Farr 30

The Farr 30, originally called the Mumm 30, is a sailboat that was designed by Bruce Farr as a one design racer and first built in 1995.

The boat was the one design class for the Tour de France à la voile from 1999 to 2010, until it was replaced by the M34 in 2011.

The design was originally named for its sponsor, champagne producer G. H. Mumm. When the sponsorship ended in 2007, the class was renamed after the designer instead.

At one time a World Sailing international class, it gave up its status in 2018 and the class club ceased operations in 2020.

Production
The design was built by Beneteau in France, dk Yachts in Malaysia, McDell Marine in New Zealand, Ovington Boats in the United Kingdom, Carroll Marine and Waterline Systems, both in the United States. Production started in 1995, but is now complete, with a total of 200 boats built.

Design
The Farr 30 is a lightweight racing keelboat, with both the hull and deck built predominantly of an E-glass and balsa sandwich. It has a 9/10 fractional sloop rig, with a keel-stepped mast, two sets of swept spreaders, a carbon fibre mast, with an aluminium boom, with stainless steel rod standing rigging. The hull has a nearly plumb stem, an open reverse transom, an internally mounted spade-type rudder controlled by a tiller and a fixed fin keel wkith a swept, weighted bulb. It displaces 4561 lb and carries 1997 lb of lead ballast.

The boat has a draft of 6.75 ft with the standard keel.

The boat is fitted with a Japanese Yanmar 1GM10 diesel engine of 10 hp for docking and manoeuvring. The fuel tank holds 9.2 u.s.gal and the fresh water tank has a capacity of 14.5 u.s.gal.

The design has a lightweight and minimal interior, with sleeping accommodation for two people. Cabin maximum headroom is 44 in.

For sailing downwind the design may be equipped with a symmetrical spinnaker of 1055 sqft.

The design has a hull speed of 7.03 kn and a PHRF handicap of 51 to 156.

Operational history
The boat was at one time supported by an active class club that organized racing events, the Farr 30 International Class Association.

The boat became a World Sailing recognized international class in 1997 and held its first World Championship that year in Marseille, France.

Due to the lack of entries, the 2009 championship was cancelled. Attendance was low from 2010 to 2016 and the championship was again cancelled in 2017. In 2018 the club decided it could no longer afford to maintain its international class status or hold the required world championships and so it gave up its World Sailing class status.

In 2020, the club announced it was closing, citing "the lack of funds available" and the club's website has since been taken down.

In a 2018 article, Scuttlebutt Sailing News noted, "considered a lovely boat to sail, this state-of-the-art offshore one design quickly became an international attraction."

In a 2021 article in Yachting World yacht designer Mark Mills named the design his choice for the "world's coolest yacht". He wrote "the Mumm 30 for me is the most distilled essence of the clean, light, simple philosophy. The first production one-design to bring non-overlapping jibs on swept spreader rigs to the mainstream, it was drawn to be fast, easy to build, and straightforward to sail. It went well in all conditions but perhaps its finest achievement was 11 years of the Tour de France à la Voile, where the variety of conditions and distances challenged many of the world’s best sailors in one of its best boats."