J/80
The J/80 is a one design racing keelboat. It has been built by Tillotson Pearson since 1992, for J/Boats in the United States, with over 1,700 built and still in production as of 2022. At one time it was produced by Waterline Systems, also in the US.
Design
Designed by Rod Johnstone, the hull is built predominantly of fiberglass, with a raked stem, a plumb transom, a transom-hung rudder controlled by a tiller and a fixed swept fin keel. It displaces and carries of ballast. The cockpit is long and the hull has a sealed buoyancy compartment on the bow. The design has a hull speed of.It has a draft of with the standard keel. It can be transported on land on a towed double-axle boat trailer.
It has a fractional sloop rig with a retractable bowsprit controlled from the cockpit by a deployment line. For sailing downwind the design may be equipped with an asymmetrical spinnaker of. It will plane under spinnaker.
In a 1994 expert review in Sailing World Magazine Doug Logan concluded, "In the test's light airs, the J/80 could often sail at or close to windspeed, and in several instances recorded the best leg times. While hard to define as a "conservative" boat, this Rod Johnstone creation doesn't go to the max in sailplan and stability, and employs the proven construction materials used in thousands of earlier J/Boats. This might cost a bit of speed in light air with chop, but should broaden the boat's user-friendliness in stronger winds."