SMIRNOFFAGEN, 1 Ton IOR Racing Yacht

Designer’s Notes

Smir-Noff-Agen was a centerboard One Tonner designed by Bruce Farr (Design #63, 27.5ft IOR) for a syndicate headed by Don Lidgard for the 1977 One Ton Cup, held in Auckland, New Zealand. Smir-Noff-Agen joined three other Farr centreboarders The Red Lion, Mr Jumpa and Jenny H. All these yachts were to a similar design but various small differences were apparent on the rating sheets, with Smir-Noff-Agen sporting a larger mainsail and smaller jibs to reflect the crew's background in skiffs and dinghy sailing, and a simple deck layout to minimize variables in sail-setting, especially at night.

These new generation One Tonners were considered experimental at the time, combining light displacement and high ballast ratios with the use of a deep and efficient centerboard and a more flexible and complex rig than Farr's earlier fixed keel One Tonners. The yachts were a significant development of Farr's earlier keelboats from 1975/76 and after the rulemakers failed to close the centerboard loophole exposed to great effect by the Britton Chance design Resolute Salmon a year earlier, a centerboard was chosen rather than a keel, although the fins on the Farr yachts weighed about 750lbs, despite the fact that this was discouraged by the IOR.