Farr-out
The Farr 40 One-Design season is set to begin with an action-packed calendar.
Photography by Crosbie Lorimer / Allen Coker
13 September 2017
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The longstanding Australian Farr 40 class is assembling for another busy season with a great group of enthusiastic owners, plus a new father-son team ready to take on the challenge of One-Design racing.
A social regatta on 23 September will kick-off the Farr 40’s 2017-18 season a month earlier than previous years. Following that is the four weekend regattas staged between Sydney Harbour, Pittwater and Newcastle.
This will lead into the NSW title coinciding with the Middle Harbour Yacht Club’s (MHYC) established Sydney Harbour Regatta in March. Finally, the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron (RSYS) will host the National Championship later in March, where competitors will contest the John Calvert-Jones Trophy.
Alan and Tom Quick, the father-son, took ownership of what was the Farr 40 Transfusion at the end of the 2016-17 season and spent the winter months racing the renamed Outlaw on Sydney Harbour.
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Tom Quick is excited for their first season of class racing since their Sydney 38 One-Design days.
“We will build on our CYCA Winter Series social crew and import a few seasoned Farr 40 people into mix, to hit the ground running. Julian Plante will be tactician and David Chapman is going to start on main, plus we have a few from the Voodoo team.
“Mark Langford has signed up for most of the season and Pete Sheldrick will be in pit, so we’ll have a good number from various high-level programs who will be subbed in and out as they move between classes. Dad and I will share the helming on Outlaw.”
Competitors are only required to weigh-in their crews for the State and Nationals titles, a move Tom Quick supports. “It makes it friendlier and easier to get out on the racetrack with competent crew.”
Gordon Ketelbey is standing for another Farr 40 association presidency term and says, “It’s a solid fleet of nine.”
“Roughly this number reoccurs each season and it’s still the very best of One-Design racing. The class is alive and well and kicking with a strong association and professional administrator. The 2017-18 circuit is similar to last time and MHYC, where five of the 40s live, will run most of the regattas.”
Ketelbey’s Zen crew finished fifth overall and second Corinthian at this year’s Rolex Farr 40 Worlds at Porto Cervo. They’ll line up against the 2016-17 season and Australian champion, Martin Hill’s Estate Master, and the rest of the strong Sydney fleet, plus Newcastle based Good Form and the two Melbourne boats, Double Black and Nutcracker, which were dry-docked in Sydney over winter.
Well-known sailing family, the Treleavens, are planning to add to the Farr 40 tally when the father-daughter team of Ian and Janey join the fleet for the 2018-19 season. The pair bought the former Queensland based boat, The Fat Controller, and plan to spend the next year converting what is now called Finn from offshore mode back to One-Design.
List of entries for the Farr 40 2017-18 season:
- Estate Master – Martin Hill, MHYC
- Double Black – Rob Pitts, Sandringham Yacht Club and MHYC
- Edake – Jeff Carter, MHYC
- Exile – Rob Reynolds, MHYC
- Forty – Sam Hill, RSYS
- Good Form – Joe de Kock, Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club
- Kokomo – Lang Walker, Cruising Yacht Club of Australia
- Nutcracker – Rob Davis & Andy Baker, SYC
- Zen – Gordon Ketelbey, MHYC
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