When Sperry told us they wanted to support coverage of events we thought made a difference to the sport of sailing, we instantly thought of the J/70 Worlds. Sure, there was a 95-boat Melges 24 Worlds two weeks ago in Denmark and a 100-boat SB20 Worlds in Lake Garda last week, but with nearly a thousand boats sold in three years, nothing comes close to the impact on racing made by the new and exploding class from the J0hnstones. And as evidenced by the 16-nation field in the boat’s second-ever Worlds in La Rochelle, the effect is spreading far, and fast.
So we put together a 6-man crew to bring live video of all the racing to you guys, and we didn’t skimp. The live feed included commentary from SA’s Senior Editor and Adventures of a Sailor Girl’s Nic Douglass, along with daily highlight reels from Petey Crawford, and huge high-quality photo galleries from Sander Van Der Borch. Why’d we go so big? Because we want to see more of the family-friendly, female-inclusive, youth-engaging vibe this little boat is giving to people all over the world, and the infrastructure J/boats have created to deliver well-built, good-looking, quick-ish little racers that are all damned similar to one another is something we admire. And we felt privileged to be able to document it all.
Above you’ll find our final movie from last week’s Championship, and we really, really hope you’ll sit through it until the end. And don’t be drinking coffee near the end. If you laugh as much as we did, share the link with your friends. For the full interview with new World Champ Julian Fernandez, hit this link. The full chat with Marty Kullman including the drama with North’s DNE request is in here. You can grab any one of the dozen-plus interviews and highlight reels in our Vimeo index.
As always, huge thanks to Sperry for their support, and to J/Composites Europe for all their support on the ground and on the water. More thanks at the end of the video.
