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ARAGORN is a J/46, designed and sold by JBoats of Newport, RI and built by TPI Composites, Inc. (now Pearson Composites) of Warren, RI. We bought the boat through McMichael Yacht Brokerage of Mamaroneck, NY. She is owned by Dick York and hails from Rowayton, CT. She has a mooring at the Larchmont Yacht Club in Larchmont, NY.
The boat is 46 feet long, 13 feet 8 inches in beam and draws (we estimate with a full cruising load) 6 feet 8 inches. It carries over 1000 square feet of plain sail. When needed, we can fire up the 74 horsepower Yanmar diesel. JBoats did a great job of specifying good gear, such as our spars from Hall, Lewmar winches and much of the running gear from Harken. Our sails are UK and North. For more specifications, see www.JBoats.com/J46.
ARAGORN is hull number nine of the J/46s, and came off the line in mid-March 2000. After commissioning that spring, we shook her down with a cruise to Maine that summer. In the fall of 2000, we sailed her to the Caribbean with a jump from Norfolk, VA to Tortola, BVI. From the BVI, we cruised the Leeward and Windward Islands, as far south as the Grenadines. That spring we sailed her back north from St. Maarten to Newport RI, via Bermuda. During the summer of 2001, we cruised her from Larchmont to the Vineyard. After a fall cruise through the Chesapeake, we again jumped the boat down to Tortola from Norfolk. Our cruising ground was through the Leewards and Windwards, but getting down to Grenada during the winter of 2001-2002. Again, we sailed north in the late spring, this time from St. Maarten to New York via Charleston and up the East Coast. After an inactive summer (Dick broke his wrist), we once again did the sail to Tortola in the fall of 2002. That winter we sailed the Windwards and Leewards again, but also returned to the US via Puerto Rico and the Bahamas.
After over 17,500 miles of cruising (by Sept. 2003), we love the boat! It is an excellent size for two people to cruise on for extended periods, and makes excellent passages where we typically have four aboard. We like her easily-driven hull, which allows us to shorten sail early to be in control and yet not lose significant speed. She has proven to be a good sea boat, and had turned in several days in excess of 200 nm.
UPDATE January 2007: After almost 51,000 miles on ARAGORN, we still love our boat!
Enjoy!! .... Dick and Leslie
Copyright Richard W. York 2007. 2005, 2004, 2003