Tasmanian sports boats heading for Audi Victoria Week

by Peter Campbell on 16 Jan 2010
Hobart naval architect, boat-builder and sailor Fred Barrett mostly designs, builds and races on other people's yachts, but next weekend he will helm his own newly-launched sports boat Fang to the Max at the Victoria Week regatta in Geelong.

A downwind flyer, Fang to the Max has already logged 18 knots under spinnaker in trials on the River Derwent last weekend. The FBYD 6.4m, described by Barratt as a 'tiny little boat', carries up to 80 square metres of sail downwind.

Fang the Max heads a Tasmanian contingent of five boats contesting the national sports boats series as part of the huge Victoria Week, previously known as Geelong Race Week.

The sports boat fleet of 23 is a record, with boats coming from NSW, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania. Fang to the Max will be representing the Derwent Sailing Squadron while other Tasmanian boats will be representing Port Dalrymple Yacht Club and Mersey Yacht Club.

Over the past decade Fred Barrett has been involved in many yacht design and building projects, including project managing the building of maxi yachts at McConaghy Boats in Sydney and shore and technical manager for the Spanish yacht Moviestar for the 2005-2006 Volvo round the world race, as well as running his own design consultancy.

His latest designs, in addition to Fang to the Max, include an 80-footer being built by McConaghy Boats for a Russian yachtsman and a GP26 nearing completion at Van Munsters in NSW. Much of his time has been in 'reinventing' the 40-footer Mr Kite which recently won line honours the Maria Island and Launceston to Hobart races.

'When I came back to Hobart after the Movistar project, the old man (father Noel) had some King Billy pine and said I should design and build a sports boat.he came up with a sail plan on a sheet of A4 and I drew the hull, keel and rudder,' Barrett said today after completing his current project, teaching his four-year-old son Max to swim.

'Max will need to swim if he's going to come sailing with me on this boat,' he quipped. Of his prospects at Geelong, he said the boat had been designed as a handicap winner not an out-and-out speedster, 'but she is quite quick.'

Barrett said he had included aspects of Volvo race technology in designing and building, the result being a stubby hull with a large rig including a state-of-the-art square top mainsail. The deep carbon fibre keel has 250kg of lead ballast at the bottom.

'We are in the process of beginning tooling for an update 6.6m design intended for the Swiss market.construction will start in Switzerland in the coming months,' Barrett added.

Sailing with Fred Barrett at Geelong will be Justin Foster, Justin Wells, John Wearne and Michael Hutchinson.