The day BWS test sailed the new J/95 the stars were not aligned for a proper and in-depth trial. First, the Coast Guard pulled us over for a safety check—we passed—then the spinnaker shackle popped while screaming along behind the asymmetrical kite on the way back to the marina, which dumped the sail into the drink right ahead of us. Oops. No one’s fault, just another day at the office for boat builders and boat reviewers.

Nevertheless, we came away from the new J/95 exhilarated by the design, the execution of the concept, the build quality and the boat’s all around performance.

The design brief for the new 95 was to take the J Boat performance concept and adapt it to a shoal draft centerboard design. The reason is simple. Many of this country’s and Northern Europe’s best cruising areas have fairly shoal waters yet offer great coastal cruising.

J Boats has had a lot of success with their weekend cruiser and daysailer models—the new J/100, J/105, J/109 and the J/80—so they know that many of their potential owners are looking for a boat that can race efficiently, sail well when cruising, accommodate a family and friends in the cockpit, and provide an enclosed head with berths and a small galley for weekending. Sounds like a tall order.

It is. Especially when you throw in the wrinkle of making the boat shoal draft. This design element and how designer Rod Johnstone solved the inherent problems are what make the new J/95 so interesting and unique since he manages to combine some of the traditional benefits of a center boarder with a modern bulb keel and twin rudders.

For the uninitiated, there is nothing new about cruising, racing or for that matter commercial boats fitted with centerboards. Fishing smacks along the East Coast used to be fitted with centerboards, as did such offshore-capable crafts as the Baltimore Clipper. In the 1950s and 60s, when offshore sailing was dominated in the U.S. by the CCA rating rule, many centerboard designs came into favor. Carlton Mitchell’s Finisterre, with a centerboard, won the Newport-to-Bermuda Race three times and many Ted Hood designs of the era with centerboards were capable and successful ocean racers and cruisers.

Only recently, with the advent of mega performance sailing yachts, have we seen a rebirth of centerboards and drop keels and an improvement in the old design concept. What Johnstone has accomplished is to build a very shoal bulb fin keel, similar to the keel on a J/105 but much shallower, and then created inside the keel a slot and mechanism to lower and raise a bronze board. With the board up the keel has plenty of lift but with the board dropped to its full depth of five feet, five inches, the 95’s upwind ability increases noticeably and leeway decreases commensurately. Note that the sail drive for the 14-horesepower tucks in really neatly aft of the keel.

Having grown up sailing cat boats and gaff-headed, centerboard 25-footers in the Herreshoff style, BWS knows that centerboard designs with small or single rudders can suffer from weather helm, sometimes enough so to make them hard to sail and trim upwind. Plus, when heeled hard, such single rudders can cavitate, lose their grip and cause the hull to round up uncontrollably.

Johnstone’s solution takes a page from the leading edge of sailboat design, the IMOCA Open Classes that are so popular in Europe—Mini 6.5, Class 40, Open 60 and others. In fact Johnstone designed a modern Mini 6.5 for American Clay Burkhalter for the 2007 MiniTransat from France to Brazil. At 21 feet these little boats are extreme ocean-racing machines. Also, Open Class designs are so beamy they require twin or tandem rudders.

Tandem rudders have the amazing affect of putting the boat on rails, like a sports car with advanced traction stabilization or more prosaically like an arrow with feathers at its tail. The boat just wants to go straight and when you ask it to turn it turns as surely and steadily as you could imagine. Plus, you never suffer from intense weather helm.

In the 95, the tandem rudder solution works well because the rudder(s) need to have less depth than the keel, which would make a single rudder too small for the boat.

The hull design of the new 95 is an evolution of the J line, and you can see a bit of the 109’s deck line and cabin profile and a lot of the 100’s bow, stern and overall modern charm. Because the Johnstones are not hell-bent on constructing condo style interiors in their smaller racer-cruisers, boats like the 95 do not require high topsides, high cabin tops and vast hull volumes in the aft and forward sections. Instead, the 95 has a purposeful low profile, an appropriate cabin and both bow and stern sections in complete balance with the concept and the whole boat. In our view, the bow of the 95 says a lot about the design concept—completely modern and proportionally perfect without being faddish or trendy.

The fractional sloop rig is both simple and powerful. The standard Hall aluminum spar and boom are set up for easy sailing and handling but fairly sophisticated trim with a rigid boom vang, backstay adjuster, two built-in slab reef point lines and a cockpit-wide traveler on the main sheet. The headsail is a slightly overlapping genoa fitted on a Harken roller furling unit. The mast shrouds are well inboard, which give close sheeting angles on the genoa. In sail trials the boat tacked easily inside 90 degrees. The optional Hall carbon-fiber mast and boom will decrease weight aloft and improve performance on all angles of sail.

The 95 is designed to accommodate an optional bowsprit pole from which you can fly an asymmetrical spinnaker. If you add only one option, this should be it. With the “asym” flying, the 95 really scoots. And, once you get it going, you will see the benefit of the tandem rudders since the helmsman will feel in complete control.

The 95 is being built in Rhode Island and the build process incorporates the best and latest thinking in production boat techniques. The hull and deck are infused vinylester composites with end-grain balsa cores. The infusion process maximizes the glass-to-resin ratios while providing as strong and light hull and deck panels as possible in a production line process. The infusion process also controls toxic emissions and is a green building technique.

J Boats is an international company with a very strong presence in Europe and a growing footprint in Asia and Austral-Asia. Under that broad umbrella, the company builds its boats to the international standards supervised and inspected by the ISO. The 95 has been built to ISO CE Mark Category “A” standards, which is defined as a vessel capable of crossing oceans and sailing in 23-foot waves and Force 10 winds. Also, the 95 is ORC lifeline-equipped, which is a higher standard than met by almost all other boats in the under 32-foot category.

The combination of the design concept, the rig and build execution adds up to an interesting and versatile package. The 95 will be a great daysailer that will acquit itself well in beer-can and PHRF races. It will perform nicely as a family picnic boat that can accommodate five or six adults and several children for an afternoon of sailing, swimming and cavorting off the beach.

But it also can carry a couple off for pleasant short cruises to areas that are off limits to larger and deeper craft, whether that be the upper bays of Nantucket Harbor, the shallows of Barnegat Bay, the tidewaters of the Chesapeake, the extensive shallows of the Bahamas or the upper tidal reaches of San Francisco Bay.

You can feel confident taking the 95 offshore to the Bahamas or simply sticking your head out of your harbor for a long coastal run from one cruising ground to the next. With the small 14-horsepower engine, you will be able to get home when the wind dies.

Like most of the J Boats that have preceded it, the new 95 is a pure sailor’s sailboat that embodies a refined balance between traditional boat style and qualities with the latest thinking in performance, build technique and hardware. And with the shoal draft centerboard configuration, the new 95 will set you free to explore places you may have dreamed of from the deeper waters offshore.

J/95
LOA                   31’2”
LWL                   28’4”
Beam           10’0”
Draft                   3’0” / 5’5”
Displ.           6,000 lbs.
Ballast (lead)           2,450 lbs.
Sail area (100%) 450 sq. ft

J Boats
Newport, RI
401-846-8410
www.jboats.com

J/122 •

During initial sail trials in England last winter, the boat proved to be very quick out of the blocks and capable of high sustained speeds on all angles. Since then the new 122 has shone in regattas on both sides of the Atlantic. Since the Paris introduction, more than 45 boats have been ordered.

The boat has many unique und useful features on deck, including the carbon fiber sprit for flying an asymmetrical spinnaker, a carbon fiber Hall Spars mast, a “dock box” seat in the transom that can be removed when lightening ship for race days, and the extra-large destroyer wheel, which makes steering from both sides of the cockpit a breeze.

Down below, owners can have a two-cabin, two head arrangement or a three-cabin, one head plan. With either choice, the saloon remains the same with a large nav station and chart table, a very useful U-shaped galley and bench settees on either side of a large centerline table.

J/Boats has long set a standard for high quality, high performance, dual-purpose boats that really claim a lot of silver at the major racing events and provide warm, comfortable accommodations for the family cruises in between events. And their boats are blue-water capable, a point underscored by the recent victory in the Transpac by a J/125.

Specifications: LOA 40’0”; LWL 34’7”; Beam 11’11”; Draft 7’4”; Displacement 14,800 lbs.; Sail Area 865 sq. ft.

For more information log on to www.jboats.com.

J/92 •

A modern dual-purpose boat, the 92s is designed for fast sailing with a couple or family as crew. Yet the boat can be raced successfully, either one- design or under a rating rule. The 92s has a new keel and rudder design, and a new deck and cockpit layout for more comfort when cruising.

Down below, the interior is simple, efficient and will suit a couple or a family with small children. Forward there is a V- berth and an enclosed head. The cabin has settee berths on both sides and a compact galley on the port side. A cooler or a 12-volt portable refrigerator fits aft of the companionway.

Those who followed this year’s Newport Bermuda Race will have seen that 44 J/Boats finished the race and 12 finished in the top three of their classes. The 30-foot J/92s may not be your first choice for offshore passagemaking – it is intended as a racer/cruiser for active families – but you know it comes from a company that builds offshore-quality boats that sail extremely well.

A more dedicated coastal cruiser comes to the U.S. this fall from German builder Bavaria. One of Europe’s highest volume builders, Bavaria has mastered the science of production line assembly, which enables the company to build cruising boats at very attractive prices – despite the high euro, low dollar exchange rates.

J/124 •

Long and lean and very stable, the 124 will stand up to a breeze and will handle nicely under mainsail alone. Because of the narrow beam and efficient underwater appendages, pushed by a powerful rig, owners will be sailing while others are motoring and will get to their next landfall, or complete a distance course, well ahead of their compatriots. With the standard 100-percent jib, the boat will be a cinch to tack; a Hoyt jib-boom is also available to make the boat self-tacking. Hoist an asymmetrical spinnaker and the 124 will fly downwind while steering like a Porsche on a mountain road.

Down below, the layout evokes cruising boats of the past with a V- berth forward, two settees in the cabin and a double quarter berth aft. This is a place for friends to gather after of day of fun sailing to share a simple meal, swap sailing yarns and enjoy the peace of being on the water – and not the rumble of a generator.

As the Johnstones say in the 124 brochure: “The idea is to enjoy life, not be a slave to complex cruising systems.” Whether you are heading off for the weekend, or sailing to a regatta, or bugging off to the Caribbean for the winter, the 124 will get you there swiftly and safely and will leave you a lot of maintenance-free time to enjoy the cool places you visit.

Part of Group Beneteau, Wauquiez builds elegant production cruising boats in the tradition of the company’s founder Henri Wauquiez. Henri was something of an idealist and driven to build boats of the highest quality. Now that his company has been absorbed by Group Beneteau, those traditions are carried on but with the advantages of manufacturing and business expertise not available to the founder.

J/124

Building upon the successful J/100, the larger J/124 is almost 41 feet long and mimics the aesthetics of its smaller sister. With the J/124, J/Boats sought to create a high-end daysailer and weekender that is fast yet simple. While they pushed the envelope on performance, they wanted to keep it simple enough to singlehand, evidenced by the optional self-tacking jib and absent spinnaker gear. And high-end she is with a SA/D of 22 placing her well in the performance racing spectrum as well as a list of carbon fiber accessories keeping her light and allotting a D/L of 119. The relatively narrow, V’d hull, nearly-plumb bow and low sheer give the J/124 a sleek appearance.

J/65 •

This spring J/Boats, based in Newport, Rhode Island, will launch the first of two new 65-foot performance cruising boats that are now in build at Pearson Composites in nearby Warren, R.I.. Although J/Boats is no stranger to building larger performance cruisers—the J/46 and J/160, for example—the new 65-footers mark a real departure for the company that promises to set new standards for performance and luxury in the cruising fleet.

In early April, BWS stopped by the plant in Warren, R.I. to look over the plans for the new boat with J/Boat’s president Jeff Johnstone and to crawl around inside hull number one which was close to having its deck laid on. Aside from sailing a boat a long distance in a wide range of conditions, there may be no better way to get a feel for a boat’s characteristics and quality than to see it with its skin peeled back and all its systems laid bare. That’s just how we found the new J/65 and an impressive sight it was.
Hull number one gets hoisted from the mould

THE DESIGN
J/Boats was lunched in the mid 1970s with the now venerable J/24 which was billed at the time as a racer-cruiser that could compete effectively around the buoys and then take a couple off for a weekend cruise. Today it is almost quaint to think of adults cruising in a 24-footer, but in those days it was done all the time and we seem to be none the worse for it.

The original mission that launched the J/24 remains the centerpiece of every new J/Boat design that has come along since. The boats are created to sail exceptionally well, whether cruising or racing, while offering sail handling arrangements and accommodations tailored to couples or families who want to have fun cruising for days or weeks on end.

It sounds a tall order, yet over the last three decades J/Boats has introduced new boats every year that meet and often exceed those criteria, all the while advancing the pure design elements of the line of boats for better sailing performance and innovating ways to make sailing easier and more efficient.

The successful line of “sprit” boats that have become so popular are a fine example of the J/Boat habit of thinking outside the box; the J/160, at 53 feet, has earned a reputation for being an excellent round-the-world cruiser for couples, while the incredibly popular J/105 does exactly what the original J/24 once did: it offers great sailing around the buoys and fine family cruising on the weekends.

Last year, the company launched its new J/100 daysailer which sports a new, trim look with a low, flat sheer and a nearly plumb bow that evokes, to this viewer, the purposeful look of the latest generation of America’s Cup boats. While earlier Js had broad beams and flat hull shapes under the water, the new generation of designs, kicked off by the J/100, have much lower beam-to-length ratios, more V’d underwater hull shapes and lower centers of gravity. These qualities combine to create hulls that are very easily driven, stable under a press of sail and have excellent directional stability. Designs that are long and lean have always had great manners at sea while offering their crews good performance on all points of sail, especially upwind.

The new J/65 takes all these ideas and advances them to a logical conclusion in a boat that is truly designed to carry a couple or crew quickly and safely across the world’s oceans whether racing or cruising.

The boat’s numbers indicate that the 65 is truly at the performance end of the cruising spectrum. With a water line of 57 feet, the boat will have cruising speeds between eight and 12 knots in average conditions; the polar diagram shows the 65 reaching at 7.5 knots in eight knots of true breeze. That means you will be sailing happily when others in heavier boats will be powering.

The boat displaces approximately 50,000 pounds and has 19,000 pounds of ballast, most of which is in the bulb at the bottom of the fin keel, so it is neither ultra-light nor under-ballasted. The ballast/displacement ratio of 38-percent falls slightly above the mid-range for performance cruisers and indicates a boat that will be stiff and weatherly while having a soft and easy motion at sea.

The 65 has only 16 feet of beam on deck, which is narrow by modern standards for a cruising boat. The beam/length ratio of 4.06 is greater than the average and really shows that the boat will be easily driven in light airs. Combined with moderately light displacement, and higher than average ballast/displacement ratio and the long waterline, the hull numbers indicate a boat that will be easy to sail and very quick.

The boat has a carbon fiber mast by Hall Spars on which flies a large mainsail and a small, 100-percent jib for working sails. The sail area/displacement ratio comes out at 21, which is higher than you will find on most cruising boats but not outside what good sailors would consider a comfort zone. Like most J/Boats, the 65 should sail well under mainsail alone.

Note in the sail plan that the headstay has been set back from the bow by about two feet. This creates a platform for flying an asymmetrical spinnaker or cruising chute from the bow without the need for a sprit or spinnaker pole. If it is easy to fly, then cruisers are more apt to use their spinnaker when the wind is right for it.

The design of the J/65 makes use of modern construction techniques and materials that allow the builders to create a hull and deck that are both light and strong. By creating a hull and rig that are both light and very easily driven, J/Boats has developed a 65-footer that will acquit itself well on the race course—particularly point-to-point events—and will be a pleasure to cruise.

ACCOMODATIONS AND SYSTEMS
As we toured the new 65 at the factory we were repeatedly impressed by the organization of all shipboard systems and by the fit and finish of the furniture below decks. Hull number one will be heading to the West Coast and from there on to the Pacific cruising grounds. The owner, who has had several J/Boats, including a J/160, wants the boat to be as self-sufficient and comfortable as possible.

The J/65 is built on a semi-custom basis so owners can shape their living environments and the systems they build in to their special needs and desires. The interior arrangement in hull number one provides an owner’s cabin forward with a centerline double berth and private head with a large separate shower stall. Across from the head, a seaberth is built-in to starboard so the owner can tuck himself away when on passage.

Aft of the saloon there are two double quarter-cabins that are roomy and airy; each has its own head and the starboard head has a separate shower which will double as a wet locker when things are wet on deck.

The saloon, galley and chart table combine into a large open space in which the crew will spend most of its time. As J/Boats has demonstrated in the J/160 and the J/46 they know a thing or two about galleys. The 65 has a large U-shaped galley that will work well at sea and will be a fine place to prepare meals when at anchor. Counter space is expansive and ample lockers have been provided.

The L-shaped dinette to port will seat six and the berth doubles as a good seaberth when on passage. A pilot berth lies outboard of the dinette and will be a favorite among the crew as it lies over the boat’s center of gravity.

To starboard there is a long settee that will also work well as a seaberth. Behind it cabinets have been built in for books, storage and the boat entertainment center, which reportedly will be state of the art.

In the 65, J/Boats and Pearson Composites have gone the extra mile to make all interior furniture and joinery as luxurious and finely finished as possible. Although the designers and builders have worked hard to keep the boat as light as possible, weight has not been spared in the interior and it looks exceptional. Many of the details that have been developed for the new boat will be adopted by the company as they spread the quality down through their line of smaller boats. In a real sense, the new 65 and her sistership are research and development platforms for the whole J/Boat family of boats.

A luxury cruising boat inevitably will be loaded with systems and the J/65 is no exception. Hull number one has a generator, air conditioning throughout, an elaborate refrigerator/freezer and a watermaker.

The on-board electrical system is the nerve center of the whole operation. To avoid the pitfalls of a system cobbled together from a random list of suppliers, J/Boats went to Mastervolt as well as a New Zealand-based consulting firm to design and implement the 65’s AC and DC systems. The inverters, batteries, chargers, transformers, battery control systems and the control panels are all designed as a unit. Mas-tervolt is an industry leader and has representation worldwide, so an owner knows that even though his electrical system is complex he will be able to find proper assistance just about everywhere he wants to sail.

The sailing systems on deck are powered by two Lewmar hydraulic units which are mounted in a cabinet readily accessible from the saloon. The hydraulic roller headstay, vang, sheet winches and backstay are all integrated and provided with ample redundancy.

Because the boat is loaded with systems—when we were aboard it looked as complex as a space shuttle—J/Boats designed the flooring system in the boat to allow all wiring, plumbing, batteries, air conditioning and hydraulics to run underfoot. The cabin soles lie on hung aluminum trusses that are raised above the hull’s floor stringers. Access to all systems and conduits through removable panels is excellent so owners and service professionals can and will have an easy time tracking gremlins and making repairs.

The engine/generator compartment lies under the cockpit sole and between the two aft cabins. Access is via panels on both sides as well as from the front so routine inspections and maintenance will not require
a contortionist.

J/Boats has gone to great lengths to insulate the engine room to cut down on ambient noise while motoring or running the generator. But sealing the engine compartment to dampen sound presents the problem of how to get enough air into the compartment to aspirate the engines and keep the compartment cool.

The solution was to put the large box stringers that stiffen the stern quarters of the hull to double duty. Since the stringers are hollow, they can also act as air ducts. With blowers installed and vents placed aft, fresh air can be circulated in volumes large enough to keep both of the engines breathing and running at acceptable temperatures.

The new 65 will be a very comfortable boat to live aboard and is set up to be an excellent home at sea. Interior spaces are open and airy, yet the distances between bulkheads, tables and counters is always the length of an arm’s reach. That means when things are bumpy out there you can always find a place to brace yourself while working with both hands and will never be launched across an acre of slippery cabin sole. Handholds are placed thoughtfully so the crew can really move fore and aft without stringing a safety line or dashing hopefully between waves.

Like the hull and rig, the accommodation plan and systems built into it have been designed by experienced sailors for sailors who know the difference between what works at sea and what doesn’t. The J/65 certainly will perform exceptionally well whether the wind is a zephyr or piping stiffly.

BWS THOUGHTS
A semi-custom cruising boat of this size, quality and expense is not within everyone’s reach. Yet, for those who aspire to a true performance passagemaker that can win races while keeping her crew safe and comfortable, the new J/65 looks like a real breakthrough.
The process of building a J/65 will put new owners in league with a remarkable team of professionals, including the Johnstones (Jeff, Rod and Al), Pearson Composites’ in-house wizard Clive Dent and project manager David Lake. The combined design and building experience of this team amounts to generations of time spent creating boats for special owners.

The new J/65 will be the flagship of almost any cruising fleet she joins and will be a real head-turner when she decides to strap on the racing sails and go for the silver. This is exactly the style of boat BWS would enjoy racing to Hawaii or Bermuda and then sailing onward to the great cruising grounds that lie over the horizon.

In many ways, the 65’s performance characteristics and living accommodations hark back to the days when offshore racing was run under the Cruising Club of America rule. Boats were required then to be capable and fast ocean-going vessels that could survive storms at sea while also offering their crews comfortable accommodations below. The J/65 is a classic racer-cruiser in the best sense of that rule, in a most modern and attractive package.

The J/65 is a boat you could honestly sail anywhere shorthanded and do so at remarkably quick speeds.
Hull number two will be launched in the fall. BWS will test sail it as soon as possible and will update this review with on-the-water observations.

LOA 64’6” (19.66 m.)
LWL 57’0” (17.37 m.)
Beam 16’0” (4.88 m.)
Draft 9’0” (2.72 m.)
Displacement 50,000 lbs. (22,500 kg.)
Ballast 19,000 lbs. (8,550 kg.)
Sail area 1,819 sq. ft. (164 sq. m.)
Engine 125-hp diesel
Sail area/Displ. 21
Displ./L 121
Base price $1,800,00

J/Boats
557 Thames St.
Newport, RI 02840
401-846-8410
www.jboats.com

J/133 •

Jim Johnstone cut off in mid-anecdote about his years crewing on the classic J Class Shamrock IV. “Simon, ease the main! Ease! Ease! Ease!” he said with an urgency that only comes when racing or something bad is going to happen.

The stern of the new J/133 lifted on the crest of an eight-foot wave, and we took off. I put the handle in the self-tailing mainsheet winch and cranked the sheet in as fast as I could.

“Simon, look at the speed.” It went past 10.5, then to 12 knots, and kept going until it hit 14.5 and stayed there for 30 seconds before the wave we were surfing finally passed us. We were close reaching under a single-reefed main in 25 to 30 knots of breeze as we entered The Race at the eastern end of Long Island Sound. The outgoing current had kicked the seas up from regular four-footers to very steep eight- to 10-footers with no backs to them. We caught two more and had sleigh rides up to 16 knots. Within a mile we were inside Long Island Sound and the seas had subsided to two- to four-foot chop, and we had huge grins across our faces.

The J/133 is the latest incarnation of J/Boats’ extremely successful Sprit boat line. Building on the proven concept of boats like the J/105, the company has come out with their next generation of racer/cruisers. Along with her little sister the 109, the 133 is a boat that is designed to win the Tuesday night racing series and then on Friday take the family cruising for a long weekend.

I sailed the boat from Newport, R.I., to New York City in late September with Jim Johnstone, who is a member of the founding family, the New England regional sales manager and the man in charge of overseeing building at TPI in Bristol, R.I. And we got pasted with the first real fall low-pressure system.

SAILING AND CHARACTERISTICS
The 133 is a sailor’s boat. Everything about it is geared toward having fun and sailing fast. The boat is built using their patented Scrimp technology. The fiberglass hull and deck are laminated of E-glass over a balsa core. TPI gives their boats a five-year structural warranty and a 10-year warranty against blisters.

At 17,900 pounds the 133 is light for a 43-footer. The simple double-swept spreader rig comes standard in carbon fiber from Hall Spars. The sail plan consists of a large fully battened mainsail with a fractional 100- percent jib and asymmetrical spinnakers set off the retractable carbon fiber bowsprit. The rig allows the boat to stay powered up in a very wide range of conditions and is easily handled by a small number of crew. This boat had a brand new set of North 3DL sails that certainly helped her performance.

As we left Newport and Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay, the wind was blowing from the east at 14 knots and building. Jim and I were stoked at the prospect of a blistering broad reach down the sound. There was even talk of spinnakers. Powering toward Pt. Judith at the southern end of Rhode Island Sound the boat trucked along at a steady 7.5 knots with water pluming up over the nearly plumb bow. The helm felt balanced the entire time, and the boat responded like a sports car to the smallest adjustment. Initially, I found myself oversteering because I am used to much heavier boats with less efficient rudders.

By the time we rounded Pt. Judith and turned toward The Race and Long Island Sound, the wind had clocked to the south-southwest and had built to a steady 18 with gusts up to 20. Close reaching with just a single reef in the main we made eight, but when the boat was cracked off 10 degrees she really showed her speed potential with regular surges above 10. In these conditions the motion of the boat was very manageable thanks to her seven-foot, six-inch draft and full waterline length. We stopped for the night at a marina along the Connecticut shore.

The next day brought sun and warmth and a five- to 10-knot breeze directly from the west-southwest, our exact course to New York. We sailed for an hour or so in the morning. The boat showed that it is capable in the lightest airs to make a good turn of speed. In six knots of true wind we had the boat going four and a half to five knots at 35 degrees apparent. Not bad.

But that speed wasn’t going to get us to Hell’s Gate before dark, so on went the 56-horsepower Yanmar and we motored at 3,000 rpms at 7.7 knots all day. Unfortunately, the wind didn’t cooperate, and we motored until New York. At 8 p.m. that night we entered the East River with New York ablaze in front of us. And by 10 we were tied to the dock in Liberty Landing Marina on the New Jersey shore across from Manhattan.

COCKPIT AND ACCOMMADATIONS
The clean and open cockpit with a full-width wheel and wide decks reflect the boat’s racing pedigree. All lines, save the spinnaker controls, are led aft to ease handling. There is also the option of moving the asymmetrical spinnaker pole lines and halyards to jammers in the cockpit for shorthanded sailing. The mainsheet runs along a full-width traveler to winches just in front of the helmsman. Two able sailors can handle the 133 quite easily and one can manage all working sail if the autopilot takes over the steering. For watchkeepers on passage, all lines are handy so there is rarely a need to leave the cockpit.

Visibility is good when standing behind the wheel, and the helmsman can get comfortable sitting either to windward or to leeward to watch sail trim. With the dodger raised it is a little more difficult looking forward, but the dodger keeps the water out of what was otherwise a wet cockpit in the boisterous conditions we were sailing through. In these conditions, with the dodger down, we were getting continual water running down the decks and then over the backs of the seats and into the cockpit. The cockpit seats are long and wide enough to nap on but the seat backs are quite low.

The huge lockers are the best part of the cockpit. Under the starboard seat is a good shallow locker designed for extra lines and sail ties and under the port seat lies a massive storage bin. Through the bin there is access to the large space underneath the cockpit floor, an area intended for a generator or more storage. The two large lazarette lockers house the propane tanks and offer excellent access to the steering system.

The boat comes with standard Harken 58s as primary winches and two 48s for the mainsheet forward of the helm. There are two more 48s at the companionway with the standard Spinlock line clutches.

Expecting the 133 to be fairly stripped out below to meet the requirements of the racing crowd, the aspect of the new 133 that most surprised and impressed me was the interior. The boat Jim and I sailed to New York was the twin-cabin version with a master cabin forward with its own head and a quarter cabin aft of the galley. To port of the companionway is a large head with a great wet locker behind the toilet. Forward of the head on the port side is a very workable nav station. The chart table is large enough for a full-size chart folded in half. All electrics are led through the master panel at the chart table, and there is plenty of space to mount a chartplotter and all the other goodies one could hope to weigh oneself down with. This boat was equipped with B&G Hercules instruments and GPS.

The J-shaped galley is easy to work in underway. During our pound toward Long Island Sound I was able to fix sandwiches without a problem. The fiddles throughout the boat are quite large and sturdy and offer good handholds. The galley comes equipped with two large stainless steel sinks almost on the centerline (so they will drain on both tacks), six-and-a-half cubic feet of fridge space that is easy to access and a large three-burner stove. Storage areas in the cabinets and behind the fridge and stove are ample for a week’s cruise or more. Long-term stores can be tucked away behind the saloon seats and in the forward cabin.

The main saloon is dominated visually by the black carbon mast that comes down through the forward part of the folding table. The benches are long enough to easily sit six people for dinner and make great sea births. Under them are the 50-gallon fuel and water tanks. These are on the small side and reflect the boat’s racing pedigree. But behind the benches there is loads of storage space.

Up forward, the big white tube that houses the spinnaker pole over the starboard side of the V-berth is a little disconcerting at first. But the cabin is large and the pole does not inhibit the bunk.

It is a rare pleasure to find an interior on a modern racer/cruiser that does not feel like the designer crammed as much in as possible. It is well thought out throughout, airy and light, and has plenty of storage.

BWS CONCLUSIONS
J/Boats has built some of the most successful production boats of all time. In the 25 years since the Johnstone family introduced the J/24, the sailing world has gone through some tremendous technological changes and with the boats such as the 105, 120 and now the 109 and 133, J/Boats has proven to be right on the leading edge of the sailing world.

The Johnstones create boats that are well built, well thought out and fun. They use their quarter century of knowledge to the maximum in their new range. I was impressed during our two-day, 150-mile sea trial, with how Jim Johnstone constantly made notes on how to improve their new boat. Everything from foot braces in the nav station to better handholds at the mast will be scrutinized and improved upon as 133s roll off the production line and in new models to come.

If you are looking for a cruising boat that is a pleasure to sail and will get your heart pumping occasionally, this boat is for you. Just as important, if you are looking for a boat in which the whole family can have fun and cruise in comfort, the 133 is large enough and commodious enough to make an excellent floating home away from home.

LOA 43’
LWL 37’10”
Beam 12’10”
Draft 7’6” (6’3” shoal)
Displ. 17,900 lbs.
Ballast 6,900 lbs.
SA (100%) 964 sq. ft.
Auxiliary 56-horsepower Yanmar
Headroom 6’4”
Displ./L 149
SA/Displ. 22.63
Price $400,000

J/Boats, Inc.
PO Box 90
Newport, RI 02840
Ph: 401-846-8410
www.jboats.com

J/40 Gryphon •

About three years ago my wife Raine and I sailed our J/40 Gryphon down Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay under the Newport Bridge and south past Block Island. It was a fairly typical late season sail – blustery winds, scudding cumulus clouds, and chilly air – except that we never turned back. Now, 15,000 miles later, we’re sitting in Port Moselle Marina in Noumea, New Caledonia, having cruised the Caribbean, transited the Panama Canal, and crossed the Pacific.

Before leaving Rhode Island we had performed a fairly intensive refit of Gryphon, converting her from a weekend cruiser/racer into a blue-water, liveaboard boat. In the process – we added, we serviced, we rebuilt, and we replaced – nearly 100-plus projects, big and small, were completed. Altogether we felt we assembled a cohesive and sensible set of systems with which we could live safely and comfortably for some years to come.

Each of our decisions – my engineering background demands that I organize and categorize projects like these – fits neatly into one of two categories: “good” and, well, um, “other.” By describing some of the distinct winners and losers that hindsight now makes obvious as well as some generalizations based on our experiences, perhaps what we learned can benefit other long-term cruisers.

The first, and most far-reaching, decision we made was to do extensive open-ocean sailing in a J/40 – not the sort of boat that first comes to mind when people think of a liveaboard vessel. For us, it was – and still is – the right choice. Beyond the basic needs of safety, comfort, size, and budget, we wanted a boat that would be fun to sail. Gryphon has answered, and answered ably, in all of these categories.

We’re not racers, but we appreciate a boat that can sail quickly and handles nicely. From the Galápagos to the Marquesas we logged 175 miles each day; from the Virgin Islands to Panama we had three consecutive days of 200-plus miles, just on main and jib. She is an easily driven boat that performs well in light air, but she can be reefed down and balanced well in 30-plus knots when necessary.

There’s a single notable disadvantage to the J/40 as a liveaboard boat – a lack of storage volume. This means that the second cabin often becomes the repository for spare sails, bicycles, and other bulky items. We added storage space by modifying the aft berth, converting the centerline space to storage compartments and shelves, and by having a custom cabinet made for under the saloon table. And although the second head could be considered overkill, the two-cabin layout has allowed us easily and comfortably to accommodate friends during long passages.

THE TASK
When we purchased Gryphon, she was fitted out as a weekend cruiser only. The electronics consisted of a VHF radio, radar, and sailing instruments; the GPS was dysfunctional. Three old gel-cell batteries were wired together and charged from an automobile alternator and regulator. The sail inventory seemed extensive at first but turned out to include two battered mains and several worn and worthless genoas. The words “ground tackle” would more accurately read as “dock lines.”

To convert Gryphon from a casual weekender to a safe and reliable floating home, we concentrated on making her sturdy and, to a high degree, easy to operate. Much of the refit took place at Warren River Boatworks in Warren, R.I., where their attitude of rugged and proper installations meshed exactly with our needs. Sturdy – as applied to both the equipment and the installation – implies reliability, an important characteristic when cruising beyond the reach of 1-800 service calls, and it means more time devoted to cruising, less to maintenance or repairs. Reliability also comes through redundancy, multiple pieces of equipment that can perform the same task independently. And operational simplicity suggests convenience and usefulness, without which equipment may go unused and thus be little more than excess ballast. Our mindset was, “Do it right, do it once.” Gear that we bought was high quality, or we found a way to do without it. A dodger, for example, that cannot stand up to the occasional boarding wave is worse than useless.

SAFETY SYSTEMS
Certainly one area where reliability and ease of use is important is safety equipment. We discovered that the ORC Special Regulations provided handy guidance for the best equipment to carry and for specific safety improvements we could make to the yacht itself. The definition of a Category One race involves long distances offshore and requires self-sufficiency and preparedness for serious emergencies without outside assistance – exactly the conditions of blue-water cruising. These rules were born of years of racing involving countless boats and crews facing all types of conditions, and they have benefited from the hindsight of both success and tragedy – their purpose being to thwart the latter. We treated the rules as a checklist, and we feel confident in the results. Thankfully, I cannot testify to the worthiness of any of our safety equipment in extremis since we haven’t had to deploy any of it in earnest.

An important safety improvement that we made to Gryphon was the addition of storm ports to cover the opening portlights. The Bowmar ports on the J/40 are up to the task of keeping out spray or the occasional deck-washing wave over the bow, but the compression-gasket closure seems inadequate to stop a boarding wave that breaks against the coach roof. The storm ports are simple 3/8-inch Lexan plates that fully cover the portlights when attached. They are held to the coach roof by two bolts, one at each end, that are fastened to stainless-steel threaded receivers which in turn have been permanently mounted beside each port. Mounting or dismounting the eight storm ports takes less than ten minutes, and, having now been nearly knocked down by a breaking beam sea, we are convinced that these were a worthy investment for both comfort (never a leak) and safety.

GROUND TACKLE
Ground tackle is a frequent topic of conversation among cruisers. Our choice is a 45-pound Bruce anchor with 200 feet of 5/16-inch, hi-tensile chain. The Bruce, which we used on a previous cruising boat and on several charter boats, has served us extremely well, and we’re still happy with our pick. Speaking honestly, though, a casual dock survey shows that the CQR (and derivatives) is the most popular anchor out there. The 200 feet of chain may be overkill – perhaps 150 feet would be sufficient – but anchoring in depths of 80-plus feet with plenty of scattered coral heads has been common ever since we sailed into the Society Islands. While we do carry two complete rodes on the bow, we could count on one hand the number of times that we used both anchors. A stern anchor would be many times more useful.

The windlass that we added is the Lewmar Ocean Two with gipsy and capstan. It has been 100-percent reliable (although the “waterproof” circuit breaker turned out not to be) and has required only minimal maintenance. It does have one significant inherent drawback that took us some miles to understand and circumvent – the hawse pipe is insufficiently protected from boarding seas and tends to ship large quantities of water. As Gryphon’s anchor locker drains directly into the deep bilge, this is a major disadvantage. Even on a boat with a watertight anchor locker, the amount of water shipped will damage quickly the electric motor and corrode the transmission and mounting. We fabricated a plastic-and-leather panel that is bolted in the place of the normal hawse cover and that completely seals the hawse pipe during offshore passages. Since we usually move the anchor off the bow during long passages anyway, it’s no additional inconvenience to close off the hawse pipe in this manner.

THE ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
Most cruisers these days have hefty electrical requirements demanding large-capacity battery banks and charging systems adequate to the task. Gryphon is no exception with our PUR 80 watermaker and Glacier Bay 12-volt refrigeration system. The two house batteries are 8-D absorbed glass mat Lifeline batteries from Concorde. We have been very pleased with the operation of these batteries, including the sealed aspect of them and their high-acceptance charge rate. The two house batteries are normally kept electrically paralleled to provide maximum capacity. In the event of a battery failure, however, this redundancy allows the failed battery to be taken offline and the boat to be operated completely on the remaining healthy battery. Further redundancy is provided by a small maintenance-free wet cell, which is used only for engine starting.

We have four distinct means of charging the boat’s batteries – solar, wind, engine, and shorepower – all of which can operate independently and/or concurrently. Our assumption was initially that the solar and wind sources could produce sufficient energy to meet our daily needs. While this is probably true on average, it does not take into account the exceptionally high current drain of the refrigeration system (35 amps), and we have found that running the engine for the (roughly) 45 minutes per day required by the refrigerator satisfies that system’s demand and tops off any other accumulated deficiency. Other normal daily electricity consumption is usually offset by the solar and wind sources. That said, however, on a passage with a fresh breeze or in an anchorage in trade-wind conditions, the wind generator will produce a constant 10-12 amps and can easily keep up with all of the electrical needs. The equipment we installed is as follows:

• Solar – Siemens high-efficiency panels. Two panels are bolted permanently to the coach roof in a way that one is nearly always in full view of the sun, while the other may or may not be shaded by the boom. We chose to install the panels in a manner that would require no attention from us, especially in preparation for rough conditions. The trade-off is that our panels are not oriented optimally for maximum output, but, alternatively, they exhibit zero windage and have weathered all wind and sea conditions faultlessly.

• Wind – Fourwinds II generator. This generator produces high-current output, especially in trade-wind conditions (12-18 knots). The suggested benefit of some (small) output even at low wind speeds is superfluous in a system with loads like DC refrigeration and watermaker. The generator was purchased secondhand; the rebuild was simple, and the company’s service excellent.
• Engine – Hamilton Ferris 120 amp alternator with Heart Incharge three-step regulator. Flawless. Operates as advertised. Need I say more?

• Shorepower – Heart Freedom 10 (combination inverter and charger). Ditto. While the 1,000-watt inverter output may seem excessive for a boat with no microwave oven or TV, it has been used innumerable times for power tools including a drill, sander, and heat gun. When traveling outside North America, 110-volt AC power is only available if we generate it ourselves.

A couple of noteworthy items regarding shorepower include, one, that we had to purchase a step-down transformer in New Zealand in order to use the domestic 220 VAC supply. It’s the same here in New Caledonia. If I were preparing the boat today I would include a transformer as a permanently wired component in the shorepower system. And two, every country (and sometimes each marina!) seems to have its own “standard” AC plug and socket. A 100-foot extension cord can be refit at each location with a local plug from an equally local hardware store.

Having mentioned a couple of the significant DC loads on the boat, I should elaborate that both the Glacier Bay DC refrigeration system and the PUR 80 watermaker have performed well for the past three years. The refrigerator, in particular. It was switched on in Rhode Island in October 1998 and not switched off until our short haul-out in New Zealand in November 1999. The PUR 80 has accumulated over 1,000 hours of operation with consistently excellent results. I recently serviced the pump, replacing the seals and changing the gear oil (a normal 1,000-hour requirement), and was particularly impressed with the thoroughness of the PUR documentation and the ease of the service procedure.

Finally, a few generalizations with regard to the electrical system:

• Electrical demand only rises. In my observation, most people only add or upgrade equipment during their cruising tenure and electrical demand only goes up. Plan for spare capacity initially.

• Systems with DC motors are less efficient at lower voltages. Quoted production rates are always given for some specified operating voltage that is often the higher voltage seen only during charging. Running on batteries alone will reduce output below specification. Plan accordingly.

• While we never expected to spend significant time at docks, we have done so during the South Pacific cyclone season in New Zealand and now in New Caledonia. A DC-powered refrigerator has turned out to be an apparent (albeit quite circumstantial) stroke of genius. While other cruising boats endure the noise and smoke of engine-powered systems, ours just hums along on demand directly from shorepower (via the charger and batteries).

ELECTRONICS
Here is a category that will undoubtedly engender strong opinions and reactions. I’ll limit my discussion to only two systems – the biggest winner and the biggest loser. When we purchased Gryphon, she already had a basic Nexus instrument system, consisting of windspeed, depth, and speed transducers, and two multifunction displays. Given this base we chose to elaborate on the system and added displays, an integrated autopilot, and a GPS interface. After some initial problems with autopilot/instrument software incompatibilities, the system has turned out to be incredibly stable and convenient.

A J/40 is commonly steered by sitting outboard at the helm. At each of these positions we have one multifunction display. There is a third display above the companionway in sight of the helm and everywhere else in the cockpit. The beauty of the multifunction display has been that the most pertinent data can be displayed in a manner that is most effective for wherever the helmsperson is situated, whether that be at the helm itself or elsewhere in the cockpit while the autopilot drives. If sailing on the wind, or perhaps downwind, wind angle can be prominently displayed. When sailing on an easy reach, navigation data (bearing to waypoint, cross-track error) can be shown. While navigating in soundings, depth can be shown. In each case the helmsperson can decide which information is displayed where and can easily cycle through the entire suite of data.

Belowdecks at the chart table, a Nexus remote control provides total access to the instrument data as well as control of all system operations – including the autopilot. The remote is on a long cord that allows the helmsperson to move to the companionway in the protection of the dodger and still steer. The Nexus system has turned out to be a delight to operate and in every way has met our needs.

On the other hand, every mariner has his or her albatross and ours is a SGC 2000 single-sideband radio. Our first bad experience with the radio occurred less than six months after installation when the transmitter failed in the Caribbean. It was there that we discovered that SGC’s “No compromise” warranty was limited to the United States and that we would have to pay the not inconsequential shipping charges to and from St. Maarten. SGC’s explanation for the failure was simply “component failure” and that it was in no way related to usage or installation.

The radio has continued to operate poorly on an intermittent basis, including being unresponsive to front-panel key presses and occasionally failing to transmit. SGC’s only response is to request the return of the radio yet again for servicing. Not likely from the remoteness of the South Pacific. In the past six months the antenna tuner has also started to misbehave, and it now no longer tunes and we cannot transmit.

I understand fully the meaning of statistical data, and anecdotal examples should not condemn completely. Yet, since our problems with this radio started, I’ve made a point of questioning every SGC owner that I come across regarding the reliability of their radio. Without exception each owner has had to return his or her radio at least once to the factory for servicing.
A few additional, random discoveries that we’ve made over the past 15,000 miles:

• You can never have too many tie-down points on deck.
• You can never have too many lights.
• You can never have too much shade in the tropics.
• A stern arch will accommodate a dozen additional items initially forgotten.
• Leaks suck.
• Big lures attract big fish.
•And, finally, in big bold print, underlined, and embossed – Know Thy Systems.

Cruising aboard Gryphon since October 1998 has been delightful. We have entertained friends and family on short passages and on long. We have met some wonderful people, made friends for life, visited exotic islands and anchorages, and, just in general, made a life of this lifestyle. We give a lot of credit for our pleasure to Gryphon – her heritage as a J/Boat, her solid construction by TPI, and our own attitude of reliability and low-maintenance throughout the fitting out process – and we look forward to more pleasure-filled years cruising and exploring.
LOA 40’ 4” (13.0 m.)
LWL 35’ 0” (11.3 m.)
Beam 12’ 2” (3.9 m.)
Draft 6’ 5” (2.1 m.)
Displ. 21,000 lbs. (9,545 kg.)
Ballast 7,500 lbs. (3,409 kg.)
Sail Area 733 sq. ft. (24.4 sq. m.)
SA/D 16.2
D/L 219