SUN FAST 30 ONE DESIGN
A COLLABORATION BETWEEN COMPOSITE SPECIALISTS AND DESIGNERS, JEANNEAU’S SF30 RIPS UP ESTABLISHED THINKING FOR SETUP AND BUILD OF SMALLER OFFSHORE RACING YACHTS
The best racing I’ve ever done, whether inshore or offshore, has been in one-design fleets. However, in the offshore realm it’s been two decades since the last successful one-design class was launched.
Conventional wisdom holds that smaller offshore racing yachts need to be relatively heavy to be competitive under IRC. Many solo and double-handed sailors are therefore deprived of the joy of racing faster planing yachts, even if today’s successful 30-36 footers are capable of surfing at speeds in the high teens.
Happily the Sun Fast 30 breaks the mould in this respect – it’s 800kg (22%) lighter than the popular Sun Fast 3300, yet has almost the same sail area upwind and only 5% less downwind. A strict one-design rule is intended to allow close competition, while keeping upfront and long-term costs in check. It’s also the world’s first recyclable composite production boat – impressive given the weight goals.
A key design target was also to maximise performance in light airs. “Most of the polar chart shows minimising frictional resistance is the priority,” Antoine Le Provost of designers VPLP tells me, “so we needed to keep the wetted surface area down.”
The semi scow bow hull shape has a near full length chine and marked flare above the waterline. The underwater sections also have a lot of fore and aft rocker, lifting the transom out of the water at low speeds. These two factors markedly reduce drag resistance in light airs. Placing so much emphasis on light airs performance might seem odd for an offshore yacht, especially given the last two Rolex Fastnet Races underlined the need to successfully handle heavy weather. But on average in July in UK waters the wind is actually 10 knots or less for 50% of the time.
My first sail on the newly launched Sun Fast 30 was in only 2-4 knots of true wind, yet we were able to run rings round all the other boats off La Rochelle. Reaching with the Code 0 at a true wind angle of 100° we consistently maintained 90% of true wind speed, while upwind in 4.5 knots of breeze we made 2.9 knots of boat speed at a su
