This J/109 is a Sweet Chariot

by Al Constable on 26 Apr 2006 J-Boats are highly regarded around the world. The J/24 is very popular in Australia and the J/105 and J/120 One Design fleets are amongst the largest in North America. One of the more recent models is certainly making waves internationally and has now arrived in Australia.

The 35 foot J/109 has proven itself a winner under IRC and there are now an astonishing 57 J/109’s in the UK. The class start arranged for Skandia Cowes Week 2006 bears witness to the success of this class since it’s launch four years ago. World-wide nearly 300 have been built to date.

Between 20 and 25 J/109’s are expected at the event and the racing will be one-design, boat-on-boat, in accordance with the strict J/109 Class Rules.

Now the J/109 has arrived down-under and British expatriates Ray and Sandra Entwistle’s Sweet Chariot is turning heads on Sydney Harbour, proving it’s a clean and quick IRC racer/cruiser.

Ray Entwistle explains why they chose the J/109.

‘We migrated to Australia because of sailing. I’d been out here before sailing on the harbour in 18ft skiffs and we just fell in love with the place. Sandra and I sailed asymmetric dinghies in the UK and we came out to live in Australia in November 1999.

‘We bought an Adams 10.6, Adamant, which we raced out of Greenwich Flying Squadron, which is still our base club.

‘Last year Sandra and I decided we wanted a boat we could both cruise and race, so we started our research. We knew that the J109 was a ‘stand out’ and as dinghy sailors we loved the carbon fibre retractable bowsprit and asymmetric spinnakers.

‘Sweet Chariot has a two cabin interior layout with standing headroom, hot and cold pressure water, two showers, deep fridge, full shore electronics pack and two burner stove and oven. She has an excellent power to weight ratio and excellent stability for relaxed cruising when the racing crew is not aboard. The halyards and reef lines are cockpit led, mainsheet controls are within reach of the wheel and inboard sheeting tracks permit the use of both overlapping and non-overlapping headsails.

‘We’ve got an excellent set of North’s sails; a 120sqm running asymmetric and a 90sqm reacher. We’ve got Norths 3DL, a light number 1, a medium heavy number 1, a number 3 and a number 4. We’ve found her easy to sail and the crew love her.’

Just as well. The boat was on the water in late December and with just two hours of sailing and a crew being introduced to each other on the way to a start line, Sweet Chariot performed perfectly ‘out of the box’ at the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club’s Regatta.

Entwistle explained the debut performances of Sweet Chariot. ‘After Christmas and some unplanned work commitments, we left Sydney to sail the boat to Pittwater, ready for the J/109’s debut, the two day Palm Beach series, the first part of the Pittwater and Coffs Regatta.

‘We found she was a joy on the water, light and responsive and easy to sail. The four races over the following two days were sailed from a drifter to fifteen knots and from the beginning the boat felt responsive and on-the-pace. The J109 was beating larger boats on the water and therefore scoring very well on handicap. Sweet Chariot scored a fifth, first, second and third to ultimately win the regatta.

‘Then we did the Australia Day Cup, where we were sixth over the line and first on handicap. There were a lot of big boats in that fleet. Looking around we appeared to be one of the smallest boats there, especially when we saw Braveheart and the Sydney 60 and a couple of 44.7s and the like.’

A few days later Sweet Chariot won the GFS Australian Day regatta, followed that up with a win at the North Sydney Cup and then won her division in the Palm Beach regatta, in mid March. In between times she has been a regular winner in the Greenwich and Drummoyne Twilight series.

Entwistle continues, ‘the crew love sailing the boat, it is easy to sail and the luxury fit out is just fantastic. People go down below and are surprised to see such a comfortable interior. They look at the results on one hand and the luxury fit out on the other hand, and they just can’t believe it. We are over the moon with it’s performance.’







For more information contact Mark Dent from J Boats Australia, +61 2 9566 1355
mark@jboats.com.au

www.jboats.com.au