Cannigione - Gulf of Arzachena, June 9 to 13, 2008.
J 24 World Championship hosted by Club Nautico Arzachena drew a large international fleet from around the world.
While some of the world's best sailors have the latest version J/24, a well-prepared 1977 model, built to the same shape and weight with rigid end-grained balsa core construction can still win the class world championship even after 30,000+ miles of trailering.
That's "One Design". The International J/24 is built in the USA, Japan, Argentina and Italy and has more than 50,000 people sailing 5,300 boats in 150 fleets in 40 countries.
In the summer of 1975 Rodney Johnstone designed and built hull number 1 in his garage in
Stonington, Connecticut. "Ragtime" would serve as the master mould for the subsequent hulls. This design allowed him to start the very successful J-Boat company with his brother Bob Johnstone. By 1978 the class was popular enough to hold a one-design regatta in
Key West with twenty boats on the line. Early boats (hull numbers up to 3000) need a lot of work to rebuild their keel shape (move material forward) to make them point and sail fast in light wind. These older boats can be modified if one wants a competitive J/24. New boat manufacturing is done by multiple companies around the world in France, USA, Italy and Argentina. In the US, J/24's are built by US Watercraft. As of January 2009, approximately 5,475 J/24s have been produced. Approximately 20 new boats were produced in 2008. The average price of a complete, new boat without sails was approximately £20,000
