TITUS CANBY was designed for Rob Blackburn who had previously crewed with Farr in 12 ft dinghies. Rob had been looking at several light displacement designs aimed at amateur construction. He required a yacht around 26 ft that would have a very low building cost. The intended use of the boat was for Harbor and Gulf racing under a general handicap system based on performance, and for Gulf cruising. Farr suggested that the various alternatives Rob was looking at had significant faults that could be corrected in a new design without any significant increase in cost, and offered to design him such a boat.

The basic concept was for a light displacement yacht, broad in the aft sections to ensure high speed reaching and running, and fine forward with a reasonable ballast ratio set low in a fin keel to develop good windward performance - something which the narrower boats that Rob had been looking at lacked. The rig was 7/8 with, for that time, relatively small headsails and no running backstays, which gave a simple, low cost rig. It was decided to take the extra trouble during construction to build a boat with a round bilge hull form, rather than a chine hull form, as it was felt that the extra cost and time involved was not great, but performance and resale value would be greatly enhanced. At the time that the design was being conceived the IOR Rule (MK1) had just been released and as the boat looked around the size that would produce a 1/2 Ton racing, small adjustments were made to the shape of the yacht so that it could be made into a 1/2 Tonner should the occasion arise. These changes included slight extra beam in the topsides and a slight hardening of the midships section around the mid-depth measurement. When the boat was launched its performance exceeded all expectations. Rob rated the boat as a 1/2 Tonner and went on to win the New Zealand Half Ton Championships in 1972 and the boat again won in 1974.