Recently on a typical April, fog-laden Saturday morning in
Newport I packed my sailing bag and headed up to Bristol, RI.  Agenda for the day included a private tour, led by Jeff Johnstone, of the factory and build process for the new J-70 ‘Speedster,’ and later sneaking onto the prototype hull #1 for a test sail.  The J-70 is J-Boats’ most recent installment and much hyped design representing their first new small keelboat one-design in 18 years (since the J-80 from the early 90s).  She’s a 22.75ft asymmetrical keelboat sporting a trailer-launch able lifting bulb keel with an all carbon, deck-stepped masthead rig with furling jib.

To paraphrase Jeff’s words, the concept of the design is to have a high-performance one design sportboat that also touts being easy to control with comfortable layout.  He wants it all…on one hand to see adrenalin-junky racers like myself duking it out in major keelboat regattas, and then on the other hand to see a family of four out pleasure cruising on a Sunday afternoon.  This seemed a tall order in my book – who’s ever heard-of AND seen a boat that actually pulled off being both sporty and family-friendly?  I was skeptical, to say the least, but then we rigged up and I took the helm…

Joining me aboard were J-Boats’ Newport yacht broker Tim Kohl, and my girlfriend Julia – together collectively a mere 480lbs crew weight (rumor has it the class weight restriction will be around 605-635lbs).  The first thing we noticed was how incredibly stable a platform she was at the dock – little/no rocking or wobble as we boarded.  The cockpit was BIG, clean and orderly.  All control lines feed logically back with no unnecessary clutter, and we had sails-up/wheels-up from the dock within just 5 minutes.

Conditions for the day were southerly breeze of 10-12 knots building to 15-18knots, with relatively calm seas thanks to inbound current.  Our morning fog burnt off once we set sail and the sun shined peaked through to send several  ‘winks’ during our 2 hour sail (clearly premeditated/ordered-up by Jeff & Tim ;-)

Upwind she practically drives herself.  Once our sail trim was close to correct the helm was incredibly well balanced, with little to no weather helm despite our light crew weight.  Hiking was actually comfortable…yes crews, you just read that correctly…hiking is comfortable!  The lifeline and deck were specially designed to offer options of ‘legs-in’ or ‘legs-out’ crew positions.  While legs-in, the deck provides a full length, perfectly-positioned cockpit pedestal for solid footing; and the lifeline becomes a comfortable lower backrest & support (imagine sailing upwind in a ‘chaise-lounge’ of sorts).  Legs-out hiking is also straightforward, regulated by the tightness of the lifelines the class intends to keep crew ‘buns on the deck’ (unlike the painful ‘hanging the crew out to dry style’ hiking in other sportboats…amen to no more hipbone bruises!)

Downwind is where our hair really blew back.  As soon as the kite filled it was as if Scotty just beamed us up into
warp-speed.  Now please indulge me with a quick favor - PAUSE for a moment.  Think back on the last time you had following seas and your boat was really moving…What was going through your mind?  You were probably looking back at 1) the puffs, 2) your competition and 3) the waves…trying to 1) stay in maximize breeze, 2) position appropriately
against other boats, and 3) waiting for that huge wave to catch you for that perfect … OK, so you’re in the zone and with me now?  Time to level-set...#1 and #2 still apply, but forget #3 on the J-70. It ain’t about looking back to surf a wave on this boat…it’s all about how you’re gonna JUMP the waves ahead of you!

While in the groove we easily saw 15+ knots of boatspeed, and the boat still felt like a totally in-control freight train on rails.  Sets, douses and gybes were simple and straightforward, easily manageable by just a driver and one crew.  Admittedly we spun out a couple times when testing her angles off the breeze, but believe it or not she was very civilized on her ear.  Thanks to the substantial cockpit footing, while on our side we were literally all just standing there (with huge smiles) talking calmly through how to get back on track to jumping more waves.

As our time on the water came to an end it was clear none of us wanted to go in.  Word on the street is that J-70s have north of 100 hulls on order; with a significant concentration in the Chesapeake Bay area (Annapolis will have the first and
largest fleet next year).  Initially, major class regattas will almost all be on the east coast across all major events including venues such as Key West, St Pete, Charleston, Annapolis and Newport.

Now why in the world did I just write this article?  Simply put – it’s awesome, I’ve got one on order, as does the Prophet syndicate, and we want you to drink the J-70 kool-aid.  If you are in the market for something new, thinking it’s time to get into a here & now class, or deliberating with friends the idea of a partnership in a boat - please seriously consider this boat and let’s build a fleet!!!

For more info on the boat check into http://www.jboats.com/j70/