J/88 Review, a 29-Foot Speedster With a Family Side

The gap the J88 was built to fill

By 2013 J/Boats had a hit with the J70 and a proven 36-footer in the J111, but nothing in between for the sailor who wanted to race hard on Saturday and take the family out on Sunday with a real head and an engine that starts with a key. The J88 is that boat. At 29 feet 2 inches overall, 9 feet 6 inches of beam and 4,990 pounds, it is big enough for open water but still light enough to trailer and lift with a single-point sling.

It made a quick impression. Sailing World's judges tested it in October 2013 and named it Best One-Design in the 2014 Boat of the Year awards, and it finished second in class in its first Chicago-Mackinac race in 2014. The production run was small, about 130 boats according to US Sailing, and J/Boats now files the J88 under its classic models rather than its current range, so it remains a niche choice, but one with an unusually loyal owner group.

A long waterline, an L-shaped keel and a carbon stick

Alan Johnstone gave the J88 a waterline of nearly 27 feet on a 29-foot hull, so almost all of its length is working. Under it hangs a 6.5-foot L-shaped fin with a lead bulb that carries 1,840 pounds of ballast low, which is where the boat gets its stiffness and its ability to stand up to a breeze better than lighter sportboats.

The rig is a double-spreader carbon mast, deck-stepped so it can be raised and lowered for trailering, with non-overlapping jibs, an aluminum boom high enough for crew to pass under, and a retractable carbon sprit for the asymmetric. Hull and deck are cored and infusion molded to ISO 12215 standards at CCF Composites in Bristol, Rhode Island, and joined with adhesive on an inward-turning flange. SAIL's reviewers summed up the build as sparse but solid.

Two sea trials, 11 knots on Narragansett Bay and 20 on the Chesapeake

SAIL Magazine sailed the J88 in an 11-knot easterly on Narragansett Bay with North 3Di sails and saw better than 5 knots close-hauled and over 7 knots on a reach. The testers singled out the deep, powerful transom-hung rudder, saying the helm felt almost like a dinghy.

SAILING Magazine tested hull number 57 off Annapolis in a steady 20 knots after the US Sailboat Show, in a test published in April 2015. That is a lot of breeze for a 29-footer, and the review came back positive: fast, fun and in control, with all lines led aft to a T-shaped, open-transom cockpit and the traveler on the cockpit sole within reach of the helmsman. The mainsheet has both gross and fine trim, which matters on a boat this responsive.

Below deck, a weekend boat in disguise

The interior is what separates the J88 from every sportboat its size. There are two full-length settee berths of about 6 feet 4 inches, a private enclosed head forward of the main bulkhead with sail storage, a mini-galley and a small navigation area, plus a large cooler near the companionway. A V-berth package was offered as a factory option.

It is not a cruiser, but two adults can comfortably spend a weekend aboard, and a family can daysail with a toilet and shelter from the weather. The small inboard diesel on a saildrive (a 14-horsepower Yanmar on the boats SAILING tested, a 13-horsepower Volvo Penta D1-13 in J/Boats' later spec, with a 10-gallon tank) makes docking and getting home in a calm far less stressful than an outboard on a bracket.

How the J88 class keeps racing amateur-friendly

The J88 class rules are closed rules: if a change is not specifically allowed, it is banned. They require factory interior furnishings to stay in place when racing, which keeps boats equal and stops owners from gutting them for weight.

Professional sailors are tightly limited. Except for a 100 percent owner, no more than one World Sailing Group 3 competitor may race on a boat, and a driver who is not the sole owner must be Group 1. Crew is limited to the driver plus five, or at championship events the board can switch to a 1,110-pound maximum crew weight with no limit on numbers.

• Racing inventory of five sails: one main, a #1 and #2 jib, and two spinnakers
• Sail purchases limited to a full inventory in the first year, then four sails per calendar year
• Jibs delivered after March 2023 must use vertical battens
• Forestay cannot be adjusted once the boat leaves the dock for the day
• Bowsprit must be retracted except when the spinnaker is being set, flown or doused

Where the fleets are

US Sailing lists the main J88 regions as Youngstown and Buffalo on Lake Ontario, Long Island Sound, New Rochelle, New England, San Francisco and Lake Michigan around Chicago. J/Boats says the class has active racing schedules in both the USA and the UK, with 100-plus boats sailing worldwide.

Fleet size matters for resale. In regions with active J88 fleets, boats change hands within the class and rarely sit on the market. Elsewhere, the J88 races under PHRF, ORC or IRC and does well, but a buyer outside the fleet areas should plan on handicap racing.

What a J88 costs to keep

Unlike the J70 or J80, most J88s live in the water during the season, so slip fees now enter the budget. Add insurance, a saildrive service with diaphragm and seal checks on the manufacturer's schedule, bottom work, and sails under the class purchase limits, and a club racing program runs about $9,000 to $15,000 a year. A full regatta schedule with new sails each season and travel pushes past $25,000.

The good news is that the class sail limit caps the arms race, the inboard is small and economical, and the boat can be hauled and stored on its trailer in winter to save yard fees.