Introduction:
- 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
- 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.
