A Few Thoughts on Comfort...

Comfort... is a sense of well-being. More a mind-set than a settee. More spiritual than material. Faith in yourself, designer, builder and boat to come through no matter what the weather. A boat and rig that will hold together. It's ease of operation and the absence of overwhelming forces. It is freedom from anxieties!

Comfort... is a predictable, stable motion in seas that builds a healthy outdoor appetite. Not the pitch and roll that discourages it. What good is a beautifully appointed galley if no one wants to go below and cook, let alone eat?

Comfort... is getting off the mooring in 3 minutes with people who've never sailed before - and showing them how easy it is. It's sailing with mainsail alone with plenty of visibility and control in crowded harbors.

Comfort... is protection under a well-designed dodger with side curtains. Cockpit seat-backs angled outward for sailing comfort to windward as well as lounging in harbor. It is flared topsides that slap waves down instead of bouncing them up onto the deck. A dry boat that creates sunny dispositions even on gray days.

Comfort... is straight as an arrow tracing of the long, narrow hull when running before seas. A balanced, not wedged, hull shape with enough reserve buoyancy forward to lift the bow easily over waves when surfing off the wind.

Comfort... is a responsive, large diameter, leather-covered wheel for one-hand steering from either side deck or from behind the wheel. Sail controls within easy reach for trimming mainsail and genoa (or asymmetric spinnaker) on long coastal passages - without leaving the wheel or relocating a safety harness.

Comfort... is not having to turn on the engine so often. It's two people being able to fly the asymmetrical to steady the boat and sail fast enough to make port in time for a walk ashore.....

Comfort is Sailing on the J/120.....