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Introduction: Lyttleton Nationals

The Farr 3.7 Sailing Dinghy is loads of fun, but it is a senior class and ‘fast to frightening’ if you haven't sailed small racing dinghies before.

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Many sailors/families drop out of the sport at the end of their Starling career, the 3.7 is a challenging and fun boat to move on to, there is no pressure. The boats are fast and have a lot of credibility, from Bruce Farr himself who was a National Champ in the Class through to Derek Scott the current champion. In contrast, campaigning in an Olympic Class will entail high pressure and a big budget. As representatives of our sport we have to ask, after the Starling, what are the real options for most people?

The 3.7 Class does not want to do a hard sell, just to dust off the welcome mat! National contests are steady at around 30 boats, but we'd be keen for more boats all year round. The South Island guys are centred around Canterbury, but there is no reason why any club sailing Starlings can't accommodate a 3.7 too (errr, pretty please?). The central North Island is very strong. In the Auckland area the sailing tends to be spread over many clubs so we are looking to try to get the Class together summer and winter over just a couple of venues to get bigger fleets. Plus I get into trouble if I don't mention that Wellington has a good fleet too.

You can use the 3.7 as a training platform before going into skiffs like the Javelin, 12, R, 49'er or even a foiling moth. Or you can get hooked on the 3.7 for life. If you don't balloon out too much past 85kg later in life you will remain competitive. Most of the top racers are between 65kg and 75kg. So, the 3.7 can be a stepping stone if you want to move to the big budget crewed trapeze classes

Like the Zephyr and other great classes that have had some growth in recent times, it is now harder to find good used boats and there are people building new ones. Boats for sale are listed and circulated by John Elliott regularly in the email newsletters and some great boats sell on Trademe. Our advice: don't buy any boat before checking recent measurement history with John Elliott first..

The principle choice made when considering a 3.7 is that it really depends if you want to carry on hiking out or go for the trapeze option, what we would call the skiff route. We don't recommend the 3.7 to someone who has never sailed before (for their own enjoyment), but where-ever you have come from, the 3.7 welcome mat has always been there.