Racer-cruiserr

I knew Carl for about 25 years. I did not know him well, but we met in Seattle when he worked for Gary Mull and had spoken whenever I had one of Carl's boats to review. Carl was good-natured over my criticisms of his sheerlines. In fact, Carl was good-natured over just about everything. Carl's legacy to the world of yacht design is a string of amazingly consistent high-performing boats. He was an excellent man. I'm groping for a glib way to get out of this paragraph, but I'm not finding it. All that comes to mind is Tex Ritter singing that old country and western tune "I Dreamed I Was There in Hillbilly Heaven." Oh what a star-studded site. We'll sure miss you Carl.

Let's look at this new J Boat. It's unique for the company in that it first went into production in Europe and was unveiled at the Southampton Boat Show in England. The brochure does not list a designer, but I think we can assume it was the work of an in-house team headed by Bob Johnstone. It's clear from both the text and the drawings in the brochure that J Boats is marketing this boat as an answer to everyone's sailing needs. It's a cruiser, a daysailer a one-design racer, a live-aboard, a floor wax and a grappa. It should be easy to attack the boat on at least one of these design targets, but I really can't. From my perspective the J/109 seems to fill all these bills.

The J/109 is an okay-looking boat, a wee bit bland for my eye, but in keeping with the look of today's racing boats. The sheer is very flat. The ends are short. The forefoot knuckle is just above the DWL, and the stern does not show an exaggerated beam. It's a well-proportioned hull with a D/L of 165 and a ballast-to-displacement ratio of 36 percent. L/B is 3.06 so this boat is beamy. The limit of positive stability is 123 degrees. I don't have sections, but I can see the run is quite flat at the transom and the forefoot is gently V-ed. The keel is a lead fin with bulbed tip, generous in planform and drawing 7 feet.

The layout drawings and photos make the interior look very comfy, finished in what looks like either teak or mahogany. The overall layout is tight. The galley is small with a two-burner range and minimal icebox. The head is small and has access to the lazarette. Still, nothing is miniaturized and the double quarter-berth looks really big. Given 35 feet of LOA to work with, this is a well-thought-out accommodation plan.
I've always been a fan of J Boats' deck plans. To start with, the company knows where the mainsheet traveler belongs, in the cockpit right in front of the wheel. This would preclude tiller steering on this boat, but there aren't too many of us left that prefer tillers. The cockpit well is narrow enough so you can brace your feet to leeward. The big wheel lets you get well outboard when steering. Inboard chainplates and genoa tracks keep the side decks clear. Halyards are led aft to winches and clutches on each side of the companionway. There's a bowsprit for the asymmetrical and the SA/D is a safe, sane 21.

The J/109 is another example of the healthy trend back to good, all-around boats.

A well-designed 35-footer that does it all.