J/30 Class Association Forums J/30 Forum Events and Scheduling J/30 "other Fleet" at 2008 North Americans?

J/30 Owners,

While making some calls to get sponsorship for the 2008 North American's, I spoke to John Johnstone of Johnstone Yachts who was excited to hear that the J/30 Class was so active. He indicated we may want to consider having J/30s not One Design legal join us at the 2008 North Americans. This would bring a broader pool of J/30 owners together for the social events.

I want to state up front there is no intention to having these boats race in the same class as one design boats. They would have their own starts and be governed by separate PHRF rules.

Is this a good idea? Would other people who are not one design legal bring their boats to the 2008 NAs, race a separate PHRF class and socialize with the rest of the One Design boats?

Just putting a trial balloon out there to see what the response is. One Design boats - how do you feel about this?

I could sugar coat it but this would be both a waste of time and counterproductive. First there are few modified J/30's (keel, rudder, or rig) and those would be unlikely to return to original spec as a result of being invited to sail in a separate fleet in a championship. Deck changes such as adjustable genoa cars may be easily disabled to qualify.

More likely is their sails are 'PHRF optimized' for their region. Any argument for this no longer holds much water, since headsail materials are no longer restricted, leaving only Kevlar mains, genoa LP's < 163%, and poly kites. How many boats are going to race an NA with a genoa or mainsail over one year old? So if they wish to race it becomes an opportunity to buy class sails rather than a deterrent to racing.

Practically - do you have any idea how many non 1D boats are interested in making the trek to Narragansett bay? While it's always good to have more participants, a section with 2 or 3 boats is probably not worth the hassle.

Philosophically, I don't really like the idear. It would be good for the class to encourage people to return to 1D configurations. For the class to promote this split leads us down a road akin to J/29s with several different configurations.

We did the Nood's with PHRF ratings vs OD thinking it would draw more boats in. It brought one boat in. They were great to have no doubt but since it only added a single boat in an area that is predominatly PHRF I would not bother.

DB
#397

Dave,

Would more of the Northern NE boats come down if there were a PHRF section?

I am curious, what new J/Boat is closest to the J/30? Any chance that we could talk J/Boats into brining the J/30 back? I realize that the boat would sell for $90,000 and above.

From a design concept perspective, the closest boat to the J/30 is the J/109, but it's actually a 35 footer. It's now been out for about 5 years. Back in 2002, a Sailing Anarchy review said it was over $200K for a new one, fully equipped.

A new 109 loaded will run close to $275 for a 2008.

No - tried it for the NOOD's got one extra boat. We were very glad he raced and I was suprised that more boats did not race with us because of it. Most peoples reasoning for not racing in the NOOD's was they were not OD but even with that restriction lifted they still did not participate.

David

This makes me fell better about investing $40,000 in a 1979 model J/30.