Hi friends and fans of J World: our San Francisco Bay location is now hiring instructors. It’s a great opportunity to work for the industry leader in sailing education, training, and experiences. Interested individuals should email us at info@sailing-jworld.com.
We here at J World know it is extremely difficult to find good, fast charterboats available for racing events. Too often, ‘race ready’ boats are not competitive. Too often, they are not really offshore ready (complying with all race requirements, certified liferafts, etc. etc). This means, unfortunately, that we are usually restricted to racing in our home waters, or we have to spend a lot of money and wear-and-tear moving our boats around on trailers or deliveries. And when it comes to a premier event like the race from California to Hawaii, it can be almost impossible to source a good ride.
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| J120 At Speed! |
Well, we here at J World have decided to make our J120 available for charter for events here on the West Coast, including the 2014 Pacific Cup. We are offering the boat as a bareboat (to fully qualified teams), or we can help provide coaches/crew who are familiar with the boat and the event, and would be a great asset to any campaign.
So if you have always dreamed about racing across the Pacific to the Islands but float your boat in a distant pond, here’s a way to make it happen…
Contact us early (now!) for more info…
Wayne Zittel and the J World Team
Last week J World San Diego hosted a racing clinic prior to San Diego Yacht Club’s signature regatta, the Yachting Cup. This year marked the 41st running of this premiere regatta, bringing together competitive fleet and one-design racing. We scheduled three days of practice with our coaches for a group of students from around the US – and the world) before the regatta… Sika gets the distant traveler award for joining us from Taiwan! Three of our J/80s were entered into the one design class to compete against six other boats of seasoned racers.
The clinic gave our students a variety of conditions to work with including some typical San Diego light air and ample sun, along with some more atypical breeze, seeing some gusts over 20 knots. Our coaches used a combination of classroom lectures and on the water practice to push our students to learn and improve their boat handling, sail trim, strategy, tactics, spinnaker work… and of course a whole day of starting practice!
After all that hard work (we could only practice so much) we had to get out there and race! Yachting Cup’s two days of racing were held at the Coronado Roads just outside of San Diego Bay. SDYC’s race committee planned short windward-leeward courses and had scheduled four races on Saturday and three for Sunday.
On day one, with a late season low pressure system passing through, we were seeing 15 knots of southerly breeze while rigging boats in the morning, and so we knew it was going to be a lumpy and bumpy ride! Our boats had a fast (and very wet) day sharing our start with six of the new J/70s and only getting off three races. Day two was forecasted to have even more wind, but luckily (or not?) it never really showed. Instead there was plenty of San Diego’s infamous “May Gray”. The slightly more mild breeze still kept tacticians and the race committee on their toes with some big wind shifts. Maybe a weatherman in San Diego isn’t the easiest job in world after all?
J World’s boats ended up finishing 4th, 5th, and 7th in the J/80 class. I think it is safe to say that everyone, including the coaches, also finished with a big grin on their faces (and sore hands!) after such a competitive weekend of sailing. Great job Erwan, John, Gary, Sika, and Jim!
– Andrew LaPlant and the J World Team
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| New wheel, pedestal, and steering system… |
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| New windows in the cockpit… |
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| Newly cleaned up foredeck with molded in toe-rails (got rid of the old aluminum rails!!) |
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| New G10 backing plates throughout… |
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| New aluminum track backing plates… |
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| New carbon chainplates outside (slick, sleek, and leak-proof!) |
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| New carbon chainplates inside (stiff and strong!) |
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| Did we mention the new rig? A carbon spar by Hall Spars… the tube is built in ONE piece on a mandrel, and the finish work is exquisite… |
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| New paint, windows, hatches, and a super slick bottom… with her keel back on, Hula Girl heads for the water. |
No stone was left unturned with this project. Seriously, we could have bought another SC50 for the amount we spent on the project. But we here at J World can now can make available to our clients one of the finest boats afloat…
Want to see the finished product? Sorry, going to have to wait until after Yachting Cup.
Want to go for a ride on the fastest SC50 afloat? We have space in the 2014 San Diego to PV Race and the 2014 Pacific Cup (San Francisco to Hawaii).
More soon…
Wayne Zittel and the J World Team
Spring has sprung, and believe it or not the 2013 season is nearly upon us! As a way to chip the rust off and get you into your A-Game quickly, J World is running a three day clinic and racing in the renown San Diego Yacht Club Yachting Cup!
Come join us aboard our J/80s for an intensive workshop May 1-3 aboard our J/80s covering sail trim, boathandling, sail handling, strategy, tactics, rules, etc. etc…. then race in the regatta with a J World coach aboard!
We still have a couple spots left, so visit here for more info, or contact us now to reserve your space!
Wayne Zittel & the J World Team
Oh yes, it’s that time in San Francisco: Strictly Sail Pacific, the all-sailing boatshow in Jack London Square fired up yesterday, and it’s good times all around. The weather has been great, the boats and suppliers are here in full-force and offering great deals, and of course the venue (right next door to J World San Francisco) is perfect…
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| J World conducting an asymmetrical spinnaker workshop at the Strictly Sail Boatshow going on at Jack London Square Oakland this weekend |
So come on by. Be sure to visit J World to say hi. Check out the seminars. Get a new pair of shoes, or a spinnaker, or a boat. All the cool kids are doing it….
Show info here. Hope to see you soon…
Wayne Zittel and the J World Team
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| Denis (the carbon-master) installing the boxes. |
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| Post curing ovens at work. |
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| Chainplate box all done…. and settee top being glassed back in and tabbed to hull (it was cut out to give full access for installing the chainplate boxes). |
Hula Girl is scheduled to roll out of the shed towards the end of the week. Keel on, mast on, go sailing. Should be simple, no? We’ll have the new HG at our docks in Jack London Square during the Strictly Sail Pacific boatshow in April, then she heads south for the Newport to Ensenada Race.
Wanna come play? The next openings are 2014 San Diego to Puerto Vallarta Race (click here to check out a video from the last SD-PV race!) and the 2014 Pacific Cup (San Francisco to Hawaii).
More soon….
Wayne Zittel and the J World Team
All right, we are long overdue on posting an update on the Hula Girl refit project. Everyone keeps asking how it is going, and all I can say is wow, she’s gonna be sweet. Here’s a look at some of the project thus far:
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| In the shed, fresh paint, looking like new…. |
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| Rig being tested in the shop. That’s a one piece, molded carbon mast from the spar-smiths at Hall Spars. |
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| Rig detail. Impressive in their attention to the ‘little things.’ |
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| New carbon chainplates being fit. Gilles and Denis at GC Composites are doing a fantastic job. |
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| Chainplates being located on the deck level |
That’s five 70’s. Brand spanking new J/70s, that is. Just rolled into Puerto Vallarta. The trucks were a bit late getting down here, but on Friday we managed to get them all off-loaded and all the rigs up. Three were out sailing yesterday, and man they are great!!
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| Off-loading at Paradise Village. |
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| Shoving off for the first sail. |
We’ll get some more pictures of these incredibly cool boats sailing shortly. So does the weather look pretty ideal? Oh, believe me, it is. Shorts, T-Shirts, about 15 knots out there. Buen día indeed…
Classes are running regularly in paradise… c’mon down!
Wayne Zittel and the J World Team
Congratulations to Maserati…. they just shattered the New York for San Francisco record. No highways involved on this one… the 70 foot yacht skippered by Giovanni Soldini made the trip around Cape Horn in a touch over 47 days. That took just about 10 days off the old record! Pretty impressive. Congratulations!
