Bill,
Are you kidding me ? Of course I plan to race the boat. And race her hard !!! It's what she was made for.
I called myself a new member but I realize now that that is not true. I meant to say that I had just recently (being today) registered to the site. But here is some information about me.
I'm 44 years old, former professional sail maker together with my late brother Hein in our own loft called "Bart Sails" in Hellevoetsluis Netherlands, currently working as an independent Yachting photographer.
I love J-boats, especially J/35, J/39, J29, J/22, I/44, J/33 and in that order.
My brother bought a J/29 in 1999 which we refitted but did not race all that much because I bought a J/22 that year to compete in at the Worlds in 2000. We sailed this boat with just the two of us because we could not find a 25 kg third crewmember to stay within the maximum crew weight limit of 275 kg. (I am big and so was my brother as you will have guessed). We finished a very respectable 20th in a field of almost 100 boats. This was fun.
I sold the J/22 because I wanted (needed ?) a bigger boat to sail on with my wife and 4 kids. I bought an old "van de Stadt Sprinter 32" from 1967 and very extensively refitted her and raced and cruised her for two years. The boat proved to be very fast under most circumstances so I sold her because I think that a boat should be very fast under all circumstances !
In the mean time my brother had sold his J/29 and bought a J/39. He originally wanted to buy a J/35 but could not find one for a decent price. The J/39 was in poor shape and we both worked hard to make it look like new again. I think the J/39 is a hell of a boat and almost as good as a J/35.
September 2003 I bought a Farr Dickerson 37 in the USA. It needed a refit but was structurally in good shape. I bought it for one third the going price of a J/35 and planned to restore it and sell it with a profit in Europe so I could in the end buy a J/35. My brother's dream was to, at least once in his life, cross the Atlantic Ocean in a sailboat and he offered to sail my boat to Hellevoetsluis. Together with his crewmember Jan Jaap he left for Hellevoetsluis mid October that year. I had contact with them every day for the first three weeks of the trip. On Monday the 4th of November they failed to report to me. The wreck of my boat was found upside down without her keel near the Irish coast 6 months later. They were most likely run over by a big merchant vessel. 'Needless to say this has made a tremendous impact on the lives of the relatives and not least on mine. On my brother's boat a note was found on which he had written on the day before he left for the USA that if anything might happen to him during his upcoming trip he wanted me to have his boat. I have, for two years", tried desperately to enjoy owning his incredible "J-Rover" but have failed. In the end it looked absolutely stunning but the inescapable shadow of what had happened was always there. I sold the boat and decided to try and find the joy of sailing again in my J/35 "New Frontier". After working hard for more than a year already she is starting to look the part.
I plan to take her out for a first sail next spring. "New Frontier" was built in 1992 as one of the very few by TPI with the new style cockpit. I bought the boat, which was originally called "Lender", from her first owner from Belgium who had raced her hard in the nineties but neglected her after that period. I have always considered the J/35 an "icon" because the boat is just so wickedly fast on all points of sail under all circumstances without being radical in any way and while being structurally very solid.
I do, however, very often complain about the fact that it is such a shame that TPI made so many mistakes that cause so many problems over the years that could so easily have been prevented. We had to renew the core and the top laminate of almost half the area of the deck of the J/39 and on my J/35 I had to do that to parts of the deck too. As you will have gathered by now, I don't mind tinkering with boats, especially J-boats, and have done so for many hours and many years and would not mind at all to share what I have learned with other J35 owners. I also have hundreds of photographs of work being done to many parts of the boats I worked on that I am willing to share.
That's it so far.
kind regards,
Jan
Jan Bart
de Zicht 12
3224 BB Hellevoetsluis
Netherlands
tel +31 181 390830
mobile +31616489206 |