Niels,
I own #240 and sail PHRF in Texas. I've had the boat for 1 1/2 years
and plan to move her to the East coast in the next few years to do
one-design.
I really like the boat, she's fast as hell and fun to sail. In PHRF, I've
found that if we
sail the boat well, we win (and usually have to wait a long time for the
rest
of the fleet....). The key is boat handling, when our boat handling is
sloppy
we get corrected over. She is somewhat crew intensive, usually taking 7 to
9 for optimum performance. You can get away with less crew but you will
suffer in maneuvers (sets, gybes, douses, and keeping her flat upwind).
The J/35 has trouble when she is grouped against smaller easier to handle
boats
(J/27, J/80, etc.) on short courses. As the legs get longer (over .8 mi.)
the advantage
shifts to the J/35.
The real question is how does the J/35 perform against the new async
planning boats like
the J/105....... Well, they haven't given us much trouble, yet........ We
race against
one every week and spank it regularly.
If you get a chance to try the boat out, pick a windy day. There is NOTHING
like
a J/35 when she gets rompin & stompin in a blow.
Randy
> Niels,
> I also like a lot of things about the J/35, never having sailed one
either.
> As soon as I get my collection of pennies together, I plan to pick one up.
> As for the rating, I used to sail in a mixed PHRF fleet on the Chesapeake
> Bay every Wednesday Night against one. It was well prepared and well
> sailed, and it literally did a horizon job on the rest of the fleet every
> single week. This was against a C&C 41, a Hobie 33, and various other
"hot"
> racing boats. We used to complain that a 72 rating wasn't low enough!
One
> of the best things about a J/35 (that I've read), is that it is a very
> forgiving boat. In other words, you don't have to be a rock star to sail
it
> to its (apparently low) rating of 72. Good luck.
> - Mike.
>
Received on Fri Jul 20 13:40:42 2001