FARR-DESIGNED ROMA 2 WINS GP42 GLOBAL CUP

Victory earned in Lanzarote caps a successful 2009 GP42 season and points towards further design and development success for 2010

Annapolis, MD – Farr Yacht Design (FYD) congratulates owner Filippo Faruffini, skipper Paolo Cian, and the entire team of Roma 2 for winning the 2009 GP42 Global Cup, sailed last week in Puerto Calero, Lanzarote, Canary Islands. Eight teams from four countries were in the competition, which represents the class’s overall championship event.

“The FYD team is very pleased with Roma 2’s performance in Puerto Calero,” said Patrick Shaughnessy, President of Farr Yacht Design, “And are happy to see that the recent changes we made to the boat have reaped rewards in overall speed for the sailing team. This is a very competitive class, so any edge in design can translate into a speed edge on the race course. Paolo and his team exploited this very well.”

The four days of inshore competition yielded 12 races in conditions varying from a very light 4 knots to 17 knots. With a scorecard that read 4-2-3-1-2-2-1-3-1-3-2-3, Roma 2 demonstrated incredible consistency in this variety of conditions to enjoy a 6-point margin of victory over the runner-up, Daniel Calero’s Islas Canarias Puerto Calero.

Another recent Farr GP42 design, Frank Noel’s Near Miss, has also enjoyed success this year in the Med racing under handicap and winning their division in the Rolex Giraglia Race as well as in other events. But the real test comes in class racing.

“This is one of the most equal fleets there is in sailing,” said Cian, “so any edge at all is an advantage.” Cian is a former 470 champion, America’s Cup skipper, and perennial winner on the World Match Racing Tour.

This edge may come only from being up close and personal to the action, so besides his involvement in the 2007 season on board Faruffini’s Farr-designed Roma 1, Shaughnessy also sailed this year on the Roma 2 team in three events of the Audi MedCup GP42 Series. This hands-on experience has given him valuable insight on the performance trends of the fleet to supplement the sophisticated design tools in use at FYD.

“Because we own and directly control our own supercomputer cluster,” he said, “we are able to continue to advance our understanding of yacht design even when we don’t have a specific research program funded by a client. This year we’ve spent a considerable effort researching high-speed, immersed-transom style boats like the GP42’s in CFD and have exposed several fruitful development paths.”

Along with advances in appendage and aerodynamic design, Shaughnessy calculates that for a brand-new GP42 design from FYD there are total gains on the order of 11 boatlengths available over a Roma 2-type design sailing on a typical GP42 course. With many places decided well within this margin in this year’s circuit, this is valuable distance indeed, and should prompt teams looking for an edge in the 2010 season to look to FYD for advice.

For more information on the GP42 Global Cup, visit the event website at www.gp42globalcup.com

For more information on advances in GP42 design at Farr Yacht Design, contact Patrick Shaughnessy at patrick@farrdesign.com