My First J/70 Sailing Experience- by Flackster

(Stonington, CT)-  New J/70 owner "Flackster (SA pen name)- had this to say about his first experience sailing with his family in a local regatta- "Thought I would chime in on a bit of sailing we did with a J/70 this weekend. My wife and I have bought a boat that will be delivered in time for Key West. We were lucky enough to come up with a J70 to try this past weekend in the local Mudhead regatta here in CT.

Let's start by saying the reason I wanted this boat was to be able to race it BOTH loaded up with my rockstar homies AND my family at different events. My homies are all ex college sailors who are still at the top of their game. My family is a 7 year old boy, 10 year old girl, and wife of unknown age. The kids have been sailing opti's for a few years and have more experience then the wife.

For the homies I knew events like Key West and Charleston will be a blast... I mean we have fun sailing Shields, Swans, and anything in between... so as long as there are 20 plus boats... we will have a blast like we always do. Must say I am better at crushing the tent party now then I am on the water these days.

The family part I was not so sure of. So sailing the boat this weekend offered me a good look. Right off the bat I was happy with the fact I was rigged and sailing in 1 hour. For a first timer with a new boat that was pretty good. I needed to find a friend to hoist the mast, but after that all the jobs were done by the family. My 7 year old son lowered the keel with our battery drill. Have to say that is a way better system then any other lifting keel boat I have sailed. On the water the boat was stable and solid and made my family feel pretty comfortable on the sail out. While racing my daughter trimmed the jib, my son did the pole controls, and my wife grabbed the spin sheet and said "So you let this out till it curls then pull it in right?" and we were off. The kids managed to take the chute down with some early drops and for a first day out I thought the crew work was really easy for everyone. Most of the controls have lots of purchase so everyone could adjust what was needed as we talked about what and why we were doing it.

The breeze was about 6-10k for two 5 mile races. My wife flew the chute all day, and in the last leg of the last race I even give her a break and flew the chute while driving... almost like a laser. She got the hang of jibing it as well... and if I turned the boat right, and controlled the main, our jibes were actually pretty good.

My kids took turns diving the boat between races and felt right at home cruising around the start line.

Things I liked... purchase everywhere and ease of controls. It will be easy for anyone to crew or drive on this boat. I'll still have to see if the winch is really needed in big breeze as we did not need it on this day. The high boom made seeing the course obvious for both the crew and driver and was really easy to tack and jibe under for everyone. Fun to be able to show the kids what was going on down to leeward and teach them a bit about how the race was developing. The boat had plenty of power upwind to feel lively in these conditions.

Things I'm not sure of... the size of the chute. I'm not sure if a bigger chute would help the boat be more fun in lighter conditions. We heated it up a ton in 10k and the wife could still fly it fine. With the winch I'm thinking some more sail area might add to the wow factor off the wind for everyone.

Things my wife did not like... legs out hiking. If she had one thing she would change it would be to not have to swing her legs in and out of the boat. She thought that was a bit hard with the low lifelines and she was a lot more comfortable sitting legs in. I have to say legs in driving with that padded lifeline was very cosy.

All in all the next photo is of 3/4's of the team AFTER the last race. The kids are already circling regatta's like the St Pete and Annapolis NOODs where they want to Road Trip to! Might be a battle between the Family and the Homies for future regatta dates! A great problem to have!

As for speed and results... if it was a 50 boat OD fleet I think we would have been about 40th and about 3 min behind the leaders. We lost to some pretty well sailed Vipers and a M24 by about 5 min, and beat an ok sailed J80 one race, they beat us the next. All in all I did not buy this boat with the idea of ever sailing PHRF again."

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