Editorial Andrew Hurst Genius


A week before writing this I was having a laugh by email with Ian Farrier who was in San Francisco at the time. He was in a very good mood, having finally secured a facility he was satisfied with in which to start building his little F-22 sport-cruiser for the US market. The first production boats are already being delivered from his own operation


in Christchurch, New Zealand, but demand elsewhere is such that a second operation had become essential; now boats heading to his large US fan base would no longer need to be shipped up from the southern hemisphere. We were laughing over the fact that the man who has been


responsible for thousands of people discovering the joys and rewards of small, well-engineered, fast multihulls could not find a half-decent photograph of himself to go with his latest Seahorse article*. A few hours after our final exchange I received the news that he had passed away. Those who’ve had pleasure cruising and racing Ian’s designs


already know why he was a very important figure in the sport. He did so much for sailing, motivated only by a passion for well thought- through design and engineering… never by money. Aside from being pretty, to the uninitiated Ian’s boats were probably


only really noticed when they were giant-killing on the racecourse. And they did that a lot. They were all without exception fast and usable boats for their size but that is not why he will be remembered among a wide community of ‘his people’. Though a naval architect and engineer, ironically he worked in


a way that was more typical of product design geniuses like Steve Jobs and James Dyson. To paraphrase one of Jobs’ most famous observations, Ian Farrier created the types of boats that his customers often did not realise that they wanted. He would spend a long time, months and sometimes years, trying


to understand what a certain type of sailor ‘really’ needed; having identified the philosophical parameters he would then decide whether it was a type of boat that he was even interested in pursuing, and only then, if it passed that test, he would throw himself into creating something from the ground up. With Ian it never mattered how long, he had to get everything to


work perfectly before he would let a customer near a new project. His legendary plans for ‘local’ builders were checked ad nauseam before the first set was ever dispatched. And woe betide the home builder who did not keep in touch with his designer to ensure that his project was proceeding correctly.


While we talk about Ian’s ‘recently launched’ F-22 sport-cruiser,


(page 58) the truth is that the first boat that could be considered a prototype went in the water in 2006, built from self-build plans for a much earlier but similar-sized boat. Ten years from inception to first production boat… But more than 50 of them are pre-sold and even with a planned increase in production the waiting list for a new F-22 is now in excess of two years. If there is one thing for which Ian will be remembered it is of


course his ingenious trimaran folding system. If you have not seen it in action try to do so. There are plenty of other hinged float systems out there and unwieldy bolt-together arrangements; but Ian created an elegant masterpiece of engineering with which one person can fold and unfold a 31ft offshore-capable trimaran quickly and without help. Once it is unfolded you immediately have a platform as strong and stiff as a multihull with bonded beams and floats. The really clever bit… having unfolded your boat you just tighten


up four bolts to lock everything in place; bolts that carry minimal load and are mainly there to stop perfectly cantilevered beams popping out of alignment. Fold the floats back up and the radiuses work so that the shrouds continue to hold the rig up securely for motoring, mooring or storage ashore. Genius. A brilliant engineer and also a brilliant naval architect. I’ve been


‘


The Seahorse F-31 Turbo gently leads (for a while!) a multihull fleet that included some ‘well-known’, very much larger tris out of the Solent. After finishing, the phone call came from New Zealand to congratulate us on a half-decent result. That was not unusual. Two weeks later the same boat was family cruising around Brittany


not bad – Gabart


lucky enough to race Farrier designs with some of the very best multihull sailors and I’ve raced them at 25 knots with my family and friends. I’ve cruised them with children and spaniels! I’ve dried them out on beaches and moored them up in foreign ports. At the end of the year I folded them up, pulled them out of the water, lowered the rig with the integrated mast-stepping system and drove them home behind the family car. Your boats will go on. As will all the fun. Thank you, Ian. * And you never did find a decent photo, below.


It’s pretty windy – Pete Burling in the Southern Ocean onboard Brunel, true wind 55-60kt


THAT BL**DY GUY


We just did a nice gybe when it briefly dipped


to about 45kt – Bouwe Bekking, Brunel


SOMEWHERE IN THE MIDDLE I’m guessing an AC36 programme could cost


Though many ice floes are passing my right


side – the same


tough or something? – Dave Witt, VO65 Scallywag We’re all Southern Ocean this, Southern


TIMES CHANGE Why do we rave about coming down here? Do we think we’re


you $US150-200million – Dennis Conner


That’s a farcical figure – Grant Dalton But it’s [the AC75] really something, I like


that it can capsize! – Conner


GET A MOVE ON Approaching Cape Horn François [Gabart] must stay safe – that is why he has only covered 526.5nm in the last


24 hours – Team Macif It still goes rather


Ocean that… – Witt – I’m over the Southern


Ocean – Witt


CONFUSED You are advertising a ‘debranded’ VO65 in


Seahorse – Roger Boshier This sounds rather


ominous – Boshier


RESULT! Another brilliant and almost totally incomprehensible


Seahorse magazine and our associate raceboatsonly brokerage site are both at: seahorsemagazine.com The editor is contactable by email at: andrew@seahorse.co.uk


SEAHORSE 11


q


Seahorse this month – Adrian Morgan


‘


RICK TOMLINSON


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