2012 New Zealand Farr 6000 National Championships

  Welcome 

Over recent years, there have been very few boats prepared to travel to other venues, and in part this has been due to timing, but also the high costs of travel. It would be really good for the class, if several boats could come south from Canterbury to go head to head with the Otago boats and have a really good close contest.  The great thing about the Farr 6000 is that all boats are pretty equal and past regattas have proven that any boat with a good crew on board can win races.

Many Farr owners have their boats mainly for cruising but they really are good fun to race when a good fleet of boats can be on the water in a regatta. Look how many boats travel and turn out at the Aviemore Classic every year, and the close racing against other Farr 6000s is what makes it so good.

History

This event was last held at Port Chalmers in Feb 2005 with a fleet of 13 local Farr 6000s plus two crews from out of town, these being Mike Wooding in “Toss for Boss” and Peter McGregor (Gisborne) using a local boat, “Last of the Summer Wine”. The racing amongst the fleet was intense right from the first race with all placings, except for first (Peter McGregor) coming right down to the last race. All those that took part in this regatta really enjoyed the close racing on the water and the good southern hospitality on shore afterwards.

Again Port Chalmers hosted this event in 2009. Dunedin sailor Allan Sutherland guided his Hot C Air craft to victory at the national Farr 6000 championships in Dunedin. AllanSutherland had five wins and two seconds in racing at the Port Chalmers Yacht Club, enough to give him victory by four net points over Rob English, in Aphrodite.

Since then Lake Brunner hosted the Farr Nationals in 2010. In 2011 Navel Point Yacht Club in Lyttelton, Christchurch facilitated the race after a months postponement due to the earthquakes. Tim Hughes took the title with 'Blue Tack'. Russell Phillips won the handycap cup on 'Chione'. Farr 600 numbers were down with only 4 Farr's on the second day of racing.

Why Dunedin?

Russell Phillips was approched by the Farr Association at the Meridian Lake Aviemore Classic with the idea to hold the Farr Nationals in Dunedin. It was noted that numbers are down in Christchurch at this time which is mainly due to the earthquake. 

Recently up to 5 Farr 6000's have been racing on the Otago Harbour with the possibility of getting 1 or 2 more locals back on the water and a handfull from out of town.With the help of Allan Sutherland 'Hot-C-Air', we plan to make this a fun event.

Updates:

19Feb - SPOT PRIZES New Farr 6000 Jib as spot prize to be drawn at end of Sunday's prize giving to go to one of the Farr Nationals skippers. There is also a $50 meal voucher to be won by one of the Farr 6000 race crew that attends the Wharf Hotel Meal on Saturday night.

14Feb - Wharf Hotel Menu available for download

9Feb - Documents available to upload including Farr 6000 Info Sheet and Festival Regatta NOR

19December - Emailed Farr Association members with invite to event and link to this page.

15Dec - Farr Association provided telephone list of members and have personally phoned South Island Contacts to see if they can attend. There was positive reponses to about 3 yachts from out-of-town and several people would be keen to crew. I was also asked if there were any Farr 6000's to loan in Dunedin for the event to save pulling their own yacht to Dunedin.

5Dec - Vauxhall Yacht Club happy to provide separate start for Farr 6000 Nationals incorporated with the Festival Regatta. They have also opened thier club room for us to use on the Saturday. Funtion arrangements to be announced on this web site as they come to hand.

1Dec - This web page setup for Farr 6000 Nationals.