The Sailboat Thread!

[sailork]

Thanks DavidD!! I suspect those shots are from an even larger J boat than the one I'll be on.

My father owns the J/105 "Stinger." We've slowly worked up from a Hunter 26.5 through a Santana 30/30 to Stinger. We're in contention for the TORC series because the first leg of the first race of the series was run in 30+ knots of wind on a very hot spinnaker angle. Stinger didn't hoist the chute immediately at the start because the race began inside the Galveston jetties and the chute angle would have been brutal. When we did hoist we blew past every boat in the fleet including a couple of J/109's a well sailed J/44 and a C&C 121. There's really no way for PHRF to take into account a 34.5' boat that will sustain an average speed of 12 knots in a decent blow. For once the very heavy duty class spinnaker was an advantage.

We saw planing over 14 knots and surfing up to 17.5. The boat was a handful but frankly the Santana was more trouble in a 15 knots. We rounded the first mark more than 30 miles offshore better than 15 minutes ahead of the J/44 and pretty much nothing else was in sight behind us. The Benneteau 44.7 that was the only finisher of the next race in the series was way, way behind. The rest of the race was basically ours to lose and we managed to avoid losing it. Broad reach to the next mark and then evil confused seas all night home. Yeah, I've been wishing I could write this post for a while. THANKS! for asking .

Now, which Jboat do your pictures come from?

I had to edit this post because the 44.7 I thought ran the first race wasn't there.. I'll claim too much beer.. Oh, and is that a J/35?