JC speaks

These are the words of JC. An 18 year old sailor who test sailed the Farr 3.7 at Blackwater Sailing Club last bank holiday Monday. He wrote this for inclusion on the BSC website. He weighs 60kg.

My Farr 3.7 Test Sail

Having sailed more regular boats in my life such as toppers, lasers, 420s and fireballs, I didn’t really know what to expect from the Farr 3.7, being a single handed trapeze boat that is unlike anything else I have ever had the opportunity to sail before. The concept of trapezing and helming at the same time was new to me and was more difficult to get to grips with than I had first anticipated, not helped by the tiller being as long as I am tall! This resulted in me going for more than a few swims throughout the afternoon but I began to get more used to it towards the end and with a few more sails I’d be confident of being able to sail it competitively.

I think it has a lot of potential to be the perfect transitional boat between more conventional boats and skiffs, which would avoid the difficulty of trying to go straight into a skiff and spending most of your time upside down. Not only that, but it would be a good competitive racing fleet if it would be possible to get a few of them going at the club. Obviously this would be difficult because of currently having to ship them over from New Zealand but I think it would be more than worthwhile if there were enough people up for it. (The Farr 3.7 is currently being put into production by Butler Boats and is also available to build from plan with pre laser cut parts available as a delivered pack from Robbins Timber Bristol with the cost of a self build hull being around £650).

Despite capsizing I didn’t have any trouble keeping the boat flat and if I got more used to the controls of the boat I’d be confident going out in stronger winds. (Test sail wind 10-15knts, gusts shown around 18knts)

Overall, I think the Farr 3.7 is a great boat and it was a thoroughly enjoyable sail. I would definitely want to sail one again and would probably already own one by now if they were easier to get a hold of! If they become more easily available or if I can persuade my parents to splash out on shipping costs then I will definitely be one of the first to consider getting one at the club! If you’re looking to move into a skiff or just looking for something new and different then I would definitely recommend looking into investing in a Farr 3.7.

Bow Wow...

Back in Black_water SC

Great day test sailing the 3.7 today at Blackwater Sailing Club. 3 test sailors today. One who had never trapeze helmed before, weighing about 9.5 stone (60kg) the others were (69, 76 and me 78kg). All happily out on the wire. Wind averaging 10-15knts. The wind data shown here shows speed touching 20knts but we were sailing a good distance down the Blackwater from the club and there were gusts but nothing that look that big? Whilst I get around to editing the video footage here are a few pics to look at.

Boat back

Ive got my boat back from Butler Boats. They have successfully taken a mould from him ( kiwi boats are male for some reason ). they will be building a wooden boat in this mould that boat will be measured and then have a glass production mould taken from her. This wood boat will also be a demo boat. So for those of you up north give Dave at Butler Boats a ring. In the mean time I am busy sorting the boat to take her for a test sail over in Essex. I just have to polish the boat to remove the release wax that is still left on her and tidy up a number of other things and then we are good to go. BLACKWATER Sailing Club here we come!

Everyone should have a Butler

I have just got back from dropping my boat off with Dave Butler of Butler Boats. A clandestine meeting was arranged just off the M1 to transfer the boat from one car tow hitch to another. With the current petrol situation we were unsure as to wheather we were going to be able to get the boat up to Butler Boats workshops. But thankfully petrol stations seem to have enough supplies. Well for me anyway!

Dave will be taking a mould from my boat. To produce a demo boat and then if the interest in the class remains as high as it is now, a production mould will be made for foam boats to be produced.

This is great news. And hopefully will make a big difference to te success of the class in the Uk. Meaning there will be an off the shelf boat avaliable for those not wishing to self build or import!

Son of the Farrther

 

Yesterday I had to cancel the 3.7 Test Sail Day due to low / no wind and test sailor drop out.

And so today I thought... 'It's a great day to see how my 15 year old son takes to the 3.7'.

Luke's just turned 15. He's 45kg ( weighed him on the scales tonight ) and 5'5". He hasn't sailed for 2 years. As he's taken every opportunity to chase girls or skate his local skate park recently. But before this he club raced a Mirror with me crewing for him. And before that did the Optimist thing from the age of about 7. Taking his 30 year old Optimist '2060' to a Silver fleet WIN and some fairly consistent top 5 Silver fleet open meeting places.

So he's no superstar squad sailor but represents an average 15 year old club sailor. So a great test pilot!

So how did his sail in the 3.7 go? Well I'll put it like this... 'Luke now wants to sail again after a 2 year layoff'. In fact he said, 'Dad, I want to start sailing every Sunday now, this boat is really dialed'. I think that sum's up what I saw in the 3.7. A great boat that enables kids and light weight adults to sail an exciting but well mannered trapeze helm boat.

Luke sailed the boat for roughly 2.5 > 3hrs with a combination of trapezing and hiking in wind that was around the 6 >10knts range. With no capsizes and most importantly a massive grin on his face!

I took the 3.7 for a spin after Luke came back in and at 75kg ( I must start running! :-( ) managed a few trips out on the wire as well. Not as sustained as Luke but considering the wind strength dam good fun.

Thanks 3.7 for a great day.

 Apologies for the bad quality. I didn't have a long lens with me, but I felt it was important to show Luke fully trapezing.

Up the Ally Pally

What a fantastic show! The interest in the 3.7 was truly astonishing. So much so that I for one almost lost my voice from the amount of talking I did. Even James, Marketing Director of Spinlock commented on the fact that 'he was sorry he hadn't been able to chat all weekend, but he never got an opportunity! Every time I looked around you were talking to somebody! And we were!  So a special thanks from the UK 3.7 Class to Spinlock for providing us with the stand space. We couldn't have done it without you.

So what's the up shot of the show? Well it looks like there the will be at least 5 possibly 6 - 3.7's being built by home builders so far. We also had a lot of interest from professional boat builders, fitting, spar and sailmakers and suppliers. And we will be following these contacts up in the next few weeks with the aim of smoothing the supply chain for home builders and those interested in having a pro boat built. 

The test sail day sign up was good also. With our limit of people being reached. The class will be in touch shortly to confirm emails and telephone numbers soon just in case we need to suspend the day due to weather etc…

All in all a great weekend.

There is just one last thing to say. A big thank you to Piers and Dave for helping out on the stand and chatting through with people why you have decided to build this great little boat.