Why the FAST 30 Class?

Thank You!

First, thank you to folks including:

  • Joe Hall, HP30 Class (UK)

  • Richard Woof, HP30 Class (UK)

  • Jason Smithwick, RORC Rating Office

  • Jim Schmicker, Farr Yacht Design

  • Nathan Titcomb, US Sailing Offshore Director

  • Dobbs Davis, ORC

  • Malcolm Wootton (Pegasus Dekmarx)

I Bought A Boat

Bully Circus finishing the 2020 Annapolis Double Handed Race (Buster Pike & Pete Colby)

Bully Circus finishing the 2020 Annapolis Double Handed Race (Buster Pike & Pete Colby)

So, I purchased a Farr 30 – USA45 off eBay, seriously (https://www.bullycircus.com/home/ebay-purchase). The boat had been repainted, all the deck hardware was off, the bottom was in pretty good shape, there were tons of sails, and the hardest part of fixing up a Farr 30 had already been done – the deck core had been replaced and reinforced around the winches and all the stanchions – SWEET!

Why a Farr 30? Partly the price, and definitely the performance capabilities. Nobody is calling me up saying let’s go race a high performance, planing 30-footer these days. So, I had to take matters into my own hands … Plus, I have an experienced bench of sailors from my University of Rhode Island Sailing Team days ready to go.

After adding a 1.8m sprit, switching out the inboard diesel for an outboard, replacing just about every fastener on the boat, replacing the rod rigging, a bunch of updated running rigging, a couple new A-sails, along with rewiring the boat and updated electronics, I’ve got a pretty awesome boat! Sure, some refreshed cosmetics could be great and will come eventually, but the boat is pretty good to go.

Inspiration for the refit was Pegasus DekMarx in the UK – see https://www.facebook.com/pegasusdekmarx.

The HP 30 Class

Prospectus for the 2021 HP 30 Class available at https://hp30class.com/

Prospectus for the 2021 HP 30 Class available at https://hp30class.com/

This also led me to tracking the High Performance 30 Class (HP30) in the UK – see https://hp30class.com/ and https://www.facebook.com/hp30class. Looks like fun.

The HP 30 Class has been going since 2016 and keeps growing with what looks to be some great racing and events. They have done a ton of work on creating a box rule to keep the racing tight and consistent through the years. The HP30 Class runs on top of the IRC Rating System in the UK. While there have been fits and starts of IRC in the USA, it sure seems that today, ORC looks like the primary rating systems to use in the USA. After several discussions with the HP30 Team it looked to be best to splinter off a different (but nearly identical) rule utilizing ORC for the USA.

The FAST 30 Class

FAST 30 Sailing

In the US, there are a bunch of dead one-design 30-footers – C&C 30 OD (over 20 built), Farr 30 (over 200 built worldwide), Henderson 30, Lutra 30, FarEast 28r & 31r, Farr 280, and more. Add in some of the other similar classes like Antrim 27’s, Flying Tiger 10’s, GP26’s, Melges 32’s and there’s a pretty big number of boats that are out there that could compete.

Then, look at the typical classes these ~30-footers are competing against – Swan 42’s, J109’s R/P 42’s, J44’s. I think most people would agree that every rating system in the world has a hard time fairly handicapping heavy symmetrical kite boats vs. light, high performance, planing boats.

Hence the FAST 30 Class offering competitive, reliable, type form racing with speed and performance being the common denominator.

How to get the FAST 30 Class going?

  • Build a list of boats, owners and contact details – I’ll be calling you!

  • Finalize the FAST 30 Rule, officers, tech committee, etc.

  • Work to get class starts at events (and/or start with scoring FAST 30 boats in place for existing ORC starts)

  • Develop a calendar of events for class series including a winter southern circuit (welcoming the HP30 Class to participate too)

  • Grow & Optimize

So, with folks perhaps coming out of COVID-19 hibernation, hopefully with a desire to spend more time sailing, perhaps this is the time to get these boats out of hibernation too.

Get Involved

Raise your hand, fill out the form on the FAST 30 Sailing Website - https://fast30sailing.org/#signup  

Where to?

Farr 30 EVO, Bully Circus, is currently sitting in Charleston, South Carolina, ready for:

Buster Pike