J/45 IN DETAIL

I had already made an extensive and detailed comparison, in what regards design characteristics and dimensions, between the J45 and the competition, giving some information about their meaning in what regards sail performance. You can access it here: https://interestingsailboats.blogspot.com/2020/12/j-45e-new-performance-cruiser-by-jboats.html 

Now we have images of the boat sailing, a description of its sailing characteristics by Benjamin Dutreux, a French professional racer (9th on the Vendee Globe), that after having sailed the J/45 for 400 miles (a weekend) pretty much confirms what I was expecting and said, taking into account the design parameters.

We have also images from the interior that looks great for a cruising sailboat. I would have chosen other woods and Corian (colors), but certainly, they will be available on-demand or as options. 

As it is, it is already a beautiful sailboat and one that will be very hard to beat for sailing on the Med, Baltic, or in any other place with variable winds. Not the boat that I would choose to sail on the trade winds, but unless you are going to make a circumnavigation from West to East, or crossing many times the Atlantic, those are not the winds that are more common while cruising, and the ability of this boat to sail with very weak winds will give it a great sailing potential and will make rare the need to use the engine.

Ok, I am biased, this is a sailboat very similar in sailing characteristics with my own (Comet 41S): https://www.yachtsandyachting.co.uk/equipment/boat-tests/comet-41s-review/ 

This year I sailed directly from Marmaris, in Turkey to Siracusa, in Sicily and it was all the time upwind, sometimes with strong wind, sometimes with very weak wind and I rarely had to use the engine. 

I filled the tank in Marmaris and then again in Sciacca, near the end of the South coast of Sicily, and wasted 60L of diesel. Take into consideration that I use the engine for supplementing the energy from the solar panels when needed (no generator) and that I practically didn't charge the batteries in marinas (because I rarely go there). 

Considering that many times it was beating against the wind the sailing distance was well over 1000 nm. I know that most cruisers don't sail this way and prefer to use the engine instead of beating (that by the way, if the sea and wind are strong, is not faster than sailing, and certainly more uncomfortable), that many choose days without wind to have flat seas for motoring and that some will motor most of the time anyway (each year I overtake several sailboats that were motoring, while I was sailing). 

For all that use the engine a lot while cruising this is the wrong sailboat (why pay more for a better sailing boat if you are not using its potential?), but for the ones that really like sailing, that want to motor as little as possible, that go upwind sailing and sail mostly out of the trade winds, this is certainly one of the best options on the market, and I don't need to wait for the test sails to know that. This boat will be particularly good in light and strong winds (in strong winds particularly sailing upwind).

But for the ones that want to use it for cruising and racing or just for racing, we will have to wait for racing results. I have no doubt that the J/45 is fast, but how fast and how well it will sail to the handicap, or in real-time against boats like the Solaris 44, the X 4-6 or the Grand Soleil 44, we will have to wait and see, even if I think that in most conditions it will be slightly faster than most of them, or all of them.

The price is proportional to the quality and should be about the same as the one of the X4-6, that notwithstanding the designation, is a slightly smaller yacht. An expensive yacht (it has to be) but one that I am sure will make any owner proud.