J/112e
The number 13 might be unlucky for some, but when the log reaches 13 knots it brings smiles all round as Graham Snook discovered when he tested the J/112e
The log was reading between 10.5 and 12.5 knots when a gust hit, taking us to 12.9 and then stabilising at 13.0. ‘Do you have a speed limit in Yachting Monthly?’ joked Paul Heys, owner of Key Yachting, J-Boats’ agent in the UK. Paul’s question was fair, YM is a cruising magazine after all, but then the J/112e is designed to be cruised, even though she has race-boat DNA.
Performance
J-Boats is synonymous with racing so it’s no surprise that she sailed beautifully. We had a good Force 4-5 for our test and she relished it, making short work of going to windward at 26°-28° off the apparent wind. Pointing higher, above 24°, she would slip out of the groove, the telltales on the headsail lifting as she slowed.
Off the wind was where she really
excelled. We usually take readings at about 180° downwind but there seems little point in a boat that will do 8.5 knots at 120°. Instead, we set an asymmetric spinnaker – a 90m2 kite from a smaller J-97, instead of her usual 120m2 – and she charged off at a pace of more than 10 knots. While this sort of speed usually gives you the feeling of being on a knife edge, she felt in control at all times; I was able to change course without fear of anything unpredictable occurring. At speeds of 11 knots or more there was some resonance – not unpleasant, just a hum to remind us how fast we were going.
At the helm
The 1.5m composite GRP wheel (aluminium is standard, carbon another option) dominates the cockpit and the bracing around it is excellent for the helmsman. You can sit forward or astride the wheel and use the pedestal as a footbrace, or when sitting aft of the wheel there is a raised lazarette locker lid, with excellent grip, which provided superb bracing either to windward or on the centreline.
The optional two-tone textured grip (off white is standard) on the deck gave security whether sitting or standing. With such a wide wheel the view forward was excellent, although the wheel does limit the helmsman’s ability to move forward in a hurry. The lines are all kept well forward of the wheel so there is no danger them falling into the wheel trough, cluttering it up and blocking the drain.
Design & construction
She’s built by J-Compsites France in Les Sables-d’Olonne. Her hull is resin-infusion SCRIMP, and has solid laminate around the keel, rudder and saildrive. The hull is balsa-cored upwards until around 30cm from the deck where it’s then cored with closed-cell foam. The lighter foam is also used in the deck, which again is resin-infused. She has a club-footed keel with the lead bulb cast around the fin before a GRP fairing is added. Six 35mm keelbolts and one smaller bolt bed onto broad, 12mm thick stainless steel backing plates in different sections of the bilge.
Sailplan
She sports a 7/8 fractional rig on a twin-spreader, keel-stepped mast built by AG+, with discontinuous rod rigging as standard. Cleverly, rather than having a mainsail luff track inside the mast, this French-built spar has a track for cars on the outside, and incorporated in the centre is a boltrope track. This gives the owner the option of using race sails with a boltrope, or fully-battened cruising sails with a car system.
Where the external track isn’t needed it has been removed, leaving the mast surface smooth and flush, and allowing the mast gaiter to make a watertight seal on the coachroof. Cables enter the boat through waterproof deck glands. Unlike on a racing J-boat, the retractable carbon bowsprit is housed in a watertight compartment, separate from the forecabin. These three features are designed to help keep water out of the boat, making her more pleasant to cruise.
Deck layout
The cockpit is long but its forward seating area is quite short (1.52m), albeit with plenty of overhanging foot space. The edge of the seating has a raised lip covered with non-slip that makes an excellent footbrace for those sitting on the coaming – it’s also comfortable when you’re sitting on the seats, unless you’re wearing shorts.
The aft end of the coachroof is a little too vertical to comfortably recline on, although the rounded corners are cosy even if, at only 26 cm (10 in) high, the coaming is a little low. The Harken winches – 40ST for mainsheet and halyards (35ST is standard for halyards) and 46ST for the genoa – handle the lines well, even under high load. The 2:1 mainsheet has two dedicated winches forward of the helm.
Under the starboard cockpit seat is a sole-depth liferaft locker. To port, the hull-depth cockpit locker is roomy and has a practical partition running fore and aft, to separate sails and the like from the rest of the locker’s contents. The locker space can also be accessed from the heads.
Living aboard
The interior is light, bright and stylish. Dark wood at the galley and chart table contrasts nicely with the light wood floor, white hull sides, bulkhead and headlining. J-boats has tried to break
up the large expanses of white panels –some vinyl-covered, some painted – with detailing, for instance the forward bulkhead has double doors, two stylish stainless-steel bulkhead lights and horizontal grooves.
The saloon seating is 1.8 m (5ft 11in) long and would make two good sea-berths with the addition of leecloths. The space under the after end of each seat is taken up with services (battery and charger to port, fridge compressor to starboard); the rest is unlined stowage. The saloon table is 1.25m (4ft 1in) long, has stowage for six bottles, and could seat eight around it.
Double doors open up into the forward cabin, making the saloon and forepeak seem a lot larger. The forward cabin has vast expanses of white vinyl, too. The retractable pole casing is over the starboard side of the berth, which impinges very slightly on headroom over the berth. Beneath the 2.03m long berth (6ft 8in) is the water tank, aft either side are a hanging locker and shelves. What initially looks to be a cover behind the chain locker at the forward end of the forecabin is in fact just a vinyl-covered pelmet secured with Velcro, and behind it is the uncovered GRP moulding. Okay, few people, if any, will see behind this cover, but is that an excuse not to finish it properly?
At 1.32m (4ft 4in), the aft cabin berth is a little narrow. It does however, have plenty of sitting headroom above the bunk. A good shelf with 5 cm deep fiddles runs the length of the berth outboard, but as in the forecabin, it stops short and there is a 2cm gap at the far end – again, you wouldn’t see it unless you looked for it, but it’s there. The fuel tank runs down the centreline beneath the bunk and there’s a small fiddled area at the head of the bed, next to the hanging and shelf space.
Chart table
I really liked this part of the boat, which seemed well thought-out and practical. It wasn’t so much the chart table, but the unit inboard that offers stowage for odds and ends in a fiddled area on top, and for other items beneath. Forward in the chart table is another space suitable for all the loose items – keys, wallets, padlocks, sunglasses, suntan lotion – that always seem to migrate towards the chart table.
The 81cm x 47cm (2ft 8in x 1ft 6in) chart table offers good space to work with paper charts, but at 33cm long inside, space to store charts is somewhat limited. The lid of the chart table also revealed how thin the veneer used on this boat is: it really does seem minimal, which I felt was a real shame as the grain pattern was attractive and the 3cm deep solid wood fiddles look and feel great. One of the cupboard doors outboard might have to be sacrificed, should you want a chartplotter or more instruments down below. The seat and surrounding area offer good bracing although the stainless steel fiddle in front of the instruments and switch panel looked vulnerable.
Galley
Stowage around the L-shaped galley is good with four deep, vertically hinged lockers outboard; on our test boat the aft one was dedicated to crockery. At 85cm high, the whole unit felt a little low to work on, or for washing up in the twin stainless steel sinks. There isn’t a lot of workspace, the lack of a bin is a little limiting and the cooker lacks a crash bar. The 90-litre fridge is 60cm deep and, like the line of drawers aft of the stove, it adds to the already generous amount of stowage. LED downlights and strip lights illuminate the galley in the evenings at anchor, while a red/white reading light on a stalk can be used for cooking at night under way.
Maintenance
I would have liked to see a removable panel on the port side of the engine, allowing access via the heads, but there was good access to everything else on board that needs regular maintenance.