Spring 2010 has been busy! Annual JBoats dealer meeting, The J/111 social in Houston. And none of that compares to the sailing news of the last couple of months! Read On!

Boat News: Bob Sittel and I attended the Annual JBoats dealer meeting on March 12th. We arrived in Rhode Island the evening of the 10th and spent the 11th visiting various JBoat suppliers. We also spent several hours with Jim Johnstone. Jim is now running JBoats Asia and it was great to spend time with him and discuss the J/80 production. The official meeting was held Friday at CCF, the builder of the J/95, J/111 and they also mold the hull/deck for the J/100. Ben and Nan Hall presented at the dealer meeting and discussed the new nano technology carbon spar for the J/111. This mast will be the lightest and strongest mast, pound for pound in the industry. The J/111 will have many new innovative products utilized throughout the boat. We stopped by Harken, the new Harken radial winches are nice. Winch maintenance is now a snap. Interested in dealer news? TAKE A LOOK HERE!

The J/95 and CCF were honored by the Governor of Rhode Island.
The J/95 for the innovative design and the industry recognition that this boat has received and CCF as a leading innovative "Green" Boat builder in Rhode Island. TAKE A LOOK HERE!

Our buddy, Rich Stearns, JBoats Midwest has been taking people out for sails on this boat. Here's a video of Rich "harbor sailing" the J/97 in Chicago: SEE IT HERE!

J/111 Introduction and Social - March 19th. Angela and Bill Zartler hosted our event - Not sure they new what was in store when somewhere around 30 sailors circulated through their beautiful Lakewood condo to eat, drink, and be merry! Jeff Johnstone was in attendance and introduced everyone to the new J/111. Jeff discussed the design concepts, production status, and preliminary class rules. I don't think I ever saw a crowd quiet down so fast when the cogs started turning on how fast this boat just might be. The J/111 promises to be a easily raced, fast boat with the latest gear and standing head room below. Several interested attendee's stayed on to discuss the J/111 and are considering going to Newport for a test sail this summer. If your interested in doing this let me know! Scott@JBoatsSouthwest.com.

Thank you so much Angela and Bill for your outstanding hospitality! Several of the sailors told me how much they appreciated the social aspect of the event and they were motivated to come out and play on their sailboat with their fellow owners. Note to self: Regatta social events for JBoat owners are a good thing! More coming in the future!

Ramon Torres "80 Proof" out of FWBC and Al Poindexter "Andale" Lakewood YC finished 6 and 7th respectively in the always tough J/80 class.

Hot off the press! Courtesy of Sailing Anarchy!

After 4 races the 2 Fort Worth team are in 2nd (LeTigre-Glenn Darden and Reese Hillard) and 3rd (Tiamo-Bruno Pasquinelli)

J/105's: Team Solaris -Bill Zartler is in 3rd!

Sailing Anarchy is doing an amazing job with Charlston Race Week. Live streaming video of the racing and Clean has upped his game with a little bit less of the stammering and stuttering! Great and fun coverage. If this doesn't want to make you get out and get in the game nothing will!

Lakefest Regatta-April 16-18th. Look for the JBoats Southwest Hospitality Tent. Clue: It will be white and will say "JBoats Southwest" on it. It could be on one of the docks, it could be on land, It will be within earshot of the band that is playing immediately after racing. Why look for the tent? We will be serving up drinks appropriate for the weather! Come by and see us! Better hurry and beat the Viper 640 guys to our tent. You might also find Steve LeMay ready to talk about North U. If you want to spectate, there are several land and water based options! Come join us: texomalakefest.com

Lakewood Yacht Club held their "Bay Cup I" race on Sunday March 7th. JBoats placed high in several classes with Kevin Bednar capturing 1st place in the SOS class on their J/105 "Stinger" and Bill Zartler capturing 1st place on his J/105 "Solaris" Chris Kelley caught the excitement of the event with these 167! aerial shots. It is a well done slide show and fun to flip through! Especially the Class A PHRF finish! SEE IT HERE

2010 "Elissa Regatta" 24th Annual Event

The 24th Annual Elissa Regatta consisted of 9 classes. 5 of which were JBoat One Design classes: J/22(6 boats), J/24 (16 boats), J/80 (5 boats), J/105 (4 boats) and J/109 (4 boats). The J/24 class combined their annual Beasley Cup/Circuit Stop with the Eliisa Regatta.

The J/22 class was won by Ruthie Lambert on "Out of Sight" followed by Buddy Brown on "Bling" both of GBCA. The J/22 circuit has one Regatta in the books with Terry Flynn and "Tejas" on top. J/22's seem to be heating up with several sailors asking us about buying used ones. If you know of a J/22 that we can list for sale and get it back in the hands of an active sailor-please contact us: Scott@JBoatsSouthwest.com

The J/24's finished with Bryan Dyer, FWBC in 3rd, Doug Weekly in 2nd, and Bob Harden (AYC) with no result worse then a 4th won the Regatta.
The J/24 class combined their annual Beasley Cup/ Circuit Stop with the Eliisa Regatta. SEE HERE FOR DETAILS

J/80's were lead by Uzi's team on "infinity" followed by Al Poindexter on "Andale" both of LYC.

Bill Zartler and the Solaris team took straight bullets to win the J/105 class. Malcolm Bremer (Babe) and Bee Bednar (Stinger) battled it out exchanging 2nd's and 3rd's with Malcom edging into 2nd place. Great racing!

In the J/109's Albrecht Goethe on his Hamburg grabbed 3 firsts as well, with Sea Trial, Harm's Way, and Surprise following up.

The Oklahoma City Boat Club is off and running with their Beer and Chili Series
OCBC Calendar link: www.okcboatclub.com—april.html

Austin Yacht Club Roadrunner Regatta. There were no JBoats on the course for this Regatta except for Ray Shull's J/29 used as a committee boat for one of the courses. JBoats Southwest showed up with a nice 24' pontoon boat to allow parents to spectate while there kids raced. It was a great time and especially encouraging to see over 100 kids on a wet, cold day having great times on their sail boats. I only saw smiles for two days straight! Scott Young wrote a great Blog on the event: SEE IT HERE Scott will also be running a starting clinic on April 17th at AYC.

Fort Worth Boat Club racing is in full swing. The Marigail and Roadie series has J/22's, J/24's, J80's, and J/105's all racing one design. On the J/105 course they are getting out 7 boats with former J/80 sailors Craig White, Louis Church, and Rick Schaeffer getting J/105 "Beauty" around the course in 1st overall. RESULTS HERE

Dallas Corinthian Yacht Club is off to a great start. The "Sweetheart" race took place with couples racing their boats around a course of fixed marks that diagrammed out was the shape of a heart with an arrow through it! Creative! What was even more interesting is that the day before these boats had 12 inches of snow on them! Even better most of the boats were J/Boats: J/24's and J/105's! The other boats sailed in the "non JBoats class" (no I'm not making that up) Link to the DCYC Hailer for the "rest of the story HERE

DCYC also had their innovative "One Day Reggata" on March 6th. 5 races in a day with the J/105 "Adios" first and the J/29 "Scoots" second.

Here's an Interesting factoid from Chris Kelley (GBCA):
"As voted by their GBCA peers and announced during the Commodores Ball 
GBCA Crewman of the Year Casey Lambert (J22)
GBCA Sportsman of the Year Jim Powers (J109)
GBCA Yachtsman of the Year 2009 Al Goethe (J109)
are all J boat owners". 

Do Happy JBoat Owners Make Better Sailors?

New JBoat and Sail Boat Owners:

Our newly listed J/22 didn't last long! We need more of these to sell! Congratulations to Jack Payne of Albuqurque, New Mexico. He showed up with cash and a truck and away our J/22 went.

Scott McKissick is the proud new owner of the Pearson 26. The Pearson stays where she's at: Dallas Corinthian Yacht Club

Featured Listings

With J/105 OD racing heating up in Galveston and FWBC we are getting inquiries on J/105's all of the time. This month we feature two of our listed J/105's.

J/105 JTeez. Lying Houston YC. Great boat. She is clean and nice, inside and out. Optional trailer available.

See More Great Listings HERE
(And keep in touch on J/80's two prospective listings coming up!)

Circumnavigating in a J/Boat: See it HERE

Announcements and Gadgets

J/80 Best Practices II - can be found HERE

This caught my fancy. Maybe something that cruising sailors could use! Yike Bike

This is a great time to be sailing and with all of the great events we have in our state-get out there and do it!