J/Boats of Newport, RI, recently launched the new J/40, which is a sistership to the J/45 that was launched two years ago. It is always news when J/Boats launches a new family-oriented racer-cruiser since those qualities are built into the company’s DNA.
The first boat designed and built by Bob and Rod Johnstone in 1977 was the J/24. It’s hard to believe now, but in those days a 24-footer with a big rig and a small outboard was considered a perfectly acceptable family cruising boat that was also fun to race.
The new J/40 was conceived on that same principle and takes a place in the builder’s line once filled by the earlier and extremely popular and successful J/40. Like its predecessor, the new 40 will be a fine coastal cruiser, a winning racer and a fine and capable passage maker in offshore races and rallies.
Designed by Al Johnstone, the new boat was not drawn to a specific rating rule. Instead, as Al says on the J/Boats website, “The 40 was designed to the rule of the sea, the ultimate rule that rewards boats with predictable, smooth motion that can quickly adapt to changing conditions with minimal effort by the crew.”
The hull, like the 45, has a long and fairly lean shape that presents a minimum of resistance and drag and thus will sail well in light breezes and will require a small amount of sail area to achieve double digit speeds in stronger winds.
The hull shape and the faired appendages, rudder and keel, also endow the 40 with great directional stability, ie., the boat will almost sail itself when the rig is well balanced. This quality benefits both racers and cruisers. When racing, the 40 will fall into the “groove” quickly and stay there with a very light helm. In cruising mode, the autopilot will have an easy time steering and thus will require less electricity and suffer less wear and tear.
The 40’s rig is simple and powerful. The large mainsail will be the driver and can be reefed easily and quickly from the cockpit as weather conditions and performance requirements dictate. The non-overlapping jib will be easy to tack. So, sailing upwind won’t require gorillas to man the sheet winches.
The 40, like most J/Boats, will sail well with just the mainsail, or with just the jib as need be. This makes the boat easy to sail singlehanded. In downwind conditions, when the jib loses its performance edge, the 40 is set up with a fixed bowsprit from which you can fly an asymmetrical spinnaker or a Code sail on a furler.
The cockpit is fairly spacious with twin wheels and six winches placed such that a racing crew won’t be working on top of each other, and a cruising crew will have the needed winch and sheet ready to hand.
With an open transom, secured with demountable lifelines, the 40 does not need a fold-down transom or swim platform.
Regarding the cockpit’s design, Al commented on the website, “The cockpit is both the operations hub AND the primary entertainment space. Focusing too much on one at the expense of the other can produce undesired consequences – the most noticeably being the lack of visibility from the helm on many modern sailboats. On the New J/40, drivers of all sizes have 360-degree visibility from the helm (including over the cabin top) –essential for proper sailing and easier docking.”
LIVING SPACES
The new 40 is offered with either a three-cabin, one-head plan or a two-cabin two-head arrangement. The former will appeal to families who cruise together and to racers who like to have berths for sleeping on the high side.
The later will work well for cruising couples who want to live aboard and cruise far and wide and thus need space for a water make and AC and storage for supplies, spares and water toys.
The interior, which was designed by Isabelle Racoupeau, is full of natural light from the hull glazing on both sides, the large cabin windows and the four overhead hatches. Ventilation will be excellent as well.
J/Boats has stuck with a fairly traditional décor for the 40 of varnished wood joinery accented by white hull liners, overheads and counter tops. This gives the cabins and saloon a warm yacht-style feel.
THE BUILD
The J/40 is being built by J/Composites Shipyard in the Vendee region of France, which is also building the 45. The company is a leader in sandwich cored, resin infused construction and was the first European builder to adopt resin infusion in the 1990s.
The modern Js now have cored, infused hulls, decks, structural grids and main bulkheads. This provides highly accurate resin-to-glass ratios and produces the strongest, stiffest parts while reducing weight throughout the boat.
By keeping the hull stiff and light, the design can have very favorable ballast-to- displacement, sail area-to-displacement and ballast-to-displacement ratios. That translates into ease of handling, better than average speeds in all conditions and ultimate stability.
For performance sailors, especially the J/Boat clan, which is huge and loyal, the introduction of this new model will be warmly welcomed.
