San Juan 21 Class Association

Hello!

Just purchased a 1979 San Juan 21 Mk II a couple of weeks ago. My wife and I live in Madison Wisconsin area and we were wondering if there were any other San Juan owners in the Madison area.

We are fortunate to live next to Lake Mendota, which is a great sailing lake. We have boated most of our adult lives, but have never owned a sailboat. Looking forward to learning!

Welcome to the forum & the boat, Badger. It's one of the all-time great lake-sailing boats -- easy to set up and launch, reasonably quick in light air, big cockpit to stretch out in. If your inland lake is prone to summer squalls, I'd advise a two-line jiffy reefing setup and a couple reef points just below the lowest batten. And a jib downhaul (or roller furling). Both are simple to rig. This is a perfectly well-mannered boat in any winds if you can match sail area to wind speed. It's not real happy above 25kts under full canvas.

Down the road, another fine addition for lakers is a nylon drifter. Many SJ21ers have come believe a dacron genoa is almost useless on this boat. By the time there's enuf wind to inflate a 150%, the boat is probably overpowered and would be going just as fast under working jib. But we've found a nylon Code Zero/gennaker/close reaching sail (~145%, 145sqft) really drives this boat well under 10kts true wind, from about 50 degree to 120 degrees.



What sort of shape is your new boat in, and have you done much sailing in the past?

The hull is in great shape. It looks like it's been stored inside most of it's life. The fiberglass still has a good finish and there are no cracks anywhere. The top and the transon are solid and the interior is still nice.

Since I have almost no sailing experience, I am not the one to gage the sails or rigging. However, I did have others look at the boat that knew about sailing before I brought it and they gave it a thumbs up.

I've had it out three times in a variety of wind conditions and everything seems to work great. Today's outing was the first time I had it out on my own without being accompanied by an experienced sailor.

Thanks for the sail and rigging suggestions.