Key West 2012 Observations

Red, winner of the Farr 400 one design class, Quantum Key West Race Week

Sharon Green photo

KW 2012 the 40 foot battle and observations

There was a lot of dock talk about which 40 foot boat was the fastest at Quantum Key West Race Week. The comments between the Farr 400, Farr 40, McConaghy 38 and even the GP 42 Stray Dog, everyone thought their boat was the fastest. It is so hard to compare boats sailing in different fleets on a different starting line against each other. But over 10 races on the same race course some basic conclusions can be drawn. Here are a few objective observations:

· Farr 40 class is most likely the most developed class in the 40’ size. They have had great one design racing for over 15 years. The crews all know the boat well and get the most out of them. Even though the boats are owner driven, these owners have plenty experience and great polished crews.

· Farr 400 fleet crews were new to the boat, as this was the first time the boats got together on the same race course. Out of the 5 boats that only one crew had sailed the boat before. The 400 is a very dynamic boat and with time the crews will be able to get much more speed out of the boats. All crews mentioned there were minutes left on the course. All F400’s, like the Farr 40 had owner drivers .

· The MC 38, like the Farr 400 was its first regatta. The only difference being it was driven by a pro. This can be a big difference on speed, how much no one can really tell. I would think it would be something substantial.

· The Stray Dog, was put into the mix only because as a GP 42, it is a known boat that is nice to compare even though it is much bigger.

I took all the actual finish times, seconds per mile for each race and divided by the 10 races competed. These races were all up and down. Four out of the ten had a windward finish. I took the first Farr 40 and Farr 400 in their fleets. Here is how the boats stacked up against each other:

1^st Farr 400 575.08 second per mile

2^nd Stray Dog, GP 42 575.24

3^rd Farr 40 582.17

4^th MC 38 586.80

It should also be mentioned that in both the F40 and the F400 classes they were racing one design, so at time they would be herded to maybe the wrong side of the course. Were as the GP and Mc38 were sailing in a 4 boat handicap fleet and as you sail on time you always go to the correct side of the course, as long as you know what side is correct.

The first race was in 17-20 knot of breeze, up and down twice. What we can see by the finish times is the light new boats did very well against the Farr 40 which is a bit more moderate. The GP, MC 38 and the first Farr 400 finished with 10 seconds of each other. The first Farr 40 was 3.5 minutes back

The second race on day one had the most wind for the series. 20-23 knots. In this race that finished upwind we saw the best time from the Farr 400, followed closely by the first Farr 40 14 seconds back, the GP finished 22 seconds behind the 400 and the MC 38 had some difficulties and finished almost 5 minutes back.

The second day, was the light air day, starting in 8 and finishing in about 13 knots over 3 races. The first race finished in a building breeze that favored the boats that started last. We can see this in the results as we can see the fastest boats the GP and the MC started behind. The Farr 40 in this lighter condition was able to pull their spin poles back and sail a much shorter distance. But again the boats finished fairly close in the times.

The next race in 12 knots of wind again they finished close with the GP doing the best job. One thing can be said about these boat is they are not the same size. The GP being almost 4 feet longer than the Farr 400 and MC 38 and the Farr 40 is 2 feet longer than the 400. The 400 and the MC are very close in length. In the second day of sailing, it was mostly length. No dynamic sailing done on this day.

On the last race of the day it was interesting to note that with the upwind finish, the GP and the lead F40 beat out the two smaller boats. This might reinforce the comment above about length. The Farr 400 did beat the MC 38 by over a minute with the first F40 beat the 400 by 44 seconds. The GP was a minute faster than the Farr 40.

And so it went, everyone had a good race or two and also the bad one. As you all have heard in many YC bars all the reasons everyone did not win. I can say from watching the boats from a TP that started ahead and sailed a longer course, all the boats had fun and the racing in KW was as good as ever. I think as mentioned before the dynamic boats have more potential in them. The GP should have been the fastest boat but that is sailing. The Farr 400 should be 30 seconds a mile faster than the Farr 40, according to Farr’s own VPP. I am sure when the 400 has as more time in the boats we will see this difference. The MC 38 will also improve with time in the boat. But being pro driven it should have been more up to speed than the 400’s.

With all that, the Farr 400 can claim to be the fastest 40 footer at KW this year.

Dee Smith

Key West: A Long Strange Trip

Joe Wood winning KW with Red

We have been working hard to get 5 of the new Farr 400 to Key West to sail their first one design class race.  Since 2 boats were on a ship due in only one week before the series, I was a bit nervous.  Then of course the ship was late and there was a customs hold…..  Anyway, they did make it, very late, but they did get down to KW by truck from Savannah on Friday before the Monday start.

I was to sail on Team Origin/Bella Mente.  Hap chartered the TP from England to get some time sailing against other very good boats in a fun series, while he waits for his new boat to be completed.  We had the main part of the Bella Team sailing with an addition of John Cutler.  John and I have sailed a lot together over the years.  It has always been fun and easy.

Sailing TP down wind at 14 knots last day of KW 2012

We didn’t really know how to run the back end of the boat but thought that for Hap to have a new voice as a tactician would be a good  experience.  So I move to strategy.  We communicate very well and understand each other.  John with his more experience with match racing was maybe more suited for the boat for boat situations.  With my experience in ocean racing and weather, I had a the ability to keep and eye out of the boat for shifts and what other boats are thinking.  We would both keep track of the shifts and most often were calling the same things for tacks and course management.  I would say it was a pleasure, relaxing and I believe we did a good job with our rental to take a third in a very competitive class.

Back to the 400’s.  Each team sailed the boats in the new configuration for the first time.  4 out of the 5 teams never sailed the boat before.  It was very surprising that the boats were so close on the water.  Joe Wood and Red Team won the event and was out of the box better than the other teams but as the week rolled on the other were catching up and sailing along side the Red, beating them in the last couple of days of sailing. 

Very close one design racing with the Farr 400

Sharon Green photos

It was a big success for the Class.  Everyone knew that there was a lot to learn and they all said there were minutes they can get out of the boats with a bit more time.  All had smiles on their faces when they came off the water and looked forward to the next day.

In the TP class, Quantum was the most polished and won the event.  Power Play, with Pet Cunningham steering his boat all but the first day, (I heard it was the curry he made for dinner) to take second.  Vesper, Jim Swartz, I think was the fastest boat.  They suffered from a breakage in the second race and not getting off the line some times very well.  But all the boats had a show and the racing was very close.  Mostly the better sailed boat won.  Our rental had some not ready for prim time sails.  Our first day we were slow in the breeze.  The next day we had a good jib and had a 2,1 when we used that sail.  I think the boat is good and could be a lot better.  Someone should buy it.

With our first Farr 400 class event there has been good interest and we have set up and series for the Farr 400’s.  It looks like 3 boats will go to do 2 events in the Caribbean.  Then we should have 5+ boats in Charleston, then Annapolis, Newport in June and San Francisco in September.  All good.

I am writing this from the Dusseldorf Boot show.  This is the biggest boat show in the world and we have a Farr 400 here.

It was been fun to spend 3 days here seeing a lot of old friends from Germany and northern Europe.

Dee with the brothers Waimer, Max and Hannes, owners of PCT, the builder of the Farr 400

I get to go home tomorrow to catch up on all these programs.  Next trip Sydney to sail on Farr 400 #8.

More later.

Reflections on a Great 2011

Happy New Year!!

This is a bit of reflection of 2011:

2011 has been a good and busy year. We started sailing Bella Mente in the Ft. Lauderdale to Key West race in early January. The team not only was first to finish but also corrected out 1st overall. It was a very enjoyable trip down the keys, sailing all downwind in good breeze. web site http://www.keywestrace.org/2011race.html#

Next came my first trip to Chile to Sail on Phoenix, a Soto 40. We had 10 boats sailing one design.

The Soto is a lot of fun in South America. Sailing in Chile was just like sailing in California. The water was cold, lots of sea life, and kelp. The water even smelled the same.

We had a very good regatta to and won it on the last leg of the last race. Sailing is very good and competitive. Can't wait to get down there more.

While I was in Chile, Bella moved tot he West Coast and had another refit. This time we added 5 feet to the back of the boat to make it longer. We also added sail area to the main and spinnakers. This was all to race the boat to Cabo in March. The race was of course to be down wind but it ended up the other way as there was a low that covered the course. After beating for over 24 hrs, the mast came down while leading the race.

Not fun as we never had the time down wind to test the refit out for Trans-Pac. This was the low of the year for me.

In April, I traveled to Dubai to sea trail the new Farr 400. With a new one design like this this was a good time to see how the boat sailed and get some idea of what to change and make it better.

It was a lot of work getting the boat in the water and sailing. We made some adjustments and sent the boat off to Europe to race. Next stop for the boat Barcelona.

From Dubai, I traveled to Mallorca to meet Joc, my Brother Dave and some other friends to do some training on our bikes.

I know the island pretty well but over the next 3 weeks we were able to see a lot more of this fantastic place. The first week was an organized training session.

We road every day and I did around 275 miles and over 17000 ft. of vertical. For me this was a big week.with big mountains. We then joined the Bekking family on the east side of the Island.

From there we toured around, played some golf and I also did some biking. It was a lot of fun, a real vacation with good friends.

Next stop Thailand to sailing on Hannes Waimer's TP 52 Team Premier. It was great to sail on the TP again. We spent some time tuning the boat up and we felt we got her going pretty well. We started by winning the first race. The boat and crew were good and we ended up winning the Top of the Gulf regatta. It was fun for me as I got to drive.

Hannes was happy as  his boat was worth more and has since been sold to Australia.

In Barcelona with the Farr 400, we put the boat together in a rush, ship was late, and got out on the race course. The boat rated pretty high in IRC but we wanted to see how she went. In a light air event we did not fair too well on corrected time, but she was very fast as we sailed with he 50 footer boat for boat.

Then it was off to South America again to sail Sotos in Ilhabela, an island near Sao Paulo. It was tough sailing there. Narrow channel with a lot of tide. 14 boats, good competition

We ended up finishing ok, but not great 5th. The Mitsubishi Sailing Cup had 3 regattas of 4 days each. The Soto class has done a great job promoting the fleet and had some great help with sponsors.

I joined the Flying Jenny 7 team in June for the NYYC Annual Regatta. FJ7 is the old 2007 Bribon, TP 52. Pete Pendleton spent a lot of time fixing her up and this was to be her first buoy race. We sailed a very consistent series with all 2nd's. To win the regatta. I did a lot of driving in this event which was fun for me. It was a windy lumpy regatta outside. We kept the boat together and sailed pretty well. It was great for me to sail with a local Annapolis team.

From Newport RI to St. Tropez for the Giraglia Race on the Farr 400. We added area to the main and the boat was better balanced with more power. We sailed in a 98 boat class that ranged from TP52's down to pretty slow 38 footers.

Our boat was fast but again did not rate well in IRC. For the long race with our speed we sailed in the top 15 boats in a 220 boat fleet. It was mostly light winds. We beat the open 60's to the rick 170 miles into the race and corrected on all the boats that finished ahead, but then the little slow boats sailed in with more wind to correct out..

Back down to Ilhbela for the Rolex Ilhabela Sailing Week. This again was sailed in Soto's. Another hard regatta as the class is getting more competitive.

We ended up 7th out of 12 boats, not our normal result.

On the way home I stopped by New Zealand to look at the new Southern factory for Bella Mente. We are building a new boat and I have been involved with the design and construction with a very good full team of guys. The new boat will be done in March 2012. After NZ, I stopped and meet Joc in Hawaii. Because of a conflict I was not able to sail with Bella to Hawaii but was able to meet them as they won the Barn Door Trophy for first to finish. I was very proud of the team and my input in the refit that help them win the race.

It was nice to do a race at home on the Flying Jenny. We entered the Governor's Cup that was a late afternoon start to sail to St. Mary's college about 50 miles down the bay. It was mostly a beat and having the big boat was a good thing. Adding getting two big shifts on the way and it was an easy win overall.

Ilhabela was followed by the Mit Sailing Cup in Buzios. Great place to sail and visit. It was a bit more up market area as most of the Rio people make the trip for nice vacations. It was a breezy regatta and we did manage to win a race but over all dropped to 9th.

Joc and I then drove from Annapolis up to Nantucket to sail in the IOD Celebrity invitational. This is a fun regatta that have brought in a lot of great sailors to race with team as tacticians.

To benefit the Nantucket Community Sailing foundation. I was teamed up with Heather Gregg-Earl and Richard Werdiger. We had a great time. They shared the helming and we ended up a very steady 3rd. The regatta was won by John Dane..

In Late August it was back to Rio for the last Mitsubishi Sailing Cup event in the Soto's. Rio is a very tricky place to sail, I loved it. The wind came from everywhere with good shifts along with tides that kept things interesting. We sailed really well to take a fourth. Torben Grael won with his son Marco driving. He did a great job. It was a lot of fun to sail with Eduardo Souza Ramos over the year. We won 3 events and watched the class grow. I hope to sail more down there, many new friends and great new places to go.

Next stop was San Francisco. We brought in a new Farr 400 to sail in the BBS. Of course the ship was late and it was hard to get up to speed.

We learned a lot about the boat in the Bay's condition as it was dog off chains. I think this was the windiest BBS I can remember. Speed of over 22 knots in the boat..

We would have finished off well but there was one race that we ran out of spinnakers so we did not sail. That pushed us to fourth in the series.

Back home for the last race with Flying Jenny, the IRC Mid Atlantic Championships. Good fleet including Numbers. We started with a bang winning the distance race in breeze, a reach fest around the bay. The next 2 days were light but we were able to win. Making it a clean sweep with Jenny and I for the year. Looking forward to sailing with the Team in 2012.

Then it was back to San Francisco for the Leukemia Cup and the Pumpkin Regattas on the Farr 400. We sailed very well with the boat in both regattas, taking second in the LC and first, with a sweep in the Pumpkin. Best of all was how our little boat raised over $15,000. But the regatta did over one million dollars. A great way to end the year.

                                                 Our LC Crew

looking back at the fleet of 220 boats that were behind in the Pumpkin regatta.

Looking forward to a great 2012, and more time like the above.