Flying Junior


The International Flying Junior or FJ is a sailing dinghy which was originally designed in 1955 in the Netherlands 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. These dimensions make the FJ an ideal class to teach young sailors the skills 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 precursor to the International Sailing Federation. This status indicates that the class applies to strongly restricted class rules and holds regularly scheduled international regattas.
All documents about the history of the International FJ accessed in the Nederlands Scheepvaartmuseum in Amsterdam.
Today the FJ is sailed in Japan, Canada, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Slovenia, and the United States. In the US, many high school sailing and Intercollegiate Sailing Association programs own fleets of FJs. The college and high school programs in the US use a version of the FJ known as the Club FJ, or CFJ. This boat is slightly different from the International FJ in that it does not use Trapeze and it has a smaller, non-spherical Spinnaker, may have different hull dimensions, and shroud and forestay locations, with respect to the International FJ.
Limitations to the equipment series for an FJ are: 1 mainsail, 2 jibs, 1 spinnaker, 1 mast, 1 boom, 2 spinnaker poles, 1 centerboard and 1 rudder.

World Champions International FJ-Class (Flying Junior)

YearplaceHelmsmanCrewNationality
1963Italy - San RemoDuuk Dudok van HeelCocky v.d. Berg
1965Sweden - SaltsjöbadenDuuk Dudok van HeelJoan v. Ogtrop
1967Canada - MontrealDuuk Dudok van HeelMarleen van Duyl
1969Netherlands - MuidenDuuk Dudok van HeelGerrie Keersbergen
1971USA - Lake TahoeSteve LewisRandy Lewis
1973Belgium - NieuportBertocchiApostoli
1975Italy - VeneziaDe MartisStanniero
1977England - WhitstableG. NoeS. Noe
1979USA - RichmondSteve KlotzSteve Brillant
1981Netherlands - MuidenSteve KlotzSteve Brillant
1983Italy - Castiglione della PescaiaSteve KlotzSteve Brillant
1985Belgium - BlankenbergeThierry Den HartighPeter Laureysens
1987Japan - SakaiminatoTakayuki ShimadzuKouichi Hasegawa
1989Netherlands MedemblickJan BultmanWilly Bosveld
1991Italy - SenigalliaHans CoxAlexander Cox
1993Japan - InageKatsuya TakagiKeiichi Asari
1995Germany - StralsundHans CoxRobert Jan Cox
1997USA - San FranciscoHans CoxRobert Jan Cox
1999Italy - Porto San GiorgioPeter WandersSusanne Wanders
2001Japan - AtsumiKenta ShingoSatochi Komura
2003Netherlands - MuidenHiromi SaitouHikaru Dewa
2005Germany - Lake DuemmerPeter WandersGisa Wortberg
2007USA - San FranciscoPeter WandersGisa Wortberg
2009Italy - LovereHaruka ShimodairaTakumi Ichigawa
2011Belgium - NieuwpoortRolf de JongEsther Pothuis
2013Germany - Lake DuemmerGuido SolKristina Gründken
2015Japan - HayamaEnishi NakaTerutaka Tada
2017Slovenia - PortorožRolf de JongEsther de Jong
2019Italy - Porto San Giorgio