Dutchman Chris Gongriep who recently sold the Gerry Dykstra-designed schooner Windrose of Amsterdam has commissioned the same naval architect to design a new version of the 1934 J Class yacht Rainbow.

Rainbow beat Endeavour 4-2 in the 1934 America’s Cup match but in 1937 was beaten by Ranger for the right to defend and was sold for scrap in 1940. The new 40m Rainbow will be built in aluminium and is likely to be launched in 2010 when she will join Lionheart and Endeavour 11 to boost the J Class fleet to seven. Dykstra and Partners who have been involved in all the existing J projects except Lionheart report that there are more new Js to come.

At 127ft 8in Rainbow was one of the smaller Js – more than 10ft shorter than Ranger for instance – but the modern rating system introduced by the J Class Association should put all Js on a competitive footing when it comes to corrected time. See the August issue of Yachting World for more detail about the Rainbow project.