Day 1 of competition: Falcon, skippered by Charlie Stoddard, of Barrington, approaches a mark, followed closely by Forever & Always, skippered by Trevor Roach of Darien, Conn.

Special to the Journal / Alyssa Kneller

After two false starts, 23 sailboats jockeyed for position northwest of Prudence Island on Sunday afternoon, waiting for the last race of the J/30 North American Championship to begin.

Orders echoed over the water as crews scrambled with lines and skippers maneuvered to avoid collisions. With the fleet edging cautiously toward the starting line to avoid crossing early, Mike Campbell of Bristol timed it perfectly aboard Grits and took the early lead.

Seconds later, the competitors spread out across the Bay in search of wind lines. With Poppasquash Point on their left, Portsmouth looming ahead and a current working in their favor, the tacticians plotted courses.

Hosted by Bristol Yacht Club, the colorful J/30 fleet represented the latest manifestation of the boom in sailing competition and the sailing industry across the Bay.

Twenty-five years earlier, on Sept. 26, 1983, just after 5 p.m., the United States lost the America’s Cup to the Australia II off Newport, ending the century-long presence in Rhode Island of yachting’s signature event. Later that fall, three local businessmen got together and asked themselves, “What’s next? We just lost. Sailing as we know it in Newport and Narragansett Bay could be over. What do we do?”

The trio — Bart Dunbar, Dr. Robin Wallace and Paul Buttrose — established Sail Newport to attract sailing events to fill the void left by the Cup loss. Sail Newport has grown into Southern New England’s largest public sailing organization, says executive director Brad Read, serving thousands of children and adults each year in regattas and learn-to-sail programs. And sailboat traffic on the Bay has increased.

“Now, on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights, and over the weekends there are endless numbers of regattas and racing series, so competitive sailboat racing has flourished since we lost the Cup,” says Read. He says J boat designer Rod Johnstone deserves much of the credit for this trend.

Johnstone built the first J/24 — the most popular keelboat ever produced — in his garage in 1975 after taking a correspondence course in boat design in the 1960s. He designed Ragtime with speed and comfort in mind, as he wanted a boat the entire family could enjoy. He tested his creation in races off eastern Connecticut during the summer of 1976.

“We went out with a family crew — a bunch of young teenagers and my wife and various other relatives — and we always won every race,” recalls Johnstone. “And we were racing against guys who took their racing pretty seriously.”

With J/24 sales booming, Johnstone decided to design a slightly larger boat — the J/30, which also proved popular among sailors who enjoy racing and cruising.

Mark and Kathy Rotsky of Somerset acquired their J/30 around 1996 with family time in mind. They hoped to race the boat with their children Brad and Susan, who had been sailing since they were young.

“Our first boat was a Lightning, and the kids would crawl up into the bow and fall asleep in the sail bags,” says Kathy Rotsky.

The family moors Nemesis at Bristol Yacht Club, which organizes a Wednesday night series for performance handicap racing that combines several classes of boats each summer. Nemesis won Class B this year.

The North American Championship attracts boats from outside New England, and the competition is fierce.

With the sixth and final race coming to a close, Mike Campbell’s Grits has lost its early lead, achieved with some crafty maneuvering at the starting line, but Mark Rotsky squeezes Nemesis across the line toward the front of the pack and earns fourth place overall.

A first-place finish in the fifth race helped the crew lock this position. Grits also fared well, ranking eighth overall, with a first place finish in Race 3. Fuzzy Wuzzy (skippered by Bengt Johannson of Watchung, N.J.) took the championship, followed by Evelyn (skippered by Luke Buxton of Salem, Mass.) in second and Blue Meanie (skippered by Stephen Buzbee of Highland Park, N.J.) in third. In addition to Grits and Nemesis, several other local boats participated in the regatta. Rhapsody (out of Newport, skippered by Wayne Iurillo) placed 10th, Falcon (skippered by Charlie Stoddard of Barrington) placed 11th, Keltyk Knot (skippered by Pat Kelty of Barrington) placed 16th, Good News (skippered by John Howell of Warwick) placed 21st, and Karinosa (skippered by Steve Adkins of Warren) placed 22nd.

Disclosure: Alyssa Kneller is the daughter of Bill Kneller, who was chair of the J/30 2008 North American Championship and the tactician aboard Rhapsody.