I was aware of the J30 that was about 100 miles south of the Fastnet fleet back in 1979 when the racing fleet was battered by the weather. This is the boat mentioned in Fastnet Force 10, John Rousmaniere's book.

I was not aware of another J30 in the area of the storm. Was this other J boat racing in the event, and if so, was she in the same class with the other 28-32 footers?

The recount of the 2 J30s in the visinity of the 79 Fastnet race is on the J30 page of the J/Boats website. I seem to recall neither were racing. But you can verify that by reading the J/Boats article.

From John Lillie owner hull #11

My J30 'Judicious' (although named Juggernaut at the time) did the 1979 fastnet, but retired into Ireland with a broken gooseneck fitting on the boom.

It was one of two boats imported by british builders Westerly yachts, who were the european J24 builders at the time and were looking at building the J30. I beleive that somewhere on the class association website there is an account of the 79 Fastnet in Juggernaut. She would have been in the same class as most 33-38 foot yachts (I think that was IOR class 3 or 4).

The other J30 was called Jetlag, but as far as I know did not do the Fastnet.

Westerly did not manufacture any J30's as at the time handicapping was under IOR and J30's rated the same as most other 37 - 40 footers!

We race Judicious in the UK with some success under 'IRC'handicap system.

Thanks for the replys.

I was able to find independant sources of data to answer my question too. One J30 was 90-100 miles south of the worst weather that night and was ending a trans-at crossing. He reported being rolled to 120 degrees because of stains on the overhead suggested this. There was not and never has been corroboration of this angle.

The other J was racing and was in the infamous 40 mile circle that saw the worst weather that night and next day. The crew wrote that they were knocked down to an angle that placed the spreaders and mast in the water, suggesting approx. 100 degrees heel. The boat stayed in that position "about a minute", before righting herself. this suggests at least a minimum of righting moment remained at +/- 100 degrees. I think it was largely a matter of luck that another wave or strong gust did not strike her whilst laying on her side and roll her inverted, like what happened to so many vessels that terrible night.