Farr 280 class expansion kicks off in 2015

by Joe Hall on 14 Feb 2015 The first full season for the Farr 280 class is off to a flying start, with victories won and competitive racing planned under a range of handicap systems.

In January, four Farr 280s competed in Key West Race Week in the PHRF 1 division. ‘RED,’ racing in their very first regatta with the boat, won the division on handicap, coming out on top of the 280 one design ‘class within a class’ whilst also beating a Farr 30, C&C 30 and two J/122s.

Over the five days of racing on windward-leeward courses, conditions varied from five to eighteen knots of wind. Reviewing the results from Key West, the 280s performed very well against the fleet in light to moderate conditions (up to ten knots), and also excelled on the final day of racing in 16 to 20 knots.

Applying these results to other handicap systems to rescore the regatta also throws up some interesting results. Under HPR (ratings in seconds/mile) ‘RED’ again came out on top, with two other Farr 280s ahead of both the J/122s and the C&C30. The ORC and IRC rating systems tend to favour heavier cruiser-racers, and as such it is no surprise that the bigger and heavier boats lead the fleet when rescored. What’s more, the courses were all windward/leeward, where heavier boats hold an upwind advantage. However, ‘RED’ once again scores ahead of the Farr 30 and C&C30 under both systems. In fact, only the Farr 280 ‘Ragin’ loses out to the C&C30 when rescored IRC, and only then because of three DNCs on her scoresheet (the DNCs were the result of a pre-start collision which broke the boat’s bowsprit).

Meanwhile in the U.K., the Vice Admiral’s Cup – a highly popular three-day event organised by the RORC/Royal Corinthian Yacht Club in Cowes – will include a high performance division for the first time in 2015. The rating band for entrants will be determined by displacement-to-length Ratio (DLR), to create a high performance class of planing designs competing against the Farr 280 for fast and spectacular racing, under IRC. This should create excellent opportunities for the Farr 280 – both race results, and rating studies, have demonstrated that the 280 will excel when competing against similar boats.

'With a number of new high performance classes arriving in the Solent the RORC has taken the initiative to have a class for these boats in one of its prestigious IRC regattas,' comments Nick Elliot, RORC Racing Manager. 'There has been lots of exciting talk about these fast and exciting new boats and although we understand the perfect scenario is that they have their own class, this is the perfect opportunity for the new owners to get the jump on others and get up to speed. We can offer some fantastic close racing with other similar classes and boats finding traction in the area. We really hope this initiative is well supported and then we will see it in other regattas and championships.'

The Vice Admiral’s Cup takes place from May 15-17, 2015 and kicks off a fantastic U.K. summer of racing for Farr 280 owners, which includes one of the world’s biggest yacht races, the Round the Island Race on June 27.

The Farr 280 is also planning to create a significant impact at the world famous Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week Regatta, from August 8 - 15. When, Farr 280's from the UK, Europe and Dubai will be racing for the first time in a big fleet. We welcome all new Farr 280's to come and enjoy this event, which is going to be great fun and highly competitive.

Test sails for anyone interested in joining this exciting and rapidly expanding new one design fleet will be available from April 2015. Contact joe.hall@activateswitch.com to reserve your test sail.