The design of the hull lines of J8 was originally from the legendary boards of Frank C. Paine. Paine is famous for his 1930 J Class yacht ' Yankee' that was modified and updated in 1934 and then the only J that was competitive to the considerably longer waterline 'Super J's '. The linesplan of J8 is very interesting as in that Paine designed this yacht at 88 ft original waterline length, a foot longer then any other J ever designed. He intended to accept a penalty on sailarea for waterline length and that was quite radical in those days. The handicap system that is used nowadays is totally different but history has proven that waterline length is crucial in these designs.