North Sails' J/111 Class Sail Development

J/111

 
With over 50 J/111s sold in the first year and eight of the first ten going to North Sails clients, our team of skilled sail designers and consultants have jumped into an accelerated research and sail testing program to ensure that our clients get the fastest proven sails right from the start!

Perry Lewis (North's Midwest expert) jumped right in with Hull #2 and our first generation of sails. The class rules were not finalized at this time which gave us the ability and flexibility to give our feedback to the Jeff and Stu Johnstone to further optimize the rule and make changes to the next series for Hull 3.

Since its inception, North Sails representatives and sail designers have conducted a tuning sessions to work on rig tuning and matching designs to fit a range of conditions from 5-12 kts.

Following these sessions, the North team put their collective tuning notes together with designers Chris Williams, Rich Bowen (upwind) and David Hirsch (downwind) to come up with finalized designs, which continue to be improved from year to year. “The process of coming up with a fast product has never been as smooth”, said Dave Scott, who has plenty to compare with having been a part of the Farr 40 sail development program for nearly 15 years. “I am confident we have the best developed J/111 sails a customer could ask for due to the coordination of our efforts in all parts of the country. Who else can say that?”
 
Perry Lewis is a 33-year veteran of North Sails, and got involved early in the J/111 with the sail inventory for Hull #2 (Sept 2010). He participated in a two-boat R&D session in Annapolis in the Fall of 2011. Lewis helped Kashmir win the Chicago NOOD in 2011 and Impulse win the NOOD in 2012. perry@sales.northsails.com
 
Veteran sailmaker and world-class sailor Larry Leonard works within the Performance Resource Group (PRG) for North Sails. Larry works on special projects, provides ongoing customer service and support and consults with both the design and technology departments. Larry has been sailing J/111s since their introduction and has been providing excellent support and tuning advice for J/111 customers worldwide. larry@prg.northsails.com



Video shot & edited by Onne van der Wal.