Farr 3.7

The rudder gantry is more about space in the back of the boat than anything else. I don't know that I can think of any reason why it should make much difference to speed.

Originally posted by JimC The rudder gantry is more about space in the back of the boat than anything else. I don't know that I can think of any reason why it should make much difference to speed.

I don't think anyone was saying a gantry makes a difference to speed? Just increasing the distance between the board and rudder dials down responsiveness slightly. And yes it gives you a little more room at the back of the bus. But I don't think it is needed. Although I haven't been out in big breeze where having the tiller extension angle at slightly more of a right angle might be more comfortable when trapping of the rear corner. Especially when what you gain in angle is marginal in my view. The negative feed back from some sailors on my particular boat is the more to do with the rudder losing grip. But again I think this is down to wanting to force the boat with the rudder rather than sailing it with sail and weight trim + a little rudder. My rudder is quite a narrow section and I have found sometimes I want a bit more grip from it. I know Piers had to bail out when sailing at the Bloody Mary because he just got tucked up into a boat on boat situation where he couldn't just force the direction with the rudder.

Originally posted by pondmonkey Interesting to hear it described as 'twitchy' and how it went down the mine, on a flat water lake.  I reckon that'll be pretty radical on the sea then. Maybe an extra bit of waterline length would stable it up a bit?  You guys aren't really restricted by any class rules are you... maybe head towards the 16ft mark for a trap boat?  Could be a good option?

Hi all,

I own and sail a Farr 3.7 in Australia. It's an ollllddddd boat (one of the few fibreglass ones that were built in Australia in the early 1980's). Mine's still got the original design centreboard and rudder. The rudder is a thing shaped a bit like a scimitar, angled back like a laser rudder and mounted directly on the transom of the boat (no gantry on mine). The centreboard is shaped like the blade of a chef's knife and comes down to a point (with a curved leading edge).

I come to 3.7 sailing from a Tasar - so the Farr is my first "helm from the trapeze" boat - and I've got to say (having had my very first helm from the trapeze experience in a Contenter on a 15 - 20 knot day) that the Farr is really a fairly forgiving little boat. It may be due to me being well at the upper end of the weight range (I'm about 80kg), but I find the boat incredibly well mannered in the obscenely gusty winds we get here in Airlie Beach.

I sail it on the ocean, in choppy waves around half a metre high. The prevailing wind here is an offshore breeze that arrives in bullets from lots of crazy directions (sudden 45 degree shifts aren't uncommon here - and once or twice I've been nailed from completely the opposite direction in little "whirlwinds"). Every now and again we get a nice strong, steady, onshore breeze and we'll have some 1 - 2 metre rolling swell (rather than our usual half metre chop). Most of the time if the wind blows from offshore here it's light though :(

I love sailing the Farr in anything over 15 knots ... better over 20! and I've had it out in 25+ many times and never felt the need to reef the main (though it's nice having that option). I find it lively downwind (with my rudder mounted directly on the transom) - but no more "twitchy" than the Tasar - which to be fair is a boat that can be described as "light and responsive". I've been sailing the Farr reasonably regularly for about 18 months now and I can happily go out on a 20 knot day and the odds are good I'll come back with the top of the mast dry. Having said that though, most of the 3.7 sailing I do is just out on my own blasting around - so I get to pick my moments carefully to gybe / tack etc - not like when racing!

I don't find that the boat goes "down the mine" much at all. It's got a very fat bow, which means as long as you're at the back of the boat when it starts to dip in it's always recoverable. Though possibly me being at the upper end of the weight range lets me get away with shockers that could bring lighter sailors undone!

I've only pitchpoled when the initial "dip in" and sudden slow-down has caused me to loose my footing on the trapeze and stumble forwards (I've gone around the forestay a few times!). Infact I had it in a good 30 knot gust one day, managed to dig the bow right in (water over the entire front deck) and still managed to point up and pull it back out again. If you watch the Y&Y test sail video (on vimeo) you'll notice (Pete Barton?) digging the bow in at one stage and recovering it pretty comfortably. It doesn't take a sailor of his skill to pull of that trick - the boat is forgiving enough to let a mediocre sailor like me do it too :)

Anyway - to wrap it all up - the little Farr is an awesome first trapeze boat, loves heavy wind and handles it all with very good manners (even with the original foil design and placement). It's an absolute hoot to sail in some rolling waves too!

And, when it all does go horribly wrong and the boat ends up up-side-down, it's very easy to bring back upright again (at least for someone my weight). The advice I've read in the Farr rigging/tuning guide about righting it is good: hang onto the centreboard as the boat comes up, go under the boat with the board and keep hanging on (under the water) until the boat settles into a head to wind direction - work out which is the more windward side and pop out that side. Being such a short hull the boat will really hook around into the wind as it comes up - often so much so that it'll tack and go over again if you're not under the boat preventing it. Some spidermonkey-like teenagers can dive over the gunwhale and over to the other side of the cockpit as it comes up and tacks, but for the rest of us the "under the boat" trick saves precious energy!

Mind you, our water here in the tropical north of Australia is a *lot* warmer than yours in the UK - not so sure I'd enjoy diving under a boat in an english lake ;)


Edited by TheSchmuck - 12 Oct 12 at 8:26am

Originally posted by TheSchmuck  How *do* you tack with end of boom sheeting? ... I guess the tiller extension has to go around in an arc forward through the cockpit? My tiller extension is so long it'll actually hit the shrouds if I take it forward.

Hi, 

My name is Luke, 17 years old. Im new to the site, but not to sailing. I live in New Zealand originally from the UK. Sailing my own boat a Farr 3.7 and crewing on larger keel boats.Anyway...

I Brought the 3.7 just over a year ago, With the intention to go fast and learn a lot of new skills. Thats exactly what I did. I brought the boat relatively cheap for only $2500NZD with a brand new C-tech Carbon rig and a new literally never been used Fyfe composite sail.The boat its self was pretty rough, But I only really brought the boat for the rig anyway. I sailed it twice, And found the learning curve not as bad as I thought at first. After these two sails, I decided that I didn't like how the boat looked or how it was set up. Time for a make over...

After stripping the boat back, I discovered a large number of Glass patches on the deck/floor, I knew these wouldn't come up very nice in the finished product.At first, All I wanted to do was repaint it, and some toe rails etc and go sailing again. It ended up in a major rebuild that took around 6 months. I decided to reply the decks,floor and cockpit sides. after taking the deck off, I knew there was no going back now! Considering that I had done no boat building prior to this, I was wondering what the hell I was doing. Thank goodness for a really user friendly design and build process! 

I found actually putting a new floor in surprisingly easy, cockpit sides were a little tougher and decks were easy! After fitting it all and glueing for nights on end etc, I actually had a completed boat again. I decided to go with just a simple white cockpit and varnished decks, I decided to do this because of simplisity. I knew the floor was going to get beaten up over time as well. I basically used the INTERNATIONAL TOPLAC and gold-spar varnish. I had already had experience with these so I knew they were a good starting point. 

After doing all of this I realized I had no toe rails in! So I made up some cheap glass ones. These soon broke from me being a fat git and kicking. So a new set had to be made. Same thing. I decided to go all out and use a mould from a keel boats ones and make them beefy. Good but bad, They ended up too high, But i used them anyway just to have something to push off.

A few sails in, Enjoying the boat, Getting compliments etc, And bam, The nice carbon rudder blade snaps when i bore away in a big gust. luckily there was a spare set of foils!

months went by, Sailing the boat really well, no placing high, but staying competitive, And having fun. And one thing led to another and so on. Sailing one day,ripped the toe rails out, took half the floor with it, Damaged my mast, and rudder gantry. Bugger...   There was no backing plates fitted to the mast, So I sent it off to a mate to be fixed. Here is a before and after photo. 

Time for another tidy up after a few months of sailing. Oh well. 

Anyway, Completed that again and so on, And went back to sailing. Its just turned to spring/summer here, And well, I was getting a little bit bored in the light winds that we predominately have over summer. So my plan was for a Removable gennaker and prod system. I only have a few photos of how I did this but im sure you could probably work it all out. 

 

Being a student, I only have limited cash, In all, I think it cost me $50NZD overall to do this. I started out with making a fitting to go on the boat out of carbon. 

Next was to try and figure out something for up the mast, I didn't really want to go drilling any holes in my already soft skinny carbon mast, So I ended up making a carbon bracket to be epoxied onto the mast. 

Anyway, To what I was really on here to post about with regards to twin extensions. No one has it. Just too much hassle on such a wee boat.the guys with the Aft sheeting either have the rudder hung of the transom or on a rudder gantry. The idea to get it right is that you have the tiller extension just long enough so that you can hold it with out stretching out your arm when trapezing right forward in the light. Armed with a bit of skill and practice, You can get it right and tack, gybe etc with it easily.  Gybing with it is easy, But I found tacking a lot harder to do.This was because My extension was too long. In the end I just kept with mid boom sheeting. This is good if you like to cleat your sail upwind, And all the top guys seem to have it anyway. You can control the rate that the boom comes across in gybes and still get leech control and center the boom. Only disadvantage to it is that in the light, You want your weight as farr forward as possible, So tacking you have to crawl around the mainsheet and slow the boat down, You can also tack on every wind shift and its slower. 

Thats enough of me for now, Any questions just ask! 

Luke 

Farr 3.7#203

Edited by 203 - 13 Oct 12 at 5:51am