Owning a Farr 40

The commonly held belief is the Farr 40 class is dominated by rich owners with limitless budgets and a stable of professional sailors. There are certainly plenty of documented cases supporting this belief. And to compete on the international level, you had better come prepared to match the top teams in dollars and talent.

However, on the local and even regional levels, this is not actually the case. The Farr 40 is a simple 40’ race boat with the same costs of any normal, local race campaign. When you break it down, you have 2 primary cost factors: 1) You have the cost of buying and owning a boat; for the Farr 40 this often means buying in at a lower price than many 40’ racer/cruisers. 2) You have the annual cost of campaigning a 40’ boat; sails, crew, equipment. The Farr 40 has a sensible sail plan with non-overlapping jibs (more cost-effective than big genoas) and class has annual sail buying limits (something that PHRF and IRC do not have). There is also the added benefit of buying excellent second-hand sails off one of the many top Farr 40’s that replace sails more frequently. The Farr 40 class limits the crew to a maximum of 9-10 people (1,672 lbs.), the typical PHRF/IRC 40’ sails with a crew of 12; simple math here.

Another myth surrounding the Farr 40; “It is a technical boat to sail, requiring a top-level crew to get around the course.” The reality; the Farr 40 is a simple boat to sail, possibly easier than a Beneteau 40.7 or a J/35. The Farr 40 has a simple sail plan with a large mainsail and non-overlapping jibs, making the boat easy to tack and trim. The cockpit is clean, open and well organized; everything is in a logical position. The helmsman has a perfect steering position, able to sit outboard to see the sails and race course while the tactician has the entire aft section to do his magic. The mast and rigging are also a simple 20 degree swept-spreader configuration, so it does not require running backstays, check stays or baby stays. All boats sail better with a top-level team, the Farr 40 will simply make your team sail better because it’s a better platform. Because of the simple layout of the boat these boats are easy to sail with 9 crew members which include a tactician.

Also a misconception: “Only the newest and best boats are competitive.” Well, in a fleet of 30 Farr 40’s competing at the Worlds, this has some validity. Holding a thin lane and not getting pushed back in the fleet of 30 requires a top boat with the best sails and a great crew, no matter what class of boats you are sailing. In a local or regional fleet of less than 15 boats, even the oldest of boats has proven competitive and capable of winning.