Norman Davant from Sail California sent us this report from the first sail of the J-99 on the west coast…
We went thru several gyrations of everything stretching and settling in and finally got the rig set up correctly. The headstay adjustment will be the key to the boat, keep the rig straight as the breeze comes up and then apply backstay.
Jeff Thorpe and Peter Cameron set the rig up as we went up thru the range, sure helped to have these two guys along. We think we have good numbers in the 14-18 range, we need so sail in a bit more wind to make sure the headstay and shrouds are correct, they are close for sure.
We had six on board, the thing is on rails up wind, totally balanced.
We did not have anyone hiking, I wanted to see what the stability was like, really stiff, you can sail with two upwind in breeze for sure. As we were tuning I did the old bear away trick to see if you can bear away with sails in, no problem, no shortage of rudder size and control.
Downwind we had a few nice 18 knot puffs and we were cruising along at 12 with all the control you would want. Was I surprised with the way the boat handled and sailed, not at all. Al nailed the design and the build was exactly as expected out of J/Europe.
This boat will be a weapon for anyone that wants to go short handed racing.
