After selling his successful Half Tonner, Harmony, last season Tino Hyland found himself at a loose end and decided to campaign something bigger in 2008.
Last week, with sailing partner Nigel Biggs, they won their class at the ICRA Nationals at Howth in a new J109 'Sail4Cancer' - straight out of the wrappers.
Hyland's key criteria were to have fun sailing with friends and family and the J suited this plan perfectly.
Both Hyland and Biggs have children who enjoy sailing and they hope to take them racing in some of the regattas later in the season.
The boat is a stock J109 which Hyland ordered from J Boats about a month ago and were lucky to get a cancelled order for immediate delivery.
The boat was delivered directly to Dublin from France by road in order to save time and was sailed for the first time last Wednesday 14th May 2008, just two days before the Irish nationals.
The crew set foot on her for the first time on Friday morning and only one had ever set foot on a J109 before. The sails are from North Sails and are also stock items. They fitted the best instruments available from Raymarine.
After their successful debut against the like of the well-prepared Ker Checkmate and the twin Corby 33s from Dun Laoghaire Contango and Rockabill the crew are buoyed up for more success further north this weekend, with online commentators putting them at the top of the list of potential podium tenants.
The boat is now on the way to Scotland where they have decided to sail in class 2 rather than class 3 (thus incurring a three-point penalty in their IRC rating). The preparation for Scotland consists of a week's work for most and a trip to Moscow for the lucky ones.
The crew (Nigel Biggs, Jimmy Huston, Neil Mc Donald, Alastair Green, George Rice, Dave Cullen and Jo Wilson - Hyland can't go because of Oppie commitments with his children) know Loch Fyne very well having sailed there on many occasions.
Hyland says that if they can get one design racing into Dublin bay it will be great for the class and the fact that J109s can race competitively under IRC will be a great help.
'J109s are great boats with great potential for inshore and offshore racing,' he says but admits that the current crop of Irish boats can hardly be described as one design because of different sails, masts and the fact that some carry internal lead.The Irish class association here should apply the same rules at the UK class association, he says, in order to encourage visits to UK and visitors from UK.
