Compared to the cost of a new daysailer, these are pennies on the dollar for the same or better performance. A friend bought a J35 about 10 years ago for 20k. It needed rotten core replacement(of the hull), but the work was straight forward and the boats are generally well equipped racers. He sailed it for a decade, chartered it and sold it easily for little $ per mile.

I watched this J30 a week or so ago sail onto a rental mooring off Northhaven Island. Pretty tight, you need a good maneuverable boat and a skilled sailor to do that. I know some of these old J's are cruised but I found the J35 lacking for much more than overnight. However, their sailing abilities are better than most daysailers. The trade off is a bit more work to make them go with big fore sails and smallish mains.

I've noticed over the years that a significant number of local J-boats out coastal cruisiung, tow hard dinghys. J30's 35's, 40's, 42's etc. These boats tend to be owned by performance sailors(that race regularly). I'll bet the reason so many tow hard dinks is drag. It's likely hard to tow anything for a racer, the least drag would be their choice.

The next day, this J30 sailed off it's mooring in the light fluky 0-5 knot breeze. We did as well and were unable to catch them(no surprise). In fact after 10 or 12 tacks, we gave up in the heat. The J30 though, tacked all the way through the Thoroughfare in 'no wind' conditions, and home to Rockland. There are few boats that can do that, and fewer sailors.