I wonder if there would be support for a "senior" classification with its own unique rules governing such things as a lower crewwt/# and perhaps white sail only? I and my crew are either grandfathers or old enough to be. We still have a lot of fun but realize we need more room and time to move around the deck and 5 just does note do it!I've been looking at the decreasing local interest in J/24 racing and thinking about what might be done to increase it. Part of the J/24's attraction has been the difficulty of sailing it well but, as I and my crew members are getting older, we are arriving at a belief that the J/24 is not as user friendly as we would like and there seem to be many sailors in our position. We sail the boat because it sails so nicely under most conditions and it's affordable. The J/24 fleets used to be populated with the best small keelboat sailors anywhere. My gut feeling is that the top sailors are as good as ever but there are fewer of them and the rest of the fleet is becoming less competitive and is having less fun.
Does anyone know of statistics on J/24 sailors age distribution changes over the years?
If my impression is correct, does anyone have suggestions on what, if anything we can do about it?
I've been racing my J/24 for 15 years and now my crew and I are getting old enough to want more comfort and a boat that is easier to sail. Our local fleet got down to 3 last year (from 10 a decade ago) so it was clear we were mostly going to race PHRF. I made a kit for extending the mast and standing rigging by 108mm, had a full hoist jib made to replace the Genoa, and moved the winches to the cabin top - all reversible in an hour. The tall rig got the same rating (even though 60 sqft less than Genoa) and it worked out pretty well for PHRF. We beat the same boats by about the same amount as when we raced as a J/24 but the boat is much more pleasant to sail. The downside is that we have gotten worse when racing as a J/24.