The Fabulous 40s
T h e Fa b u l o u s 4 0 s
This first edition published in 2011 ©2011 South Atlantic Publishing and Farr 40 Class Association South Atlantic Publishing. The Studio, Booker’s Yard, The Street, Walberton, Arundel, West Sussex. BN18 0PF, England www.southatlanticpublishing.com All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior permission of the Publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bob Fisher The Fabulous 40s Farr 40 Class Association ISBN 978-0-9531044-2-0 hbk 1. The Fabulous 40s, Rolex Farr 40 Class, etc 1. Title Designed by Greg Filip and Kayleigh Reynolds/PPL Typeset Centennial LT Std by PPL Illustrations by Farr Yacht Design and Greg Filip/PPL Printed and bound by Printo Trento S.R.L, Italy
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Contents
Contents Foreword................................................................................................................... 11 Concept and Genesis................................................................................................. 12 Designer’s description of the Farr 40........................................................................ 16 Construction.............................................................................................................. 19 Farr 40 One-Design Specifications............................................................................ 24 Stagg’s leap of faith................................................................................................... 33 World Championships.......................................................................................................... 44 The Trophy................................................................................................................ 46 1998 Miami............................................................................................................................. 49 1999 San Francisco............................................................................................................... 52 2000 Newport............................................................................................................ 59 2001 Cowes................................................................................................................ 64 2002 Nassau ............................................................................................................. 73 2003 Porto Cervo....................................................................................................... 82 2004 San Francisco................................................................................................... 94 2005 Sydney ........................................................................................................... 109 2006 Newport.......................................................................................................... 124 2007 Copenhagen.................................................................................................... 135 2008 Miami............................................................................................................. 146 2009 Porto Cervo .................................................................................................... 159 2010 Casa de Campo ............................................................................................... 171 2011 Sydney ............................................................................................................ 185 2010 European Championship................................................................................ 196 2010 North American Championship...................................................................... 206 2011 Australian Championship............................................................................... 212 Canada’s Cup........................................................................................................... 216 The tacticians have their say.................................................................................. 218 FARR 40 One Design - Register............................................................................... 228 Roll of Honour......................................................................................................... 234 Acknowledgments................................................................................................... 240
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Contents
The fierce loyalty to the Class is reflected in the yacht’s design - fast, responsive, user-friendly, honest for competition - and in the personalities of its owners entrepreneurial, competitive, value-driven, fun-loving, challenge seekers on land and sea. A winning combination for the last 15 years!
Mascalzone Latino - Vincenzo Onorato just ahead of Barking Mad- Jim Richardson both 3 time World Champions
Mascalzone Latino - Vincenzo Onorato, just ahead of Barking Mad - Jim Richardson, both three times world champions 9
Bottadiculo - Giovanni Arrivabene and Raffaele Mincone T h e Faleads bu lou Assegai s 40s - Leo Christianakis and Chris Hutt off the start line
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20 02 Na ssau
2002 Nassau
After two races, Defiant led Nerone by two points from Antonio Sodo Migliori’s Nerone, the Farr 40 European champion, who won the day’s second race and earlier the Mees-Pierson Bahamian championship, in which Defiant finished 2nd. It appeared at first that the second day’s racing was going to be another good one for Terry McLaughlin’s team aboard Defiant, but the evening proved tough in the protest room. Defiant had won the first and third of three races but the two victories were threatened by two protests involving incidents at the start. In race three, the Race Committee protested Helmut Jahn’s Flash Gordon for fouling
The choice of venue for the 2002 championship was not made as
the anchor line of the committee boat. A resulting chain of protests
a direct result of the name, but Paradise Island in the Bahamas
worked back to Defiant, the source of the problem. In race one,
could deliver more than that for sailors, and it did for the 25-boat
Crocodile Rock, owned by Alex Geremia and Scott Harris protested
fleet that used the Atlantis Resort as a headquarters. The Class
Defiant for barging at the start. Both protests went against Defiant
management, together with the Storm Trysail Club, organised
and she was disqualified from both races.
Solution – John Thomson leads
the racing in near-perfect conditions.
We lost two places ... and another on the last leg, but It opened with a straightforward race that rewarded speed off the starting line. Canadian Terry McLaughlin led the intense fleet by
I’ll take the 4th we ended up with.
20 seconds at the first windward mark and was still holding the same lead after two laps around an eight-mile course. His Defiant beat Giovanni Arrivabene and Raffaele Mincione’s Bottadiculo by that margin on the line, with Eivind Astrup’s Norwegian Steam finishing 3rd. The second race appeared to be going Defiant’s way too, with McLaughlin leading at the first two marks. Then a rainstorm, which packed 20-knot breezes, rolled in like a freight train to disrupt his performance. “We weren’t really set up for it,” said McLaughlin, who was the Rolex Yachtsman of the Year in Canada. “We lost two places in it and another on the last leg, but I’ll take the 4th we ended up with.” In driving rain, the fleet sailed on its ear to a windward mark that could barely be seen. The last downwind leg of the course was exhilarating for many, and disastrous for others, as huge waves created surfing conditions. While some broached, two boats shredded spinnakers in this mini-maelstrom.
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Samba Pa Ti - John Kilroy 10 0
The familiar logo of 2Groovederchi 0 0 4 S a n F r a n c–i sDeneen co
Demourkas at the head of the fleet
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Pegasus - Philippe Kahn
Nanoq - Prince Frederik
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Bobby’s Girl John Melville
I’ve sailed with different tacticians and everyone brings something different. But he is very thorough, organised and conservative... It seems to work.
Kokomo - Lang Walker
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20 05S y dn e y
Nerone - Massimo Mezzaroma and Antonio Sodo Migliori
Brighton Star - David Gotze, chasing Barking Mad - Jim Richardson
Solution - John Thomson attacks Fiamma - Alessandro Barnaba
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of Richardson’s Barking Mad crew. Flash Gordon by contrast, suffered a difficult day after a series of bad starts, although Helmut Jahn’s two victories the previous day were sufficient to keep them 3rd overall. Russell Coutts, the tactician aboard Mascalzone Latino, highlighted the thin line between success and failure in this 38-boat fleet. “Today we had some breaks, some good starts, and if you can get off the line cleanly, it puts you in the top 15.” he said adding, “But from there it’s a battle. We didn’t make any big mistakes, compared to yesterday when I didn’t manage that second race very well. I allowed ourselves to get pinned out to the left and we rounded fourth last. In a fleet this size you just can’t afford that.” The first race of the day saw Alex Michas’ Phish Food gain a welltimed start at the pin end and a good streak of wind on the left side of the course to lead at the first mark. Phish Food had not looked like a contender, but went on to score a very comfortable victory over Dario Ferrari’s Cannonball. In the second race of the Mascalzone Latino – Vincenzo Onorato
day, Mascalzone Latino led around the first mark but allowed Eivind Astrup’s Norwegian Steam to slip by later in the race. It wasn’t a spectacular day for Vincenzo Onorato’s team on Mascalzone Latino, but their lead in the championship increased nevertheless. “The first race was very good, scoring a 3rd,” commented mainsheet trimmer Adrian Stead, “The second and third races we were mid-line and going right – when the left was paying – so they were recovery races. We also did a pretty awesome recovery on the first beat to come back from 27th to 11th, although we later dropped back 15th. There were plenty of snakes and ladders out there, and we did OK, probably 4th best boat of the day, to extend our lead on Barking Mad.” Jim Richardson’s Barking Mad clung on to second overall with scores of 7-24-6. Like Barking Mad, Mascalzone Latino also retained her place on the leader board but behind them, all sorts of place changing went on. The biggest beneficiary from the tricky light air conditions was Dario Ferrari’s Cannonball which posted a credible 5-5-3 scoreline to leap 11 places up
Ramrod – Rod Jabin
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the rankings to 4th. Ferrari bubbled with excitement: “I have
2 0 0 6 N ew p ort
just decided to give up sailing, because after today I will never repeat anything like that again,” he said adding; “This proves what a fantastic Class the Farr 40 is. It shows that anyone can win in this fleet.” The third day brought forward three further winners: the first by 2002 World Champion Steve Phillips’ Le Renard, the next by Wolfgang Stolz’s Opus One, while the final race went to HRH Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark’s Nanoq. Peter de Ridder’s Mean Machine also looked set for a great recovery from a poor start to the regatta, after posting 4-2 in the first two races . He also made a great start at the committee boat end in the final race, but a good start is not always a guarantee to a good result, especially after a wind shift swung the balance of play across to the opposite side of the course. While De Ridder struggled to better 31st place, Alinghi bounced back with skipper Ernesto Bertarelli notching up 2,13,8 to sit equal 3rd with Opus Piranha – David Voss
One and Cannonball. “We had a very good first day, a bad second day, and a very good third day,” said Bertarelli. “Now we need to have a very good fourth day.” In the end, it didn’t go Bertarelli’s way. Instead the stronger winds favoured Vincenzo Onorato’s Mascalzone Latino team who turned in a masterful performance to finally win the Rolex Farr 40 world championship title. “It was not easy,” admitted Onorato: “The most difficult thing in this kind of racing is how we handle ourselves, because sometimes it is hard to stay confident. I have tried to win this for many years, and finally I have succeeded.” In the first race, Eivind Astrup’s Norwegian Steam sailed to her second win of the week, although the greater threat to Onorato’s overnight lead was Opus One, with Wolfgang Stolz snatching 3rd compared with Mascalzone’s 6th. In the next race, Evolution came to the fore with defending champion, Richard Perini, finally showing some of the form that earned him the world title in Sydney the previous year, only to then lose the lead in the last minute to Steve and Fred Howe’s Warpath.
Mean Machine – Peter de Ridder
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Varied conditions in the Dominican Republic provided very challenging conditions... It was exhausting!
The need for a spreader mark becomes obvious
Fiamma – Alessandro Barnaba and Enfant Terrible – Alberto Rossi
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Struntje Light – Wolfgang
2 010 C a s a d e C a m p o
Schaefer leads Barking Mad – Jim Richardson
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2010 European Championship Day one of the 2010 Farr 40 European Championship at Porto Rotondo saw the ten yachts compete in two windward-leeward races in light and tricky conditions. Jim Richardson’s Barking Mad with Hamish Pepper on tactics, led the overall classification at the end of the day with as many as eight more races to be run. Behind Richardson was Plenty owned by Alex Roepers with Chris Larson calling tactics on equal points with Massimo Mezzaroma’s Nerone. After a long wait, the first race started in 7 knots of east southeasterly breeze. Plenty dominated from the start and was followed Vivian Rodriguez a good friend
round the windward mark and the leeward gate by Nerone, the
to the class
2010 Farr 40 World Champion, with Vasco Vascotto calling tactics.
The changing winds handed the lead to Barking Mad on the second beat.
Charisma – Nico Poons leads the fleet from the middle of the start line...
On the second upwind leg both Plenty and Barking Mad chose the left side and by the first mark Barking Mad had climbed through to 2nd place ahead of Nerone. These three held their positions to the finish. By the start of the second race, the prevailing Mistral was blowing off the coast at approximately 12 knots. Once again, Plenty was hot off the mark, led Wolfgang Schaefer’s Struntje Light, Barking Mad and Andrea Canavesio’s Mangusta Risk. Nerone and Fiamma were over the line early at the start and the resulting penalty left them well back in the fleet. On the second beat, the changing winds handed the lead to Barking Mad, and Richardson’s crew rounded just ahead of Mangusta Risk and Alberto Rossi’s Enfant Terrible, with Plenty slipping back to 6th. Mangusta Risk took the lead on the final downwind leg but in the fight to the finish, Barking Mad managed to slip across the line inches ahead of her Italian rival. Enfant Terrible, with Pietro D’Alì calling tactics, took 3rd and Nerone ... and looks to have a head start on the rest of the fleet
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recovered to 4th.
2 010 E u ropean C hampionship
Plenty – Alex Roeper
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2010 North American Championship Rod Jabin and the crew of Ramrod dominated the 2010 Rolex Farr 40 North American Championship, taking the first two races at Annapolis from the defending champion Helmut Jahn with Flash Gordon. In the third race, Jahn reversed the order and raised the hopes of the other seven competitors for the next two days. With Chris Larson in charge of tactics, Jabin destroyed those hopes conclusively, winning all three races the next day and the two on the final day to post 9 points from the eight races. “It’s pretty remarkable to have won; we’ve never done so consistently well,” said Jabin, who had owned Ramrod since 2005, and had won the recent Annapolis NOOD Regatta. “We had a solid crew; the rig was good, the sails were just right,” he added, pointing out that his crew has been together “for some time,” with Larson joining earlier in the year.
Endorphin – Erik Wulff
Yellow Jacket – Larry Bulman and Jeff Scholz
Nightshift - Kevin McNeil
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2010 Nort h A merican Championship
Sundance – Gary Beer
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2011 Australian Championship World champions Massimo Mezzaroma and Antonio Sodo Migliori sailing Nerone, stamped their authority on the 2011 Australian Championship and announced their intention for the World Championship that followed, by winning with a 7 point margin from former world champion, Jim Richardson. Mezzaroma was absent, but the crew dedicated the victory to their joint skipper. “We are a little sad with no Massimo,” said tactician Vasco Vascotto, “but last year we sailed without Antonio and hopefully we will all sail together soon.” The Nerone scoreline of 6,1,6,1,1,1,6,3 was one of brilliant consistency across a range of wind speeds on the offshore courses. The final race was shortened when the already light wind showed signs of disappearing altogether. Wolfgang Schaefer won the Corinthian division with the always wellsailed Struntje Light, repeating the performance of the German team
Barking Mad closing on the windward mark - Jim Richardson
in the earlier Summer Sprint series. “It was a tough competition and some of the best sailing in the world,” said Schaefer. The opening day saw a southerly breeze that peaked at 17 knots, over a course set on the Macquarrie Circle off Sydney’s South Head, and ended with two boats tied on points after three races for the 20 boats. Jim Richardson’s Barking Mad and Guido Belgiorno-Nettis’ Transfusion had each scored 9 points, but Richardson, who won the opening race from Belgiorno-Nettis, led after the countback. Antonio Sodo Migliori and Massimo Mezzaroma’s Nerone was a further 4 points further back; they had won the second race from Helmut Jahn’s Flash Gordon, while Brett Neil’s White Cloud won the 3rd from Transfusion. The second day was a total triumph for the Italians who scored three bullets. It couldn’t have been better. No one could come near
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Hooligan - Marcus Blackmore
2 011 A u stra l ian C ham p i o nshi p
White Cloud - Brett Neill
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the satisfaction is almost better than sailing on an all-pro-team.
always loved sailing in a breeze and we very quickly turned that
In the Farr 40 Class we are trying to juggle between getting the
on its head. We called it ‘hooligans’, which was effectively how
best out of your owner’s abilities and getting the balance right
we sailed the boat; and ‘ballerinas’ in the light. When racing was
between having fun - and improving the whole time.”
cancelled because it was too heavy, we would still go out and blast around, just to show people that we could. We enjoyed it.
Stead believes that it is all a question of balance in the relationship with the owner, the crew and the tactician that
“When Russell Coutts came to sail with us in 2006, he made
makes the difference. He says: “When you look back at the most
a real inroad in terms of Vincenzo’s confidence. Indeed, in
successful teams, the majority of the crew has been together from
September 2005 when we knew that Russell was coming with us
the beginning. Take Gerry Mitchell and myself. The first time
the next year, we won our first regatta. That and the addition of
we sailed together was with Jim Richardson at Block Island in
Tim Burnell to the crew, made a huge difference.”
1998, when fresh off the Volvo Ocean Race yacht Silk Cut. That relationship has continued through Barking Mad and Victric, and
“When a crew reacts symbiotically, the actual sailing becomes
for the last four or five years on Mascalzone Latino. The Italians
less difficult, but there is also an overriding need for careful
in the crew have been there for years, Matteo Savelli, for example,
planning. “The prime thing is where you want to go up the beat
has improved and matured as we’ve sailed with him, and now you
and to place the boat on the start line to be able to do that. Farr
see him as a potential team manager of an America’s Cup team.
40 scoring is such that there is no discard; every mistake and everything that you do right counts in the end.
There’s more to the relationship if it is to function correctly. “The whole thing begins well before the start of the regatta
“So it comes down to how much you want to win the start, or
– it’s having a good rapport with the team, so that when you
win an end versus getting a clean start, and letting crew-work
are sailing the boat, you are already ticking together.” says
and boat speed work itself out around the course. Also, when
Stead, adding. “What is most important is getting comfortable
courses are set with PROs of the calibre of Peter ‘Luigi’ Reggio,
with the conditions. On race day, we try to get out and develop
who understand whether it is going to pay to the left or right up
a real feel for going upwind and downwind, so that the owner
the first beat, they set the line at a skew so that there are options
is happy with it.
all the way along the line. It is great, but more often than not all the usual suspects are still crowded together at the top mark,
“The daily preparation – a lot of it is about instilling confidence in
even after 2.2 miles.
the whole team, not just the helmsman. With Mascalzone Latino that came with time in the boat and having the confidence.
“Keeping clean is ultra-important and tacticians and crews
Winning the first regatta was the hardest one because after that
are mature enough not to put our owners in tricky positions.
we had the confidence to believe we could win. It was achievable.
Instead, we sail to our strengths and not port tack the fleet every
So, in terms of our pre-start, it’s a case of sailing around, getting
start. There is always a balance, and if you have a bad first beat,
used to the conditions, and trying to paint a picture of what you
the guys who knuckle down and know how to sail up through
are going to do up the course.
the fleet will come through and get themselves into a regatta winning result.”
Some people like different conditions; some like strong winds, others prefer lighter breezes. On Mascalzone Latino back in 2003,
Terry Hutchinson is adamant that while boat speed is vitally
sailing in strong winds was not the team’s strong point, but I have
important, extra boat speed is never easy to obtain in a one-
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T h e tacticia n s hav e th e ir sa y
Offset mark in action, an idea pioneered by the Farr 40 Class
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