The international J Boat fleet, with its many variants, fills a special role in world sailing, with an underlying sense of family permeating this attractive no-nonsense craft. For it all of course, stems from the initial creative introduction – explosion, really - of the Johnstone brothers, Bob and Rod, with their pioneering prototype J/24 in America in 1977.
This innovative little racer/cruiser – its size dictated by the dimensions of their parents’ New England garage - was soon sweeping through the world of sailing like a mighty breath of fresh air. But the remarkable thing about the extensive contemporary J/Boat range today is that it still seems as relevant and cutting edge as it did when the story started nearly fifty years ago.
Giving it provenance…co-creator Bob Johnstone signs the rudder of a J/24 during a recent visit to Howth Yacht Club
Now, its popularity here has led to the inaugural multi-class J Cup Ireland Regatta at the Royal Irish Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire in a week’s time (26th & 27th August), which will feature four classes tailored to suit the profile of J/Boat ownership in Ireland:
J CUP IRELAND 2023
- J/109 Irish Nationals
- J/80 Irish Nationals
- J/24 East Coast Championship
- Competitive IRC Class with different J/Boat models.
As the birthplace of One-Design Racing, Dublin Bay has adopted the J/109 with enthusiasm. Photo: Afloat.ie/David O’Brien
Cork’s sailing Olympian and multi-champion Mark Mansfield of Key Yachting J/Boats - himself no stranger to the afterguard in the successful racing of J/Boats at home and abroad – is co-ordinating the programme with the RIYC and DBSC race teams, and is much encouraged by the level of entries already received. This will probably push comfortably over the forty mark if forecasts for an improvement in the weather next week begin to bear fruit as the Tuesday evening “last orders” deadline approaches.
FAMILY SAILING TRADITIONS
Through it all, there’s this underlying sense of family. Even where the key crewmembers involved aren’t blood-related families in the traditional sense, there’s this feeling of a shared family-style sense of values in both boats and fleet.
"The inaugural multi-class J Cup Ireland Regatta at the Royal Irish Yacht Club is in Dun Laoghaire in a week’s time"
But in any case, with leading Irish sailing family names like Goodbody, Kelly, Tyrrell, Shanahan, Evans, Knowles, Craig, Hall, Boyd, Jones, McCaldin, Murphy and Colwell – to name only a few – featuring over many years of J/Boat sailing in Ireland across the many models developed by the range in its growing history, the sense of a positive and energizing tribal spirit is very real.
“So it goes…” Pat Kelly of Rush SC in the midst of his family-and-friends crew on Storm after yet another overall win, and wondering if there’s space left in the trophy cabinet
NEW LIFE INTO OLDER BOATS
And in recent years, the introduction of fresh initiatives for established J classes has provided extra leases of life where needed. The growing evidence that reasonably well-maintained GRP construction has an almost indefinite lifespan has resulted in the J/24s being seen in a new way, with “ancient” boats being restored from a dusty moth-balled situations to prime racing condition through heartening club efforts to support the U25 initiative.
Last year, this saw Kinsale YC’s U25 “Kinsailor” project leap in at the deep end by contesting the J/24 Euros 2022 at Howth. Although the multi-province Headcase campaign had gone into the series among the Irish favourites, in the final races the Kinsailors led by Michael O’Suilleabhain emerged from the pack to finish a very close third overall.
A hugely successful club and community effort – the restored J/24 Kinsailor in training off Kinsale, and ready for her U25 success nationally and internationally in 2022
At the other end of the regular Irish J/Boat range, it’s not so long ago since Andrew Craig of the Royal Irish YC marked his retiral from the class by assembling a crew of all the very best Dun Laoghaire talents to take his J/109 Chimaera to the Scottish Series, where he and his crack team duly won overall in an area where Pat Kelly and his family from Rush in sister-ship Storm have recorded more than a few wins over the years, a feat they transferred to Belfast Lough by winning Bangor Town Regatta after two days of very intense competition.
Meanwhile, although the J/80s have a special position in Ireland as a club trainer whose racing choices are greatly broadened by her eligibility for an IRC Rating, there are individual owners who still benefit from their usefulness for private international campaigning. Pat O’Neill (HYC) with Mojo has led the way, with major placings – including overall victory – in various international J/80 Championships on both sides of the Atlantic.
In for the long haul. ISORA organiser Peter Ryan of Dun Laoghaire at the helm of the Pwllheli-based J/109 Mojito during the 2013 Fastnet Race
However, it is the J/109 which has been the backbone of the J/Boat presence in Ireland, with more successes inshore and offshore during the past decade than it’s possible to enumerate. The Shanahan family with Ruth staked an early claim to the Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race, while cross-channel sister-ship Mojito (Vicky Cox and Peter Dunlop, Pwllheli SC) has figured in the Fastnet, the Round Ireland, and the Dun Laoghaire to Dingle.
Liam Shanahan at the helm of the family-owned J/109 Ruth (National YC) with Skellig Kichael astern, on the way to winning the 2016 Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race
The Irish National Sailing School of Dun Laoghaire’s J/109 Jedi with The Rock astern, on her way to a class win in the Fastnet Race
The Fastnet likewise proved a rewarding if exhausting experience for Kenneth Rumball and his crew from the Irish National Sailing School in Dun Laoghaire with the J/109 Jedi, while the Round Ireland saw Dun Laoghaire’s Michael Boyd start to make his mark at the top level with overall victory in 1996 in the J/35 Big Ears, the J/35 being the J/109 of her day.
Some seasoned offshore campaigners may feel that the J/Boats design-and-build philosophy produces craft which are too light in character for continuous press-on-regardless offshore racing, but the last two years would seem to have demonstrated otherwise.
“The little dayboat” on her way to further success. After a close second overall in the 2022 Round Ireland Race, the J/99 Snapshot is on her way to further success and the 2022 ICRA “Boat of the Year” award with the win in Calves Week at Schull. Des Flood trims the genniker while co-owner Richie Evans does the helming and brother Mike monitors the numbers while the Fastnet Rock gets the Oscar for “Best Supporting Actor”
For in the end, the Round Ireland Race 2022 came down to a matter of minutes between the overall winner, the French J/111 Fastwave, and the very closely second-placed J/99 Snapshot (Mike & Richie Evans, Howth YC), despite the latter being dismissed beforehand by certain armchair admirals as “little more than a glorified day sailer”.
But it is 2023 which has produced the ultimate proof of the rugged reliability of a well-sailed J/Boat with the brilliant victory in Class 1 in the Rolex Fastnet Race by the Fournier family from France with their veteran J/133 Pintia.
Its that Rock again…Pintia on her way to 2023 Fastnet success, the immaculate state of her topsides speaking volumes for her build quality and the dedicated maintenance by owner Gilles Fournier and his family and friends. Photo: Rolex
Pintia is no strange to Fastnet success, as she won Class 1 in the 2017 Fastnet race, when Michael Boyd was in the process of being RORC Commodore and actively campaigning the successful First 44.7 Lisa. There was some really tremendous racing against the similarly-sized Pintia, and his recollection of it was that he could never be sure if he most enjoyed the sheer sport of racing against Gilles Fournier and his family, or derived even more pleasure from the shared and very convivial post-race dinner which became a tradition with the two crews.
These days, Boyd has moved into cruising with the 53ft Southerly ketch Hibernia, but Gilles Fournier – now 77 – is still wondering whether each Fastnet will be his last. Certainly, with his superb win in his immaculate crew-maintained boat in the 2023 race against Tom Kneen’s previously all-conquering JPK 11.80 Sunrise III, he would be exiting on a high. But what would he do then to distract himself each time the Fastnet Race comes around?
Either way, nearly fifty years after the first J/24 appeared, the 2023 success of the 2006-originating Pintia is something they’ll be celebrating when the J/Boat people of Ireland and adjacent waters get together for this attractive new event on Dublin Bay in a week’s time. The spirit of Pintia and those she races against – in this case, Tom Kneen – is captured in this post-2023 Fastnet YouTube clip:
