About "Sea Hawk"
Sea Hawk (ex. Dreampic) is a Bruce Farr designed Farr 44 IMS, launched in 1992 for the Japanese telephone company Nippon Telegraph & Telephone (NTT) as a company anniversary gift to its employees. Built for long haul ocean racing in tough conditions, Sea Hawk convincingly won the 1992 Corum Japan Cup, as well as participating in the 755 nautical mile Kenwood Cup on three occasions.
Sea Hawk is one of only five Farr 44 IMS yachts launched, with her sistership “Gaucho” of the USA dubbed by many as the most successful IMS yacht of all time. IMS (International Measurement System) is a formula based on measurements and physical characteristics of a yacht providing a means of calculating predicted speeds in a number of different scenarios to derive a Time Correction Factor (TCF) which is multiplied by the yacht's elapsed time to allow for a handicap result, which brings together yachts of all shapes, sizes and speeds to level the field and determine who sailed best to their handicap.
The technology and design parameters seen in the Farr 44 IMS have been used to develop the most successful one-design sailing in the world at this point in time, the Farr 40 OD. Built in an exotic and very strong combination of Kevlar over a Nomex core, the yacht was at the very forefront of composite construction as the same materials and construction methods are used in high-performance yachts to this day.
Sea Hawk was purchased in 2005 by her current owners Pete & Deb Van Ryn, and has immediately gained some fantastic results sailing short and long haul ocean races out Cronulla Sailing Club and the Royal Motor Yacht Club Port Hacking. Pete & Deb have sailed throughout their lives beginning in Herons and other dinghy classes as kids, and moving up through the ranks over the years. As their Son Drew became older and showed an interest in sailing, they purchased an NS14 dinghy which was to serve as a platform for them to buy a yacht of their own. Not only did they buy the yacht, a lovely Van De Stadt 34 cruiser/racer, but the whole family continued sailing skiffs including the NS14 and MG14 classes, and Drew has gone on to sail Flying 11's, NS14's, MG14's and 29ers at state and national level. To keep Drew enthusiastic about yacht racing, Pete & Deb purchased Sea Hawk as the family was doing much more racing than cruising, and took a completely different tack, purchasing the Sea Hawk to focus more on the racing aspect of things.
From the Farr Yacht Design website: (http://www.farrdesign.com/266.htm)
The Farr IMS 44 is surely the most successful IMS design of 1992. To date, five Farr IMS 44s are sailing and four of them have outstanding victories to their credit, the fifth being outfitted for cruising in Japanese waters.
GAUCHO, currently owned by Peter Gordon of the United States, took the international yachting community by storm with a sweeping victory at Yachting's Key West Race Week in January winning every race by huge margins on corrected time, and often beating all of the competitors in her class boat for boat except for one of two 50-footers. Following her stunning success at Key West, GAUCHO also won the Southern Ocean Racing Conference a month later, finishing first in all counted races.
CALIFA 3, owned by Arturo Arrebillaga of Argentina, has enjoyed similar success. CALIFA 3 won a 700 nautical mile ocean race from Buenos Aires to Florianopolis,Brazil, and followed that victory by also winning all five races of the Santa Catarina Isle Ocean Circuit in Brazil.At the inaugural Rolex Commodores' Cup in July, sailed from Cowes, Isle of Wight, these two yachts again drew considerable attention. CALIFA 3 finished as top individual yacht overall, and GAUCHO finished second overall, leading the US team to victory.
Earlier at the Corum Japan Cup in May, another Farr IMS 44, DREAMPIC, campaigned by employees of Nippon Telephone & Telegraph, won the IMS division with a near perfect victory, placing first in all but one race.
TABASCO, owned by Tom Stark of New York, won the Around Long Island Race in July, 1992 shortly after being launched. Again, the victory achieved by this design drew substantial attention. TABASCO beat every boat in the fleet of 105 yachts around the course, boat for boat, except for one, the 83-foot Maxi CONGERE.
The concept behind the design included development of two versions: one that is oriented for race campaigning, and the other with more emphasis on cruising, but with high performance characteristics.Both versions share the same hull shape, keel and rudder designs, and construction details. The differences are evident in the deck geometry and interior arrangement. Both types offer choices between a masthead or fractional rig, and a tiller or wheel, to suit the client's preference.
The lines plan reveals a very clean hull form, nicely proportioned, and completely free of IOR distortions. The rudder is an efficient foil, and fin and bulb keel options keep the center of gravity low giving this design a limit of positive stability ranging between 125° and 132°.Engineering details include Kevlar and S-glass sandwiched over PVC foam cores bonded with epoxy resin, maximizing stiffness to weight in relation to IMS material restrictions. Kevlar provides good stiffness for weight, and better resistance to catastrophic damage from major impacts. Construction is plan approved by the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS).
For the racing enthusiast, the deck layout is designed to encourage maximum crew performance; it is efficient and uncompromising. The deck geometry allows a substantial interior arrangement that exceeds minimum IMS requirements and fulfills the spirit of the rule. For those requiring a yacht with a more spacious interior, who also desire race boat performance and handling, the cruising version has a longer cabintop which enables a comparatively larger interior. The design offers clients the opportunity to customize the interior arrangement. The cockpit has been designed with similarities to that of the racing version for the same smooth boat handling and crew operation characteristics.
Since the IMS rule allows the design of good, clean hull forms, we have been afforded the opportunity to design a very fast, powerful and comfortable yacht. This high performance design will deliver excellent handling characteristics and speed capabilities to exceed those of a similarly sized IOR vessel, yet it retains comfort and very high stability to satisfy the most discriminating racing or cruising sailor.
The Farr IMS 44 is one example in a range of dual-purpose IMS designs developed by Bruce Farr & Associates, along with the Farr IMS 39, 40 and 50. These designs offer the versatility to suit the requirements of owners whether they choose to focus on racing with the opportunity to cruise comfortably, or cruising with the option to race competitively.