Design #172 Farr 38

guarantees high speed reaching and no tendency to round up. A powerful hull like the Farr 38 combined with a good percentage of ballast set low in a moderate keel makes a very stiff boat and ensures excellent windward performance - particularly in rough weather.

The rig reflects our latest developments for ease of handling in high performance cruising boats. A masthead rig is chosen and the fore-triangle is very small and of high aspect. The mainsail is very large for a masthead rig. This results in many of the advantages of a fractional rig combined with the simplicity and reliability of a masthead rig.

One of the most significant misconceptions held by some cruising sailors is the heavy equals safe. I think many sailors have entrenched concepts that are just out of date: such as, the best cruising boat must be very heavy and unable to sail well to windward. Another misconception is that anything fast isn't good - or safe. We feel that speed is probably more important in a cruising boat than it is for a racing boat! The speed of a racing boat is always relative to others racing the same course - and it really doesn't matter if they are all in slow bathtubs since one of them will still win by sailing better or smarter. The cruiser on the other hand, has a lot of very real demands for speed: he's going sailing, he wants to get somewhere, the faster he does it the happier and safer he's going to be because he can pick his weather condition. Our feeling is that cruising yachts ought to be FAST yachts.