Farr Yacht Design Ltd. Under Bruce Farr is the number one designer of racing yachts in the world, as proven by the record of having the most race wins ever by a single yacht designer. While Farr Yacht Design Ltd. focuses on racing yachts, they have produced over 300 different designs including racing yachts, luxury cruising superyachts, sailing yachts, and production yachts.
Farr Yacht Design’s most recent yacht to launch was the ORC GP42 named Near Miss. She is a 12.8 meter sailing boat that launched in 2007. Not only does she have a stylish, sleek design that looks great, but she is a winner, too. Near Miss placed first in the Giraglia Rolex Cup in St. Tropez, France in June, 2008.
Farr Yacht Design was founded in 1981 as Bruce Farr & Associates by Bruce Farr and Russell Bowler, and then later changed their name to Farr Yacht Design Ltd. There is now a team of 15 associates with an eclectic variety of backgrounds from drafting to computer science that all compliment one another to make a perfect team of designers.
The focus of Farr Yacht Designs is to design innovative yachts using breakthrough concepts while keeping safety and reliability an important factor in the design process. But probably the most impressive focus of Farr Yacht Designs is the fact that they are concerned about the environment. Shouldn’t all boat manufacturers be concerned about keeping the oceans clean and reducing greenhouse gasses that essentially cause global warming, which kills off the ocean’s life, melts the icebergs, and causes disastrous weather conditions for yachters?
Farr’s Vice President, Russell Bowler, spoke at the Yacht Vision 2008 conference and asked other designers and manufacturers how they can reduce the carbon footprint of yachting. Bowler made the statement that “large motoryachts are simply fossil fuel hogs” and with the amount of energy and natural resources used in the construction of the superyachts, fuel hogs only scratches the surface. This shocked some audience members considering it was coming from one of their peers.
Bowler also suggested more study into alternative energies to run the yachts on as well as making them recyclable, and funding some forestry efforts to get some trees planted to offset the carbon output. Not only does Bowler make very good points, but the fact that he is aware of the effect yachting may be having on the environment and wants to do something about it is a huge selling point for many people who are going green.
Once Bowler finished with his green speech, he briefly discussed what the audience expected to hear from this icon of the industry; how to make superyachts and racing yachts better and faster. He suggested things like cargo management tools, weight saving techniques, and trim tabs.
Farr Yacht Design also has a sister company that sells their crafts. Farr Yacht Sales works side by side in the same offices as the Farr Yacht Design company. Each is a separate entity but able to stay in close collaboration on the designs and technical elements of the yachts for sale is sure to boost the confidence of any shopper.
Farr Yacht Design and Farr Yacht Sales each have a website that offers quite a lot of information about the companies and their yachts. Both are based in Annapolis, Maryland, USA near the Chesapeake Bay and the United States Naval Academy. Not only do they offer a website to look at their racing and sailing yachts, they also offer a blog where designers keep owners and shoppers up to date on the latest happenings at Farr Yacht Design Ltd. and where visitors to the blog can leave comments of their own.
Farr Yacht Design may well design the best racing and sailing yachts in the world, but they also could be considered the most responsible yacht designers in the world.
