Scot: [00:00:00] Hey there, it's Scott Tempest from Sailing Anarchy. This is podcast number one of I'm sure about a wat no, two or three that we'll do now. We're actually planning on doing these on a fairly regular basis and, uh, hope you enjoy them. For those of you who don't know who I am, . I started Sail Anarchy 23 or 24 years ago on a complete lark, and uh, it ended up being something pretty cool.
Um, , I think maybe more than pretty cool. And maybe, you know what? One of these podcasts, I'll take some time telling the story about how I started this, why I started it, my huge mistakes. Include this podcast, um, and I think you'd find it actually pretty entertaining. So I'll make a mental note of that for one of the future podcasts.
One of the things that I've always liked to do is to own my own boat. , I was, uh, a sail maker for a long, long time with sobs dad sales. [00:01:00] Only you old people, will know that sobs dad became Quantum, but before then it was sobs. Dad and I sold big boat sales in San Diego and did pretty well and I really liked it.
I got to steer a lot of customers boats and you know, later I got to do some tactics, which is something I really like to do, but, What I really like to do is to steer hand, do my own tactics. We all know how well that usually works out, but truthfully, I like to steer my own boat. I like to run my own boat and I like to, you know, by doing so, put the people on the boat that I want, keep the people off the boat that I don't want, and pretty much do things.
My way and um, you know, over the last 15 years I've had, um, you know, I had a Flying Tiger 10, I had a GP 26, I had a Shaw six 50, had a Milus 32, um, Santa Cruz 33. Okay. I bought another Flying Tiger, which you can [00:02:00] debate whether that's smart or not, I'm guess. In my, in my instance and for racing in San Diego, which is where I do all my sailing, it made perfect sense.
And uh, I would say we probably never had more fun racing a four than we did almost any other boat, just because we, you know, we were pretty together as a group. We won a lot of races and we have great familiarity with the boat and it's a total lighter rocket. And then I bought an Erickson 35 mark. , which might, might seem like a bit of a diversion off the, uh, the course before, but to me it made a lot of sense.
I wanted to have a bit of a racer cruiser cruising, meaning we go basically five miles to Gloria at a bay and drop the anchor and then come back that same day. But a boat that I could race in P H R F. A completely different type of racing. Really old school. I wanted to go way back in time for me, really back to my teen teenage years when the Erickson 35 mark [00:03:00] two was really something.
And, you know, got a, found a vote in Chicago, uh, bought it from a guy named Gene McCarthy. Wonderful man. And, and his father. And we raced it pretty successfully here in San Diego for a couple of years. I mean, we did, we won a lot of. We had a hard time beating Benny Mitchell and his crew in their Erickson 35 mark too.
And in fact, we rarely did it, which was a kind of a disappointment to me. But you know, it's sometimes you win, sometimes you don't. Sometimes you go up against boats that are just better, sailed, better people. And uh, you know, I think that was probably the case here. I don't think we were quite up to their standard, uh, you know, myself.
so decided to stop racing that because , if any of you sailed something like an Erickson 35 Martu, you know how painful these things are. I mean, you know, especially coming from a line of performance sport boats. I mean, it's just such a laborious [00:04:00] cr cranky pig. Uh, I mean, It's okay when you consider that you're racing against other boats of the same, you know, ilk.
And that's in large part what we did here in San Diego. I mean, boats of the same vintage, but man, this boat is just not any fun to sail. Very, very unrewarding. But you know, you have, we had to adjust everything, you know, because now it truly is a a four, not shit. And it's just not going to go any faster in almost any condition, no matter what the wind does.
The one thing that it did do really well, go dead down, wind in almost any breeze, just pull the pole back and just point her down and it would go, and it wouldn't go much faster if you heated up. So you didn't do that. And like I said, it was really fun for, you know, two years or so. But then that was that.
And I knew the crew was getting antsy and it's like, okay, how many times? Are we going to do this ? [00:05:00] But we did it. We loved it. And you know, we, I really liked the boat. My girlfriend and I really liked the boat for hanging out on, it's a really fun boat to entertain on to weekend on, not so much to day sale because you're kind of run into the same things that you do, you know, when you're racing.
It's just a big lumbering thing. And you know, it doesn't accelerate well, it doesn't stop, well, it doesn't turn. And you know what? He even doesn't do very well. It won't even steer straight very well. I mean, and my boat had the new updated rudder, but even with that, the boat just wandered, basically all over the place.
So it took a, it took, and it takes a little different mindset to sail the boat. Okay, so I'm not exactly the youngest guy in the world. I mean, I hate to even say how old I am. It's kind of embarrassing. I'm 66 goddamn years old, which are words that I never thought would actually come out of my mouth. [00:06:00] But yeah, it's true.
I'm an older guy. And you know, I'm perpetually adolescent, but a man has to know his shortcomings and I'm really a aware of mine. I don't think I'm quite up to sailing a super high performance boat again, certainly not with kind of the ability I had 15 years ago. You know, physically I'm okay, but nothing like those of us who are older know exactly what I'm talking about and, and I think what I'm going to.
I think I'll lead this podcast into the next one, which is, which is a topic that's something that's always interested me, especially now that I'm old, is how different your sailing gets when you do become whatever the certain age might be, where you're aware of it or you can't do the things that you couldn't do before.
Certainly dinghy sailors run into this probably first and foremost, but for older sailors, you know, your game changes whether you want it to or [00:07:00] not, and so do you, you know, how, what kind of racing do you, do you, when you get older, do you do as much as you did? What are some of the limitations that you have and are aware of?
I think it's a really good topic and I, I think we'll do that for the next podcast, but that does lead me a little bit into. what I'm doing next. So I've had a few people say that they never thought the phrase I'm going to buy a J 1 0 5 would ever come outta my mouth, myself included. , I mean a J 1 0 5.
Really well, yes, really? Here's what, first of all, there's a one design class in San Diego, and I. You know, I'm quite tired of the nonsense of P H R F. I'm really sick and tired of at least one of the local P H R F people down here, and I won't name any names, but [00:08:00] I'm certainly not afraid to, but that's not what this is about.
I'll save bitching about guys like that perhaps later. Even though every vote I've had. With the exception of Anarchy one, where there was actually a one design fleet when we got the boat. I mean, there was a time in San Diego where there were 10 of them racing around one design, and it was great. I really did like it, but I also liked to have a boat that I could sail in P H R F, and as the one design class started to dissipate after a few years, which it did for various reasons, I could probably get into that sometime as well.
Basically, every boat I've had since then has been a p f vote. By that I mean it's like the default handicap class to race in, so Okay. I didn't want that to be the baseline. Type of racing that we did. I'd rather have one design do that. And also, you know, there's often one design starts within regattas, not just necessarily one design events for the J 1 0 5 s, [00:09:00] but you know, they're big regattas and you can get together enough boats for a one design class.
I happen to think that that's great. So I like that. The other thing I really, really like about the boat is how big they are, especially in the cock. Honestly, I'd never really given a J 1 0 5, a second glance. They just always seem slow to me. They always seem doggy in light air, which they are. They weren't sexy and they're not.
But upon further review, maybe from my old man glasses, the boat starts to take on a new attractiveness. To me, I love the size of the cockpit. I think that is so key to anything, and it's got one of the better cockpits. It's nicely laid out. It's got a small house. There is room down below to camp on. I mean, my girlfriend can stand up, down below, and so that's nice.
That's a big plus, but I'm just really attracted to a class that has so many boats and so many [00:10:00] fleets, certainly around the country that race actively is one. And I don't know that I would be doing any of that. I think I'm mostly gonna sail in San Diego, perhaps exclusively in San Diego. But it just started to make sense to me, like, okay, this boat literally has the wick turned down a little bit from certainly the Mels 32 and the flying tiger.
Okay, but it's still sport boat, right? It's still got a sprint compared to my Erickson 35 mark. You know, it'll seem like a, like a fast 40 , and I'm not really exaggerating. I mean, the boat will feel lively, it'll feel good ergonomically, the boat's laid out, you know, really nicely. It's not a pain in the ass to get from side to side, you know, like on the 35 is, and to me it's a bit of a dual-purpose boat.
So that's what I decided to do and that's what I'm going to do. For me, it makes sense. But as I started looking, I walked into it with this incredible naivety [00:11:00] about what I did not know, and I didn't know anything about these boats. I just figured, okay, J 1 0 5 jbo, you know, they're all nice. They're one design, you know, it's gotta be, you know, probably any number of boats are just.
No. First of all, do you know that Jbo over the years, has made seven iterations of the J 1 0 5? Most all of the things are minor, but regardless, it's hard to have a quote unquote, one design class when there are so many variations, you know, within the boats. as well as the construction that has been used.
Most of you know all of this, but the early boats, I think up to hall, maybe 1 25, I'm not sure. Were all pre scrimp considered to be significantly lighter than the scrimp boats, and so that's a desirable. Boat defined. However, most of those boats are pretty beat up. I mean, the, let's face it, J Oats having [00:12:00] balls, seor issues is not exactly a news bulletin.
It's really not. And so if you're going to go old, there's a lot of beaters out there. But the amount of money, like any boat, I mean, it goes into one of these things to make them, you know, fast is kind of ridiculous. So then you can look for script boats, but what you have to, and, and those are you, they're.
They're usually in better condition, but you have to be concerned about the overall weight of the boat. And so some of the lighter boats, like the pre-run boats, you know, they carry lead corrector weights in the boat and it's nice cuz I think you can put 'em. More in the middle, but although I'm not really sure completely, I'm still getting up to speed on the dynamics of the boats, the dynamics of the class.
And so I'm, you know, I'm plunging forward, but each time I look at a boat, I become aware of something that might be wrong with a boat like this. By that I'm saying okay. There are X amount of boats that race hard in San [00:13:00] Francisco and they bend their mass, they get a permanent bend or a slight kink you could say in there.
And what happens is, I understand that, you know, it blows like hell up in Frisco. You know, they crank the backstay on going up, wind, uh, round the weather marks, set the kite and often forget to just let the backstay off. And so what happens? The kites pulling really hard there against a mask that's really, really bent as much as it can be with the backstay full on and the thing doesn't, gets a little bend up there right at the Spinnaker hired.
And so, you know, looking around a couple boats and you find out the masks are kinked, well then you do a little bit of research and you find out that sure it can be fixed. A guy named Scott Isam, who a lot of you know in San Francisco, very talented guy, incredible reputation, he can fix it for you. 7,000 bucks to fix the mask.
Okay, so there's an expense I wasn't looking for when I was looking for into these boats. So I'm trying not to get [00:14:00] one with a kink mask. I mean, I can get it fixed down here. I, I think for considerably less, but nonetheless, couple of other things that you just have to watch out for. Has the keel been templated?
A lot of the boats, yes. A lot of the boats, no. So templating the keel is, you know, these things are known for having relatively uneven keels, much fatter on one side than the other, et cetera. It's just a good way to get the keel straight and fair the way you want it, and possibly even, you know, playing a little lead off of it.
I don't really know. It depends on each individual keel. Right? So that's another. Oh, wheel steering or tiller steering? Well, it's gotta be tiller for me. I mean, that's just, I think the boat's too small and not responsive enough with a wheel. It also puts the weight aft and the this, these boats, if you've ever seen a J 1 0 5 and who hasn't, you know, these things squat ass down.
Just generally, oh, when you see a well sailed 1 0 5 in person [00:15:00] or in pictures, you know, they have the weight pretty far forward. So you don't want to be sitting back there behind a wheel. So you want a tiller boat. Well, they're not all tiller boats, so fortunately p yi makes a really great conversion piece to change a wheel boat into a tiller boat.
But then of course, while you're doing that, well, you might take a look at the runner bearings and are they original? If so, probably not a bad idea to replace. So just like any boat, you know, there are things that you need to do, but in a one design boat like the J 1 0 5, you know, there are a number of things that you really do have to look out for.
Here's the other thing that is amazing. These boats on their, on their face as they are, would realistically be 25 to 35,000, maybe $40,000 boats on the used market given their age, right? Many of these boats are 30 years old. , you know a lot. Some of 'em have a lot of miles on them, and so you wouldn't [00:16:00] think that they'd be worth much more than that, but because of this really strong one design class that they've got behind them, and because guys are kooks and will just throw so much money into a J 1 0 5, you know, I look around on the market and honestly, you can't find one for less than 65 and even at a $65,000 boat, it needs work.
The truth is, The good boats are probably 80 grand and up. I mean, the really good boats, the boats that have had all the stuff done that have good inventories on them, those boats are expensive and if you wanna go racing one design, they're worth it. I mean, they just simply are. Because why? You wouldn't go out there with a doggy boat.
You wouldn't go out there with a boat that you know you are leaving a lot on the race course in terms of. Keel, templated, kinked, masks, boat weight. There are great variances in the weights of these things, and so, you know, you really do have to find a [00:17:00] boat that does, you know, that ticks all the right boxes, and I'm willing to do that.
I look at this as perhaps, you know, maybe one of my last hurrahs when it comes to racing, I don't really know, but this seems like a good place for me to go, the 1 0 5 class. And so now if I can just find a, a damn boat, you know, I'm ready to jump. And, and when I do, I'll sell my Erickson 35 martu, and, uh, I'll use the J 1 0 5 as the racer.
Weekender cuz I know it, it's a really good boat for that. So anyway, I didn't necessarily mean for this, um, podcast to be all about me, but huh pretty much all about me. Hope you enjoyed it. Next time we're gonna open it up and we're going to give you guys places where you can send, you know, comments or questions.
If you have topics that you'd like me to get into, I think we're eventually gonna open this up so that we can have guests on. And so any suggestions you might have for any of that would be great. In the meantime, Any thoughts, [00:18:00] comments, or questions can go to me, scott sailing anarchy.com, Scott, with just one t sailing anarchy.com.
Hope you enjoyed this brief discussion about J 1 0 5 s. I'll gladly pick it up again and certainly, you know that when I get a 1 0 5. Yeah, it's pretty much all I'm gonna be talking about. But you know, I, I think part of doing this, it's the journey, right? Obviously the goal is to go win races, have a great time, entertain.
Overnight on the boat, that's great, but it's the process that gets there. I'm pretty sure I still have the right stuff to be at the very near the front of the fleet down here in San Diego, assuming I get the right boat and then I don't go get any older . All right, for sailing anarchy, I'm Scott Tempesta.
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