Chester to host Farr 30 North American Championships, foster growth in one-design fleet

July 26, 2018

Laval engineering professor André Bégin-Drolet (trimming main) and his electrical-engineer friend, Mike Carlson (at the helm), are making the 1,100 km trek from Quebec City to Chester this August with family, friends and their Farr 30, Ataraxia. (Photo: André Bégin-Drolet.

The Vancouver-based president of the Farr 30 World Council is looking to Chester Race Week 2018 next month to entice Farr 30 owners from Ontario, Quebec, Atlantic Canada and New England to gather in Chester for the Farr 30 North American Championships. The plan is to leave a larger one-design fleet that continues racing thereafter.

“Our records show there are about 30 Farr 30s in the East and Atlantic but they never compete against each other in one-design because they are so spread out geographically that they default to handicap racing locally,” says Darren Burns, who is also an executive with the engineering firm Stantec.

Burns says when it came to place the one-design competition on the East Coast, picking Chester Race Week was a no-brainer. “Chester is well known for consistently high numbers of boats, great racing conditions in a beautiful setting so it gives us the best chance of attracting the largest number of Farr 30s to the 2018 North American Championships,” he said. “We sailed seven days in Chester in 2009 on a C&C 34 – that was hard work, but Race Week was amazing,” he recalled from his university office.

Originally named the Mumm 30 after its original title sponsor, Champagne Mumm, the Farr 30 is a 9.43 m (30.9 ft) LOA, 3.07 m (10.1 ft) beam racer designed by New Zealander, Bruce Farr and first built in the US in 1995 by Carrol Marine for international professional crew one-design racing.

Note: The 2018 Farr 30 Canadian National Championships were held in Prince Edward Island during Charlottetown Race Week, July 12-14.