and value in a class leadership role, nominations and vote by the BOG, 15 years of boat membership, 10 years of fleet membership at the National level and have raced 5 NAs or more. The first four Inductees to this category are : Bill Kneller, Carl Sherter, John McCarthur, and Larry Christy.
• Larry Christy was appointed as Fleet Measurer
• 2017 Dues will remain the same as they were in 2016. BOG discussed charging for use of the forum and many technical portions of the J30.org website. It was decided to not charge or create a new membership category because it would be detrimental to the class to not share information to new owners and prospective buyers.

HONORARY LIFE MEMBERS

John McArthur
Smiles
Carl Sherter
Fat City
Larry Christy
Big Kahuna
Bill Kneller
Rhapsody

Look for additional information published on J30.org about each Honorary Life Time Member in the near future.

MEMBERSHIP:

We need your help to keep the Class and Website going. If you are a current class member, please renew your membership and pay your dues as soon as possible. If you are not a current member but have gained knowledge from this site or use the forum frequently, please consider Joining the Class. Please share information about the class and forum with fellow sailors.

The class will be sending an email with a request for your J/30 Class record update and 2017 class dues by the end of January. Please take the time to complete the annual directory survey. National and Fleet Membership is optional. National class dues will remain at $50 for each owner/co-owner and $25 for associate membership (crew members). We also have a Junior Membership category for crew members who are age 16 or younger. We hope this category will encourage junior sailors to be recognized and added to the fleet roster. It is intended that when Junior Members pass the age of 16, they will become associate members, and eventually J/30 boat owners. The Chesapeake and Gulf Coast fleets will pay optional national and local dues using the national fleet tracking and renewal process. This helps us in so many ways to keep fleet information current while offering a service for local fleets. If you have not received an email message by February 1st , please contact us to be sent a custom registration link for your boat. We ask that everyone please support the class and pay dues, so we can continue to build the momentum with resources such as the web site, forum and National Championship.

WEBSITE AND FORUMS:

Please help us to keep information current, help us to update the Boat Listing if you know of boats that have been retired or sold, or updated information on current skippers, please let us know. We would like to keep this listing as accurate as possible. While on the forums, please post to the District Forum Sections. Let others in your district know what you are doing. If you are racing, who you are racing against PHRF, one-design or both. Reach out to your district governor and try to put together at least one one-design regatta in your district.

TEAM WEBSITES:

If you have a listing on the Team Web Page Section, please update it or ask us to remove it. If you have a webpage but it is not on our page - please ask us to add it.

SOCIAL MEDIA AWARDS:

#1 The Rebuilding of Majic Carpet Dave Graf
#2 T2PTV: Sailing On Demand North Americans Coverage
#3 "Hold On" (Music by Lotus Crush) David Erwin "Zephyr V2.0"


SAVING SAILING:

As we all know, the number of people participating in sailing and regattas is declining globally. We know that this is an activity that you all love and have passion for. Share it with others; recruit new crew, take friends out sailing, take strangers sailing, especially children and young adults. Get them involved, make it fun, allow your crew to helm your boat, encourage crew to buy their own boat, hopefully a J/30. Or as Steve Buzbee has done, convince a competitor to buy a J/30 as Doug Stryker did, then he went and beat Steve at North Americans. If you have thoughts or suggestions about the J/30 Class we would love to hear from you. Post on a Forum or email either or both of us.

Wishing you all a Great 2017 Sailing Season,
Dan Mather (dansailj30@gmail.com) and Dave Erwin (dave@j30.us ) Class Co-President's