J/30 Class Association Forums J/30 Forum The Boat, Sails and Equipment J30 Keel

Own a J30 for a year and a half now. Really like this boat. Old but good.

Crewed on a J30 and J29 when I was a teen. We won much more with the J29 in PHRF.

So its pretty obvious that Rod made the keel too small on the J30. Probably contributes to the poor light wind performance that everyone talks about.

The J29 is a similar boat. I think its a J30 with chopped down freeboard. But the keel is larger. This is a well performing boat in all conditions. I think the keel change is a big contributor.

Comparing the boats, looks they just extended the keel trunk 6” and bolted a J30 keel on.

Has anyone ever talked about or tried to lengthen the keel on a J30? Either modify the trunk or bolt on some length to the bottom?

The J30 keel is the same length as the keel on my US25 at 48”, though thicker and wider. Seems like a design miss.