{"id":66658,"date":"2018-05-05T08:10:06","date_gmt":"2018-05-05T12:10:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/?p=66658"},"modified":"2023-05-06T21:45:53","modified_gmt":"2023-05-07T01:45:53","slug":"inside-the-classes-j-80","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/regatta-series\/inside-the-classes-j-80\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the Classes: J\/80"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

So much of the one-design love these days is doted upon the J\/70 class, and rightly so, because it really is the biggest thing happening in keelboat sailing. But it\u2019s easy to overlook the influence of the sportboat that preceded it, the 26-footer responsible for introducing a generation of diehard symmetric-spinnaker sailors to asymmetric get-up-and-go sailing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Stable and less physically demanding to sail than other sportboats of its time, the J\/80, and the class, continues to deliver to owners and Corinthian teams that appreciate good racing, straight-forward tuning, and easy ownership. With nearly 1,600 of them sailing worldwide, major championships still draw healthy fleets and top-level teams, and in harbors like Annapolis, J\/80 class racing is alive and well since being officially established in 1995.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Annapolis <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n Rich Harrison, owner\/driver of the J\/80 Some Respect, exits the leeward mark with a clean lane at the Helly Hansen NOOD Regatta in Annapolis.<\/span>\n Paul Todd\/Outsideimages.com<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n\n

Rich Harrison, of Annapolis, Maryland, is one owner pulled straight out of the class-adoption textbook. Leaving behind the family J\/30, which served as both raceboat and family weekender, he sought a boat that he could simply race with fewer crew. \u201cI wanted something that didn\u2019t require as much crew,\u201d he says. With the J\/80, you can sail with three, four, or five, but four is ideal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

The class itself has come on stronger over the last five or six years, adds Harrison. They’re one of the larger fleets at the Helly Hansen NOOD Regatta in Annapolis\u2014behind the J\/70 and J\/22s \u2013 and they’ll routinely have 18 boats for regional weekend regattas. Most owners are plenty active in their respective twilight club series. \nWhile Harrison has owned Some Respect<\/em> for six years, he admits the quest to unlock its secrets remains ongoing. “We’re still searching,” he says. “It does help to have a professional on board, but otherwise, it’s concentration, and for my part, driving and all the nuances that come with it.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

As owner and skipper, Harrison says he\u2019s responsible for setting up the boat and getting the rig just right for the day: \u201cA couple of turns can make a difference between being competitive or not,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m not skilled enough [to feel the subtle differences of rig tune], but I just know I have to have it set up right. Learning the rig is the most important thing to making the boat fast. The foils should be templated so they are where they should be and the hull surface has to be good.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

If he ever gets slow, his longtime crewmates aren\u2019t afraid to let him know, and he especially relies on his son, who Harrison defines as the boat\u2019s \u201ctactician and boatspeed professional.\u201d He\u2019s the one who best keeps him honest. \u201cHe brings another dimension that I don\u2019t have,\u201d says Harrison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

It hasn\u2019t been easy for the J\/80 class of late, especially with new classes poaching owners and teams, but Harrison says the initial bleeding to the 70s has waned and the J\/80 class has managed to backfill its owners list. \u201cWe\u2019re as strong as we\u2019ve been in six years,\u201d he says. \u201cStronger today than when I joined the fleet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Newcomers to the class\u2014at least in the Chesapeake, says Harrison \u2014 are coming from other less performance-orientated boats. The average age of new owners is somewhere around 50 but there are a few younger. \u201cThe boat has a great cockpit so it lends itself to somebody that would not be comfortable in something more high performance, as far as getting around the boat,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s civilized and easy to sail with two for a day sail.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Atop the local pecking order, says Harrison, is local sailor John White, who consistently sails with good people, including North Sails\u2019 Jonathan Bartlett. \u201cHe\u2019s meticulous with boat preparation,\u201d Harrison says of Bartlett, \u201cand I\u2019m sure he wouldn\u2019t find my boat acceptable. He would have to do some serious work to the foils and the hull to make it perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

While he\u2019s happy with the boat he now has, he says, a search for a good used boat will take time and patience, but they\u2019re out there to be found. The market is good for both boat owners and buyers, and while it\u2019s not an excessively expensive boat, 30 to 40 thousand dollars is about right for a race ready boat in need of some improvements. \u201cThere are top-tier boats available,\u201d says Harrison, \u201cbut you have to dig around for them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Give some respect for the one-design that came before<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31103,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"BS_author_type":"BS_author_is_guest","BS_guest_author_name":"David Reed","BS_guest_author_url":"","hydra_display_date":"20180505","hydra_display_updated":false,"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":"157","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Stable and less physically demanding to sail than other sportboats of its time, the J\/80, and the class, continues to deliver to owners and Corinthian teams that appreciate good racing, straight-forward tuning, and easy ownership.","_yoast_wpseo_title":"Inside the Classes: J\/80 %%sep%% %%sitename%%","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","arc_story_id":"ZOXPMVJJKTXI3FJYTMD2WCUI6U","arc_website_url":"inside-classes-j-80\/","custom_permalink":"","arc_subtype":"right-sidebar","arc_exclude_from_feeds":false,"sponsored":false,"sponsored_label":"Sponsored Content","sponsored_display_label":false,"sponsored_image":0,"post_right_rail":true,"post_right_rail_ad_1":true,"post_right_rail_ad_2":true,"post_right_rail_ad_3":false,"post_right_rail_ad_4":false,"post_right_rail_recirc":true,"fixed_anchor_ad":true,"post_top_ad":true,"post_off_ramp":true,"post_taboola":false,"labels":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[157],"tags":[181,768],"class_list":["post-66658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regatta-series","tag-helly-hansen-sailing-world-regatta-series","tag-inside-the-class"],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}