Some Cruising Boat!

So thrilling was the performance of the Farr 395 on our test in a breezy Newport Bay in November that the builders tried to play down her blistering speed. She’s a cruiser, for Heaven’s sake! ButMatthew Sheahan, for one, thinks she’s one of the best performance cruisers around/

It doesn’t happen often that a builder or designer phones up after a boat test to express concern at how quick their boat turned out to be. It’s usually the other way round. So just in case you get the wrong idea about this boat, the Farr 395 was created for the club sailor and as such is intended for cruising, too. Performance cruising.

OK, she’s a very quick performance cruiser. But she’s NOT a flat-out racer. If that’s what you’re after you should add your name to the waiting list for a Farr 40.

According to her designer Bruce Farr and builder Carroll Marine, the 395 is not simply a Farr 40 with a cruising lid. The 395 is an all-new boat, designed for a blend of comfortable club racing and easy to handle family cruising, albeit for those who like a touch of performance.

The trouble is, performance means different things to different people and the minute a builder starts to use the ‘P’ word in their marketing, everyone else involved seems to get a little jumpy about how such a label might affect sales.

There will be those who think performance means straight line speed and wipe-outs, and those who’ve been promised blistering speed and perfect handling, only to be lumbered with just another average white boat.

Whichever camp you’re from, all that really matters here is that the Farr 395 is one of the best performance cruisers around, and not just because she planes like a demon and gave us a ride that few of us expected. The 395 is a clever and well presented boat for many other reasons.

Her first public showing will be in Europe at the Düsseldorf show, so to experience her first-hand meant a trip to her builders Carroll Marine in Bristol, RhodeIsland, USA.

Under Way

I had a hint that things were about to get a little spicy as we left the marina, hoisted the main and in an instant found ourselves powering along at nine knots! We had 22 knots of breeze, the sail wasn’t set properly and the real fun hadn’t even started.

Unfurling the non-overlapping jib entailed just a flick of the helmsman’s wrist as the brand new Dacron sail snapped into life. The speed built a little but in the shelter of a small island just out-side the harbour wall she felt no different from any other sprightly modern day cruiser.

Once out in open water, however, we extended the carbon bowsprit and hoisted the smaller of the two asymmetric spinnakers allowed under class rules. She sprang to life immediately, boat speed leaping to 12 knots.

The true breeze was now back up to 20 knots-plus, the most she had so far experienced and, having only helmed her for a few minutes previ-ously, I took things gently as we heated her up onto a reach. The speed built . . . and built.

Fourteen knots came and went on the log. Heating her up a bit more, then bearing away a touch to bring her more upright, had us nudging 16. And all this in flat water.

Egged on by Farr International’s Geoff Stagg and a crew of experienced racing sailors, we wound her up further still, this time working her over the small swell on the other side of the bay and, as gusts of 25 knots swept through, our speed regularly hit 17-18 knots.

There wasn’t a straight face aboard.

In around 20-25 knots true we planed (yes planed in the true sense), right across Newport Bay, our speed barely dropping below 15 knots but always under perfect control.

“Some cruising boat! Imagine having the wife and kids aboard now,”said one of the crew as we screamed downhill, steady as a rock.

“Whad’ya mean? This is precisely what cruis-ers of the future will have to be like just to get your kids aboard,”came the reply.

Joking aside, he had a point. Step aboard any of today’s modern dinghies and you’ll be sizzling downwind faster than you can focus on the hiss-ing wake. And if you keep your nerve, you’ll quickly realise that you’re more in control than you ever thought possible this side of a RIB with an outboard. The younger generation, brought up on a diet of double figure downwind speeds, won’t question performance like this aboard a new design; they’ll demand it.

So good had the sleighride been that, despite having to slog back upwind at a more sedate 7-7.5 knots in freezing conditions, we all agreed we had to turn downwind once more and have just one more go.

This time we hit 19 knots as we pushed her that little bit harder, yet once again she remained tight, responsive and balanced all the way downhill with barely a twitch. Sure, she did not load up quickly on the helm and there were times where I thought I’d over-cooked it but so long as we were quick to respond she always came away and ac-celerated with ease.

To put this into perspective, our trials took place in November and the weight of the icy cold northerly wind had enough punch in it to be worth at least 30 knots in the summer, hardly everyday kite-flying conditions for a family crew. So yes, we were pushing her hard but try doing this with your average family cruiser and getting away with it, even with an experienced crew. And anyway, if you can do this with her, just think how easy she’ll be in the lighter stuff.

Upwind under full main and full jib she was indeed at her limit and each time a weighty gust came through we had to pinch her up just a touch to keep her on her feet. But again, she remained easy to drive and quick to respond.

Push her beyond the limit upwind and you’ll feel the high aspect ratio keel stall, leaving her to slide sideways as she loses grip. Bear away just a few degrees for an instant, let the boat pick up speed and wind her back up onto the breeze and she’ll be back under control in less time than it takes to wipe your nose.

But because she’s no pure racing boat you’ll be keen to know how she handles under engine, her noise levels and how much of a handful she’ll be in confined spaces. Don’t waste time worrying about this side of things. She pumps along at nine knots at full chat, turns around her keel like a dog chasing its tail and she goes astern better than many production cruisers go ahead.

And when it comes to engine noise, I don’t blame the builders for not fitting the sound deadening on the first boat, with performance under sail like this and an ease of handling that the simple deck layout offers, the less time the engine’s on the better.

On deck

But just in case you think I’ve gone all gooey, she did have a few problems. The stainless steel wheel and moulded-in pedestal arrangement wasn’t as firm as I would have liked. The whole set-up felt a bit wobbly and vulnerable. At the time it was put down to poorly fitting bearings on this, the proto-type boat, but it’s certainly something to look out for on production models.

Having said that, the wheel diameter, gear ratio and access around this particular area of the cockpit is very good indeed and allows the helms-man to sit comfortably and securely out to weather or leeward on any point of sailing.

She could do with more footrests for the helmsman, as well as some additional means of bracing yourself in the wide expanse of the cock-pit when you’re crewing. She can be fitted with re-movable extra cockpit lockers which would help to provide more footrests for those sitting in the cockpit when cruising but this would simply re-strict the amount of available space when racing and still wouldn’t really address the problem.

Other items I’d add to my wishlist would be better drainage around the aft locker lids which, when opened on the prototype, allowed any trapped water to drain directly into the locker.

I’d also dispense with the hydraulic backstay ram and fit a block and tackle cascade system to allow the backstay to be trimmed quickly and easily. The backstay control is one of the primary upwind trim controls on modern boats, especially those with non overlapping jibs, and to be change gear at the flick of a line instead of pumping away at a hydraulic ram makes handling boats like these considerably easier.

I think I’d also like to see barber-hauler lines fitted on the jib sheets to crank the leech in a few more inches when sailing upwind in lighter airs. They transformed the performance of our Prima 38 and I’m sure I’d miss them.

Stowage forward is a bit stingy if she’s to be judged by normal cruising standards and she doesn’t have an electric windlass as standard either. Yet here I have to stop because, frankly, from this point on, arguments over what cruising gear she does or doesn’t have when compared with anyone of a number of other boats is pointless.

There is a limit to how much kit you can pile onto a boat before you start to compromise the very standards that set the boat apart from the rest, and stuffing weight into the ends is one certain way of wrecking performance.

What matters aboard the Farr 395 is that her controls all work, she’s simply laid out and you can perform almost every manoeuvre, bar a spinnaker hoist and drop, from the safety and security of the deep cockpit. To have so few control lines is impressive, given that little has been left out.

Evidence of why this boat is so simple to handle can be found in the rig. A beautifully built carbon fibre mast by Hall Spars with two sets of aft-swept spreaders and a full width chain plate base provides stacks of support for the sail plan.

Such a configuration also means that runners and checkstays are not required.

The non-overlapping headsail means you don’t need huge winches and the grunt to wind them.

Of course, none of this is breaking new ground but it is the way the overall package is executed that sets her apartf rom the others.

And to cap it all, the mainsheet traveller extended across the cockpit floor out of harm’s way and the mainsheet winches were right next to the helmsman–that simply made my day!

Below decks and under the skin

Carroll Marine have built their reputation on attention to detail and this boat is no exception. Those used to the clean, simple and tidy finish aboard racers like the Mumm 30, Farr 40 and Corel45 will not be surprised at the high standard of finish aboard this boat.

She’s a simply laid out boat with the kind of open plan arrangement aft that used to be the norm a few decades ago before an obsession for individual cabins took over. Instead, this boat has provision for up to three bunks each side under the cockpit, one of them a hinging pilot berth.

Having said that, provision has been made in the headliner to allow for the necessary panelling to create two individual aft cabins if required.

To starboard she has a large L-shaped galley with the navigation station opposite. The large open saloon feels all the more spacious for its light-coloured ash panels, although the position of the single head and shower unit opening straight onto the dinner table might be a bit off-putting for some.

Additional access to this compartment is provided through the forward double cabin. Here you are reminded that this is a performance boat first and, as such, has a fine entry. Nevertheless, the space is sufficient and the fully boxed-in retractable bowsprit garage is another example of the builders’ attention to detail.

Dig a little deeper and the real attention to detail shines through. Aboard this boat you won’t find smudged areas of sealant, rough cuts on joinery or rough fitting windows. Each component aboard this boat fits because it was designed to, while the backbone of the boat is a visually appealing alloy gridwork structure that carries the primary loads.

Her hull is a sandwich construction using a combination of Kevlar and E-Glass in an epoxy resin which, although vacuumed, is not cooked like the Farr 40. It’s interesting to note that Carroll Marine consider it more cost effective to build her hull in epoxy than the more usual vinylester as the entire laminate can be laid down in one hit of just eight hours. The result is a high-quality advanced-spec boat.

Her builders claim that 25 boats were sold before the second boat had been launched and that they would have to sell 35 boats to gett heir investment in tooling back. There are few builders who could look their bank manager in the face with this target, let alone deliver in the time scale they planned but their track record in one-design race boats – there are currently around 120 Farr 40s worldwide – has given this company the confidence to tool up and pop out a pair of 395s a month.So expect to see one near you soon.

Conclusion

I can see why the Farr office and her builders are concerned about the speed thing. This new club racer will challenge many people’s notion of what is acceptable for a family day out.

But the world has moved on.The Farr 395 is easy to handle, with the potential for blistering performances should you wish to go for it.

The bottom line is that any new boat that comes out of the wrapper with a set of one-design class rules and the kind of pedigree that the Farr/Carroll alliance has created, cannot expect to be taken seriously as some form of B-division racer. This boat may try to shy away from the bright lights of performance sailing but the fact is that she’s quick, nimble and slippery but still well within the capabilities of a casual crew. To my mind, that’s progress.

And at £134,868 ex VAT all up (based on her list price of US $205,000), this design should certainly be one of the boats to watch this season.

All photos: Billy Black YACHTING WORLD, MARCH 2001