Any J24 sailors out here?

[acunningham]

I'll be in Sydney from 12th July, and have a lesson booked in a J24 for 16th July. Will report how it goes...

[acunningham]

My brother and I went sailing on Sydney Harbour yesterday in a J24 with an instructor, and it was a lot of fun. It started out with very light winds, and we feared it would turn out boring. However, the wind picked up after 30 minutes or so, and after that it was good. We even got a little spinnaker training in. The J24 is a lovely boat. We'll go back next weekend for more spinnaker training!

[CalebD]

I've only been on a J24 once and I liked it a lot in light airs. I'll bet is a lot of fun to race on too as it handles more like a dinghy then my 27' Tartan full keel boat.
Do yourself a favor though and do a google search on 'J24 sailboat sinking'. You will find a lot of hits. They lost one of their J24's in NY Harbor last Weds. 7/13/11 and another back in 1998. Apparently the lazarette seats in the cockpit are blamed for many of the sinkings. The recent J24 sinking in NY Harbor encountered a storm cell with 40 - 50 knot gusts. No one was lost, just the boat sank. That is a lot of wind for any boat though.
I think the picture tells the story pretty well.

[Irunbird]

J24's really do well in heavy air, although 40-50 kts is a bit much for sure! We raced this past weekend, and on Saturday saw some gusts to 25, so we raced downwind w/o spin and did ok because most boats electing to fly the spin ended up either broaching or dealing with wraps around the forestay. One thing for sure, if you go out in anything heavier than you are comfortable with, be sure those cockpit lockers are latched securely. I never go out in any wind without them secured.

[WDS123]

most of fleet had sails wrapped around headstay ?

Sounds like great fun.

There is a reason the J24 is known as the pain bucket or origin of the phrase boat bite. Thousands of people have learned One Design racing on these boats, but after some experience, realize that it is time to move on.

google J24 sinking and you'll see a long list. SF Bay supposedly has an entire fleet of J24s at the bottom.

[Irunbird]

I would say that most of the 10 boats had at least one episode of "hour glass" spin or full wrapage going on. Several broached, and one in front of us twice within about 4 or 5 minutes, recovering each time in less than 40 or 50 seconds. I think they were practicing, but they managed to stay ahead of us and we finished mid-pack in that race. Interesting to watch for sure... I have no doubt there is an entire fleet of J24s sitting on the bottom of SF Bay!

[anthemj24]

You can sink any boat if you do something stupid. Not locking the lazarettea in a J24 qualifies as doing something stupid. I would consider racing a boat one design and having nobody show up as being more painful than any day of sailing on a J24.