In Barcelona this summer for the ‘J Class Barcelona Regatta 2024,’ the Port Vell is honoured to receive three of the finest examples of this class of yacht: Velsheda, Svea and Rainbow – all with their own unique back story. These three yachts are crewed by some of the world’s best sailors and despite the heritage of their design, feature ultra-modern equipment onboard, along with the very latest in sail and component technology.

The genesis of the J Class was the New York Yacht Club’s rating measurement, the ‘Universal Rule’ that would define yacht classes by letters of the alphabet. The letter ‘J’ represented single-masted yachts with a ‘rating’ of between 65 and 76 feet. That was not the length of the boats but a product of the limiting factors of the rule’s equation.

Any of the determining factors such as length, displacement, or sail area could be changed, but such changes required proportionate changes in other factors to compensate. This allowed the boats to be raced on a level basis and limits were set on measurements for waterline length, draft, freeboard and certain other factors.

The three original surviving J Class yachts, Velsheda, Shamrock and Endeavour, have been refitted for worldwide cruising and racing. Their displacements have increased, and the yachts no longer rate as a J under the Universal Rule definition, with the exception of Shamrock V, which was the smallest of the J Class yachts. In total nine J Class yachts are active today with six replicas having been built since 2003: Ranger, Rainbow, Hanuman, Lionheart, Topaz and Svea.

In Barcelona this summer, Velsheda, Rainbow and Svea made a welcome addition to the spectacle of the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup. Racing ran from Monday October  7 to Friday October 11, with two windward-leeward races scheduled each day. The assembled fleet reflected a full design history of the J Class with the 1933 launched, lovingly maintained and campaigned Velsheda, to the potent Rainbow and Svea – recent builds to original designs.

The J Class Barcelona Regatta:

Svea started the final day with a lead of just one point ahead of Velsheda, but their closest rivals were immediately squeezed out at the committee boat by Rainbow and so nullifying any final battle. And then at the start of the second race both Rainbow and Velsheda were over the start line early and had to recross, leaving Svea to earn their biggest victory of the week, after having already won the J Class Barcelona title with a race to spare.

Victory is a great reward for Svea’s two Swedish co-owners and their crew which includes sailors of 11 different nationalities, that has together trained up and promoted young female sailors and brought together a bunch of young small boat sailors, anchored by older, experienced big boat and J Class sailors which is led by tactician Bouwe Bekking, who previously guided Lionheart to the 2017 J Class World Championship. Their rigour and drive has raised the game in the fleet, lifting the standard for all J Class crews for which this pinnacle regatta has been a long-term target.

Velsheda, the 1933-launched only original boat in the fleet, take second overall after sharing the regatta lead at the end of both of the first two days of racing, not least after ‘Big Wednesday’ which saw winds off Barcelona peaking at nearly 30 knots, accompanied by big waves producing some of the most exciting and demanding racing of recent years for the class.

1 Svea J/S1: 1,2,1,2,2,1,1 10pts
2 Velsheda K7: 2,1,2,1,3,3,3 15pts
3 Rainbow J-KZ: 13,4(DNC), 3,3,1,2,2, 18pts