The J/24The J/24This article originally appeared in the 1995 Harken catalog. Thank you to Brownie Lewis at Harken, and Alan Johnstone at J-Boats for allowing me to post this article.
Fom inauspicious beginnings as a family project in a garage in Stonington,
Connecticut, a little boat called Ragtime has grown into one of the most
successful one design keel boats of all time. The J/24 was not drawn to
the constraints of a rating rule, but was designed by Rod Johnstone to
be a fun boat for his family which was outgrowing racing dinghys. The design
mandate was clear: build a boat that was fast enough and exciting enough
to satisfy the sophisticated tastes of his sailing clan.
It's fair to say that even Rod was surprised by how well Ragtime performed. He convinced brother Bob to market the boats and Everett Pearson to build them. The rest is history, and by July of 1994, 5140 had been built in factories in eight countries. J/Boats has established itself as one of the leaders of the sailing industry, producing a wide range of sizes and types of boats, from the J/22 to the J/44; from the small cruising J/28 to the new fast cruising J/160; from the ULDB J/27 to the IOR oriented J/41. But for sheer numbers, owner loyalty, and competitive racing, none can ever surpass the success of the nearly ubiquitous boat that started it all.
Today the J/24 is as competitive as the Olympic classes, but a popular family and club racer as well. The World Championsips attract top talent like Ken Read, a six time winner, Dave Curtis, Laurie Smith, Ian Bashford, Jim Brady, and Ed Baird. 50 to 90 boats compete, depending on venue, and 20 countries are expected to be represented at the 1995 regatta in Rochester, New York.
The J/24 is also the boat used in the International Women's Keelboat Championships and the class has attracted such top skippers as Betsy Allison, JJ Isler, and Jody Swanson. The lYRU chose the J/24 as the men's keelboat for the 1994 lYRU World Championships in La Rochelle.
Top J/24 crew Federico Valenti explains below how to work within the confines of the class rules to rig a winning boat. Federico has crewed in five J/24 World's and is the regular bowman on Flavio Favini's Nebookanezzer. In addition to J/24's Federico has sailed in the Admiral's Cup, Sardina Cup, One Ton Cup and the 6 Meter Worlds. He is a native of Genoa, Italy where he works as a hospital biologist. In addition to his racing and science, for the past two years Federico has served as the primary translator for the Italian language version of the Harken catalog - ~Ma sono impegnato questa sera!
The J/24 is a class with very strict rules and that leaves very little to the imagination. You cannot adopt sophisticated hardware configurations so crews look for ways to get the most out of what is allowed by the rules. The primary aims are to ensure easy access to all of the systems and to maximize power output.
Because the J/24 is twenty years old and over 5000 have been built, the rigging has become very refined in both layout and tuning. Still, there is a lot that can be done to make a boat a winner, whether you buy a new boat or refit an older boat. First, because the class is so competitive you cannot afford to lose even half a boat length, so you must be sure that the crew can adjust all of the controls without leaving the rail. Second, you must be sure that you have as much power as the class rules allow so that you can make adjustments quickly and easily.
Very
few boats today use a halyard winch, the exceptions being in very windy
areas. Luff tension is controlled in both the genoa and the jib by a cunningham.
A maximum purchase of 6:1 is permitted by the rules. The best cunningham
consists of a hook to insert in the cunningham grommet on the sail. A pennant
of uncored Spectra leads thru a 301
wire block fastened to the tack fitting. The pennant attaches to the head
of a 224 micro block, forming a 2-1 primary tackle on the foredeck. This
tackle is double-ended and is pulled by a 3:1 tackle (224
and 225 micro blocks)
on each side of the boat, forming a 3:1/2:1 cascade to provide the final
6:1 purchase. A cleat is mounted on the gunwale on each side ot the boat
so the crew can adjust the cunningham without moving from the rail.
The spinnaker halyard is cleated in a150 cam mounted about 2 m (6.5') above deck. This allows the bowman to raise the sail with maximum reach, and therefore maximum speed. A couple of good long pulls is all it takes. The 150 is strong enough to hold the halyard, doesn't burn out when you pull the halyard through the pawls, and is easy to release under load. Some catalogs sell brackets to attach the 150 to the mast, but many crews shape a 295 riser base to the curve of the mast.
A 150 is also often used for the genoa halyard because it is lighter than a stopper and can be released without going over to release the handle like a stopper requires. Whether a 150 or a stopper is used, many crews lead the halyard through a 019 ratchet block so that they can raise and lower the sail from any position, or even take it back to a primary winch in heavy air.
The foreguy usually leads to a 237 fairlead mounted on the deck just aft of the forward hatch, through a 166 at the mast base and to a 240 swivel cam mounted on the roof. There are two common ways to rig the pole topping lift. The simplest is to lead it down to a 166 at the mast base and back to another 240 swivel cam mounted on the roof. The second solution is to lead the topping lift directly down to a 140 pivoting exit block mounted just under the gooseneck. Both of these solutions work well and allow the crew to control the pole from the rail.
Many boats use another 140 mounted under the boom for the outhaul. There is a 4:1 tackle inside the boom which exits to the 140 so the crew can reach it from either side of the boat. Some crew place a 166 block just aft of a cleat on the boom so they can pull from any direction and the line is forced through the cleat as you tension the outhaul. The only problem with this arrangement is that you have to reach between the 166 and the cleat to release the outhaul which you can't do from a remote location.
The best arrangement for the main cunningham is to deadend a line at the gooseneck, pass it up through the grommet in the sail and attach a 083 becket block to the end. Another line starts on the becket of the 083 block, leads to a 166 block which is attached to the vang bail at the step, back up over the sheave of the 083 block and down to a 291pivoting block with cam mounted on the back of the mast.
The vang is one of the most crucial of the controls on the J/24, especially in windy conditions when it requires continuous adjustment to help the skipper keep the boat on its feet and avoid roundups that cost a boat position in the fleet or even causes damage to the equipment.
A recent rule change allows the vang purchase to be increased to 8:1, which is an appropriate amount of power. The most efficient way to achieve 8:1 is to use a cascade with a 4:1 tackle pulling against a 2:1 purchase. If you have an older boat with a 4:1 tackle, you simply need to add the one block on the boom for the cascade. The class rules require a minimum diameter of 8 mm for the vang so the block for the boom is a 011 and we all use uncored spectra these days. The 4:1 tackle is attached to the mast base and the cascading line. (Also see the Harken vang page for other ideas.)
