Monday, September 28, 2015

One Design Class success, what happened to the Farr 40 and 30?

A word of caution, this is a long form piece, so please hang in there, the basic argument is decline in participation is due to expense and lack of enjoyment of the owners.

The Farr 40 and Farr 30 Classes, whats going on?

I am trying to sort out why these 2 monumental classes have risen and fallen since inception in 1997. I have been spending a lot of time thinking about the much debated US decline of sailing. Some of it has been pretty well discussed in the sailing media and in Nicholas Hayes book, Saving Sailing, which laces a heavy blame on the lack of mentoring by people in the sport to people coming into the sport. It is also easy to blame the economy, as well as the proliferation of expense.

The Farr 30 (then Mumm 30, its name identifying sponsor, similar to the arrangement for the Corel 45) and Farr 40 Class started rather ceremoniously in 1996 and 1997. At the time Bruce Farr was the designer en vogue for AC and Volvo and was leading the charge as the premiere designer for all kinds of IMS, keel boat one offs and customs. My office at J/World sat 20 yards from the 2nd floor balcony of yachting greatness known as the Farr offices. Our J/80 equipped dock where I got "paid" to sail in the 10$ an hour sense, included racing, learn to sail, team building and even some of the occasional dead reckoning for bare boat charters to be, was a literally under the Farr offices nose. Occasionally I would run into Bruce Farr getting coffee down the street and literal would blink exhaustively knowing his relevance; perhaps it was equally my rather noticeable insignificance in the sport. He was quiet and kept to himself, he looked like a guy straight out of the TV show "the Office" filling out TPS reports. He wore wire rim glasses and a usually blue 3 button oxford. He seemed unable to make eye contact or be aware of his celebrity status. For me, it was like running into Bill Gates.

The vertically drab and modern looking Eastern Avenue Farr Design office itself was shrouded in all kinds of Annapolis lore and jokes. The shades were drawn all the time. The down the street 2 dollar pitcher night Davis Pub rumour was that Farr design team was unreasonably paranoid that designs and discussions internally could be taped or photographed, or that loose lips were at work in the frameworks of Annapolis' true mecca; the never ending supply of Irish watering holes luring midshipman, sailors and tourists into its other chronic past time, hanging out with a drink in hand swapping scuttlebutt.  They made a deliberate effort to block clear view into any of the desks for fear of revealing the latest keel or hull design of the next Round the World Race. Getting into the office was Mission Impossible. There were several aggressive attractively clad receptionists that would block any access into what clearly was the holy site of yachting at the time. On the second floor what you got was Geoff Stagg, the vastly experienced and knowledgeable yet ridiculously loud for his size sales and marketing side of the business that would ultimately create, politically maneuver and position the two classes onto the map with great fanfare.  Geoff Stagg would run the classes and sell boats to a Rolodex of wealthy owners looking for the latest thing. The true secrets were upstairs behind a different door that virtually no one ever saw. Hence the drawn and never opened shades, and the bar stories.

The 2 seemingly similarly drawn Farr designs of the Farr 40 and 30 were a flat out revelation, high aspect jibs, modern planing hull,  super efficient fin keels with tear drop bulbs, durable, light & exciting. Until then, keel shape was flat out archaic;  barn door stability driven things that looked like slabs of cardboard slapped on the side of a keel boat. Few if any keels were truly developing efficient lift. Farr brought the high aspect ratio into the fore front of sailing ; a vertical and short chord length keel that produced very highly efficient lift upwind and in waves while reducing downwind drag, and small relatively inexpensive efficient vertical leech jibs that were easy for the crew to tack and set, but very sensitive to halyard tension and sheeting angle. The boats were built solidly and despite some release problems with a curing epoxy at the US builder, they did not break and lasted a substantial period. The 30 had an Asymmetric as well large masthead kites that would produce wild 20+ knot planing capsizes in big breezes. The 40 stuck with the tamer and less exciting symmetric fractional, which they would switch in 2008 or so to masthead. Originally it looked like the 40 owners might not be able to handle the bigger kites, so they left the MH kites out of the initial class rules. Both boats were responsive, athletic, fast and crewed by average builds. The owners drove and were meant to be amateurs. The Mumm 30 class introduced with the help of Jack Irish at US Sailing, the Category rating system of rating competitors in the class an as appendix to the then Mumm 30 owner and president of US Sailing Rules; 1 = Amatuers, 2=Marine Professional, 3=Paid for Sailing Professional, the Farr 40s followed suite. At the time ISAF had nothing of the sort, they would later adopt the US Sailing Cat system. A sail button system were assigned at 4 or 5 a year to keep sails from becoming a determining factor. The ground rules were solid and the classes exploded with owners and participation in a fantastically growing Internet boom, and later cheap credit based economy. Owners drove, new technology that made the sport exciting was delivered to weekend warriors used to IMS, J/35s and J/30s. For the first time, pros and amateurs had to work together. It brought a new set of issues, but it seemed to work quite well. Stagg delivered a huge amount of performance and structure to a thirsty market.

Stagg pursued and delivered the both classes into highly structured and recognized ISAF class status. At the time ISAF was getting more and more involved in the need to regulate the sport of sailing at an international level. Although it seemed a bit unneeded at the time, the involvement was vital in getting the boats in front of all kinds of owners worldwide.

My father purchased hull Mumm 30 #47 from Carrol Marine in 1997, the same year we were able to win the 1997 J/30 North Americans at Annapolis Yacht Club, a boat we had sailed locally in a great class structure itself in weekend and local distance races. My father was a past Laser and Finn sailor, and the dinghy like set up of the Mumm was too tempting for him to pass up. The J/30 Annapolis scene was healthy and full of fantastic characters which turned into great friendships over the years, we enjoyed the people and the competition immensely but we were seduced by the the speed and the handling of the Mumm 30.

What happened next was a bit unexpected. We came from a thriving tight local and regional one-design and were dunked into the pond of Grand Prix or near Grand Prix like level crews, boat prep, sail testing and top professionals. Instead of weekend warriors with a parallel priority on fun and socializing, competing was the main focus, travel and hotel rooms in distant locales with hired hands to help. It wasn't the top of the professional sport, but the Mumm 30 as it was known at the time was clearly the jr. level of Grand Prix, with the same type of prep going on. JB Braun, Mark Ploch, Micheal Law, Ed Collins, Jack LeFort Jr.were all original Mumm 30 owners with great understanding of the winning components, then a bit later Vincenzo Onerato, Massimo Mezzorama, Jim Richardson, Phillipe Kahn, Jean-Pierre Dick, Jimmy Pahun, Fred Sherrat, Nelson Stephenson and Deneen Demourkas (I apologize for the spelling).  We were finishing mid fleet or worse alot. We were a bit lost to be honest. We stuck with North Sails and consistently got an above average product. We worked on bottom prep and crew and slowly got better. We moved our mast butt experimentally a few times to dramatic postitive effect, and because the North numbers were very far off our rig set up, I eventually scratched out a tuning guide after reading Vince Brun's article on finding sweet spot with your tuning, then go adjust very modestly up and down for the extremes. We benefitted substantially in the beginning because our local fleet was competitive and flourishing, a total of 10-15 boats that raced almost every other weekend. It turn we started making progress and we starting having a lot of fun. The racing was intense, we were challenged, we had a local outlet, and we traveled to the big events.

The Farr 40 Class meanwhile turned into a full on Grand Prix festival. Pros, sail testing, keel modification, 2 boat programs, Protector Coach boats, rumored "indirect compensation" of amatuers to get around the Cat 3 rule. There were amazing rockstar guest appearances in that class as well as the stars of the sport.  Scheidt, Kostecki, Coutts, Robbie Haines, Cayard, Butterworth, Reynolds. It was a hollywood show all around. The "game" which was meant to limit arms races with lots of class and sail limitations sooned turned into a race to find the best possible exploitation of each rule. The culture in the USA, New Zealand and Australia had been forever altered by one singular event; Dennis Conner had changed the AC game with by using condition specific training and design, 2 boat testing and Olympic style preparation to win the AC cup back in 1987 from Australia that had taken it from NYYC with a radical wing keel design ; he forever changed the culture of sailing in the USA, NZ and AUS, preparation and optimization became the new game, all teams looked for there personal wing keel  or there 2 boat testing and sail material or sail design advance to win an event. Years later Team NZ won back the cup in 1995 with a fantastic new boat and group of young sailors, winning at the game Conner had refined. Sir Peter Blake was superior manager that used all of these devices, sails, mast, hull ; minor incremental break thrus in each area that added up, there was no one wing keel to change the game. Cayard was completely defenseless as Coutts trounced him 5-0 in the '95 final, with a winning margin greater than 2 minutes 30 seconds for each race. Cayard was helpless, beaten by a better managed team he could not overcome with his talent.

2 boat testing had became a sailmaker staple, and a small group of San Diego, CA inspired one-design pros led the charge. Mark Reynolds and Vince Brun (and Dave Ullman later with Pegasus) would spend hours going upwind with an identical partner tuning their boats in a straight line into the weak but steady reliable sea breeze of San Diego. There were others in Europe doing the same. As a result Vince Brun won 3 Major Keelboat World championships in the late 90's in different classes; Etchells 22, Melges 24 and J/24. Reynolds became the most decorated Olympic US sailor in our history and dominated the Star Class (Reynolds in turn won the Farr 40 worlds in 1999 on Le Renard). San Diegan, Dennis Conner had made repeated break thrus with 2 boat testing, regatta site prep, skin or bottom treatments, new material, talented and athletic young sailors and the mental intimidation it carried with. It should come as no surprise that the leaders on the Farr 40 teams, often disciples and mentors of Coutts, Brun, Reynolds, Conner et all, usually the tacticians, began doing the same in the 40s. The game progressed, Farr 40 owners began to run "teams", had managers, or boat captains, and very little was left uncovered, nothing was spared. Legal but often creative interpretations of the rules ensued ; entire new sets of sails bought along with a new boat to get around the annual button issue, elaborate team houses, cooks, private planes and support boats, new multiple boat programs based in Europe, Australia and the USA, keels removed and shipped to guru fairing specialists, paint, polish, water in the bilge, masts, amatuers with no jobs and lots of time and compensation of these Cat 1s with indirect purchases of cars, mortgage payments, vacations. If you sat on a bar stool in Annapolis it was part of the rumor mill. It became a perverted version of its orginal intent, but it was really the "game" as any other top keelboat class, but our performance enhancing drug version of it.

Carbon came in a few years ago and also nailed a coffin into these two classes. Carbon is a fantastic material for sails, it is light, strong and UV stable, and can hold its shape longer than other material if not handled roughly. Kevlar on the other hand, broke down quicker when handled roughly and is not UV stable. The result was that sails with Kevlar had to be over built to stay in shape and prevent UV break down. Carbon on the other hand did not need to be over built and itself was considerably stronger. The real draw back was expense. Carbon is wildly, wildly expensive. A Farr 30 Mainsail that used to last one season and be around $4500-$5000 for around 360 square feet is now $8300 list. Thats is 23$ a square foot up from 13$ a square foot. In 4 years the cost of Grand Prix sails went up nearly 2x. The other factor was than Carbon saild required the strongest fibre for its control halyards. Vectran was the best suited and it to is comparitively  expensive. The results have proven that carbon is a winning fibre, and so, here the classes have suddenly nearly doubled the cost of one the key components to grand prix sailing by simply chasing down a performance enhancer that neither of these two classes banned. It also builds in a nice advantage for those willing to spend the money. Those that took to carbon early, invested in Vectran halyards and adjusted rig tensions (down) a bit jumped in performance.

The Farr 40 class suffered because it got so time consuming and expensive to stay in it and the side benefits diminshed, the socializing appeared cerebral and ceremonious, being competitive meant a whole lot of "team" building. The good managers or hepards of their owners realized they were really coaches and that without a happy owner they had no job security. this realization came perhaps after they already took there off the books checks and cash to the bank. The class was made up of a bulk of well intentioned weekenders with lots of experience who soon got run over by the new style of "team". Coupled with the great recession and a destination location of the Domican Republic that suffered a massive devastating earthquake on the islands other side (known as Haiti), the Farr 40 class had 12 boats at the 2010 worlds. 2 years ago they had over 25. At one point a well known owner published his budget in Sailing World for his annual campaign, it was close to $400,000 - 500,000 a year. In 1974, I dare to guess the Americas cup non inflation adjusted was less for a defender NYYC team. Adding to this in the mid millenium years, the actual AC teams ran Farr 40 Teams. Alinghi. Coutts with Hasso Plattner, Team NZ on Fred Howe's Warpath, Vincenzo Onerato on Mescalzone Latino. It all became interwoven, although there were in fact major differences ; there were no lawyers and a lot less money spent, no design fees, no tank testing, no full time managers, but there were a lot more similarities than ever, 2 boats and repeated new builds, custom design files at sailmakers with team proprietary production, keel gate, and a rather ugly sail recut prtoest that ended Samba's long and successful participation in the class. The charismatic and gentile Vincenzco Onerato also was there, smiling, magnanimously competing with a tight knit group that included the british sportsman Adrian Stead. One has to wonder if the fall of the AC didnt add a few less on the table for the Dominican Worlds. The AC teams were out, and the recession kicked expendable time and income in the groin. Most significantly club and weekend warrior owners recognized quicker that Team style campaigning in a Farr 40 was intimidating, discouraging and not worth their time.

You also can suggest that the new classes such as the Melges 32 and J/70 evolved the concept. Melges added even more value to the game. The boat had the same basic rule structure and took Staggs best practices while dropping the obvious bad ones when he created the Mumm 30 and Farr 40, brought exciting new technology to the table, and was a lot more fun to sail downwind (than the Farr 40, the 30 is really a great boat downwind) at clearly a less expensive level (at least to the 40). The Melges management team was agressive and on top of it, clearly nailing some key advances in calender, scheduling and creating cummunity online and otherwise. Downwind you literally have to hold on as the boat planes in over 17/18 knots true wind. The boats delivered a lot of fun. The 32s also use carbon sails and feature 4 pros, but they can be trailered and it looks like it is working pretty well. The pros are top notch guys and they too, arent just cashing the check. It seems now the roles of a pro arent just the sailing, its well making sure the owner keeps sailing and has more fun.

We were in the significantly less intense version of this team phenomenon when we bought the Mumm 30 in 1997. The Farr 30 could be trailered w/o taking the keel off by a small beefy SUV while the Farr 40 needed the keel removed and loaded on a 18 wheeler. The boat was pretty simple, light, easy to rig, and not hard for a weekend warrior to manage. We occasionally got a gold medalist or Volvo guy taking a paycheck within our fleet, but mostly we had industry pros or sailmakers who were there to support other business. We once had Jordi Calafat on the boat for a weekend pickup jib trimmer, that would be like, having Drew Brees play tight end for your flag football team. We didnt pay him anything other than beer and a hand shake. For the time being we had friends or crew members trailer and help set up. There was even a company that started prepping the boats and moving them for a modest fee, greatly reducing time spent by the owners and sailors themselves. The team would show up with a day or two to practice with the boat in and ready to sail. Our budget was mostly on sails and travel, later we would start paying some professionals modestly, usually collegues or friends. It turns out it is still way more fun to sail with people you like, than people you don't. Go figure.

We were good sailors locally, but things were very different, we went from good to below average quickly. We didnt have matching crew gear or a coach boat but we did have a local sailmaker on board. Sure we had our moments, but mostly we wern't that great. I was sailing a lot of J/24's with Chris Snow from San Diego at the time and I was picking up on a lot of things from the campaigning we were doing. I even spent one long weekend doing the 2 boat testing I mentioned off of San Diego with Chris. Vince would call to check on our prgresss every day. I learned so much in those few days the light bulb had gone off. (We finished 3rd that year at the 2000 J/24 Worlds in Newport with a costly OCS, we had the team to win, just didn't happen. Brad Read organized, ran and won the event. His famous line was thanks for coming to the regatta so I could win it.). The extra guidance from Chris and indirectly from Vince flipped a switch in my head. I realized we had to isolate things into a few areas on the Mumm 30 and steadily work on each ;  we worked on progressing on the sails, bottom and crew work to get to the front, and we worked steadily to get there. I found if i broke it down into 5 areas incrementally and kept trying to improve with notes and practice the whole package got better. Sailing was broken down by speed/equipment/crew and sails, then the tactics. By 2001 we jumped a huge amount. We chose Key West as our big event for the year, rather than the worlds which was usually held over seas and out of our sights and frankly never something we thought we could win.  I would time the crew quality and sail purchase for this event.  We would show up with new sails, great crew, practice and had a great house with friends and family. We won that the class of 35 boats in 2001 in KW and then again in 2004. We got beaten a lot at most events except Key West where we tried to peak, but we were content, competetive and having fun within our means. We seemed know to know what it took to win, and had trouble getting there sometimes, but it wasnt a mystery.

So here we are in 2015, nearly 7 years after the crash of 2009 and the scene is quite different. Boats are flat out traveling less. Fleets that survive pull substantially from local hot spots, while pure grand prix in the USA is clearly at a low point. They are living on local fleets, 2 of which of living in Annapolis. Like many things in this economy, value is king, more for less; buy a smaller more modern one design and have more fun while spending less. Meanwhile Carbon and full time pros are the rule in the Melges 32. (one thing i cant resolve in my head, if bag weights are nominal, is longevity better in Carbon?) I think its easy to say its the money or the recession, but its also the profileration of professionalism and the team. Its take alot more time and work to be competitive, something we have less of, and is harder to justify to our surrounding team of family and co workers.

Update, I am now an active member of the J/70 class, sailing with my dad !


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