Bodacious (sailboat by Farr Yacht Design)

Farr Yacht Design, founded by Bruce Farr in Auckland, New Zealand, is a racing

yacht design Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to befor ...

firm based in Annapolis, Maryland, United States. The firm is led by Patrick Shaughnessy. Its yachts measure from to . Farr develops custom and production yachts, including interiors, sails, and

hull Hull may refer to: Structures * Chassis, of an armored fighting vehicle * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a ship * Submarine hull Mathematics * Affine hull, in affi ...

design. Farr uses outside research and development with tank testing and wind tunnels. Farr-designed yachts have won and placed well in a broad range of races.

History

Bruce Farr first achieved acclaim as a sailboat designer in the highly competitive 18 ft Skiff class, popular in Australia and New Zealand. Farr designs won the 18 ft Skiff Giltinan World title several times in the early 1970s. Starting in 1973, Bruce was able to focus full-time on designing sailboats. Another New Zealander active as both a designer and sailor in the 18 ft fleet, Russel Bowler, a

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing ...

by training, introduced the fibreglass-foam sandwich construction technique to the 18 ft class in 1977 with a boat 1/3 lighter and possessing a lower wetted area than the competition. Starting in 1976, Bowler provided structural engineering services to Farr as a consultant, and joined him full-time in 1980. Within a year, they moved the office to Annapolis in order to get better access to the northern hemisphere yacht market.

Farr designed boats

The yachts designed by Farr are primarily light- displacement, fractional rig, wide sterned, shallow hulled yachts. Many of Bruce Farr's early designs were comparatively skiff-like in appearance, with shallow hulls, wide sterns and light displacement. The result is a quicker, faster hull than more traditional racing yacht designs. Over the years more and more designers have incorporated these ideas. The latest Volvo Open 70 class yachts are examples of this trend. In addition to one design yachts (table), Farr Yacht Design has designed a various yachts for Volvo Ocean Race (and earlier Whitbread) teams under the Volvo Open 70,

Volvo Ocean 60 The Whitbread 60 (W60), later known as the Volvo Ocean 60 (VO60), was a class of ocean racing yacht built to a " box rule" specifying key design parameters of the 10 smaller yachts which took part the 1993–94 Whitbread Round the World Race. ...

and Whitbread 60 rule. The company has also designed the Volvo Ocean 65 used in the 2014-15 edition of the race and 2017-18 edition. Major yacht builders such as Bavaria Yachtbau and Beneteau have commissioned Farr-designed yachts for their cruising lines of production sailboats. This includes Bavaria's Vision and Cruiser lines and Beneteau's First line. Designs have been also made by Farr Yacht Design under the GP42 and TP 52 (yacht) rule and for racing based on IRC (sailing), International Measurement System rating. Other notable design include (super) Maxi's and

America's Cup The America's Cup, informally known as the Auld Mug, is a trophy awarded in the sport of sailing. It is the oldest international competition still operating in any sport. America's Cup match races are held between two sailing yachts: one f ...

yachts (for Team BMW Oracle Racing (2007, 2003), Young America (2000) Tag Heuer (1995), New Zealand (1992, 1988, 1987)) and the 30m maxi yacht Leopard3. * Note: PHRF rating shown is the Northern California Base Rate full keel with standard mast unless otherwise described.

Sources

{{Reflist
Flying 18s Giltinan History Flying 18s News
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Farr 727 The Farr 727 is a Trailer sailer, trailerable sailboat that was designed by New Zealander Bruce Farr as an International Offshore Rule Quarter Ton class Sailing (sport), racer and first built in 1976. The boat was also built in Canada as the No ...

External links

Farr Yacht Design Website
Yacht design firms America's Cup yacht designers Compasso d'Oro Award recipients