. Isle of Wight, 13 February 2019. The J Class is happy to announce the appointment of Alfredo Ricci as the new Secretary of J Class Association as of February 1. Alfredo (1970), an economics major and graduate grew up in Salerno, a little town at the entrance of the Amalfi Coast. As a young boy his sailing career started with the Optimist and many other classes followed after that. As umpire/judge he took part in the last three editions of the Olympic Games and at 2007 and 2017 editions of the America’s Cup. He got involved in the J More...

Saturday’s conclusion of Les Voiles de St Tropez brought the 2018 season to a close for the magnificent J Class yachts. The fourth and final regatta of the J Class season was a two horse race between the 1933 Charles Nicholson designed Velsheda, one of the three original surviving J’s, and Topaz, launched new in 2015 to a previously unbuilt 1935 Frank C Paine design. At Les Voiles de St Tropez, the two J’s were competing in the Modern IRC A fleet, against 21 of the world’s top contemporary Supermaxi, Maxi and Mini Maxi yachts. After the first day of More...

Costa Smeralda once again delivered on the concluding day of the maxi yacht Rolex Cup with brilliant sunshine and 10-15 knots westerly winds. The J Class, racing within the event’s Supermaxi class, sailed a tricky course with a beat up ‘Bomb Alley’, looping around the island of Spargi before a run back down the area’s notorious passage between Sardinia and the off-lying La Maddalena archipelago. Under JCA corrected time, today it was the turn of Topaz to collect the race win, but this was not enough for them to prevent Svea from clinching overall victory in Porto Cervo. Svea’s tactician More...

While a mistral had been forecast for the penultimate day of the 2018 Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, the westerly wind gusting only into the early 20’s, still made for a lively, challenging day out on the water. The course took the trio of Js on a 34. 5 mile clock-wise lap of La Maddalena, northwest to round the island of Spargi. Today under JCA , Svea beat Topaz on corrected time. She also claimed the overall J Class prize, finishing today on five points to Topaz’ seven. In today’s bigger conditions, both Svea and Topaz suffered sail damage from which More...

Two thirds of the way through 2018 Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup and the trio of Js remain tightly grouped on their leaderboards. Under the class’ JCA rating system Svea leads Topaz on four points to five, while under the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup’s ORCsy rating for the Supermaxi class, Topaz holds a two point advantage over Velsheda, in turn on a point ahead of Svea. Today the Js sailed a coastal course this time to the south of Porto Cervo around the islands of Soffi, Mortorio and Mortoriotto. This was short compared to previous days, to ensure the boats would More...