Wipeout!

Jockey test

Just arrived back from a test sail with my chosen "Bloody Mary" handicap open meeting jockey. A very talented young sailor called Piers Hugh Smith (16yrs 68kg). Someone to watch I think. He handled the boat very well (no chickening out on the gybes (Mr Barton) ;-) ), especially well considering the strong and gusty conditions. Pretty similar conditions to the Y&Y test sail... with one particularly nasty gust which came from nowhere, (30knts) at just after 3pm (check the stats image below) which caused Piers a gigantic wipe out of epic proportions. The conditions varied wildly as they always do a B.S.C ranging from lulls down to 10knts. GoPro footage will be posted when available.

The Farr 3.7... it's the real article

Spaced?

I got an interesting couple of pics today from a fellow Farr 3.7 sailor who's based in South Australia. Showing an unusual bulk head design and material. I thought I'd share it with the world. As I've not seen this sort of construction done before.

This is what Matt has to say about the Farr 3.7:

"I purchased one in Australia from Ebay rather cheaply and I think you can't beat the " bang for my buck " that I got here with my Farr.... My sailing experience is crewing in a Mosquito cat and I'm learning to sail my Farr off the wire with some crashing and burning ! ( makes me realise how easy crewing of the trapeze is now )"

Good on ya Matt!

Myth buster

For some reason people think it is easier to build in foam, I think they may have forgotten that building in foam on or in a mould is great but:

Building using the three methods of epoxy foam construction that a home builder could contemplate all cost more in consumables, equipment and require more space than the normal single garage set up. The beauty of the ply system is it can be done in a single garage, by one person at very low cost both in terms of materials and extra equipment.

If you go foam you have to build a jig, ( that you tie the foam down on to ) a male mould or a female mould ( where you use vaccum to create the foam epoxy consolidation ) or hire or part own a mould. All extra cost and time, as well as waiting for the mould to be available, ( if part of a group ) and hoping the mould doesn't get damaged. Which happens more often than you think. And then where do you store the mould?

You need to buy a vacuum pump (£250) you also need more consumables: tacky tape, breather, bread wrap, peel ply and vac bag plastic. You need more epoxy, you need large amounts of glass fibre cloth or carbon to create the foam sandwich. You need more rollers, brushes, gloves. You need a laying up table. You need the garage to be warm and not just the area you are working on. You need an extra layer of specific knowledge that most people don't have.

In the end it costs a lot more and is more difficult to do on your own. (laying up large sheets of glass on a mould is very hard to do on your own ). And all this for what? A boat that is 10 kg lighter.

Form my point of view, it's the Farr 3.7's simplicity that is it's beauty. The attractiveness of building one is wood is that building one is within the scope of a regular handy guy or girl. With no real extra boat building technical knowledge. With part of its joy being the ability to build up your cheap laser cut ply parts with minimum extra space, help, tools and consumables.

People say building in wood is harder than foam. This is only true if: you want a wood finish. And I would debate that fact even then with regard to the Farr.

If you treat wood like you do foam I.E as a core material needing filler and painting this isn't the case. If you make any visible bad joints they can be filled and painted over. It is also less true if you are using laser cut wood parts! You would also be using Bruce Farrs plans, meaning you have less thinking time and there is less likelyhood of getting it wrong!

But if foam is what people want then a having a set of AUTO CAD files altered to allow a foam skin over ply may be the way forward. I know at least one person I have been talking to was thinking this would be the way he wanted to build one. A sort of halfway foam / ply boat.

And to this end I am investigating having the AUTOCAD files altered to allow for the increased hull skin thickness that would be needed for a foam hull skin.

The above having been said. If a male or female foam sandwich construction is what you want to do, please don't let my views stand in your way. I will be the first to offer my help to anyone needing an extra pair of hands and then I'll be there slapping you on your back, saying well done when you finish it!

The big one... 11/11/11

Farr 3.7 Y&Y test sail high def video LINK

My blogger template doesn't accept 'Vimeo' embedding code at the moment so you'll just have to click the link to see what all the fuss is about... Don't forget to pick up your copy of Yachts and Yachting tomorrow 11/11/11 to see what Pete Barton made of the Farr 3.7!

Gripped

The pro grip is on.

Time flies?

Another week flies by and I haven't got out on the Farr. We have just sold our house, had an offer accepted on a new one and then went on holiday. I'm now running around like a nutter trying to sort my business accounts, survey's, solicitors and removal companies as well as trying to find time to finish pro-griping the Farr! Not to mention sailing it!

Still the holiday was great. If you like Fly or Lure fishing for Salmon, Sea Trout, Brown Trout and especially Sea Bass you have got to go here: The Thatch Cottage Ireland. Some of the best fishing around in some of the best scenery. Looked after by the best people. I'm booked again all ready!

Half a job

I only managed to get one side of ProGrip stuck on this weekend. Due in most part to house viewings, as we are moving house, and need to get a move on with finding one to buy! And I ran out of Evo Stick.

Going Pro!

The ProGrip has just turned up. Or should I say Algeofoam. Sheets of 2m x 1m for £7.50. If you are paying £60 from well know yacht suppliers you are get highly ripped off! Now for some sticky, sticky and then for getting wetty, wetty!

Flip out!

Landyachting this weekend. The ProGrip hasn't arrived from the medical supplier. So no sailing for me this weekend in the Farr 3.7.

To say Landyachting was interesting this weekend would be an understatement. It is also slightly puzzling. It is the first sail in a decent breeze I have had in my Class 5. The morning session was great. The wind was on shore from a very slight NW direction. There was a healthy wind of around 20mph. I had a great time, the yacht was relatively stable, cornering well and front wheel grip was not an issue at the tacking mark. Speeds around the 50 - 55 mph were achieved.

The afternoon session was a different matter. Whether it was that I re-tracked and changed the camber on the yachts wheels and axels or not the afternoon was a nightmare. Unfortunately this was when our club racing was.

Lining up on the start line I was feeling confident. GO! A quick push and in. The yachts all screamed off. Instantly my yacht felt very different to the morning. Much more scitish. Keeping control on the straights was at times difficult. Now for the Gybe mark. Wide entry. "This yachts not turning like it did an hour ago!". A much wider turn, lack a little grip on the exit. Applying opposite lock to conteract the rear end dift. I caught a gust and the wheel lifted, I had to go with it. I bore away and sheeted out. The yacht came down, I was now off and away down the beach. Next the up wind mark.

It was a pretty lively leg down to the mark. As I neared the turning box my sail started to luff, I tried to sheet in further. The booms below my head! I attempted to turn into the mark, lost all front wheel grip. Missed the mark and sped past the box. I sheeted out, nothing, no grip, if anything worse! And then it flipped backwards! Luckily it came down and had scrubbed enough speed of for me to regian control. I turned and went for it angain.

This happened every time I attempted to get around the tacking mark. I tried different entry angles, sheeting in as much as i could without taking head off ( see chips out of my helmet for proof), and eventually sitting up to get my weight forward. But this last technique meant sheeting out more, not good! All ended in the same lack of front wheel grip, and some extreme back flips! I started to lose confidence and so came in to have a think.

After various chats with the other yachters, I think the cure is a slightly longer mast, so I can keep the sail sheeted in as well as keeping the boom above my head. Currently when I'm sheeted in the boom comes lower than my eye line. Also suggested was lead on the front axle. I will be giving this a go and I will let you know if it was successful!

Hot and sticky

It was the first full day of my landyachting clubs new season this weekend. We can sail all day from the 1st of October. So I was intending to be in the landyacht this weekend. But the unseasonal weather made me reconsider the weekend plans. Rather than sit in endless traffic jams on the M4 and M5, making my way to the beach with the rest of the UK's population. I decided to finish the side deck repair on the Farr.

Peeling off the old Pro Grip and getting rid of the old EvoStick took a lot longer than I was thinking it would. And a lot more thinners! But eventually the side decks were clean. I then sanded back the decks to achieve a key for the epoxy and laid up my carbon. It would have been glass but carbon was all I had to hand. I then applied peel ply for good consolidation and left it to bake in the ridiculous October heat!

I now have nicely reinforced side decks, all I need now is to Pro Grip them. Unfortunately the sheet I had wasn't big enough for the full length of the gunwale. So I'll have to do the progripping next weekend.

You never know I might get a decent sail in the boat before the lake ices up for winter! That is if the weed ever dies off!

Mr Fix it...

I've been fixing a small trap hook hole today that was made on the Y&Y Test sail day. Pete must have rolled in on the hook on one of his 2 capsizes. The decks are 3mm ply so care when getting back in from the water has to be taken. I have been getting in over the stern as there is a nice, hard carbon transom tube that takes the trap hook knocks that are inevitable when getting back in.

The good thing about having to do this repair is that I am going to take the opportunity to put a layer of glass (maybe carbon) on the side decks. As this has made me realize that when I loan out the boat to less experienced youth sailors that this is likely to happen regulary. So adding some protection now should help make the boat more robust in this situation. Adding the glass shouldn't add much weight and visually it will not spoil the look of the boat as I intend to cover the side decks with Pro-Grip, covering over the glass.

Today I came up with a neat way of keeping tension on the string that held the plate that I stuck under the side deck hole and then filled.

Having cleaned the hole up in the ply, I sanded the edges to a 45^ angle to make a bigger contact area for the epoxy filler. I then shaped a bit of carbon plate to fit into the hole on the diagonal. This allows the plate to have enough overlap to be stuck to the under side of the hole. I drilled a small hole in the middle of the plate, threaded a small length of plastic coated garden wire through the hole and the applied my mixture of epoxy filler to the plate. I posted the plate through the hole and pulled up on the plate to stick the plate to the underside of the ply side deck. To keep tension on this I cut an old plastic soft drink bottle in half, made a hole in the lid and threaded the wire through the hole and applied tension and tied of the wire. A neat way of keeping the tension on the plate without tying string to garage rafters etc. Especially helpful if you are doing this sort of repair at your sailing club!

Mayday!

At last I have a UK spec trailer hitch, thanks to Andy at Mayday Boats for fitting the hitch today.

Spoiler...

 

Just a quick rough cut video of the Y&Y Test Sail. Just enough to give you a taste of what I am sure Tom Gruitt will surpass with his Hi Def video kit.

As for the way the boat is performing. There is no main sail flogging and the boat is lively, fast but manageable. Yes it's true Pete is at the top of ( what I think is ) the weight range for the boat (75kg).  And a lighter helm would be de-powering and easing sheet more. But is this is in a lot of wind. I personally measured the wind at 30mph on a hand held anemometer and there were definitely bigger gusts. That having been said there were lulls down to 10/12 knts with the average  being around the 20's. So I think someone lighter could cope with these conditions in a manageable way. Only time will tell. Any willing lightweights out there please form an orderly que.

Wow...

 

Well that was a test sail and a half. Gusting 32knts and dropping as low as 10knts at times. Pete Barton rang the little 3.7's neck! At times making it hard for the RIB to keep up. This made the ride in the RIB almost as wet as the ride on the 3.7.

Pete had to deal with a few patches of weed, making for one quite spectacular stall out of the rudder. And the odd 3 point turn to remove the garden attached to the foils. But I think a great success. Certainly everyone was smiling.

I can't write too much as Pete needs to write his review and then it needs to be published. But from my point of view, the boat looked FAST, well balanced and manageable even in the extreme conditions we faced today.

I'll post a little video later when I've edited it.

Photo credit: Tom Gruitt

Hurrican warning?

Monday's test sail could be very windy. Watching the weather news just now even the forecasters aren't sure of the wind strengh. As the Hurrican changes into an Atlantic Storm pretty much anything could happen! I'm hoping it won't blow the day out.

Test sail back on!

We are go! Everything now rearranged for Monday 12th at Burghfield Sailing Club. With back up days on the Tuesday and Thursday. Even the forecast is looking good, a little gusty ( understatement )  but I'm sure Pete Barton will handle it. Look out for some video of the test sail as I'll be putting a camera on board and shooting from the RIB.

 

Distacted...

I've been a little distracted from sailing the Farr lately. I have been refurbishing my Class 5 landyacht. A superb machine capable of 60mph!

The season has started again at my landyachting club at Brean near Weston-Super-Mare. We have a mid season break during the summer as the beach is full of bikini and budgie smuggler wearing sun seekers,  which we find make for to many obstacles on the beach :-). So I was keen to get my new purchase sorted and ready to go for the start date. Hence not much Farr 3.7 sailing. It's not very windy on video, but it still worth a watch. If I'm going that fast in 6 to 10 mph what is it going to be like in 20! :-0

Test sail postponed

Pete Barton seems to have gone AWOL and Tom's run out of batteries for his camera or something so the test sail is postponed for this week. Which may be a good thing, as the later in the year we do this the better conditions we are likely to have. Less weed and more wind. So keep watching this space. The test sail is imminent.

Yachts and Yachting test sail agreed!

After long and complex discussions ( ...I sent an email and asked Mark and Gale ) it has been agreed that Yachts and Yachting are to test sail the Farr 3.7. The test sail is currently planned for the week of August the 29th, with Pete Barton as test jockey with Tom Gruitt taking photographs. I'm hoping Pete hasn't eaten to many pies, but as he is currently sailing his foiling Moth to some top positions and been UK Cherub & RS 800 National Champ, I doubt he'll be too big for the boat. But you never know. Here's hoping for good wind, no weed, favorable report and some good pictures.

Farr 3.7 forsale

No not mine :-)... Howden's in New Zealand have a boat which was built on spec for sale. The hull is glassed on the outside and sanded back ready for painting, resin sealed on the deck ready for clear coat varnishes, Epoxy sealed in the cockpit and sanded back ready for paint, internally it has been sealed with three coats of epoxy sealer. The mast step is fitted, chain-plates and bow handle are fitted, alloy transom cross beam is fitted and the hull to this stage weighs 42.8kgs, min weight is 50 kgs. The asking price is $8756 NZD which is roughly £4648. Anyone interested go to the links page and contact Andrew Howden or send me a email / message / comment and I will forward it to him.

Light and Patchy

I was hoping for better weather for trapezing but the wind didn't live up to the forecast. 13knts was the forecast but is never really made it much past 8knts. The lake is also starting to weed up. Which didn't help. I'm also at the top of the weight range at 75kg ( which is an incentive to lose some weight ). 10kg less would be much better. In an attempt to actually show some trapezeing I went on the wire in as many of the gusts as possible, resulting in the inevitable! :) But at least getting wet shows how easy righting from a capsize is!

Video rig

We had no wind this weekend. So I set about making a video rig as I'm sure lots of people are interested in seeing some video of how the 3.7 goes in this country. I have a waterproof bullet camera from some earlier sailing video experiments so I dug this out.

And set about making a boom arm for it (see pic). In the past I've always suffered from not being able to attach the camera particularly well to the boat. This situation gets worse when you add a big lever arm in the shape of a boom. As what ever you have used to tie the camera boom on with tends not to be man enough. And slowly droops or falls off! Not good. As I was scouring the house for something suitable, I saw my sons drum kit and had a brain wave. A Drum rack clamp! Perfect for attaching to the transom bar and holding my bullet camera boom at 90˚. Now all we have to do is pray for some wind!

Insurace claim

Lesson No1 if you want anything done quickly email someone in New Zealand.

As most of you will know my boat was damaged whilst being shipped. I originally emailed Oceanbridge in NZ about this and as ever got a immediate email back. I was asked to contact Atlantic Pacific in the UK, well do you think I've had a response yet? Well 3 weeks have been and gone and not a peep. So I'll email NZ to see if they can help. Yep you guessed it, an immediate response even though the individual I emailed was on holiday. All the information I needed to move forward was there, even a CC hurry up to the Atlantic Pacific UK to contact me ( which they still haven't done ).

So if anyone's at all worried about the long distance communication involved in getting a 3.7 imported, I wouldn't worry. In my experience everything's dealt with in a very timely manner. And far better than you get in the UK.

Details, details...

I eluded in a post the other week that my boat was a master class in efficiency and I thought I should show you why I think so.

Firstly there's no main halyard! What! Yep no halyard. This saves the 2:1 compression on the mast allowing the mast to react as it should. So how do you get the sail up and err... down. Simples, roll the boat over to pull the sail up. My boat has a great trailer that incorporates a neat strap ( efficiency 1 ) and cradles that allow this to be done easily. The boat is also very light. The main is attached to the mast head via a loop of spectra which is inserted behind a spinnaker piston hook which has been bonded into the mast tip ( efficiency 2 ). This is achieved by pulling a short rope tag attached to the spinnaker piston at the mast tip. There is also a line that runs to the bottom of the mast, simply pull the line when you want to drop the sail and the piston opens. And you pull the sail down.

The shrouds and forestay terminals in the mast are just holes! ( efficiency 3 ) The terminals on the shrouds and forestay are hooks. You just hook 'em in the holes and put a bit of tape around them to keep them there. You remove the tape when you pull the sail up when the boat is on it's side.

Stepping the mast is easy. ( efficiency 4 ) The shrouds have bottle screws. You attach one using a shackle ( no fiddely shroud plates and pins ). The forestay has a short spectra strop. You put the shackle through this and step the mast locating the mast foot pin in the mast step. Attach the lose shroud with a shackle. The rig is slack at this point. You then take a trapeze line to the bow. And using the bow trolley line tie the line to the trap hook to make a simple boat breaker. Pull the trapeze adjustment system until the forestay shackle can be attached to the deck eye on the fore deck. Release the trap line and your done. Oh there are some lowers as well but you just pop those on the shackle when you are doing the shrouds. Brilliantly simple, no extra bits of kit and less weight.

Second outing...

I have to say I have no idea why this boat is not more widely distributed! The Farr 3.7 is without doubt an absolute joy to sail. She is right up there with the best if not the best, and I have sailed a lot of boats. From Musto Skiffs to MX-Rays to UK Cherubs to National 12's to Buzzes to RS100, RS200, RS800, 29ers, 29erXX, Mirror's, Splash, Int Moth.... the list goes on and on.

I think you can tell I enjoyed my sail today!

Perfect for UK inland waters where space is a little restricted or where the wind is shifty. (Like where I sail at BSC, islands and shallows etc... ). You can sail conservatively and hike her until the mean wind is enough to trapeze on, or go for it and hook on at every gust. She planes readily, is light and well balanced and is statically stable. And what's more she'll be a great sea boat too. Excelling in big wind. With no ultra low boom to deal with and a simple fully battened rotating rig squeezing all the power out the main sail sized just shy of 9 sqm. She is a joy!

First outing...

I sailed her today. Just a shake down sail to make sure I have worked out how to rig her and if I need to sort anything. I have been waiting a couple of weeks to do this, as it has been so dam windy recently. I wasn't keen to go out for the first time with it was blowing a hooley!

But I can report that she everything I had hoped for. Responsive, balanced and a genuine joy to sail. With a really nice matched sail and mast.

The other thing a have been very impressed with is the sheer detail in the way she has been rigged. It is a master class in minimalism. And very much not the way we do things over here. I'll talk more on this in my next post with more detail and pictures as this is just a short up date on my 3.7 progress, to keep everyone up to date. Ta tar for now...

Watch out for VAT!

Simple thing. Watch out for VAT when importing. VAT applies even to secondhand goods when entering the country for the first time from outside the EU. Something I wasn't aware of until now. But hey, that's what this journey is about.

Got it!

I have it. It's a bit damaged. But I have it.

Loaded and ready to go.

Damaged transom.

It looks like something bounced into the transom on the way over or while in the freight forwarding warehouse's either in NZ or UK. One of the bars that holds up the box trailer cover and the mast cradle on the box trailer were also crushed. So something must have fallen on it as well. But hey, that's why these things are insured. Although as expected, when dealing with staff of the UK freight forwarding company communication only started to improve from noises closely resembling 'grunts' when I pointed out the damage to my boat in there warehouse.

It's here...well sort of!

Yep, "Sacré Bleu!" is in the UK. I have received the - "Advice of Arrival". But I can't go and get her yet. She has to be off loaded from the ship and taken to the Depo in Essex.

And then there is the VAT curve ball! I have just found this out after speaking to 'Oceanbrigde' UK agents. I did make it clear that the boat was built in New Zealand and was secondhand. They are going away to check if VAT is needed to be paid! If anyone reading this knows what the VAT situation on dinghies built outside the UK and imported secondhand is, please leave a comment in the comment section. It would be most helpful!

Right balls up.

I've been trying to get a NZ tow ball for my WITTER UK spec tow bar, as Sacré Bleu! has a NZ spec 1 7/8th tow ball. And it's the easiest way to trail the boat from the docks.

I've been communicating with a great Tow Bar company in NZ who were sorting this out for me, but it looks like it's not going to happen. For no other reason that in NZ they use a different tow bar system with a flat tongue bar that the ball bolts through. We on the other hand tend to have a cast upside down "T" with two bolts. Looks like we are back to the flat bed trailer for the trailer option.

Transfer season...

OK, the boat is now half way around the worlds oceans, tucked safely into a 40 foot container. And it's now time to pay for the shipping. As I mentioned before I had got a little fleeced by my bank when using them to transfer the money for the boat. So I set about finding a different way of transferring funds overseas. Well I can now recommend using MONEYCORP A a fantastic firm that normally only charges £15 for a transfer of the size I am making. But because we had seen a web article on the Telegraph website which described them as the "go to business for money trading" they would do the first transaction for FREE! A world away from my banks attitude! A great firm, really friendly and helpful staff. In short I wish I'd found them at the beginning!

Holiday hiatus...

The family and I been away salt water fly fishing in southern Ireland for a week, hence the blog break. See some of the results of the trip below....

I can report though on the trailer hitch situation. Sacré Bleu! trailer has an old style 1 7/8th's  trailer hitch... bummer... so I will need a trailer for the trailer when I pick up the boat from Tilbury docks. :-(

Oh balls!

There's me feeling all smug about a bringing over a really nice box trailer and I have a sudden thought about tow hook sizes! Are they the same size in NZ as the UK? "This will dampen my day when I pick the boat up at Tilbury Docks if it doesn't hitch to my tow hook", I thought. Well it turns out I was right. They have 2 sizes of hook in NZ. The old style: 1:7/8th's (47.6mm) and the newer 50mm type, brought in to align with Europe. Another email has just been sent to the other side of the world to check.

Box trailer envy!

There was a bit of chatter on the Yachts and Yachting forum about how the guys and girls in the Southern Hemisphere do a nice job of there boat trailers. They seem to do it quite differently to us up here in the North. I've seen quite a few Int Moth box trailers but very few on other classes. Maybe it's time we joined in? This is 'Sacré Bleu!' trailer...

Ready and waiting!

Here she is at the dock in Auckland, New Zealand. All packed up and ready to go. She should be posted into her container by the 13th and be here in 30 days. All being well I'll be sailing her by mid May at Burghfield Sailing Club. Let's hope the ship dosen't run into any bad tropical storms and dump my container over the side.

copyright: Peter Kovesi

Blood sucking banks!

The things you learn when going through an exercise like this. I'm sure many of you know this fact already, but I didn't. There are exchange rates and then there are exchange rates! So you do all your calculations on the price of the boat and shipping. You do these against the costs of what the price would be to have the boat built in the UK. It all looks good, you use the freely available, up to the moment exchange rates on the web. In full understanding of the little caveat at the bottom of the page, that says these rates may change. You are happy the with a currency like the NZD the exchange rate is pretty stable, and, well it might move a couple of points but nothing drastic. Then you go to the bank to do the funds transfer. And you find the bank in it's wisdom set a daily rate. The daily rate, it is said it is set to allow for any fluctuations in the rate that day. Well that's fine, but does it really mean that it has to be set at a level where the boat you have just bought costs an extra £250, yes £250! Well if you are a banker I'm sure the answer is yes, if you are a regular guy trying to import a boat, the answer in most defiantly NO!

Farr 3.7 import goes ahead

So what's all this then....? Some of you will know me as Jack Sparrow, if you read the Yachts and Yachting magazine forum. Others will just know me as Daryl, that is if you have sailed in the UK Cherub, National 12, Buzz or possibly the 29er fleets. And if you do, you'll also know I have just sold my beloved 'Banshee Ambulance' a multi-mode, foam composite boat that was built within UK Cherub rules, but was envisioned to perform many more roles than just that.

She was put up for sale as a 'use it or lose it' challenge to my 14 year old son. And well unfortunately he lost it!

So what next? Well I imagine that most of you will have guessed by the title of the blog what's next! Yep, a Farr 3.7. And that's what this blog is going to be all about. The trials and tribulations of importing, sailing and encouraging others to sail this cracking little trapeze boat, that not many have heard about. Well not unless you are one of the 390 odd New Zealander's that have built, sailed and raced these great little boats since Bruce Farr designed it in 1970/1.

As we speak, or I type, I am just about to transfer the funds to a great guy in New Zealand who has agreed to sell me his National Championship winning boat. And hopefully in some 30 days or so I should be the proud owner of 'Sacré Bleu!'.