|
I have spent a lot of time racing aboard the Farr designed 40.7 and I really think that these are great all around boats. The one that I have been aboard probably has something approaching 15,000 offshore miles, years of hard racing and has been pounded in a storm off Cape Hatteras. Though all of that the boat has held up pretty well. That said there was some remedial work done on the forward transverse frames and the rudder bearings needed to be replaced.
In a general sense the first series are typically better engineered and more robust than Beneteau's 'number' or Oceanis series. This seems especially true of the 40.7, but compared to Farr's other cruising designs the 40.7 is not especially robust.
At the heart of it the 40.7 was designed as a racer cruiser, and in that vein these have been outrageously great boats, with class, if not overall fleet wins in most of the big race series and under most of the popular rating rules used world wide. The boats are a lot of fun to sail and are moderately easy to sail for thier capability to win. While they are becoming obsolete under the current IRC rule, they continue to do well under less grand prix oriented rules. They offer a comfortable interior for coastal cruising, and have sufficient amenities and adequate carry capacity to support a racing crew for a weeks offshore.
All of that said, I would never consider these to be an ideal 'long range cruisers' but that is not what they were designed to be. As noted it would take a lot to adapt them for that purpose and frankly there are better suited and built designs (by Farr and others) for that purpose.
Jeff
|