farr yacht design

Farr 400 Teams "collaborating to maximise performance and enjoyment"

• Farr 400 Brochure
• Farr 400 Review - Sailing World Jan 28 2012
• Farr 400 – Pretty Purposeful – Part I
• Farr 400 – Pretty Purposeful – Part II
• Farr 400 One-Design
• Farr Yacht Design - Farr 400 (Design 724)
• Farr 400 Review
• Farr 400 - Yacht Tests Successful
• Sailing World April 2011
• Sailing World February 2012
• The Farr 400 - A Wolf in Wolf's Clothing - Sail Magazine
• Up Close and Personal with a Farr 400
• Farr 400 Review - TradeABoat

• Farr Yacht Design
• Inspiration

Farr Yacht Design has 3 Photos

Featured Yachts by Farr

FARANDWIDE (FAR AND WIDE) | From EUR€ 46,000/wk

Yacht events & boat shows.

Superyacht KAŞIF on route to the 2024 ...

Farr yacht design news.

Nauta Design reveals details of 35m ...

• Yacht builders & designers >
• Luxury yacht designers >

Bruce Farr Yacht Design

Bruce Farr Yacht Design, under leadership of master naval architect Bruce Farr, is known as one of the most successful sailing racing-yacht design team in the world. This is because Farr Yacht Design enjoys one of the most extensive and impressive records of race.  The company also has a history of conceiving many successful luxury yachts.

Their long-running record of achievement dates back more than 20 years.  It includes 40 World Championships won in Farr designs and a multitude of victories at internationally prestigious grand prix yachting events, such as the Whitbread Round the World Race (now the Volvo Ocean Race) Admiral's Cup, Commodores' Cup, Kenwood Cup, Sardinia Cup, Southern Cross and many others. The company has also had a long association with many America’s Cup challenger yachts.

The luxury yachts produced understandably have an emphasis on speed and performance, although this does not need to be at the expense of comfort. Here are some yachts you can currently charter which come from the Bruce Farr stable.

• View Farr yacht charters
• Luxury yacht designers
• Aristotelis Betsis- AB Yacht Design & Naval Architecture
• Adam Lay Studio Yacht Design
• Azure Yacht Design and Naval Architecture
• Bernard Olesinski Limited
• Docq Concepts Yacht Design
• Francesco Paszkowski Yacht Design
• Nuvolari Lenard Yacht Design
• Philippe Briand Yacht Design
• Setzer Yacht Architects - Yacht Design
• Sterling Scott Yacht Design

Quick Enquiry

Sorvind | from eur€ 85,000/wk.

MIRABELLA III | From EUR€ 84,000/wk

FARFALLA | From EUR€ 70,000/wk

LEOPARD 3 | From EUR€ 49,500/wk

PHILANDERER | From EUR€ 48,500/wk

CAPE ARROW | From EUR€ 47,000/wk

MRS SEVEN | From EUR€ 46,000/wk

RAPTURE | From EUR€ 45,000/wk

Sailing yacht GELLICEAUX launched by ...

YACHT LAUNCH: Southern Wind’s first ...

Southern Wind launches SW105 luxury ...

Farr Yacht Design Homepage >

Previous editions

Summer 2017

Winter 2016

Spring 2016

Autumn 2015

Summer 2015

• AMERICA'S CUP
• CLASSIFIEDS
• NEWSLETTERS
• SUBMIT NEWS

The newest fast 30, by Farr

Related Articles

• About the SA Forum
• Join the Forum
• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy
• View All Listings
• Submit a Photo
• Submit an Article
• Contact the Site Administrator
• Contact the editor

If you follow this site, you’ll undoubtedly know that we have a huge hard on for single and doublehanded sailing and the global movement towards racing shorthanded. Although rumors are beginning to emerge that the planned debut for doublehanded offshore keelboat racing in the Olympics in 2024 may be in for a big rug pull, we don’t expect this movement to lose steam any time soon.

As shorthanded entries continue to break records and exciting new designs make this type of racing gain traction in the market place, we’re confident that the recent popularity of shorthanded racing is here to stay. With the astounding success of the new Figaro 3, IMOCA’s, Class 40’s and Mini’s as well as production designs from J Boats, Dehler, Jeanneau, Pogo Structures and JPK among others, the demand for performance shorthanded keelboats continues to outpace supply worldwide, especially in these days of COVID 19.

So when Farr Yacht Design stamps their name and devotes their extensive design expertise into a hot new 30-footer that is almost exclusively designed to race double handed and even in one-design offshore configuration, we clearly want to know more.

Led by Sydney’s own Bret Perry, the all-new Farr X2 – nearly eighteen months in the making – has moved from a dream hatched during an offshore supermaxi delivery into the actual build phase with tooling almost completed and the first hulls already sold and scheduled to begin being laid up in just a handful of weeks.

As a pro sailor, America’s Cup and VOR rigger and project manager for the first ever non-French design to achieve production class certification as a Mini 6.50, Perry and his extensive sailing and management background should ensure a boat that is built by sailors for sailors, and will live up to all of the extensive hype that he and his office can generate. Having been on the very supermaxi delivery where this idea was hatched, I saw BP’s stoke and passion for this boat firsthand and am genuinely excited to see the Farr X2 concept moving into the actual build phase, and so I gave my old mate from down under a ring to get the straight scoop for SA.

Sailing Anarchy – First off, how did the Farr X2 initially come about?

Bret Perry – We did a Farr 43 design concept that took the best part of a year. But with a boat that size you’re pinning your luck on selling a small handful of boats and you’re nowhere under a million dollars to be sailing it in a Grand Prix format. And so I was on the Infotrack delivery, coming back from Hobart with you last year, when I had this vision for the Farr X2 and I just decided to take it on and make it happen. We ended up at a point where we did a concept release via Sail-World.com and it just went nuts. We had about 45 emails of interest, and so we knew we were onto something, so that just made us put our foot down and focus on it. It has now developed and morphed itself into this project which is really quite special.”

SA – Once you decided to build something more towards the 30-foot shorthanded realm, how did you dial in your concept before moving onto the actual design phase? And what is the actual concept for the boat?

BP – Well, the Farr X2 got started while lying in my bunk, off-watch on the InfoTrack. But it really stemmed from my days in the Mini fleet in Europe. I spoke to a lot of my colleagues in the Mini class and they all had misgivings about what came after a Mini Transat campaign. For the elite few, they’d end up on a Class 40 or an IMOCA, but for the majority of sailors, they didn’t have that opportunity to step up and there wasn’t much in the 30 foot range that Mini sailors could get the opportunity to sail. A lot of the boats were heavier and more cruiser oriented, but these guys and gals wanted something fun and fast. They didn’t want to be stuck to the water because they were heavy and slow. So we started with a design brief around a fully turboed 30 footer that was at a certain price point. After many looks at it, we came up with the Farr X2. It’s important to note that the Farr X2 has been extensively reviewed and engineered by the design team at Farr Yacht Design in Annapolis, Maryland. 

Using their proprietary in-house CFD program IDEOS (Integrated Design Exploration and Optimization System) this hull has been through more than 500 different shapes. With little minute changes dependent on what info we put in, we dialed in the hull shape to get what we wanted, which was a boat that could handle the big stuff in 25 knots plus but not be sticky in 7 knots and flat water. So there’s a lot to think about in optimizing the boat without sacrificing power. In saying all of this, we’ve come up with by far the lightest Category A certified offshore racing boat with the nearest boats being up to 500kg heavier and the heavier ones over a ton heavier.

We didn’t want to sacrifice power for rating, but we had to keep an eye on the ratings. Until we get traction and can build multiple pockets of boats around the world, owners will be racing on handicap, and so we calculated the boat with that in mind. A lot of the IRC racers have gone away from cruiser racers. For a long time, designers were adding furniture to make the boats rate better, but with boats like TP’s and VO 70’s winning so many events, we positioned the boat with a modest and simple but practical interior to gain just a bit back on IRC but to keep the boat as fast as possible. 

What we’ve worked out is that you don’t get penalized for reaching hull speed upwind early. If you have a full upwind event, it’s very hard for a 30 footer to compete against a 40 footer. So you try and build a boat for all conditions. As we crack sheets on the Farr X2, the boat comes into it’s own. We’re looking at being fully planing in 12 knots VMG downwind with 250 liters of water (ballast) onboard. If you’re planing on the step, you’re gaining all the time, and that’s why we wanted to keep the boat at the 2500 kg mark. The boat is built to the stability index requirement of the Sydney to Hobart, so the boat comes already rated with enough stability to compete in any race in the world.

SA – Other than dialing in the hull shape with Farr Yacht Design, what else did you do to make the boat both fast and also easy and safe to sail to it’s potential doublehanded?

BP – We’ve put a lot of effort into what we call micro design. We got to a point where we were happy with the hull and the deck. So then we moved onto the mock up with Harken Australia. It’s a full Harken boat, and we worked towards making the systems user friendly but not over complicated. It’s clean. It’s neat. A lot of the things are under a false floor in the cockpit. You’re not going to have too many ropes exposed other than control lines. And there’s absolutely no holes in the deck other than the fasteners themselves. We really want it to be comfortable and dry down below.

To be continued…

You Might Also Like

Watch your step.

aw shucks, foiled again!

when do we cut to the chase?

then and now

After 19 years in publication, Sailing Anarchy has remained true to its roots as a community oriented, edgy sailing publisher. We have long been, and will continue to be, the leader in providing inside stories, great reports from around the globe, along with the informative, snarky, profane coverage that you have come to expect. Others come and go, dilly dally with bullshit, while we remain Anarchists to the core.

Copyright 2010-2022 Sailing Anarchy, Inc.

RACE RESULTS

FARR MAGAZINE

GET UPDATES

ENVIRONMENT

DESIGNS BY LENGTH

DESIGNS BY NUMBER

VOLVO OCEAN RACE

SUPERYACHTS

AMERICA'S CUP

Photo: © Kurt Arrigo/ROLEX

OUR SERVICES

Farr Yacht Design prides itself on offering our clients a comprehensive range of yacht design services. Whether your goal is to win the world's premier yacht races or to enjoy leisurely cruising with family and friends, we offer a wide range of services that can be customized to make your vision a reality.

NAVAL ARCHITECTURE

Science and artistry are combined in the development of each of our designs to produce a complete package that meets our clients' objectives. Building on our extensive depth of experience and the latest advances in technology we combine highly refined hull shapes and optimized appendages with well proportioned sail plans to deliver well integrated designs that combine ease of handling with exceptional performance.

STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING

In the quest for strong, lightweight structures that can withstand the worst conditions the ocean has to offer we are continually improving our structural design methods and employ some of the latest design and analysis technologies. By completing the major structural engineering in-house we can tailor structural arrangements and details to suit the overall concept of the boat, maximizing the efficiency of the structure while minimizing weight. This also serves to avoid many interference problems that can have a sizeable impact on build time and costs.

Engineering is often tailored to suit their preferred materials and construction methods. This helps to both improve the build quality and efficiency and to insure that the as-built product properly represents the design. Should particular projects require it, Farr Yacht Design has extensive experience engineering yacht structures to comply with all manner of classification society and certification authority requirements.

DESIGN DETAIL & DRAFTING

Critical to the successful completion of any product is the communication of our design intent and ideas to the builder and client.

To best facilitate this every Farr design package includes an extensive set of detailed design drawings that accurately reflect the as designed geometry. Over the years our drawings sets have been refined to maximize their utility for the builder and we take great pride in the quality and completeness of our drawing sets. Many builders indicate that our drawings are some of the most complete and accurate in the industry.

In addition to design drawings we supply additional information including very detailed weight calculations, assistance with deck hardware selection and specification and expected hardware and rigging loadings. Throughout the course of construction Farr designers and engineers are in discussion with the builders and available to interpret drawings or modify details as necessary. Construction inspection visits can also be arranged. Farr designs have been built by yards all over the world and we can build on many of these long standing relationships to help in streamlining the construction process.

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Our team of research and design staff have been involved in a number of extensive research and development projects which have consistently produced exceptional designs with unrivaled performance records.

The team at Farr Yacht Design combines an unprecedented depth of yacht research experience with substantial internal research capabilities and state-of-the-art tools, all of which can be applied to improving our clients' designs. Where desirable we can augment our internal capabilities with external consultants and experimental facilities, many of which we have excellent working relationships.

Based on the client's resources and objectives we can tailor a research program to explore areas that are most likely to result in the largest performance gains. By tightly integrating the research phases with our design program we can efficiently evaluate concepts and incorporate the research results into the design. This helps to insure that all the implications of particular design concepts are properly considered.

CONSULTING SERVICES

Whether your goal is to win the world's premier yacht races or to enjoy leisurely cruising with family and friends, we offer  wide range of consulting services that can be customized to make your goal a reality.  Click here for more information on some of the services we offer.

LIFECYCLE CUSTOMER SUPPORT

Farr Yacht Design's involvement in a project does not end when drawings are issued to the builder. Throughout the building process we are in constant communication with the builders to interpret drawings and provide comprehensive rating and measurement support as part of our base design fees.

Throughout any design's life we are available to provide consulting services that can include re-engineering, the design of new appendages, performance optimization, handicap certificate reviews or anything else that might improve the performance of a design.

Find out more about what we can offer and learn about our services.

Email, phone, mailing address, more >

Farr Yacht Design

100 Severn Avenue, Suite 101

Annapolis, MD 21403

©  2018

The Fair of Nijni-Novgorod

Edna dean proctor, nizhny novgorod, nizhny novgorod oblast, russia.