Flying Junior

Encyclopedia : F : FL : FLY : Flying Junior

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Specifications Under Current Rules
FJ
Number of crew 2 LOA 13ft 3in Beam 4ft 2in Mast Height above hull 7626mm 25ft Hull weight (with fittings) 210lbs Sail Area of total of Main and Jib 100sq.ft Sail Area Spinnaker 80

The International Flying Junior or FJ is a sailing dinghy which was originally designed in 1955 in Holland by renowned boat designer Van Essen and Olympic sailor Conrad Gülcher. The FJ was built to serve as a training boat for the then Olympic-class Flying Dutchman. The FJ has a beam of 4'11" and an overall sail area of 100 square feet. These dimensions make the FJ an ideal class to train young sailors the intricacies of boat handling and racing.

In 1960 the Flying Junior formed its own class organization and by the early 1970s the Flying Junior was accorded the status of an international class by the International Yacht Racing Union, the pre-cursor to the International Sailing Federation. This status indicates that the class applies to strict one-design rules and holds regularly scheduled international regattas.

Today the FJ is sailed in Japan, Germany, Italy, Belgium, The Netherlands and the United States. In the US many high school and college sailing programmes own fleets of FJs. One example of such a fleet may be found at the Vanderbilt Sailing Club of Vanderbilt University. The college and high school programs in the US use a version of the FJ known as the Club FJ. This boat is slightly different from the International FJ in that it does not use Trapeze nor Spinnaker. The boats tend to be built stonger and therefore heavyer than the International version.