J-class video link

[wes]

Oh. My. God. If this doesn't get your heart pounding, you may be dead. Check out the winches at 1:30 - just a WEE bit bigger than my Lewmar 6s. And the mast height - 170 feet!

http://vimeo.com/65928734

[Craig]

Love J-Boats! Some of the(if not THE) greatest sailboats of all time. Thank goodness there are still some sailing. Thanks for the link!

[MacGyver]

Thanks for the link, really cool to see boats of that size running effortlessly through the water

Those blocks......... the gear, wow!

Mac

[Bob23]

Thanks, Wes.
   That was really cool. And no lifelines...better not fall over!
Bob23

[wes]

If the video makes you curious about these boats, Wikipedia has a great short article on their history:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J-class_yacht

Check out the specs - 15' draft! 21' beam! 127' length! And my personal favorite - sail area 7500 sq. ft.! That's not a typo.

Let's see, square root of LWL times 1.3 gives a theoretical hull speed of (here it comes)..... 14.3 knots. We don't need no stinkin' AC72s.

Wes