June 30, 2001

Barry Carroll aboard F-395 WIRED.

I sailed BI Race Week aboard Helga & Steve Garland's Farr 395, Wired. Although six F395's participated at BIRW, one boat, Richard Wixted's, Exultant, was fitted with a shoal draft keel, and sailed in another PHRF class. With only five boats in one design configuration, we were assigned to PHRF class, Red - 6. The F-395s were: Carpe Diem (Mike Fracchia & Bud Daley), Next Wave (Paul Hewitt), Scheherazade (Betsy & Hugh Chandler), Tsunami (Preben Ostberg & John Aras), and Wired.

The F-395's were rated 39 PHRF LIS. We were bottom boats in our class. The scratch boat was a CM1200, Siren (24). There were several purpose built race boats rating just above us: 1D35 (33), Custom N/M 40 (ex Sensation 33), and two Evelyn 42's (36). The class was rounded out by three other racer cruisers, J-130 (39), J-46 (36), and a new Swan 48 (36). As often happens in a PHRF race the level of race preparedness varied significantly within the class. The cruising J-46 and J-130 were not competitive.

The CM1200, Siren, had new carbon sails, excellent crew work, and was the toughest competition for the F-395's. The Swan 48 was very well prepared and demonstrated two things: the longer the waterline, the faster the boat, and it is very difficult to rate significantly different length boats with a one number rating system over a wide range of wind. The short story is that in light air the F-395's dominated upwind and down both boat for boat and with rating. In heavy air the much larger Swan 48 really had no competition rating virtually even with boats nine feet shorter. The most consistent boat across the wind range was the CM1200. The outcome of the racing was pretty much based on the wind speed: light air small boats (F-395), heavy air big boats.

In the F-395 class within a class, all the boats were well prepared with (obviously) new sails, good bottom prep, and solid crews. Tsunami, Preben Ostberg & John Aras's boat had Dave Scott from North Sails on board, and Peter Stalkas calling tactics. They were far and away the best prepared and best sailed boat. Scheherazade hit the right shift on day one and lead a 1,2,3,4,5 sweep of F-395's in nine knots of breeze. (Wind speed estimates are based on the median implied wind from the IMS 40 class which started 15 minutes ahead of us on the same course).

The F-395's had excellent speed and height with all the boats upwind in 7-10 kts. Only the Custom Joubert Nivelt 42, Slider, had pace upwind with the F-395's in these conditions. Downwind the F-395's were simply much faster than the rest of the class. The 150 meter A-kites were very effective, easy to handle, and quick in VMG sailing. The pattern was consistent in wind speeds of 12 kts and under. The F-395's, particularly Tsunami, dominated the class. With our own race within a race going on, the F-395's worried more about each other than the rest of the class. One Evelyn 42, and the CM1200 each had a good race in the light stuff, but were well back overall.

Then the breeze came on. In 15 kts of wind and flat water, the bigger boats took off. No one could really touch the Swan 48, being 8-10 feet longer than the rest of the class. Next across the line were the Evelyn 42's and the consistently well sailed CM1200. The F-395's went very well upwind, being a bit off the pace boat for boat with the CM1200, but getting 15 sec/mi. The F-395's were restricted to 1450 lb crew by PHRF LIS, while other 40 foot boats could carry three more people! We still could handle the JN42, and NM/40 upwind, and dominate them downwind. Without question, Tsunami had A-kite sailing dialed in better than the rest of the group, with Carpe Diem being the next best off the breeze. We struggled all week on Wired, but were encouraged as the week wore on, and our coordination got better. We were eventually able to stay with Tsunami & Carpe Diem down wind. All the F-395's got closer as the week went on and there was some great boat for boat racing.

The F-395 Tsunami won the event easily by 11 points over the F-395 Wired (who finally managed to beat her in the round the island race by a whopping 1 second!) The CM 1200 was a strong third, and was very consistent throughout the series. The Swan 48 was next on the strength of three bullets in the breeze (but equally uncompetitive in winds under 12kts). Under PHRF, if it had been a 15-20kt series the 48 footer would probably have won every race. Places 6-8 went to Carpe Diem, Scherherazade, and Next Wave.

Conclusions:
This was an excellent first outing for the F-395 finishing first and second in class. In retrospect, it is OK that we raced PHRF instead of one design for this event because it showed how good this boat is against larger boats. It is unfortunate that we did not get to show our stuff against the other PHRF racer cruisers that are in our size range and market segment: the Beneteau 40.7, J-120, Aerodyne 38, and the Sydney 38. (Note, the F-395 had faster elapsed times in every race than the Sydney 38, Canvasback, that started in the IMS Level 40 class 15 minutes ahead of us. One can't make too much of these results, but the elapsed times were consistent.). We were in a much faster rating, race oriented class than the other 40 foot production racer-cruisers and we dominated our class.

Richard Wixted, sailing a shoal draft F-395, Exultant, rating 51, did a credible job finishing 4th. . He beat all but one of the J-120's in his class. He also edged out the single Beneteau 40.7. and IMX 38 while giving them time on handicap. Richard commented on the difficulty of keeping height with his class upwind, but with a shoal draft cruising keel that was not surprising. His downwind speed, despite the extra 500 pounds in the keel was excellent. All in all it was an outstanding result for a full cruising configuration F-395!

It is important to reiterate that PHRF LIS hobbled the F-395's by arbitrarily mandating that they sail with class one design crew weight against similar size PHRF boats that could carry up to three more people (and no max weight restriction). Despite this obvious ball & chain, the F-395's were very quick upwind in breeze. In addition, the F-395's sailed with one racing jib in wind ranges from 6-17 kts true! Despite these handicaps, the F-395 is clearly much quicker in light to medium conditions than similar size boats in this market segment.

"One robin doesn't make it spring"
But, based on the results of 5 days of racing in conditions common to summer racing in the US, the F-395, in one design configuration, is an exceptionally fast and easy to handle cruiser racer. I think a word of caution is called for here. We should be careful not to make the F-395 into something it is not intended to be. Tsunami dominated her PHRF class of bigger, and/or purely race oriented boats. The F-395's were always competitive, and sometimes unbeatable, but we were in the wrong class! We should have been competing in a class of similar sized, similarly priced, similarly conceived, racer cruisers: the Aerodyne 38, Beneteau 40.7, J-120, and IMX 38. I don't think that there is much doubt that the F-395's would have more than held their own in that group.

The PHRF rating of 39 sec/mile was OK in this group. In wind under 8 kts it was favorable. In 8-12 it was even, and over 14 kts it was very difficult to sail against bigger boats with the same rating. This says a lot more about any single number rating system than PHRF LIS or even the rated speed of the F-395. In our class the Swan 48 won every race in wind over 14kts, and did poorly in every race under that. (That is why one design racing in the F-395 is going to be so much fun!) A PHRF rating from 36 in light air regions to 45 in breezier venues seems to be a reasonable range based on these results.

In our class, the only similar sized boat that gave the F-395's trouble was the Nelson Marek designed CM1200. This is a successful purpose built race boat that was well fitted out, and had brand new sails and a very competent crew. Despite winning against this level of competition, the F-395 was conceived and designed to offer ease of handling, comfortable accommodations, and true dual-purpose use. It is a much more versatile, user friendly boat than the purpose built race boats, it should compete against similar boats or one design. With the results from Block Island, and the interest in the boat, class racing is one season away in the northeast.

For complete results, please see the Block Island Race Week web site at www.blockislandraceweek.com.