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2023 Boat of the Year Best Crossover: J/45

• By Dave Reed
• December 16, 2022

Sailing World Magazine’s  annual Boat of the Year tests are conducted in Annapolis, Maryland, following the US Sailboat Show. With independent judges exhaustively inspecting the boats on land and putting them through their paces on the water, this year’s fleet of new performance-sailing boats spanned from small dinghies to high-tech bluewater catamarans. Here’s the best of the best from our  2023 Boat of the Year nominees »

The Family Flagship

• Stated purpose: Offshore performance, cruising yacht, club racer
• Crew: Two to eight
• Praise for: Powerful hull shape, high-quality build, versatility
• Est. price as sailed: approx. $900,000 to 1 million

The Johnstone family and their builders take their time to get it right. It’s what makes J Boats synonymous with proper and purposeful sailing boats, which now includes the J/45. For the many legacy J Boat owners, this sailboat is for you.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve come out with a boat this size,” says designer Alan Johnstone. “A lot of different trends have come along, and we’ve been paying attention and applying them in the sportboat range and in some of our smaller racer-cruisers.”

A good current-model comparison, says Jeff Johnstone, would be the company’s J/121e, which has been very successful on the offshore racing scene. “The J/45 has over a 40 percent ballast ratio, so that’s pretty substantial,” he says. “That means we can get away with a pretty sizable rig. Our markets are San Diego, Chicago and New England, where it doesn’t blow so hard, so we wanted to be able to actually sail in 5 knots of wind. With sails that work across the wind range, we have a more powerful hull that allows you to carry more sail area.”

The J/45 is a nod to J Boats’ raison d’être, Jeff explains. It’s a boat that is offshore-capable, and easy to campaign with friends and family in the club beer-can series and overnight races. “Look at the events that are prospering,” he says, “pursuit races and cruises—events you don’t need to have a pro crew on board.”

The boat is intended for shorthanded sailing, so there’s a traditional and simple approach to the deck layout, with everything leading to the pit, through-jammers to Harken cabin-top winches (one electrified), one set of coaming primaries, and a pair of winches for the split mainsheet that runs below deck and exits from a nicely sculpted deck fitting. With twin pedestals, the carbon wheels are high and angled outboard for excellent visibility.

“When I first saw it at the dock, I thought, This is a pretty cool race boat,” Powlison says. “When you step back and look at it, it has great-looking lines. When we got on, I immediately noted the sightline from the wheel. I could see across the entire boat all the way to the bow. It’s all really clean and has the attributes you’d expect to see on a proper race boat. When we went below, I was like, wow, it really is a boat I could live on for a while.”

The owner of the boat that was test-sailed has a young family of teens and uses the boat extensively for club racing and cruising in New England. So, the boat was laden with cruising extras, plus a retractable bow thruster, a hydraulic mast jack and an upgraded Hall carbon rig. A custom addition by the owner was the carbon furling boom, which was a project collaboration between North Sails and Hall. The owner is extremely happy with the furler, especially not having to make the family flake and stack 1,152 square feet of race-worthy sails on the family cruise.

“It’s great to see the owner already racing it and doing what it’s meant for,” Allen says. “I know J Boats has wanted to do this model for a long time, and this is now its flagship. All the mechanicals are accessible, all nicely done and perfectly clean. This is a big deal for them, and it being just north of a million, I think this boat will appeal to a new level of client.” [Eds. note: After publication Jeff Johnstone clarified the judge’s quoted price “as sailed”: “Base price is $695k with carbon rig, and a sail-away budget with extensive systems would be somewhere in the $900,000 to $1 million range.”

“I had full control through the jibes and tacks. My sense was that it just kept trucking through all the changes in the conditions.” —Dave Powlison

Stewart has a keen eye for a fast hull and says the J/45 gets its appeal from its subtle curved sheer line and the long, low cabin top. “It’s got a nice hull form too; it’s wide aft, but not unnecessarily wide. Still, there’s good volume for the length.”

Enough of the looks. How does it sail in 10 to 15 knots and moderate chop?

“It was definitely fingertip steering,” Powlison says. “It was really easy to turn—I had full control through the jibes and tacks, and my sense was that it just kept trucking through all the changes in the conditions. I could easily follow the breeze, and for a boat this big, I felt it was very responsive on the helm.”

Allen did his fair share of upwind driving with an experienced crew for the rail weight and sail trim. The midrange breeze for the test sail, Allen says, was the boat’s sweet spot. “When we lock into a puff, the boat leans over just a bit, the helm loads up a touch, and then the boat takes off. At times it did feel a little underpowered in the lulls, but in the 12 to 14, getting to 8.5 was easy and it would just stay there. And even with all the cruising stuff on the boat, downwind was awesome. With the A2, the boat can happily get to 155 to 147 with a little rocked-over weather heel. It was fun.”

“It was good on the fingertip control as promised,” was Stewart’s assessment. “It’s light and responsive, and the wheels had zero play. The rudder had a lot of bite, and the boat was—as described by the designer—a stable and powerful boat.

“On top of that, it had great sails, was well-prepared, had good sailors on board, and showed perfectly to its potential.”

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J Class: the enduring appeal of the world’s most majestic yachts

• October 9, 2023

Only ten J Class yachts were built before the Second World War stopped the movement in its tracks, but in the last 20 years these magnificent sloops have made an incredible comeback. Why has the J Class remained irresistable? David Glenn explains.

One of the most awe-inspiring sights in modern yachting is the Spirit of Tradition fleet blasting off the start line at the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta. It happens every year at the end of April. Chances are it will include at least two J Class yachts, hitting the line on the gun at full tilt, exploding through the cobalt blue Caribbean rollers at anything up to 12 knots as they charge upwind.

Watching Velsheda , Ranger , Shamrock V and Endeavour will bring a lump to your throat, such is the emotion generated by these beautifully proportioned 130ft racing machines with their carbon rigs driving 170 tonnes of steel, aluminium and teak towards the weather mark. It’s heady stuff.

Watching them is one thing; racing quite another matter. In 1999 I was aboard the rebuilt Velsheda , taking part in the Antigua Classic Regatta. I had a single task as part of a four-man team – to tend the forward starboard runner. Nothing else. “Let that go once we’ve tacked and the whole rig comes down,” warned skipper Simon Bolt, as another wall of water thundered down the leeward deck and tried to rip me from the winch.

Dressed in authentic off-white, one-piece cotton boiler-suits, which had to be worn with a stout belt “so there’s something to grab if you go overboard”, they were tough, adrenaline-filled days out. God knows what it was like up forward as massive spinnakers were peeled and headsails weighing a quarter of a tonne were wrestled to the  needle-sharp foredeck as the bow buried itself into the back of yet another wave. Sometimes you daren’t look.

But with the race won or lost, back on the dock the feeling of elation, fuelled by being part of the 36-strong crew aboard one of these extraordinary yachts, triggered a high like no other. You knew you were playing a role, no matter how small, in a legendary story that began in 1930, was halted by World War II and then defied the pundits by opening another chapter 20 years ago. Today with five Js in commission, all in racing trim, and at least two more new examples about to be launched, the J Class phenomenon is back.

Why is the J Class so popular?

Why does a yacht with an arguably unexciting performance – they go upwind at 12 knots and downwind at 12 knots – costing £20 million to build and demanding eye-watering running costs, seem to be burgeoning during the worst recession since the class was born?

There is no single answer, but you only have to look back to the 1930s and the characters that owned and raced the Js on both sides of the Atlantic, sometimes for the America’s Cup , to understand why the class occupies a special place in yachting history. Underlying everything is the look of the J Class. It seems to transcend any change in yachting vogue, displaying a timeless line with outrageous overhangs and a proportion of hull to rig that is hard to better.

They possess true elegance. There is no doubt that captains of industry who want to flex their sporting muscle have been drawn to a class which only the very rich can afford and there are distinct parallels between J owners in the 1930s and those of the past 20 years. The difference is that in the 1930s owners liked to shout about their achievements and hogged the pages of national newspapers. Today, they are as quiet as mice.

Origins of the J Class

The J Class emerged in 1930 and marked a quantum leap in yachting technology, but comprised a hotchpotch of design altered over many years.

The J Class – so named because it was the letter allocated to its particular size by the Universal Rule to which the yachts were built (K and M Class yachts were, for example, shorter on the waterline) – emerged in 1930 and marked a quantum leap in yachting technology.

The so-called Big Class, which flourished in the UK in the 1920s, was impressive, but comprised a hotchpotch of design altered over many years. Yachts like King George V’s Britannia , built in 1893 as a gaff-rigged cutter but converted in the 1920s to Bermudan rig to rate as a J, Candida , Cambria , White Heather and schooners like Westward were even larger and more expensive to run. But as the greater efficiency of the Marconi or Bermudan rig became apparent their days were numbered.

One catalyst for the J Class itself was legendary grocer Sir Thomas Lipton’s final crack at challenging for the America’s Cup in 1931. He did so under the Universal Rule with the composite, wooden-planked, Charles E. Nicholson-design Shamrock V .

It was the 14th challenge since 1851 and the Americans, despite the withering effects of the Great Depression, reacted in dramatic fashion, organising their defence with four syndicates, each bulging with millionaires, putting forward separate Js: Enterprise , Whirlwind , Weetamoe and Yankee , which apart from Enterprise had already been launched.

Key to the American effort was the remarkable Harold Vanderbilt of the New York Yacht Club, who had inherited fabulous wealth from the family’s railroad companies, making him one of the country’s richest men.

Brought up on the family’s Idle Hour estate on Long Island Sound, he was a keen and accomplished sailor, and he used American technology and teamwork to build a far superior J in Enterprise. The defence completely overwhelmed Lipton’s effort. The British press castigated Lipton’s lack of preparedness and old-fashioned attitude. Vanderbilt, who among other things is credited with inventing contract bridge, left no stone unturned. “Mr. Harold Vanderbilt does not exactly go boat-sailing because summer is the closed season for fox-hunting,” stated an acerbic critic in the British yachting press.

Later when Shamrock was owned by aircraft builder Sir Richard Fairey and was being used to train crew for another Cup challenge, Beecher Moore, a skilful dinghy sailor who was draughted aboard the J to try to sort her out, reported in Yachts and Yachting many years later: “We found that when we got on board it was very much like a well-run country house, in that the gentleman does not go into the kitchen and on a well-run J Class the owner does not go forward of the mast.”

J Class tactics: Britain vs USA

A look at the huge gap between the British and American J Class tactics and designs in the early years of the America’s Cup.

In the early days there was a yawning gap between the way the Americans and British approached the Cup and, for that matter, how they ran a yacht. Revolutionary metal masts, Park Avenue booms to improve sail shape (the British copied this American design with their ‘North Circular’ version), bronze hulls that needed no painting, superior sails, and campaigns that cost £100,000 even in those days, blew away the Brits. Lipton had spent just £30,000 to build and equip Shamrock .

In the second Cup challenge in Js, in 1934, Sir T. O. M. Sopwith’s first Endeavour , also designed by Nicholson and equipped with wind instruments designed by her aircraft industrialist owner, nearly won the Cup, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory after leading the series 0-2. Sopwith was also up against Vanderbilt, who this time sailed Rainbow , which many considered to be the slower boat. But the British campaign was hobbled by a pay dispute – Endeavour ’s crew got £5 a week but they wanted a raise for ‘going foreign’ – and the campaign approach was again brought into question when the first thing to be stripped off the yacht when they won a dispute over reducing weight was the bath!

Back in Britain, the 1935 season proved to be the zenith of J Class and Big Class racing, although by the end of it the Js were under the cosh for their tendency to lose masts. Five went over the side that year and Endeavour II , launched with en eye on the next Cup challenge, lost hers twice.

There was added spice in the competition off the shores of the UK with the arrival of the American J Yankee , now owned by millionaire and Listerine businessman Gerard Lambert, who enjoyed sparring with the Brits. But even Yankee lost her mast and the press rounded on the class for being dangerous and wasteful! That wasn’t enough to stop Sopwith, whose tail had been extracted from between his legs following the last defeat in Newport: Endeavour II was towed across the Atlantic in a veritable armada that included  the first Endeavour. The British yachts found themselves up against the most advanced sailing machine the world had ever seen – Ranger , dubbed ‘the Super J’.

Vanderbilt was the man to beat again. Not only had he bankrolled the entire defence as American business remained beset by a struggling economy, but he used highly scientific means to perfect design. The brilliant naval architect Starling Burgess, who had designed for Vanderbilt throughout the 1930s, was now aided by the equally brilliant but considerably more youthful Olin Stephens. Between them they finally selected ‘model 77-C’ from six tank tested.

The yacht was considered ugly by some and not a natural to look at, but Vanderbilt’s team trusted the science (still the difference between the Americans and the Brits) and Ranger with her bluff or barrel bow and ‘low slung’ counter was the result. She proved to be dynamite on the race course and Endeavour II didn’t stand a chance. She was beaten in five straight races by large margins. The Americans and Vanderbilt had done it again. War then brought an end to an extraordinary era in yachting.

Only ten J Class yachts were built to the Universal rule and not a single American yacht survived. Most were scrapped for the war effort. In any case, the American way was to discard the machine once it has served its purpose. In Britain they faired a little better, and some Js were mud-berthed on the East and South Coasts. Two survived in the UK: Velsheda , originally built by the businessman who ran Woolworths in the UK (W. L. Stevenson named her after his daughters Velma, Sheila and Daphne), but which never challenged for the America’s Cup; and Endeavour , saved by becoming a houseboat on the Hamble. Shamrock ended up in Italy and survived the war hidden in a hay barn.

J Class resurgence

Seemingly resigned to the history books, the J Class made a triumphant return in the 1980s.

In his seminal book about the J Class, Enterprise to Endeavour, yachting historian Ian Dear predicted in the first edition in 1977 that the likes of the Js would never be seen again. By the time the fourth edition was published in 1999 he was quite happily eating his words!

The American Elizabeth Meyer was, without doubt, instrumental in bringing the class back to life when in the 1980s she extracted what was left of Endeavour from a  amble mud-berth, began rebuilding her in Calshot, and then moved her to Royal Huisman in Holland, who completed the restoration superbly. With the transom of the original Ranger mounted on a bulkhead in her saloon, Endeavour is still regarded as one of the best-looking and potentially fastest Js.

She was owned briefly by Dennis Kozlowski, the disgraced tycoon who ran Tyco, who famously said: “No one really owns Endeavour, she’s part of yachting history. I’m delighted to be the current caretaker.” Unfortunately he ended up in prison and the State of New York became Endeavour’s ‘caretaker’ before they sold her to her current owner, who has kept the yacht in the Pacific. She’s currently being refitted in New Zealand.

Ronald de Waal is a Dutchman who until recently was chairman of the Saks Group in the USA and has made a fortune in clothing. He has dedicated a lot of time to improving Velsheda over the years since he had her rebuilt by Southampton Yacht Services to a reconfigured design by Dutch naval architect Gerry Dykstra. Ronald de Waal steers the yacht himself to great effect and has had some legendary tussles with Ranger, the new Super J built in Denmark for American realestate magnate John Williams.

The rivalry between the two is fierce and even led to a collision between the yachts in Antigua last year. But Velsheda would have been lost had it not been for British scrap-metal merchant Terry Brabant who saved her from a muddy grave on  the Hamble and famously sold his Rolls-Royce to cast a new lead keel for the yacht. With very little modern equipment he sailed her hard in the Solent, chartering her and crossing the Atlantic for a Caribbean season, all without an engine! Without Brabant’s initiative Ronald de Waal wouldn’t have what he has today.

Shamrock V is owned by a Brazilian telecommunications businessman Marcos de Moraes who had the yacht rebuilt at Pendennis Shipyard in Falmouth in 2001. He tends to keep away from the race course but with a number of events being planned in the run-up to the 2012 London Olympics he might be tempted back. The latest new J to launch, Hanuman, a modern interpretation of Endeavour II, has recently entered the racing fray. She was commissioned by serial yacht owner Jim Clark (Hyperion and Athena), the American who brought us Netscape and Silicon Graphics, and who remains a colossus in Silicon Valley.

Hanuman, named after a Hindu deity, built by Royal Huisman and designed by Gerry Dykstra, has had no expense spared when it comes to rig and sail wardrobe. Last year she beat Ranger in the Newport Bucket but in March this year she lost out 2-1 to the same boat at the St Barths Bucket. They were due to meet again with Velsheda at the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta in April. Another Dutchman, property developer Chris Gongriep, who has owned a number of yachts including Sapphire and Windrose of Amsterdam, has given the go-ahead for a new  version of Rainbow, which is well advanced in Holland at Freddie Bloesma’s aluminium hull fabrication yard. The yacht, reconfigured by Gerry Dykstra, will be in the water in 2011 with a full-on race programme.

About to be launched is Lionheart, the biggest J so far, redesigned by Andre Hoek and built in Holland by Claasen Jachtbouw, after an extensive research programme.  Unfortunately, her owner’s business commitments mean that he won’t be able to enjoy the fruits of this project – she’s for sale with Yachting Partners International and Hoek Brokerage. What an opportunity to join a class with such a remarkable history and one which looks destined to run and run!

First published on SuperYachtWorld.com on Aug 4, 2010

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J/70 – World’s Fastest Growing One Design, Trailerable Speedster!

Easier to trailer, rig and ramp launch. The J/70 Speedster (22.75 feet) is J/Boats’ first fully ramp-launchable, keelboat – designed to fulfill a growing need for an easy-to-own, high performance one-design that is exciting to sail, stable enough for the entire family, easy to tow behind the family vehicle, to rig in the parking lot, ramp launch and sail.  Plus, J/70 is built to last.

In less than 48 months the J/70 worldwide fleet is over 1,300 boats strong, attracting some of the most talented sailors in the world and helping to spark growth of numerous sailing leagues across Europe. J/70 is replacing tired old keelboat fleets at a number of sailing clubs and helping to reinvigorate membership by attracting younger sailors into the ranks.  There are fleet discussions underway now around the world both for new leagues and for established clubs.  The Sailing World Overall Boat of the Year J/70 has taken the world by storm and future growth for this fantastic boat looks very bright, indeed!  These days it is safe to say  there is some J/70 event happening on almost any given weekend somewhere around the world!

Key J/70 Features.

• Large comfortable cockpit with open transom.
• Deck-stepped lightweight carbon mast for easy rigging & stepping.
• Inexpensive three sail inventory with masthead A-Sail.
• Vertical lifting keel.
• Small cabin for storage and personal privacy.
• Easy to trailer to regattas, ramp launch and store at home for winter.
• Only 1,750 lbs & low road height so most 6 cyl vehicles can easily tow.
• Fits inside most standard garage doors!

More comfortable to sail on deck. The 11′ long cockpit and moderate height boom in the J/70 allow easy crew movement across the cockpit while tacking and jibing. For sitting and hiking comfort, mid-height padded backrests/lifelines run cockpit length, large cockpit floor mounted toe-rails for secure foot bracing and comfortable seat height and ergonomics makes J/70 one of the most comfortable small keelboats to helm.  No need for hiking straps to keep you in the boat. Plus there are strict class limits on how to hike to make the boat less physical to sail.

Easy for the entire family to join in! With mandatory on-board jib/spinnaker sheet winches, a feather light responsive helm and confidence building stability, you can enjoy sailing with friends and family more often.  Kids or seniors will feel as comfortable and in control steering or trimming sails, whether for daysailing or evening sunset races, the J/70 will be both exciting and forgiving.  When you are ready to take it to the next competitive level, the competition at national events won’t disappoint.

On-board privacy, protection, storage & auxiliary power The small cabin below is a bonus in any small keelboat, and the J/70 cabin is just large enough to provide weather & sun protection, a place to nap and/or for personal privacy… essential to keeping the whole crew happy if spending a day on the water.

The J/70 one-design class rules provide for a 2.5 hp outboard engine (gas or electric). This means one can sail further away from homeport without worrying about paddling home or hailing for a tow. Race Committees can start races on time and finish them later in the day without having to arrange tow boats.

J/Boats J/45, a Bluewater Model Conceived By Life-Long Sailors

The new J/Boats J/45, debuting in Europe at Cannes Yachting Festival 2022 , is a true bluewater sailing yacht, designed and built for the sea by life-long sailors. The J/Boats and J/Composites teams have collaborated to create a special design for discerning sailors seeking an exceptional sailing experience. 

The J/45 can be sailed solo, cruised by 2-3 couples or large family, and pleasure sailed or raced with room for the whole crew. This is an investment-grade sailboat that won’t require a professional crew to sail, handle or maintain.

J/45, built with advanced technology

The J/45 is built strong by J/Composites (in the Vendee region of  France ) with the latest advanced composite resin infusion technology – twice as strong as hand-laid fiberglass boats. J/Composites was the first European-based shipyard to adopt the patented SCRIMP resin infusion system in the mid-’90s and is now one of the most experienced sailboat builders in the world for sandwich/infusion construction.

Anchoring the internal structure of the J/45 hull is an extensive composite grid and series of structural composite bulkheads that are bonded to the hull and deck.

The combination of advanced composite construction, an easily driven hull shape, and low center-of-gravity results in the stability and smooth sailing motion normally reserved for larger yachts. The J/45 comes to critical components like composite materials, keel, spars, winches, and deck hardware, which all contribute to a comfortable motion while sailing.

With the J/45, the same main and jib combination that performs in 6 knots of wind can be “de-powered” to perform in 20 knots – no sail change needed. This cuts crew work in half compared to constant sail-changing needed on heavier cruisers.

J/Boats J/45: the interiors

The J/45 breaks new ground for J/Boats for interior design and comfort thanks to French interior designer Isabelle Racoupeau. Working in close collaboration with the J/Composites Shipyard, Racoupeau has brought her vast experience in cruising yacht design to create a beautifully finished and elegant interior befitting the newest cruising J . 

Owners may choose from a two cabin/two head or a three cabin/two head interior arrangement. One can further personalize the interior finish with three choices of wood (white oak, teak, or walnut) and extensive upholstery options. A wide range of onboard systems is available (air conditioning, heat, sound system, etc) to enhance cruising comfort.

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The story begins in 1975. Rod, then an ad salesman for the sailing trade magazine, Soundings, and an active one-design sailor decided to build a sailboat he had been designing since completing a Westlawn School of Yacht Design correspondence course in the 60’s. With $400-worth of fiberglass and wood, some rigging and hardware left over from a Soling of Bob’s, he built the 24’ x 9’ wide RAGTIME on weekends in his garage at his home in Stonington, Connecticut. During the summer of 1976, with an all family crew aboard, RAGTIME beat everything in sight. Rod realized he had created something special. Enter Everett Pearson, co-founder of Pearson Yachts, and owner of TPI Composites, Inc.. He was quite taken with Rod’s design and agreed to produce the boat on spec in return for the U.S. building rights. Display ads in Soundings got the word out. That winter they set up a makeshift factory in an old textile mill in nearby Fall River, MA. Enter the marketing experience of brother Bob, a vice president of marketing at AMF/Alcort (the makers of Sunfish sailboats at the time). He saw the potential in the boat Rod had designed. From 1975 to 1977, Bob had helped to take Alcort from the red into the black, and then began trying to convince AMF to start producing a boat similar to the J/24. But, he says, in spite of overwhelming market research results showing 50% purchase intent in a boat like the J/24 , AMF really didn’t care anything about gaining share of market or investing any more in sailing. In 1977, Bob left AMF and threw in his lot with J/Boats. With Rod contributing the design and his prototype ‘Ragtime’ and Bob investing $20,000 to cover start-up costs, office space, and advertising, their 50-50 partnership was launched. Expecting to sell 250 J/24s that first year, they sold 750. The next generation of Johnstones now mans the helm, while founders Rod and Bob continue to contribute in the areas of their strength, design and marketing. By 1992, Rod’s sons Jeff (president) & Alan (vice-president) and nephew Jim (sales director) were managing company operations & sales from J/Boats Headquarters in Newport, RI. with five of Bob & Rod’s sons (Jeff, Alan, Stu, Drake and Phil) on J/Boats, Inc. Board of Directors. More than 9000 J-Boats have been built. J/Boats, Inc. 557 Thames Street Newport, RI 02840 401.846.8410 www.jboats.com

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Launched January 2017

Design: Tore Holm

Image Credit:

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Svea is the newest J Class yacht in the current fleet and was launched in January 2017. At 143ft/43.6m Svea has the longest LOA by 15cms.

Her original designs were drawn in 1937 by Swedish Olympian and renowned 6 and 8 Metre boat designer Tore Holm along with compatriot boatbuilder Gustav Plym, but war put paid to any hopes of a Swedish America’s Cup challenge.  The  designs were left untouched in a drawer until they were discovered by Dutch yachting historian and 8 Metre boat enthusiast John Lammerts van Bueren.

Designer Andre Hoek and a group of Dutch enthusiasts including an owner bought the designs and, after careful analysis and refinement in line with their VPP modelling, the hull and deck were built. But the owner pulled out. The project was bought by an American owner who, after having sailed on four other J Class yachts, wanted to compete at the 2017 J Class America’s Cup Regatta and the inaugural J Class World Championships in Newport that year.

While the two halves of the hull and the deck were built at Claasens, the build was completed at Vitters on a very tight schedule in order to be in Bermuda on time for the J Class America’s Cup regatta.

Svea encompasses powerful traditional lines infused with the latest race boat technology. She has a very low freeboard and an extremely clean deck layout and a notably low boom. One trademark is a very large wheel which is set into a deep recess. There are two big working cockpits split by a small doghouse. The halyard and spinnaker trimming winches and crew work out of the forward  cockpit.

Svea’s first races were at the America’s Cup Superyacht regatta in Bermuda in 2017. In 2018 after changes to the keel, a longer boom, bigger main and smaller jibs, Svea won the class at the Saint Barths Bucket in 2018.

In 2022 post pandemic Svea passed into the hands of two passionate Swedish yachtsmen, both accomplished racing enthusiasts, who were inspired to bring Svea – which translates as Mother Sweden – under her native Swedish flag.

After a short, intense week of training under tactician Bouwe Bekking, Svea proved her speed and power over the two main regattas they sailed that year, winning The Superyacht Cup Palma in June 2022 and then winning the class title at the Rolex Maxi Yacht Cup.

Svea is helmed by the owners at events sharing steering duties between them. Seven times round the world racer Bouwe Bekking is tactician, Steve Hayles is navigator and Tim Powell is project manager and mainsheet trimmer.

Length at waterline

displacement

upwind sail area

spinnaker sail area

2017 America’s Cup Superyacht Regatta, Bermuda

‍ 2018 saint barths bucket, ‍ 2018 superyacht cup palma, ‍ 2022 superyacht cup palma, ‍ 2022 maxi yacht rolex cup.

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Hollywood & media deaths in 2024: photo gallery & obituaries, breaking news.

Boat Rocker Studios & ‘Secrets In’ Producer Shark Teeth Films Tie For Three-Series Deal

By Jesse Whittock

Jesse Whittock

International TV Co-Editor

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EXCLUSIVE: Canadian indie Boat Rocker Studios has struck a deal with Shark Teeth Films for a trio of upcoming unscripted shows.

The agreement includes the greenlight of Secrets in the Ice season 4 and new factual series Discovered By Disaster and Secrets in the Dark — the latest in the Secrets In … franchise.

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Discovered By Disaster is also set to deliver in fall 2024. Using cutting-edge CGI, archive footage and expert interviews, the series will   examine mysterious curiosities that have been uncovered by extreme weather and calamitous incidents. Episodes will look at everything from medieval skeletons, Mayan hieroglyphics, sunken shipwrecks and lost cities.

Secrets in the Dark will explore the blurred lines between science and the enigmatic, shedding light on unusual discoveries that turn up in dark, isolated locations. From the depths of ancient tombs to the mysteries of cursed artefacts, the series will look to unearth unsettling mysteries that challenge our understanding of the world. It is set to deliver in spring 2025.

The original Secrets in the Ice has sold to the likes of Sky History in the UK/Ireland; History in Benelux, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria and South Africa; ProSieben in Germany; Super Channel and Blue Ant Media in Canada; NatGeo in Asia; RTI in Italy; and Foxtel in Australia among other territories. It comes from Toronto-based Shark Teeth, which was co-founded by Adrian Carter and Tom Mudd.

Carter and Mudd — whose credits also include Secrets in the Jungle , Secrets of Big Data and Secrets in the Sand — added: ““At Shark Teeth Films, we are laser-focused on creating premium access-driven documentary franchises and unscripted content for global audiences. We would like to thank Boat Rocker for their support in bringing these new and established series to fruition.”

The deal comes on the eve of the final MIPTV , which will be held in Cannes next week.

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J.K. Rowling will not be arrested for comments about transgender women, police say

J.K. Rowling shared a social media thread on Monday, the day a new Scottish hate-crime law took effect, that misgendered several transgender women and appeared to imply trans women have a penchant for sexual predation. On Tuesday, Scottish police announced they would not be investigating the “Harry Potter” author’s remarks as a crime, as some of Rowling’s critics had called for.

“We have received complaints in relation to the social media post,” a spokesperson for Police Scotland said in a statement. “The comments are not assessed to be criminal and no further action will be taken.”

Scotland’s new Hate Crime and Public Order Act criminalizes “stirring up hatred” against people based on their race, religion, disability, sexuality or gender identity.

“In passing the Scottish Hate Crime Act, Scottish lawmakers seem to have placed higher value on the feelings of men performing their idea of femaleness, however misogynistically or opportunistically, than on the rights and freedoms of actual women and girls,” Rowling wrote , in part. “The new legislation is wide open to abuse by activists who wish to silence those of us speaking out about the dangers of eliminating women’s and girls’ single-sex spaces, the nonsense made of crime data if violent and sexual assaults committed by men are recorded as female crimes, the grotesque unfairness of allowing males to compete in female sports, the injustice of women’s jobs, honours and opportunities being taken by trans-identified men, and the reality and immutability of biological sex.”

Rowling also appeared to test the new measure by sharing images of 10 transgender women — pairing a convicted rapist and sexual offender alongside an activist and a broadcaster — and referring to them all as men.

“I’m currently out of the country, but if what I’ve written here qualifies as an offense under the terms of the new act, I look forward to being arrested when I return to the birthplace of the Scottish Enlightenment,” she wrote. 

Rowling doubled down on her criticisms of the law on Tuesday and celebrated the announcement by police that she would not be prosecuted. 

“I hope every woman in Scotland who wishes to speak up for the reality and importance of biological sex will be reassured by this announcement, and I trust that all women — irrespective of profile or financial means — will be treated equally under the law,” she wrote on X .

Rowling has faced criticism for years for her comments about transgender people, including questioning whether more young people have come out as transgender in recent years as the result of a “ contagion ” fueled by social media. She has also contended that trans girls and women pose a sexual violence threat to cisgender women in restrooms, changing rooms and prisons, and reiterated those claims on Monday.

“It is impossible to accurately describe or tackle the reality of violence and sexual violence committed against women and girls, or address the current assault on women’s and girls’ rights, unless we are allowed to call a man a man,” Rowling wrote Monday. “Freedom of speech and belief are at an end in Scotland if the accurate description of biological sex is deemed criminal.”

Britain’s first trans broadcaster, India Willoughby — one of the 10 trans women Rowling shared an image of — slammed the author Tuesday in posts of her own on X . Before  the police said that Rowling would not be arrested, Willoughby called on the police to “start making prosecutions and protecting the trans community.” 

“If somebody put your name on a list of sex offenders, along with other innocent people, and then published that list to 14 million people would you be annoyed?” she said in a video, referring to Rowling, who has 14 million followers on X. “Would you maybe go to the police and ask them to do something? Would you be upset? Would you consider it hateful? Because that’s what happened yesterday.”

Speaking with the broadcaster Sky News on Tuesday, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak declined to comment on Rowling’s remarks specifically but characterized the new Scottish law as a violation of free speech.

“We should not be criminalizing people saying common sense things about biological sex,” Sunak said. “Clearly that isn’t right.”

Sunak himself has been criticized for his remarks on transgender Britons. In February, he mocked the Labour Party’s position on the definition of a woman within minutes of British lawmakers hearing that the mother of a murdered trans teenager was in Parliament at the time.

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For ‘Ripley,’ Murder Is Easy — but the Aftermath Is a Different Story

Bill desowitz.

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[Editor’s note: Spoilers for “ Ripley ” below.]

The turning point for “Ripley,” Steven Zaillian’s limited Netflix series re-imagining of Patricia Highsmith’s crime novel, “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” occurs in Episode 3 (“Sommerso”), when grifter Tom Ripley ( Andrew Scott ) murders Dickie (Johnny Flynn) in a boat in Sanremo. But the grifter discovers that murder is a filthy business in a bravura 20-minute sequence, in which he has difficulty disposing of Dickie’s body, and we observe every arduous moment in close to real-time.

“I had written down on a post-it when I first started writing that ‘It’s easy to kill somebody but it’s really hard to get rid of the body,'” Zaillian  said at an early screening of the Netflix show  in New York City. “I hoped it would be interesting if we could see just how hard it is and to show it basically in real-time. And what seems like such a simple little thing, which is taking this body and throw it overboard, becomes like this herculean struggle for Andrew. We had to do it over and over again. He had to keep everything in mind, it was physically demanding because he was doing it….That’s Andrew really trying to climb [back up the boat]. It went on for about 10 minutes…..And it was important that we see that he never thinks ahead. So everything he’s figuring out, we want to see him figure out.” Related Stories ‘Those About to Die’ Teaser: Anthony Hopkins Heads to Ancient Rome in Roland Emmerich’s Gladiator Series Jonathan Nolan Still Hopes He and Lisa Joy Can Finish Their ‘Westworld’ Story ‘Somewhere Down the Line’

First, Tom has to set fire to the anchor rope to loosen it and then gets tripped by the rope and thrown overboard. It’s bad enough that he has a fear of drowning, but the boat spins in circles and strikes him until he manages to pull the fuel line from the motor. After that, Tom must methodically sink the boat with small boulders in a nearby cove.

“That line was a pretty late addition,” Rogers told IndieWire. “Someone pointed out to me, who recently saw the show, that they appreciated Dickie’s reaction to being struck on the head by Tom because it’s so unexpected and shocking for him. He assumes Tom is a friend and he trusts him. So when he’s still reaching out a hand and asking for help, I thought that was particularly brilliant.”

Scott’s performance, though, did not deviate emotionally. What they added were some wide shots among the three camera angles of the boat to enhance what was almost exclusively a digital environment (including one of Tom swinging the oar to make him look smaller). Nearly the entire boat sequence was shot in an outdoor water tank in Italy surrounded by green screen with a lot of CG replacement by Wētā FX beside the two actors. “Steve talked to J.C. Chandor about shooting ‘All Is Lost’ on a real boat in the ocean,” Rogers said. “For that film, they tied boats to a dock and were shooting on open water. But the way this scene would look and the way the camera would be oriented, shooting in the tank seemed like the more practical solution.”

“So we see his hands and what they’re doing in extreme closeup and duration, and we tried to make the boat a character in the way that it comes after him in an almost supernatural way,” Rogers continued. “And how hard it was for him to climb back into the boat. That’s something that we worked really hard on with [Wētā FX] because there are full [digital] shots of the boat and the water and a CG double for Andrew, where we had to really design the framing and then position the boat in the frame and its movements.”

Scott did all of the heavy lifting himself for the aftermath disposal of the boat, shot on location at an Italian cove. The actor hauled around 50 boulders into the boat throughout an entire day and then scuttled the vessel. “The scuttling was a late change where we shortened that significantly,” said Rogers. “Andrew pushes that boat out full of rocks and then starts to use his weight to get water over the gunwale. And it’s really Andrew sinking the boat.”

Meanwhile, co-editor Lee found Rogers’ work on the murder sequence a helpful guide for cutting Tom’s impulsively desperate second murder in Episode 5 (“Lucio”). It’s a wild and lengthy misadventure in Rome, where Tom is thrown into a panic trying to dispose of the body up and down eight flights of stairs in an apartment, out onto the street, and into the victim’s car to drop off at a desolate place. After he takes a taxi back to the apartment, he suddenly realizes that he isn’t done covering his tracks yet, so he heads back to the car.

Proma Khosla contributed to this article.

“Ripley” currently streams on  Netflix .

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