8/15/2003

Press Release: ima j22 Sailing Team Announced

ima is excited to announce the development and sponsorship of their J22 sailing team. The purpose of the team is to promote ima as a leader in internet and media development as well as having a little fun racing J22's around the country.

The team is base around the "grass roots" idea with developing the ima team/crew from non-experience sailors and teaching them the fundamentals of sailing as well as competitive racing. The idea is to have fun and in the end be somewhat competitive on the race course.

The First Step

The first step in this endeavor was to find a boat that would fit into our budget and that with a little love and care could bring back to an almost new condition. After doing a quick search on "google" we found the perfect used boat at the Austin Yacht Club just waiting to get back into the action. The 1984 J22 was in great shape. It only had one owner that took very good care of her. The excited thing is, we picked her up for only $5000 bucks. We couldn't believe our good fortune.

What Lies Ahead

Even though the boat didn't need much work we decided to do a full restoration. New Awlgrip2 topside/deck, new hardware and running rigging are presently in the works. At present we just started the restoration. Click here to watch our progress.

Once the restoration is complete we will be searching for our motivated ima crew and be off training and racing in the 2004 season. We are sure it will be quite a learning curve but hey...what a great way to enjoy the year.