Questions from a new Johnson 18 owner

[Tyler Wolf]

Hello all,

I am the somewhat new owner of hull #146 (bought in April, sailing out of selby bay in south river off of the Chesapeake). First off, I have fallen in love with this design. What a blast it is to sail! As I have been sailing, I have come up with a few questions that I am having a difficult time finding answers to in the existing group discussions so I thought I would ask them in a post of my own.

1. I am looking for sources for mast up full covers. Are there any that people can make recommendations? Most of the mentions I have found in the group are sales listings for the boats that mention covers are included in the sale. Are there any makers that would possibly have stencils/plans already made from previous customers? I am trying to avoid towing the boat somewhere to get a custom cover made from scratch (attempting to avoid eating the cost of stencil/design development).
   
2. In addition to sailing in the Chesapeake, I also trailer the boat up to the Delaware Bay occasionally and it is moored in the water when kept there for long weekends (easier logistically based on my options). I would really like to avoid keeping the Jib out in the sun but right now that isn't possible if I want to keep the mast up in the water. I have seen some pictures of a boat that is rigged with a "permanent" fore stay, allowing for a jib to be removed while keeping the mast up. See the original post in this conversation where I found the pictures. I was hoping to find out if this was done on certain models of the boat or if this is a custom rigging setup I would have to look in to. From my initial considerations, this would be a nice project but would require multiple changes to achieve.
   
3. I have seen evidence of multiple Jn18's in the greater Annapolis area. Is this still currently the case in 2024? 
   
   Anyways, happy to be here and to be sailing a GREAT design.
   

[Rick Paullin]

Congrats on finding a good J-18 -- that's a fast boat in really good condition.  We sailed against it for many years when it was owned by Steve and then Marc (its first two owners).  In the mid-90's, your boat was on display at the Annapolis Sailboat Show every year, so the hull got polished with Star Brite every October.  I think your boat subsequently had a trapeze system added to it -- sounds fast!

1. We bought a mooring cover from Masthead -- they had a regular listing for it ten years ago, but I don't think they sell it any longer.  Other local members have had trouble finding a non-custom manufacturer in recent years.

We bought our original cover from Harken Canvas

They're located near Johnson Boat Works, and I'll bet they still have measurements for the J-18.

(fair warning -- they make nice covers, but they are not cheap)

I'd recommend their Travel/Mooring cover, so you can use it in Delaware Bay. 

2. On a mooring, do you mean leaving your jib out in the sun without a cover over it? (or in the sun, but inside a jib cover?)  If you don't already have one, I'd recommend getting a jib cover.  I think they are pretty reasonably priced, but we decided to make our own (many years ago).  That seems like it would be pretty easy for you to rig on a mooring -- it's hoisted using the spin halyard.

When our boat was stored with the mast up for weeks at a time, however, the sun would bake the jib inside the cover, so we took down the jib and replaced it with a wire (while on the trailer).  Our wire was just the forestay removed from an old jib, so you could make your own version of that pretty easily.  But swapping the Harken roller furler from the top of the jib to the wire and back was a pain every time we dropped the mast to put up the jib.  I would not recommend doing that swap on a mooring.  I think other owners have rigged more complicated systems for removing the jib while the mast is vertical, but I don't know the details of their setups.

3. There are still a few J-18s in the area, including two racing weekly on the Severn River, one in Arnold, and one at Washington Sailing Marina.  There used to another one here as well, but I've lost track of who owns it now.

Fair winds,

Rick