1988 J/35

Our modified J/35 “Breakaway” is for sale. It is currently set up for PHRF racing, shorthanded racing, and cruising. Key upgrades have been a new Hall Spars mast in 2012, and a Hall Spars retractable carbon sprit - installed in 2018 for use with asymmetrical spinnakers. We’ve owned Breakaway for 10 seasons and have teamed up with another family to race the boat with our kids. It has been great for that – it is competitive in all conditions, super solid, and forgiving. We’ve also used it for double handed and single handed racing, including the Bermuda 1-2 in 2017. It is well equipped and very capable – we sailed, raced and cruised it right up through the end of 2019 season.

For PHRF Racing - It has been fun to experiment with different configurations for local PHRF racing. Our mainsail is slightly bigger than the class size, and we have sailed with slightly smaller Genoas. After years of sailing with symmetrical spinnakers, we made a shift to the retractable sprit in 2018. This has added a new tactical dimension to the sailing. We are definitely faster in light air around any course, and faster reaching in point-to-point races. We give up speed when running in medium to heavy air, but have learned to sail it deep with windward heel in those conditions, like a J/109, and that has certainly helped. For 2019, we decided to sail mostly with the PHRF credit for using a blade jib only. With the full-cut jib (see below) this has worked well and gives the boat a more modern feel. We still had the option to rate the boat with a Genoa and went back to that for the light air Ida Distance Race.

For Shorthanded Racing-We’ve used the boat for multiple Solo-Twins (double handed), Offshore 160's (single handed) and a Bermuda 1-2 (both). It is basically ready to do any of those races again. It is an allaround solid performer and has been a great learning platform. It’s hard to think of a J/35 as “sexy,” but it’s important to remember that boats need to go upwind, not just downwind. The asymmetrical chutes have made Breakaway fascinating to sail downwind, and when you have to slug it out upwind, nothing does “3 yards and a cloud of spray” like a J/35. It’s a big, powerful boat for short handing, and that’s pretty sexy. A key feature that really helps when shorthanded (and I’m not the first to say this) is the cockpit with the tiller, rather than a wheel. Our auto helm control is right at the front of the cockpit, within reach of the tiller, main sheet, and all winches. It’s easy to switch from hand-steering to the auto helm or adjust course while flying the spinnaker. And with the auto helm sailing to the apparent wind, the boat is a weapon – it never slows down.

For Day sailing- Before owning Breakaway, we actually owned another J/35, and then a Hobie 33. When we switched from the previous J/35 to the Hobie, we saw that there was such a difference, even for day sailing. J/35’s inboard engine makes everything easier. The interior with an enclosed head allows you to go day “cruising” rather than just day sailing for a few hours and provides a space for changing in/out of bathing suits. Even the galley is great – we’ve warmed up soup, etc. for evening sails. The full interior is actually a huge asset for any day or evening adventures. For Cruising -The biggest problem with so many cruising boats is that they don’t actually sail very well. With Breakaway, we cruise with 3 sails – a hanked-on jib that stays on deck at night, our Dacron mainsail, and an older spinnaker. We put the cushions and the main cabin table on, and off we go. The boat sails well, and we use the engine to help in light air. Everything we’ve used for shorthanded racing comes in handy, from the auto helm to the chartplotter with AIS, to the Kiwi slides on the luff of the main.

So why are we selling it?
Breakaway has been a wonderful project for 10 years, and after all, we’ve put into the boat, it’s crazy to sell it. But it’s simply time for a new project. This has been a great boat for us, and we’d love to see the program continue – whether for another Bermuda 1-2, or family & friends racing & cruising together.

One More Thing . . . As a marine surveyor, often the worst thing I could hear about any boat is, “The owner worked on it himself.” In this case, that’s true, but I hope it’s an asset. Aside from Oldport Marine working on the engine, and Rig-Pro on the hydraulics, all the work on the boat over the years has been done by me, with help from my family, and from friends who sail on the boat. We’re very fortunate that David Moffet (Hall Spars) and Andy Dickinson (Jamestown Boatyard) have been involved, along with their kids.

I will never claim to be an expert, but I’m a student who happens to have worked for TillotsonPearson (the builder of the J/35), Mark Lindsay Boatbuilders, my own boat building & repair company for 14 years, Vanguard Sailboats, Hall Spars, J Boats, US Watercraft, and now TPI Composites. I have also worked as a marine surveyor. These experiences have been a huge help when working on this boat. From the keel job to the plumbing, the inner forestay, the sprit, and deck repairs, I had the past experience to draw from and was lucky to get great advice from David, Andy, and other smart people in all areas. On to the boat . . .

Hull, Keel, Rudder
Hull - One of our reasons for buying this boat was that the hull checked-out well when checked with a moisture meter – it was very dry. As a 1988 hull, it has vinyl ester resin used in its outer layer of glass – a key change that TPI made that year to reduce the chance of blistering. It is a very solid boat.

• The topsides were originally blue gelcoat, and have been painted with blue Awlgrip. They would love a new Awlgrip job, but we’ve kept them going with a couple of coats of Collinite Fleetwax at the beginning of each season, and that works pretty well. - The bottom is painted with black VC Offshore. This was rolled on carefully and sanded smooth. It was new for the 2016 season and has worked well, though we also have the boat cleaned regularly during the summer.

Keel - The keel has had two keel jobs since we’ve owned it. Even though it had been faired professionally before we bought it, it had some twist, which you could see when standing directly behind the keel and sighting the trailing edge vs. the rest the keel. The trailing edge at the bottom was shifted off to port a bit. Actually, we had seen the same thing on the first J/35 we owned – so perhaps it was a common flaw in the casting. Our first effort was to grind and glass to keel to effectively shift the trailing edge back in line. The second keel job was the full deal with templates to make sure the keel was symmetrical and fair. This was a big project, but I think the work was worth it. As part of this project, we also added to the bottom of the keel to ensure that it was at the max depth allowable under the J/35 rule, and we gave it a flat bottom with rounded edges forward and sharp edges aft – to make it “act” as deep as possible when sailing upwind. We used epoxy fillers, Interprotect 2000/2001 primer, and the VC Offshore paint.
Rudder - The rudder is the original rudder from TPI – as far as I know. TPI did a great thing when they shifted to composite rudder stocks – rather than using stainless steel or aluminum tubes for rudder shafts. This has kept the water out of the rudder, and it’s doing fine. - For the 2016 season, we installed a new Jefa lower rudder bearing to replace the original Harken bearing. This was a nice upgrade – no more “thunk, thunk”

Mast & Standing Rigging
Our mast, shrouds, and backstay were new in 2012. The forestay is one year older, from when we switched from the furler to the bare rod. The previous mast was pretty tired – with some cracking around the gooseneck. Hall Spars had a J/35 mast in stock that they had built for an insurance claim that had fallen through, and with more offshore sailing in mind, we decided to make the switch to the new mast. Hall added an inner forestay & staysail halyard just below the second spreaders, and an LED masthead tri-color light (that draws only .3 amps). The mast has a G10 step and a Bermuda bolt installed as per offshore rules. It also has Dyneema checkstays.

Inner Forestay
Dan Neri suggested the inner forestay, and he was dead right. For any offshore sailing, the inner forestay allows for a genoa staysail to be flown, and that staysail can double as a heavy weather jib. Ours is Dyneema with a highfield lever at the bottom. It attaches to a tang on a folding pad eye. This padeye has a twin on the underside of the deck, where lashing leads from there to an anchor that is heavily-glassed into the hull forward of the V-berth. Inner forestay attached with a lever, staysail halyard.

Spartite
In 2017, we poured Spartite in the mast collar, which was hugely important for the Bermuda 1-2. Since then, the mast has been taken out and put back in - proving that the Spartite will release from the mast collar. (The nightmare scenario is to have the Spartite stick to the mast collar and have to be cut out in order to take the mast out of the boat.) This, along with stretchy mast boot tape, has been great for keeping the water out – a few drips here and there, but that’s it.

Boom
The boom is original as far as I know but looks fine. The Hall Quick Vang is doing well too.

2015 North 3DL 860 (50:50 Carbon/Aramid) Mainsail with taffeta on one side. It has 2 reefs, with the second reef being deep enough to qualify for the Bermuda 1-2. Dan Neri helped us with this – it has a bigger roach than a class J/35 mainsail, and is a refinement of a PHRF main he had built previously. We pay a 1-second penalty in PHRF for a little more sail area, but it’s in the air during the whole race. This main has Kiwi Slides that run easily in the mast groove and keep it attached when it comes down – making it very easy to flake over the boom.

North Dacron Mainsail

This sail came with the boat. It is a bit deep at this point, but it is our cruising main – most recently used on a trip this fall to Cuttyhunk. It’s solidly built and worry-free – so there’s no need to put extra hours on the racing mainsail when cruising. This main also has Kiwi-Slides.

2017 North 3DL 860 142% Genoa

This was new for 2017 and is still in great shape. It has a construction similar to the mainsail with taffeta on one side and has held up well. It also has an upper clew point on the leech for reaching. Like all our headsails, this one has hanks – a setup that has worked well for singlehanded, doublehanded, and fully-crewed racing.

Quantum Full-Cut #3 Jib (a J/111 J1)

I discovered in 2018 that J/111 jibs will fit a J/35. This was about the same time that PHRF NB decided to re-establish the 12 seconds per mile credit for sailing with a blade jibs rather than full-size genoas. We had done this years ago with our old J/35 and the boat sailed really well, tacked faster, and was just a lot easier to manage.

Anyway, I emailed a J/111 owner who was very helpful and sold us two jibs and one spinnaker for the 2019 season. So, our Full-Cut #3 is a J/111 J1. It’s a really nice, carbon sail without much use, and it looks great – rounds forward and flat aft. Gary Leduc at Thurston/Quantum in Bristol is the owner's friend and sailmaker, and he handled the conversion to hanks. For next year, we would consider raising the clew a bit so that we could use our in haulers with it. It’s already a weapon, but it could be even better.

This is the other jib we bought. It’s a little tired, but like all string sails, it seems to have held its shape. This gives us flat #3 that we were missing when we only had our Doyle #3 (below).

Quantum Flat #3 Jib (a J/111 J2)

This is the other jib we bought. It’s a little tired, but like all string sails, it seems to have held its shape. This gives us flat #3 that we were missing when we only had our Doyle #3 (below).

• 2017 North 3DL 860 #4 Jib This sail started life as a new, heavy air (flat) J/105 jib that North had in inventory when the J/ 105 class switched to allow 3Di sails. Dan Neri helped us with this as well and specified the recut to the foot for use as a J/35 #4 jib. It was new in 2017 and has only been used for one 30 hr. stretch in the ocean.

North 3DL 135% Genoa

This is the sail we replaced with the 142% genoa. It is reefable, with a second tack and clew. It’s a tired sail, but the shape has hung in pretty well. It is certainly usable for cruising, or as a reacher.

Reefed, and used as a reacher w/ higher clew – Bermuda 1-2 2017

2012 Doyle #3 Blade Jib

This is a full-cut #3, meant to be usable in less breeze than a normal, flat #3. Mark Washeim built this one, and the idea was to be able to switch from the genoa before you’re totally overpowered – very smart. It is primarily geared toward shorthanded racing. It is also reefable - to a high-clewed #4 (though it would be a pretty full #4). We’ve replaced this sail for racing, but it is well-built, and perfect for cruising.

2013 Doyle Genoa Staysail/Heavy Air Jib (aka “Mini-Me”)

This is a Dacron sail w/ soft hanks that are flown off the inner forestay. It helps when reaching with a genoa or spinnaker.

Staysail with 135 genoas.

2013 Doyle Dacron Storm Jib

We’ve never used it and hope to continue that trend. It would fly off the inner forestay.

.5 oz. Quantum A2 Runner

This is the J/111 spinnaker that we bought this past summer. Quantum took a horizontal slice out of it so that it would be legal for PHRF on our boat. It is not new, but it has a great shape and loves to rotate to windward. It’s big, flies well, and looks great. We use this in light & medium air downwind.

UK A2 Runner This is a 120M J/109 spinnaker that we bought in 2018. It was in really good condition when we bought it and still is. It appears to be made from 1.5 oz. material, and is plenty durable for use downwind in a breeze. It is a max-size PHRF runner.

It is not small . . .

2018 North A3 Reacher (White)

This sail is a mix of .75 oz. Norlon with a heavier material (NY90?) along the luff. This sail is white and is great for reaching. It hasn’t had much use since most of our PHRF racing is windward/leeward. However, it has been very effective in a couple of shorthanded races, especially in lighter air.

North A5 Reacher (Blue)

Again, we don’t have great photos of this sail. This sail had hardly been used at all when we bought it. It was originally built for an Evelyn 42 (without a sprit) and fits our boat very well. It is made from 1.5 oz. Norlon 150 material, and is a heavier, flatter, and slightly smaller reacher than the A3. Nick Dobvniak, at North in Portsmouth, has suggested that we might want to take a horizontal slice out of this sail to make it a bigger step down in size from the A3. We’ve had great luck sailing angles up to 60 apparent with this sail – and as the angle gets a little wider, we twing the sheet down to give it a fuller shape.

Ullman A2 “Chuckles” (bought used 2018)

We bought this as a practice sail and were initially shocked by how fresh the material was. Then we noticed about 100 little spots where a mouse had snacked on the sail. We patched those spots with different colors of rip-stop tape and gave the sail its name. This sail is slightly smaller than the other two runners.

2013 Doyle AP .75 oz. Symmetrical Spinnaker

This was our go-to spinnaker before the switch to the sprit. It’s not new but is still in good shape.

(We also have a Sobstad (yes, Sobstad) .75 oz. Symmetrical Spinnaker. It’s a great-looking white spinnaker with some red & blue panels - pretty tired, but a good for practice and as a spare.)

More Notes on Sails: - Dan Neri and Nick Dobvniak at North have been a huge help. North built so many J/35 sails back in the day that they have a lot of designs to work from.

• Mark Washeim is also a wise bird in the area of shorthanded sailing. Our Doyle sails came from him. Joe Cooper at Hood/Quantum also knows this subject well and has helped several shorthanded racers in the Newport area.

• The fact that J/111 jibs can be used on the J/35 is a great asset – a sail that has a few too many hours on it for high-level one-design racing still can be very useful for PHRF. This is especially true with today’s “string” sails that may get worn but still keep their shape pretty well. Gary Leduc at Quantum in Bristol helped us tweak the J/111 sails for the J/35.

(- We’ve chosen to use hanks for our headsails, but we still have the drum and top swivel from a Harken MK III furler that came with the boat. We are planning to sell these separately, but they are available. They could be installed on a new forestay with a new extrusion for anyone wanting a furler.)

We replaced our two Group 27 lead-acid batteries in the summer of 2019 with two Group 27 AGM batteries. As claimed, these batteries never seem to lose their charge when the boat is idle. The charge regulator is now set for AGM battery charging. The batteries are on either side of the engine, under the quarter berths. There is room to add another battery in each of these spots – which is what we did for the Bermuda 1-2. We also installed small vents for these compartments.

Digital Multimeter

Another addition that is a huge help, and really educational, is the Blue Seas 8248 DC digital multimeter that we installed in 2017. It gives a clear, digital readout of battery voltage. Better still, it can be switched to display amps flowing from the batteries. This took the guesswork out of estimating the amps consumed by different systems on the boat.

B&G Triton System Before the 2016 season, we bought a B&G Triton system to replace the Ockam system on the boat. This system worked reasonably well but had the speed and depth combined in one transducer (their DST800), with the paddle wheel slightly off center. I didn’t think this would matter, but it did – we were getting different speed readings on each tack. For 2017 I installed a new housing and dedicated speed paddlewheel (an ST850PV-N2), and a separate depth transducer (a P79-235-N2) that reads through the hull (as long as there’s no core). This setup was a good improvement. We have three mast displays, and this allows us to show heading, boat speed, apparent wind angle, and true wind speed on the top 2 displays, and then use the bottom display for smaller readouts of speed over ground, course over ground, true wind direction, and depth. We’ve learned that the true wind direction reading is often off when sailing upwind, but works well downwind – it’s very helpful when picking shifts to jibe on with the asymmetrical spinnakers.

Chartplotter Our GPS is a Raymarine A65 on a swing arm. It can be positioned to be read from the cockpit, or used in the cabin. It’s small, but works well, and displays AIS information as well as everything else.

AIS We installed a Raymarine AIS650 with an AIS100 antenna splitter unit before the 2017 season. The splitter allows the AIS to use the same masthead antenna as the VHF radio. VHF Radio The radio is a Raymarine Ray55 with DSC. It has a masthead antenna and a second coax cable that runs aft to the stern pulpit. The stern pulpit has a bracket with a connector for a spare antenna. (This is for Bermuda 1-2 rules in case the mast comes down.) Tiller Pilot We have a Raymarine X-5GP tiller pilot. It is the version of the X-5 that is rated for boats up to about 16,500 lb. It has a Gyro and is a big step up from the ST4000GP that I had on a previous boat. That one had never been able to steer well in waves, but this one is pretty impressive. With the Triton system installed and its NMEA 2000 network, we were finally able to sail with the Autohelm on apparent wind or true wind. This is a must for keeping the boat going fast, especially if you need to get some rest. In fact, it’s so fast that it’s tough to hand-steer faster than “Auto” can drive. By keeping the sails at a constant angle of attack, it just finds another .1 to .2 knots, and it never loses focus or nods off. The control box for the autohelm is on the forward face of the cockpit. This is perfect for maneuvers and works well on either tack. Originally, it had one drawback – it was too easy to hit the “standby” button with your knee and not know it until the boat started to veer off course. The solution was to make a small cage from G-10 fiberglass that covers the buttons and protects them from errant, knobby knees like mine.

In the fall of 2016, we replaced all the sanitation hoses, the Y-valve, and the marine toilet. This took a lot longer than I expected – it’s much easier to run hoses when the boat is being built than when it’s all assembled with the deck on. The project was a mix of boat yoga and hose wrestling but it was worth it. All of the previous sanitation smells were eliminated. Of course, the holding tank was the one thing we did not replace – but we ended up replacing that in 2018.

We also renewed all of the fresh water hoses. The jury is still out on this. We seem to be chasing a leak that I need to track down. The fresh water pump works as usual, but we’re not getting good water flow.

Anchor, Rode

The Danforth anchor lives in the anchor locker amidships on the starboard side. The rode is about 100 ft. long, with a length of chain.

Manual Bilge Pumps We have a manual bilge pump in the cockpit but needed to add one below decks in 2017 for the Bermuda 1-2. We installed a Bosworth Guzzler 500 Hand Pump (G-08001) mounted on our main bulkhead with an intake hose going into the forward end of the bilge. The discharge hose goes outside the settee berths and the galley to port, and all the way aft to join the discharge for the cockpit-mounted manual bilge pump, and exit at the transom.

Fire Extinguishers

We have 3 Kidde extinguishers and took them to Firex on Rt. 114 in Portsmouth to be inspected/tagged for 2017. I’ve since learned that there is a recall of Kidde extinguishers with plastic nozzles/handles – something we need to look into.

Winter Cover Before the 2018-2019 winter, I built a cover that can be used to mast-up or mast down. The frame attaches to each stanchion and is held up by the two pulpits, and centerline supports. We used a heavy-duty tarp over this frame (no disposable shrink wrap), and it worked well all winter. The cover breaks down into a surprisingly small package.

2010 - Raymarine X5 Grand Prix Autopilot 2011 - New Garhauer stanchions and bases - Engine exhaust riser replaced - New forestay to replace roller furling 2012 - New Hall Spars Mast with new Uppers, Intermediates, Lowers, Backstay and LED tricolor light. - New fuel tank from Luther’s welding. - New engine coupling, stuffing box, cutlass bearing 2013 - Anchor point glassed into the hull for lashing to reinforce inner forestay attachment on deck. - New inner forestay, the attachment point on deck, and anchor glassed to the hull. - First of two keel jobs – to realign the trailing edge 2014 - Winch drums knurled and re-anodized- Major keel job to templates. 2015 - New Running Rigging from Hall Rigging– main halyard, (2) spinnaker halyards, topping lift, checkstays, spinnaker guys and sheets, genoa sheets. - Raymarine A65 Chartplotter - Raymarine RAY55 Fixed Mount VHF with DSC 2016 - B&G Triton Speed, Depth, Wind, GPS system installed - New Jefa lower rudder bearing - Black VC Offshore painted on the bottom, smoothed 2017 - New Raritan PH II head installed, new sanitation hoses. - All water system hoses replaced. - Blue Sea Digital Multimeter installed - ST850 dedicated speed-only transducer installed - Through-hull depth transducer installed - Raymarine AIS 650 transceiver installed, with VHF antenna splitter - New Thurston Canvas mainsail cover – light gray - Bosworth Guzzler 500 hand pump installed on the main bulkhead - Spartite poured at mast collar - Full engine check/service by Oldport Marine - New 125 amp alternator with Balmar max charge regulator installed2018 - Hall Autoclave-cured Carbon Retractable Sprit installed - New Nauta flexible holding tank 2019 - New metal frame fabricated for winter storage cover using a heavy-duty tarp. - Two deck core areas replaced - New cabin sole with MarineLam laminate surface - Hull interior surfaces repainted – main cabin and quarter berths - Lead-Acid batteries replaced with (2) Group 27 AGM Dual-Purpose Batteries

Narragansett Bay PHRF ratings 2019 Ratings With blade jib and asymmetrical spinnaker 84 With 142% Genoa and asymmetrical spinnaker 76