bruce farr yacht design

Farr from home: New Zealand's greatest yacht designer, Bruce Farr, talks life and sailing

Bruce Farr in the marina at Annapolis. Photo / Ben Stanley.

By Ben Stanley

The sea is the domain of known unknowns, all connected to the wind.

If you can understand how finely its strength and direction determines your own is to become a great sailor. A great sailor is in total communication with his crew, but, perhaps more so, with his or her ship.

What trust do they place in their shipbuilder and designer? These days, it is founded in a superb technical understanding, fine-tuned knowledge of near-aerodynamic engineering and an absolute faith in the undeniable answer of math.

"I came from the artistic, experimental side of the equation, with very decent maths skills - but I was more of an artist," Bruce Farr tells me, about modern yacht design. "There's probably a lot less room for that today."

We are sitting in the Boatyard Bar & Grill in Annapolis, Maryland, eating crab cakes. It's Christmas Eve last year. The United States is still over three weeks from its first confirmed case of Covid-19.

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Farr - easily the finest racing yacht designer of his generation, and perhaps alongside legendary American Olin Stephens as the greatest ever - is midway through a description of what the boatbuilding culture in Auckland in the 1960s and 70s was like.

Along with him, the era produced world-beating Kiwi yacht designers like Laurie Davidson, Ron Holland and Greg Elliott. It was a time, Farr says, where virtually everything in New Zealand felt self-taught with a 'give it a crack' pioneer nature to it.

"New Zealand produced a bunch of good designers who became world class, almost the majority of the best sailors of the world - a huge proportion of them, for every kind of boat," he says.

"[From] big offshore racing boats to America's Cup boats, and, more lately, back into centre boarders. At the same time, the boat building industry in New Zealand boomed in terms of the international market.

"I think it's kind of settled since then, but something went on in that period of the 70s and 80s that made New Zealand produce the best marine people … you can certainly say that was a golden age."

A serious wiry young Aucklander in the 1960s and 1970s when he learnt his trade in his parents' boat sheds around the Auckland region, Farr is a serious wiry 71-year-old now. He looks more like the rule-abiding engineer than the artist, but the success of his designs, and ever-glowing reports of those who sail them, prove otherwise.

From 18-foot skiffs to Whitbread ocean goers, Farr's yachts have won more than 40 world titles. More than 15,000 racing and cruising yachts have been built from his drawings.

The Farr 3.7 dinghy remains an icon to any Kiwi who grew up near the beach, while his Laser 28 was one of the finest widely-produced keelboats of the 1980s, worldwide. Outside Black Magic, his massive 90-foot monohull KZ-1 is the most storied Kiwi America's Cup yacht ever.

Though briefly back in Annapolis, which remains the base of Farr Yacht Design, Farr retired eight years ago. He moved to Central Florida and completely bought out of the company in 2015; the same year he says he last really got out on the water himself. His sailing passion now lies in remote control model yachts.

"It's very mentally challenging, trying to sail a boat from the outside," Farr, taking a sip from a decaf coffee, says. "Everything's inverted so you've got to see what the boat's doing and turn it around in your brain before you take action."

The Kiwi made the US Nationals in Charleston, South Carolina for the first time last October, finishing 20th in the 48-strong metre-long DragonFlite 95 class. Outside his RC models, Farr has stayed busy in retirement with a Lotus track car, his golf clubs and a condo in Aspen, Colorado which he and wife Gail escape to for two months every year for skiing (winter) and hiking (summer).

He was caught there when the pandemic hit and drove all the way back to his home in The Villages, Florida - a nearly 3000 kilometre road trip - in a rental car to avoid airports.

"I lived such a horrid paced life when I was working that when I retired I was actually ready to stop," he says. "I anticipated I had trouble breaking away from it, but I didn't really. Lots of other things to do at the time, I never really looked back."

Though regular trips back to New Zealand ended when his mother Ilene died in 2018 (his father passed away in 2006), there are plans to watch the America's Cup challenger series in Auckland next year if it's still held. Farr says he misses the temperate climate of home but is intending to spend his silent season in the States.

His Florida home lies in a sprawling first-class retirement development that houses more than 120,000 and is considered one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in America. A regular stop for Republican politicians, including the President last October, Donald Trump received 70 per cent of the vote in The Villages.

Farr's childhood home in Leigh, near where his Scottish-born father Jim was a commercial fisherman at nearby Ti Point. His son first started working on boats at 13, with his first real builds Moth and Cherub sailing dinghies and 18-foot skiffs.

By 1971, a 22-year-old was working out of his mother's sewing room, designing his first keelboat. Designed for Rob Blackburn, the 26-foot 'Titus Camby' won the New Zealand Half-Ton Championships in 1972 and 1974 and really helped put Farr on the map.

"They were heady times for me," he says. "At that time, I'd just started up on my own as a designer and builder. I saw [the Titus Camby] as a huge challenge, because the only experience I had was the experience of other people's keel boat designers.

"The number of hours was just exponentially out of proportion to the finished product, because I wanted to do it well. I guess that's a failing I've had all my life. I accept nothing except the absolute best I can do."

Farr expanded into his own downtown workshop later that year, before setting up his first full-time design office in Parnell in 1975 where rising yacht design stars Russell Bowler, Roger Hill and Peter Walker would eventually join him.

The late 70s were a boon for the office, with Farr-designed yachts winning quarter-ton, half-ton and one-ton offshore world championships. With an increasing market in cruising yachts and tired of constant long-distance travel to Europe, Farr relocated to Annapolis in 1981 with four of his five Kiwi staff joining him.

A rough start in the States parlayed into another hot stretch that saw his competitive yachts shine and plenty of business come from the Northern Hemisphere's wealthy elite. Farr has been included on NZ's Rich List before and will only admit to being "comfortable" with the spoils his work has bought him.

"If we stayed in New Zealand we would have been a small piece of the world market and we might spend the rest of our lives wishing we'd done something different," Farr says.

"If we moved to the Northern Hemisphere, we'd know we gave it our best shot. We figured out how to do fast boats under the new version of international offshore rules that were still nice boats to sail, not big heavy turkeys. Away we went for our second golden years that, instead of lasting three or four years, lasted, I guess, almost twenty."

Along with a host of famed Whitbread ocean racers, Farr designed New Zealand's 1986 and 2000 America's Cup entries, along with KZ1, which he sailed himself on off San Diego.

The retiree will give you a wry grin when you ask about how different the America's Cup is today - with its AC50 wing sail catamarans - from when he was last seriously involved with Oracle in 2003 (he acted as a consultant for the Paul Cayard-coached Desafio Espanol challenger in 2007).

"It's really now about what's the fastest boat you can produce, within some pretty open restrictions," he says. "The concept of the controls point towards a very fast boat, and you've got quite a bit of freedom to produce something different and faster. I think that's what the America's Cup should be.

"There's an argument to be made that they're barely sailboats anymore. That's a genuine argument. As I said about the last America's Cup; they're, technically, poor, low-flying aircraft.

"The whole objective now is to sail around the course without the hull being in the water. Well, that begs the question: is it a sailboat? Is it a boat? Now, I don't have a conclusion either way. It's just where things go; better and faster. Well, at least, faster. Better or worse doesn't matter as long as they're faster."

After being at the front of the fleet for decades, the quest for speed on the water, for the mastery of the wind and trust of the sailor, is behind Farr now. The competitive edge comes with the remote control, while he finds his old charges still pop up in his life relatively frequently.

Indeed, his Annapolis Christmas trip included salvaging old drawings for the recently bought, still-sailing Titus Canby.

If he was a young buck again today, Farr fancies that he'd probably have stayed a sailor, his original passion. He reckons his feel for design would no longer fit the modern approach to boatbuilding.

"People believe that the tools can tell you the answers without having to go look at boats or build boats," Farr says. "We've lost the pioneers - now it's a technical era. That's not necessarily a bad thing, it's just different."

After all, in the domain of known unknowns, whatever brings you home will always be a beautiful boat.

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Since designing his first keelboat, Titus Canby , three decades ago, Farr (b. 1949) has been the most accomplished and sought-after yacht designer in the world based on the 37 world championships won in his designs and a multitude of grand-prix boats, cruisers, and one-designs winning races all over the globe.

Along with his partner, Russell Bowler, he’s been the dominant designer in the Whitbread and Volvo races since the early 90s, and he’s prolific in both the production boat building industry with six designs winning Sailing World Boat of the Year Awards and in custom one-offs such as the current IMS 50-foot world champion Brava Q8 . Some of Farr’s big hits include the Farr 40, Sayonara , Steinlager 2 , Beneteau First 40.7, Mumm 36, and Mumm 30. Farr’s design firm, Farr Yacht Design, located in Annapolis, Md., has drawn America’s Cup challengers since 1987, but has yet to win that prize. For 2003, he was chosen to design Oracle Racing’s IACC challenger, runner-up to the America’s Cup winning Alinghi.

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• Yacht design

link esterni:

www.farrdesign.com

yacht designer (1949)

Bruce Farr B orn in Auckland , New Zealand in 1949 , he started his business sailing, designing and building dinghy-class boats in his country between 1960 and 1970.

President and founder of Farr Yacht Design Ltd , the world's leading company in the design of racing and pleasure sailboats.

In 1973 , thanks to the results obtained in the competitive 18-foot class (skiff), he began to devote himself to full-time yacht design. In the late 1970s he realized that his business needed to establish a presence in the Northern Hemisphere of the Earth to become more accessible to most of the world market. In 1981 he opened an office in Annapolis, Maryland (US), where the company is now based. In the new location, it achieved great success with European and US customers.

Bruce Farr has revolutionized the world of racing sailing boats by introducing innovative design solutions that combine simplicity with the quality of performance. His claim is linked to a vast series of winning projects.

Among the first to give him fame and international success is the half tonner Rangiriri , revolutionary for his "sharp" water lines at the bow and wide and flat at the stern. This design philosophy, derived from Australian skiffs, marks an epochal change in the lines of sailing boats. Gunboat Rangiriri is the winner of the 1977 Half ton Cup in Sydney.

The examples vary between the boats of the IOR classes, and the subsequent IMS (International Measurement System), between those for the Whitbread (around the world) and those of the numerous monotypes such as Platu 25 , MUMM 30 and FARR 40 .

In 1987 the America's Cup experience began with the K27 boat, designed with Laurie Davidson and Ron Holland . K27 is the first boat of this competition built in fiberglass and for this reason it is nicknamed "Plastic Fantastic". In the late 1980s, Bruce Farr's fame reached levels never previously touched.

Bruce Farr understands the importance of technological evolution in the world of design, and adopts CAD (Computer Aided Design) technology in order to find more effective solutions to the complex problems of designing sailing yachts.

The largest French boat manufacturers Beneteau and Jeanneau recognize his talent, and since 1988 they have signed important work agreements with his studio.

Since 1990 the boats designed by Bruce Farr have constantly dominated the scene of international sailing events in all types of competitions.

Farr received the Order of the British Empire award in 1990. Among the awards is the Science and Technology Silver Medal which he received from the Royal Society of New Zealand in recognition of his significant contribution to yacht design.

Farr Yacht Design has renewed its commitment to collaborate with ORACLE BMW Racing Team for the 2007 America's Cup.

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Restoration and Information

Welcome to Titus Canby

Information for enthusiasts of historical New Zealand yachts Manukau Classic Yachts Charitable Trust

Manukau Classic Yachts Charitable Trust  Restoration of Titus Canby

Welcome to our website

This website has been established celebrate Titus Canby,  Bruce Farr’s first keelboat design, and the first New Zealand designed yacht to sail in an international competition overseas.  We  hope this site will enable the Trust  to collect and store all the information that we can find about this yacht, which is so important in New Zealand’s sailing history. We will also record the ongoing work and on the restoration of the yacht and recognise those who have donated their time and money to the project.  In the future when the yacht is back sailing we hope to inspire young New Zealanders into sailing and seamanship and increase their knowledge of the history of sailing in New Zealand. 

We will need donations to promote the aims of the trust and maintain Titus Canby.  All donations to the Manukau Classic Yachts Trust will gno towards the airms of the trust including thtee restoration of Titus Canby. We will be handling most donation though a “Give a Little” page, but you can also donate directly by contacting one of the Trustees.

Give A Little 

https://givealittle.co.nz/org/manukau-classic-yachts-charitable-trust

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• Sailboat Guide

Farr Yacht Design Since designing his first keelboat, ‘Titus Canby’, in the early 1970’s, Bruce Farr has been among the most accomplished and sought-after yacht designer in the world based on the 37 world championships won in his designs and a multitude of successful grand-prix boats, cruisers, and one-designs. Along with his partner, Russell Bowler, he’s been the dominant designer in the Whitbread and Volvo races since the early 90s, and he’s prolific in both the production boat building industry as well as in custom one-offs. Some of Farr’s big hits include the Farr 40, Sayonara, Steinlager 2, Beneteau First 40.7, Mumm 36, and Mumm 30 to just name a few. Originally from New Zealand, Farr’s design firm, Farr Yacht Design, is located in Annapolis, Md., USA. CONTACT INFO: 100 Severn Avenue, Suite 101 ANNAPOLIS MARYLAND 21403 USA T. 410 267 0780 F. 410 268 0553 Email: [email protected]

102 Sailboats designed by Bruce Farr

Beneteau First 36.7

Beneteau First 40.7

Beneteau 50

Farr 38 (11.6)

Farr 36 OD - 2002

Beneteau first ims 40.7, bavaria easy 9.7.

Bavaria Cruiser 56

Bavaria Cruiser 36 (Farr)

Bavaria cruiser 41.

Bavaria Cruiser 40S

Bavaria Cruiser 33

Bavaria b/one.

Bavaria Cruiser 50

Bavaria Vision 42

Bavaria Cruiser 46

Bavaria Cruiser 37

Bavaria Vision 46

Bavaria Cruiser 40

Bavaria Cruiser 45

Farr 30 (Mumm 30)

Finngulf 43

Garrett 40 gpr fr.

Garrett 40 CR

Mumm 30 (Farr 30)

Concordia 47

North Star 727 (Farr)

Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 52.2

Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 51

International 50 (Moorings)

Dickerson 37 (Farr)

Farr 37 (#128).

Farr 44 (1980)

Farr 40 One-Design

Cookson 12M

Farr 1/2 Ton (#65)

Beneteau First 47.7

Beneteau First 44.7

Beneteau Oceanis 44 CC

First 45 (Beneteau - Farr)

Beneteau 57

Beneteau 62

Beneteau stardust 433.

Beneteau First 40

Beneteau First 42S7

Beneteau First 35-2

Beneteau 25 Platu

Beneteau Oceanis 440

Beneteau 44 CC

Moorings 463.

Beneteau First 53F5

Beneteau Oceanis 461

Beneteau 34.7, beneteau first 42sf.

Beneteau 461

Beneteau First 10R

Beneteau First 45F5

Concorde 151

Farr Phase 4

Farr 914 (1/2 ton), beneteau first 47.7 race.

Beneteau First 35-2 Carbon Edition

Bavaria Cruiser 40S (Farr)

Bavaria CR 34

Bavaria Cruiser 40 (Farr)

Farr 36 (1990)

Grand Soleil Maxi One

Farr 740 Sport

Wally 80 (Farr)

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Skip Novak: Real life legend

Louay Habib caught up with Skip Novak during the Legends Regatta to discover tales of races past, races present, and life after the Volvo

In 1981, Raiders of the Lost Ark became one of the top-grossing films ever made with a box office success of over $384 million. Four years earlier, a real-life Indiana Jones sailed to England from the United States, looking for adventure. And ever since, Skip Novak has lived a fascinating life, racing in four round the world races and pursuing his passion for exploration in the remotest corners of the earth. Skip travelled over 7,000 miles to get to Alicante for the Volvo Legends Regatta, including hitching a ride on a ship from South Georgia Island to Argentina and then arriving by air just in time to make the reunion. Did you specifically come to Europe in 1977 to take part in the Whitbread Round the World Race?

‘In 1976, we didn’t really know about the race in the States. I was amazed by the forthcoming 1977 Whitbread Round the World Race and over a few beers in Cowes with the skipper, Hans Savimaki, I landed the navigator’s berth on “King’s Legend”. That is how it was done in those days. There was no psychological testing and physical examination, I just got signed  up and we went out to gather the crew in the same fashion. It was very casual and haphazard.’

In 1977, the navigator’s role was very different to the world of hi-tech systems and tactical awareness today.

‘It was all done by celestial navigation. That was the state of the art. We had some basic hyperbole navigation systems inshore, like Decca, but once you went offshore it was all celestial, something that I had grown up with. I did my first transatlantic in 1972 and I feel very privileged to have caught the end of the era of navigating by the sun, the moon and the stars.

But 90 per cent of navigating in those days was finding out where in the hell you were. The tactics about where to go were obviously important but the boats were so slow that the weather passed over you, one front after  another and you had no idea what was coming. Today these Volvo 70s manipulate the weather – they know what is coming and are fast enough to ride a front.

‘I can remember navigating into Cape Horn having had no sight for seven days and getting a bit panicky about where we were. I eventually got a sight and found that we were 60 miles to the north-east of our dead reckoning, and coming into landfall on the Chilean coast. In those days, the excitement of rounding The Horn was amazing, even more so because you had actually found it.’

‘King’s Legend’ had a great race coming a very close second to ‘Flyer’ in the 1977 Whitbread Round the World Race. Novak admits that a blunder in the Southern Ocean cost them the win, however, he was well and truly hooked on the race and returned in 1981 with ‘Alaska Eagle’. But things did not go well, right from the start.

‘The boat was a dog. Three days into the race, we knew we couldn’t win and we realised we would be operating under that psychological pressure for months to come. The whole ambience on board was not good. I  had come into the project late but the preparation had not gone well and I ended up skippering the boat after the first leg. The owner left the boat totally disappointed with the boat’s performance. It was terrible.’

Fame and fortune

The following edition, Skip Novak skippered ‘Drum’ with the world famous rock star, Simon Le Bon of Duran Duran, on board. ‘Drum’ came third in the Maxis, behind ‘UBS’ and ‘Lion’, both revolutionary designs from Bruce Farr.

‘The Farr boats were much faster than us in a straight line but we had a great crew, the likes of Magnus Olsson, Roger Nilson and Phil Wade. I believe at most times we sailed better than them but we had a slower boat. Simon was only interested in racing one of the largest boats and therefore we had to buy an existing Maxi, because it was too late to build one. We found “Colt Cars”, an unfinished Maxi, which was just a shell and a structure and got to work.

‘Sure, we had girls chasing the boat, newspapers the whole deal. It was great to have such attention but also with Simon in the limelight, a lot of heat was taken off me, leaving me free to run the mechanics of the boat. I had enough girls chasing me to satisfy myself, I am not that greedy! But you know, it was almost like Mbeki and Mandela  in South Africa. Mandela was the figurehead but Mbeki did all the work. ‘“Drum” and also the all-girl crew on “Maiden” launched the 1985 race into the wider press. When we lost the keel on “Drum” in the 1985 Fastnet, it was in the mainstream press. Rick Tomlinson was on board photographing sailing in a way that  it had never been shot before. It was news beyond yachting press and all of these factors combined to ramp up sponsorship for subsequent races.’

In 1989, Skip Novak was the skipper of the first ever Russian entry in the round the world race. The crew of ‘Fazisi’ was made up of five different Soviet nationalities and the team was formed in the year that major changes were afoot in the Soviet Union. Before the start of the race the world witnessed the beginning of the fall of Communism, and by the end of it most of the communist regimes had been overthrown.

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‘In those days just before Perestroika, the source of the funds for “Fazisi” was pretty murky. I never knew where the money came from. All of a sudden it would arrive, sometimes in a brown paper bag. The boat was built in Georgia and initially I was invited out to train the crew. But the boat was still just a shell with nothing inside except the engine – no mast, rudder or keel. It was just six months before the start of the race and I told them that to have any chance of finishing the boat they would need to get it to England. But at the time, I felt it was a lost cause.

‘The next thing I heard was that they were going to fly the boat in using an Antonov 124 the largest cargo airplane in the world and I  headed back out to Georgia. The trip was extraordinary: a barge to the Ukraine then a truck to a local airport. The plane took the 80ft boat and a 20ft container loaded with Russian kit and food. We even had tins of cabbage and sausages hanging up in there! It was all the stuff that the guys would live off in Hamble. On top of that, the 18 crew and myself got in. But there were no proper seats, everyone was sitting around a table, not even strapped in.

‘We flew to Moscow because the crew still needed their passports.

There was a lot of bureaucracy trying to screw things up and we waited in stifling heat until the passports arrived and then we flew into London. We had sponsorship from Pepsi that summer, but before the race started they got too nervous about supporting what was still a “Soviet” project and stopped the sponsorship. But a week before the start, money arrived from an unknown source and we managed to pay off our debts, literally in cash.

‘We struggled for funds all the way around the world and a lot of shit happened. It was a very stressful project but a fascinating cultural experience for me, looking back it was quite tough but a fantastic encounter.’

High latitude exploration

Whilst Skip is best known for his sailing  exploits he has been a keen mountaineer for many years and wishing to combine this passion with sailing he built the expedition yacht ‘Pelagic’ in 1987 and has spent every season since in Antarctic waters. Skip continued to race and became fascinated with multihull racing. In 2001, he was co-skipper with Loick Peyron for  The Race on the 112ft catamaran, ‘Innovation Explorer’, completing a lap of the planet in less than 65 days. But over the past 23 years, Skip has led high latitude sailing expeditions.

‘From very early on, sailing in the Southern Ocean, passing by places and getting glimpses of Cape Horn, I wondered what the land was like and promised myself that I would go there someday. But you need time to visit these places. In the late 80s it was the pioneering days of sailing small boats in high latitudes. It is an amazing environment and I love it every time I do it and there are still places I haven’t seen. It is such a complex area and we have taken a lot of people down  there over the last 23 years – not just tourists but as logistical support for divers, climbers, kayak expeditions and film makers.

‘Nowadays Antarctic tourism has exploded. Last year there were 87 boats on the Antarctic Peninsula; in 1988 there were two. Of course, by publicising our operation I helped  create the problem, or situation, however you judge it. But I like to think that people who come on our boat have really experienced a true expedition.

‘We don’t force the issue but the ethos on board is full participation to your ability and that means sailing the boat, standing watches, cooking and cleaning. A big part of what we do is uncertain: we don’t know if we can follow the planned itinerary. Everybody has to go in with their eyes open, it is all part of the experience, you don’t really know what the next chapter will be.’

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Bruce Farr Yacht Design

Bruce Farr Yacht Design, under leadership of master naval architect Bruce Farr, is known as one of the most successful sailing racing-yacht design team in the world. This is because Farr Yacht Design enjoys one of the most extensive and impressive records of race.  The company also has a history of conceiving many successful luxury yachts.

Their long-running record of achievement dates back more than 20 years.  It includes 40 World Championships won in Farr designs and a multitude of victories at internationally prestigious grand prix yachting events, such as the Whitbread Round the World Race (now the Volvo Ocean Race) Admiral's Cup, Commodores' Cup, Kenwood Cup, Sardinia Cup, Southern Cross and many others. The company has also had a long association with many America’s Cup challenger yachts.

The luxury yachts produced understandably have an emphasis on speed and performance, although this does not need to be at the expense of comfort. Here are some yachts you can currently charter which come from the Bruce Farr stable.

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The Museum will close early at 4pm on Tuesday September 24

Open Daily 10am - 5pm | 365 Thames Street, Newport RI, 02840 Plan Your Visit

Open Daily 10am - 5pm  Plan Your Visit

Bruce Kenneth Farr OBE

Auckland, New Zealand

May 17, 1949

Inductee Class Of

Fast Boats for All Conditions

In 1981 at the age of 32, Bruce Kenneth Farr had already earned a reputation as an innovative naval architect and was a champion sailor. He set up shop in Annapolis, Maryland, which was a long way from his native home of New Zealand. He said at the time that the East coast of the United States was a center of yachting and closer to Europe. He designed his first boat at the age of eleven and named her Resolution . The ten foot dinghy won several regattas and the young, aspiring sailor worked on a few designs in the Moth Class. His most successful Moth was named Mammoth . His designs had bold names to go along with his creative work. Farr learned early in his career that light displacement designs were fast. Late in his career the great naval architect, Olin Stephens II, appreciated Farr’s ability, “I certainly respect Bruce Farr. I was associated early in a small way with Young America . I certainly felt he was right. I didn’t hear him say anything I would disagree with.”

Bruce Farr has an enviable record racing small boats. He won ten National level championships as skipper between the ages of 16 and 26. His victories were in Moths, the Q Class, 18 foot skiffs, Quarter Ton and Half Ton regattas, and the Southern Cross Cup. At the age of 26 he retired as a racing sailor to concentrate on his design work.

Farr left college early to concentrate on yacht design. He worked on his own out of his parent’s basement. In 1971 his Half-Ton design, Titus Canby won the South Pacific Half-Ton Trophy. His designs were winning and Farr gained notoriety. In 1976 he partnered with Russell Bowler. Together they founded Bruce Farr Yacht Designs (later re-branded as Bruce Farr and Associates and finally Farr Yacht Design). The firm was clever with the use of modern materials. The firm’s design, Ceramco New Zealand performed well in the 1981-82 Whitbread Round the World Race in-spite of a broken mast. The speed of the boat impressed her skipper, Peter Blake, who would commission Farr to design Steinlager II  that went on to win the 1989-90 Whitbread Race. For the next twenty years Farr was the leading designer for round the world racers. He and Bowler designed winning racers of all sizes and branched out to comfortable cruising yachts. Farr designs would win over fifty world championships. Their one-design classes were international favorites that included the Farr 40, Farr One Design 30, and a series of yachts for Beneteau.

Farr was the naval architect for seven America’s Cup campaigns based in New Zealand and the United States. His firm was responsible for hundreds of designs that were frequently breakthroughs that influenced the direction of naval architecture worldwide. Farr was a gifted sailor who studied how to make boats sail fast. He spent his career at the leading edge of the sport. His ability to work within the exacting standards of handicap rating rules is legendary. When asked how he was able to design boats for competing round the world racers Farr explained, “We asked the sailors what they anticipate the weather conditions will be and we optimize their boat for those conditions.”

~Gary Jobson

Farr Yacht Design

Distinguished Service Award

Global Solo Challenge: Sail World

Designer of Winning Boats

Meet the Latest Hall of Fame Inductees

Kevin Burnham

Conn Francis Findlay

Eric Robert Dudley Hall

Benjamin Staples Hall

James H Pete Melvin

Gary W. Mull

Jan Pardee Chance O’Malley

Richard Lloyd “Dick” Tillman

Charles “Butch” Richard Ulmer

Franklin J. “Jerry” Wood

Carl A. Alberg

Allegra Knapp Brickell “Leggie” Mertz

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The Sailing Museum & National Sailing Hall of Fame

365 Thames St. Newport RI 02840 401.324.5761

The Sailing Museum

National sailing hall of fame, get involved.

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© 2011 – 2024 The Sailing Museum and National Sailing Hall of Fame  |  Privacy Policy   |  Site Credits

Farr Yacht Design

Sailboat designer.

• Last update: 25th April 2020
• www.farrdesign.com
• +1 410 267 0780
• 100 Severn Avenue, Suite 101 Annapolis Maryland 21403 - USA  

DESIGNS BY LENGTH

FILTERED VIEW: You're viewing a selection of our most recent designs in visual sorted view. For a full list, switch to list view .

RACE RESULTS

FARR MAGAZINE

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ENVIRONMENT

DESIGNS BY NUMBER

VOLVO OCEAN RACE

SUPERYACHTS

AMERICA'S CUP

Photo: © Rick Tomlinson/Volvo Ocean Race

Design № 809 (164ft. | 2017)

50m SUPERYACHT CONCEPT

Design № 788 (142ft. | 2017)

Design № 442 (115ft. | 2001)

FARR 115 "SOJANA"

Design № 691 (110ft. | 2010)

SOUTHERN WIND 102

Design № 778 (105ft. | 2016)

SOUTHERN WIND 105

Design № 591 (100ft. | 2006)

FARR 100 "LEOPARD 3"

Design № 542 (100ft. | 2003)

SOUTHERN WIND 100

Design № 768 (96ft. | 2015)

SOUTHERN WIND 96

Design № 535 (85ft. | 2003)

FARR 85 "ROMA"

Design № 278 (85ft. | 1992)

WHITBREAD MAXI "MERIT CUP," "LA POSTE"

Design № 274 (84ft. | 1992)

WHITBREAD MAXI "NEW ZEALAND ENDEAVOUR"

Design № 190 (84ft. | 1987)

WHITBREAD MAXI "STEINLAGER II"

Design № 489m (82ft. | 2012)

SOUTHERN WIND 82

Design № 183 (81ft. | 1985)

WHITBREAD MAXI "MERIT"

Design № 191 (81ft. | 1987)

WHITBREAD MAXI "FISHER & PAYKEL"

Design № 435 (80ft. | 2003)

Design № 195 (80ft. | 1988)

WHITBREAD MAXI "THE CARD"

Design № 144 (80ft. | 1981)

WHITBREAD MAXI "ATLANTIC PRIVATEER"

Design № 131 (80ft. | 1983)

WHITBREAD MAXI "UBS SWITZERLAND"

Design № 635 (70ft. | 2007)

VOLVO OPEN 70 "TELEFONICA BLACK"

Design № 634 (70ft. | 2007)

VOLVO OPEN 70 "TELEFONICA BLUE"

Design № 715 (70ft. | 2010)

VOLVO OPEN 70 "AZZAM"

Design № 545 (70ft. | 2003)

VOLVO OPEN 70 "BRASIL 1," "BLACK PEARL," & "ERICSSON"

Design № 550 (70ft. | 2003)

VOLVO OPEN 70 "TELEFONICA MOVISTAR"

Design № 90 (1980)

WHITBREAD MAXI "CERAMCO NEW ZEALAND"

Design № 757 (65ft. | 2012)

VOLVO OCEAN 65

Design № 604 (65ft. | 2006)

STP65 "ROSEBUD"

Design № 727 (63ft. | 2010)

FARR 63 "KIWI SPIRIT"

Design № 784 (60ft. | 2016)

INFINITI 60

Design № 498 (60ft. | 2003)

IMOCA OPEN 60 "VIRBAC"

Design № 476 (60ft. | 2001)

VOLVO OCEAN 60 "AMER SPORTS TOO"

Design № 476 (60ft. | 2000)

VOLVO OCEAN 60 "ASSA ABLOY"

Design № 474 (60ft. | 2003)

VOLVO OCEAN 60 "TEAM NEWS CORP."

Design № 473 (60ft. | 2000)

VOLVO OCEAN 60 "TEAM SEB"

Design № 472 (60ft. | 2000)

VOLVO OCEAN 60 "TEAM TYCO"

Design № 471 (60ft. | 2000)

VOLVO OCEAN 60 "ILLBRUCK CHALLENGE"

Design № 396 (60ft. | 1996)

WHITBREAD 60 "SILK CUT"

Design № 394 (60ft. | 1996)

WHITBREAD 60 "SWEDISH MATCH"

Design № 392 (60ft. | 1996)

WHITBREAD 60 "KVAERNER INNOVATION"

Design № 390 (60ft. | 1996)

WHITBREAD 60 "MERIT CUP"

Design № 388 (60ft. | 1996)

Design № 386 (60ft. | 1996)

WHITBREAD 60 "CHESSIE RACING"

Design № 384 (60ft. | 1996)

WHITBREAD 60 "ELLE RACING"

Design № 382 (60ft. | 1996)

WHITBREAD 60 "TOSHIBA"

Design № 378 (60ft. | 1996)

WHITBREAD 60 "EF LANGUAGE," "EF EDUCATION"

Design № 293 (60ft. | 1991)

WHITBREAD 60 "YAMAHA"

Design № 292 (60ft. | 1992)

WHITBREAD 60 "INTRUM JUSTITIA"

Design № 287 (60ft. | 1992)

WHITBREAD 60 "WINSTON"

Design № 286 (60ft. | 1992)

WHITBREAD 60 "TOKIO"

Design № 284 (60ft. | 1993)

WHITBREAD 60 "GALICIA PESCANOVA 93"

Design № 282 (60ft. | 1991)

WHITBREAD 60 "HEINEKEN" (EX-"YAMAHA" & "HETMAN SAHAIDACHNY")

Design № 609 (60ft. | 2005)

IMOCA OPEN 60 "DELTA DORE"

Design № 609m (60ft. | 2006)

IMOCA OPEN 60 "HUGO BOSS"

Design № 81 (58ft. | 1981)

WHITBREAD MAXI "DISQUE D'OR"

Design № 814 (56ft. | 2017)

INFINITI 56C

Design № 668 (55ft. | 2008)

IRC 55 "BEAU GESTE"

Design № 642m (55ft. | 2008)

IRC 55 "ORIENT EXPRESS 6"

Design № 642 (55ft. | 2008)

IRC 55 "LIVING DOLL"

Design № 539 (54ft. | 2003)

FARR IMS 54 "CAM"

Design № 779 (53ft. | 2015)

INFINITI 53

Design № 590 (52ft. | 2005)

TP52 "FRAM XVI"

Design № 597 (52ft. | 2005)

TP52 "STAY CALM II"

Design № 533 (52ft. | 2003)

Design № 585 (52ft. | 2004)

TP52 "BRIBON," "CAIXA GALICIA," "AIFOS," & "RUSH"

Design № 586 (52ft. | 2004)

TP52 "ATALANTI" & "PEGASUS"

Design № 541 (50ft. | 2003)

Design № 606 (46ft. | 2005)

FARR IRC 46

Design № 766 (44ft. | 2015)

Design № 781 (43ft. | 2005)

13m IRC DAYSAILER

Design № 641 (42ft. | 2007)

Design № 605 (42ft. | 2003)

GP42 "ROMA"

Design № 640 (42ft. | 2007)

Design № 588m (42ft. | 2005)

FARR PERFORMANCE 42

Design № 588 (42ft. | 2004)

FARR IRC 42

Design № 534 (42ft. | 2003)

Design № 841 (41ft. | 2018)

Design № 801 (41ft. | 2016)

Design № 608 (40ft. | 2007)

BENETEAU FIRST 40

Design № 819 (39ft. | 2017)

NAJAD 395 AC/CC

Design № 685 (40ft. | 2010)

Design № 374 (40ft. | 1996)

FARR 40 ONE DESIGN

Design № 740 (38ft. | 2013)

38' CENTER CONSOLE

Design № 613 (36ft. | 2006)

Design № 724 (38ft. | 2010)

FARR 400 ONE DESIGN

Design № 622 (35ft. | 2008)

BENETEAU FIRST 35

Design № 543 (34ft. | 2003)

BENETEAU FIRST 10R (FIRST 34.7)

Design № 338 (30ft. | 1995)

FARR 30 ONE DESIGN

Design № 732 (28ft. | 2012)

FARR 280 ONE DESIGN

Design № 667 (25ft. | 2008)

FARR 25 ONE DESIGN

Design № 750 (23ft. | 2012)

Design № 749 (14ft. | 2013)

HORIZON F14

Farr Yacht Design

100 Severn Avenue, Suite 101

Annapolis, MD 21403

©  2018