A R T I C L E S

JOD 35 Reviewed
by Stuart MacDonald

The non-extreme comfortable single-handed boat.

Initially conceived as a one design for fleet racing in France , the JOD 35 is a simple design which manages to combine good performance with a very open spacious interior which provides a comfortable living space and lends itself well to cruising.

Around 300 of the boats were built and whilst many of them were fairly hard used in Europe on TDF and corporate racing, there are still a few good examples around.

Going Grey about to sail through yet another J109.

Rig
Twin spreader, seven eighths with lots of sweep back and pre bend.

Low aspect ratio, long boom, and the mast is well forward which means a relatively small fore triangle , so the spin pole is short, light and easy to handle.

Rod rigging, highly tensioned.

Deck layout
The boats are well designed and ergonomically efficient on deck making them comfortable to work on and easy to handle. All the halyards, and main controls such as the kicker and Cunningham are led aft from the mast to the centre of the coachroof, where they terminate in jammers, and can be worked on either of the two self tailers.

The backstay is tensioned by a tackle and this is twinned for easy reach by helmsman or mainsheet trimmer.

The mainsheet is carried onto a track which spans the breadth of the cockpit sole, and is controlled from the helmsman’s position. Foot rests are moulded into the cockpit floor.

Although the cockpit is shallow, the beaminess of the boat aft makes moving around easy, and provides lots of room for the bears to work the winches without bumping into each other.

Wide side decks, plenty of room to move around

Deck Gear
The boats are fitted with Harken gear throughout.

Coachroof halyard winches are self tailing Harken

Primaries are normal Harken.

Harken jammers and halyard turning blocks

Coachroof layout.

Down below

A lot of thought has gone into the interior design. The boat is spacious and airy down below, due mainly to the light wood used on the bulkhead and galley/ chart table structures, the large area of white moulded GRP which makes up the remainder of the structure and the size of the hatch and moulded side windows which allow lots of light in.

There is a toilet up forward of the saloon bulkhead, but apart from that the fo’csle is bare.

The main cabin has a bunk on each side, with the galley and sink aft on the port side and the chart table aft on the starboard side. Bunk sides are curved to match the deck contour and this gives the boat a rather elegant air down below.

The central companionway is well designed and forms the forward margin of the engine box.

There are pipecots to port and starboard and a large U shaped cushioned area occupies the remainder of the space. This allows several sleeping combinations, to take account of crew configuration. The boat sleeps six easily.

Chart table, starboard side.

Engine

Yanmar twin cyl 20HP. Gives about six knots in flat water. 38 litres of fuel in s/s tank under stbd bunk.

Leading Dimensions

• LOA 10,60 m
• Beam: 3,50 m
• LWL: 9,05 m
• Draft: 1,95 m
• Displ: 3,65 t
• Rig 7/8
• Mainsail: 41,60 m2
• No1 30,30 m2
• Spinnaker: 78,40 m2

Sailing
Very easy and rewarding to sail.

Upwind: Target speed is over seven knots in 14 kts app upwards. Lots to be gained by playing the track/ leech tension. The boats do not point particularly high, but just a few degrees freed off brings big rewards.

Downwind. Very stable. The small kite makes her easy to handle. The boat tends to drag her stern in light / medium wind, but once she is planing the speed rises dramatically as you would expect.

The Water Ballast conversion.
A number of JODs have had water ballast tanks added to make them easier to sail short handed, and the water ballast option really improves the boats handling for short handed sailing.

Installing water ballast into a JOD is not technically difficult, but it’s a job that has to be done carefully and involves getting into some tight corners.

The ballast is carried aft, under the side decks, with the deck and hull being used as two sides of the tank, the third side being fabricated and then installed to provide a tank which is roughly triangular in section.

The forward ends of the tanks are just aft of the companionway and do not intrude into the living space at all. The piping is installed at the after end, and sits out of sight behind the aft cross bulkhead.

There are a number of piping and venting options, and once installed the tank structure has the effect of greatly stiffening the hull and deck structure around it.

The capacity of the tanks can be varied at the design stage by either reducing the cross sectional area, or by moving the forward tank bulkhead aft.

Around 350 litres is easily achieved, which is a lot of useful weight to have up on the weather side.

Port side water ballast tank, above pipe-cot.

Prices
Expect to pay around £30000, +/- depending on condition.

Other sources of information; Lots of JOD stuff on the web, or from PB members below.

JODs in Petit Bateau
Audacious, Paul Peggs
Ninjod, Paul Brant ( Previously Tzigane, Harry Vogel)
Callisson, Olivier Desport
Going Grey, Stuart MacDonald.

Happy to talk JODs at any time, but Paul Peggs is the expert.

Stuart MacDonald