From the feedback - 15/05/01

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From Mike Riley
What makes the J92 great? Probably the best value for money 30ft racer/cruiser. Definitely not a caravan with sails like many of its rivals, well handicapped, won its class three times under IRC in the round the island race. The boat is suitable for young families to cruise and can easily be sailed by two people. Costing around £45,000 ready to race, it is a modern design with an asymmetric kite it flies downwind often achieving 17 knots or more. The boat is also very easy to sail and is very forgiving when sailed badly by beginners.

From Trenter & Debbie Ellis
What makes the J92 great? We purchased a J/92 (Perfect J) in November last year, moving up from a Sonata. It is an absolutely cracking boat with superb performance both upwind and down, planing thrills with the asymmetric kite, yet easy to sail short handed and perfectly suitable for a bit of cruising and sleeping aboard. Add to these attributes the fact that it is one of the sexiest looking boats around and you have a superb package. What we can't understand is why The Solent is not full of J92s.

From Kevin
What makes the J92 great? Fast and easy to sail. Forgiving when you make a mistake.

From Jim C
From the Feedback. Definitive modern single trapeze boat? Well, you can't call either the Fireball or the 505 modern trapeze boats. There was a massive revolution in hull design in the early to mid-1970s, and another smaller one in the 1990s. No boat earlier than that can possibly be called modern. Doesn't stop them being great boats of course, and doesn't stop lots of people enjoying sailing them. Whether the purist would call the 4 tonner, with its weight problem and old fashioned rig a modern boat is of course another matter too, but again that is largely irrelevant to whether or not it's an enjoyable boat to own and race.

The truth is that the vast majority of one design owners aren't, by definition, interested in having the latest technology. Logically a modern boat should be either a) anything that's being built at the moment, no matter how old the design or b) one of the more open rule development classes - one that doesn't significantly restrict aspects of for example rig design, which on a UK scale means probably just the latest developments in International Moth, 14 and Cherub, and on a global scale you would add today's most innovative two-hander, the 12ft skiff, and its close cousin the Kiwi R Class. Sure some one designs may be up to the mark when they were designed, but that's often a lot further back than you might think. The 49er, for instance, is based on early to mid 90s 18footer technology - seven or eight years old now?

From Ian Pickard
What changes should James make to the site? Very little! madforsailing is by far the best of the sailing websites, providing a good balance between results, articles, adverts, etc. I find Jim Saltonstall's venue guides particularly useful and interesting; profiles of top sailors are always a good read; and its always interesting to be able to track the weekends results across the classes. If yours was the only sailing site, I can't really think of anything I'd miss from the others. One thought - the "how to repair minor gelcoat damage" article on SailPower was interesting, and showed effective use of video clips. Keep up the good work.