The Yachting Year 2018

110 | THE YACHTING YEAR 2018

is replaced with a reefable mainsail and stanchions and a

fence are inserted. With a comfortable interior capable of

sleeping 11, Svea is far more bluewater capable than you

might imagine.

We bear o and run downwind for a while, the red

spinnaker blooming out ahead of us, still at hull speed of

12 knots or more. In much the same way that a 6-M will

sail at 6 knots “all the time”, the Js will power up in quite

light airs, and suitably rigged, can take a lot. Remember

that they have been crossing the Atlantic since the 1930s.

With their slender proles and high displacement, the

same qualities that enable them to hold their speed so

easily, they apparently become submarines in a real

seaway, but, in high-tensile aluminium and carbon rig,

they simply plow on.

Benevolent magic

If a J on the wind is a serene drama, the sensation on a run

is one of benevolent magic. e wind had died down a

little and the sun, gathering strength, warmed our backs as

we raced down the wind in silence, nothing other than the

goosewinged sails to suggest that we are just one crash

gybe away from oblivion – but that’s not going to happen

today as I am not helming. en suddenly the cry of ‘Man

overboard’! It is instructive to see how quickly we lose

sight of our man – about 20 seconds – but not before the

RIB is racing through the sea to collect him and transfer

him back to us, all without stopping. A single dolphin

leapt out of the water ahead of us, and the uniform waves

march slowly past the boat, rising almost above the

freeboard, translucent aquamarine in the sun and close

enough to touch. A crewman approaches, smiling and

pointing to the spectacle of a wave slowly racing us home.

It’s perfection.

Svea has not had much of a run-in period before the big

America’s Cup races in Bermuda this June, but with boat

and crew running well, she’ll be one to watch – if not

there, then at Newport (RI) at the J Worlds in late August.

As I write, Svea has reached the Azores, sailing on her own

hull in the tradition of Js voyaging to the new world to

make their challenge. Tore Holm and Gustav Plym are

gone now, but even in the lives of the dead there are

sometimes second chances; their ghosts might prevail yet. Andre Hoek

C/O HOEK

Building on the past

When Andre Hoek first beheld the 1937 drawings from

Holm and Plym, they were far from the finished article. The

first job was to digitise the information, then fair the lines

in a CAD programme and render the boat in 3-D. The results

were sent to the J-Class Association, which must approve

all prospective builds if they are to race in the fleet. Then a

new construction plan was drawn up for aluminium.

New boats have to be considerably stronger than their

1930s counterparts, to take the greater loads produced by

their modern sails – North Sails 3Di in this case. Lami-

nate sails and zero-stretch rigging result in huge loads

• 180 tonnes of mainmast compression, 36 tonnes on the
  forestay.... Add to that the fact that modern Js are built in
  aluminium rather than steel (apart from the 2003 Ranger
  which is steel), and you have a very di™erent construction
  strength requirement.
  After that came the mast position and sail plan which,
  thanks to the sailcloth, is far more powerful than the origi-
  nal, so the rig has remained very similar. Then came stabil-
  ity, weight and handicap considerations. “It’s a major job,”
  said Hoek, who has previously acted as naval architect on
  the Lionheart and Topaz J projects.
  In fact, Hoek Design formulated a velocity prediction
  programme specifically for J boats while working on Lion-
  heart. It suggested that Svea was going to be a flyer, par-
  ticularly upwind, a theory that is proving true. She’s also the
  longest J on deck, with a correspondingly long waterline,
  so benefits in terms of hull speed.
  There has been much talk of waterline length in the J
  Class, particularly since the association allowed an extra
  4in (10cm) of freeboard, along with the lighter aluminium
  hull material. Svea floats lower than her contemporaries, in
  fact very close to her original design. Hoek maintains that
  the waterline argument is overstated, giving as evidence
  the last J race, where the fleet raced for more than two
  hours and arrived at the finish line within seconds of each
  other, a closeness that is aided further by the J handicap
  rule that theoretically nullifies di™erences in size – includ-
  ing waterline length.
  That low freeboard is also a great boon to Svea’s ap-
  pearance. She’s already earned a reputation as one of the

ABOVE L-R: corner

detail on the saloon

table shows part of

the Norse compass

rose, a visual motif

used throughout, in

an echo of her

Swedish origin;

outside Bloemsma,

where the aluminium

hull was built

JOHN LAMMERTS VAN BUEREN

TYY4 Svea RP.indd 110 04/12/2017 17:14