Design
The J Boats philosophy is not about trying to achieve the highest possible top speed. It’s about maintaining consistently high average speeds in a wide range of wind and sea conditions
same well-defined character. The original J/24 is the world’s most successful one- design racing keelboat with about five and a half thousand launched worldwide, but it was initially conceived, designed and built as a family boat, primarily intended for fast coastal cruising. And the J/112E, which won the last ORC/IRC combined World Championships, is another cruising boat that just happens to be a brilliant performer on the racecourse as well as a comfortable, easy-to-handle offshore voyager with a fully fitted interior. Throughout the four decades that
J
separate those two designs, J Boats has introduced a dozen pure cruising models (as well as a lot of cruiser-racers and racer-cruisers) and launched more than 500 purpose-built offshore cruising boats in North America alone, with many more built by the J Composites shipyard in France that now plays a major role in the development process as well as building the boats under licence. The most recent pure cruising model, currently in production in France, is the blue water-focused J/45. ‘Ever since the beginning of the brand
in 1977, cruising yachts have been part of the J Boat range and cruising has been an important part of the brand’s DNA,’ says J Composites’ commercial manager, Fréderic Bouvier. ‘People often assume that J Boats are stripped-out racers but
76 SEAHORSE
Boats is so well-known for building racing yachts that it’s easy to forget they also produce a lot of cruising boats with the
many of them aren’t. When we hear people saying this at boat shows, we invite them to take a look down below and they are always amazed.’ Over the years J Boats have gradually
‘From stop to stop is not much more than one turn of the wheel’
evolved with new features added but with great effort made to preserve the marque’s distinctive character. ‘All new models are designed completely from scratch, not adapted from a previous model. Each one represents at least two years (and often three or more) of design and development work.
The devil is in the detail, quite often there are heated discussions within the design team and between the US and French partner companies about tiny details like a centimetre of headroom or beam.’ Crucial strands of the brand’s DNA
include high righting moment and good performance in light airs. The design office’s rule of thumb is that in five knots of breeze, a J Boat should be able to sail at least as fast as its cruising speed under power. ‘Every sailor in their heart loves a bit
of extra boatspeed but very few cruising sailors will buy a new boat just because it’s half a knot faster. It’s not about that. Formost of us performance is about the pleasure we get fromsailing. It’s about speed but also about achieving a super- fine balance. Onmost cruising yachts when you adjust themainsheet by 30cm you won’t notice any difference. On a J Boat you feel it instantly through the helm.’ Having a single rudder is a key factor in optimising helm response but it’s not
the only one. ‘It’s also important to have a balanced hull shape and sailplan,’ Bouvier says. ‘And we do a lot of work on steering system alignment. Even with self-aligning rudder bearings attention to detail is needed.’ This includes sourcing top-quality bearings, minimising friction throughout the system, using precisely balanced rudders custom made by a specialist rudder builder, and a carefully judged ratio between the quadrants and the size of sprocket behind the wheel. ‘From stop to stop is not much more than one turn of the wheel – it’s very direct. The risk when you do that is the wheel gets too heavily loaded. Getting it right requires engineering and a lot of time spent.’ Another important part of the J Boats
formula is that the yachts should be able to sail through difficult conditions with
Boat show visitors are often amazed when they look inside a cruising J Boat
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