Jenny H

New Zealander, Ray Haslar, a really top sailor was the first owner and Skipper of our Farr 38. Recently, Ray shared some of his experiences with Jenny H.

"Hi Tom, I’ve been into your website – very impressive.  The bad news is that we had a major house-fire July 06, lost the house and all historic records and photographs. I think you have summarized the boat’s history accurately.

At the time of launching, we had some of the most challenging in-house racing you could imagine, with four sister-ships as well as Paul Whiting’s “Smack Water Jack” – also a centre-board.  We originally had sails designed by Hood Sail-Makers in Auckland, who were used to designing sails for displacement boats. They were too full and we struggled over 12 knots of breeze. Our opposition were all dinghy sailors who had their sails designed by Sail-Loft who were USED to building flatter sails.

It took us a few months to wake-up and it was a hard pill to swallow for the-then Hood Management Team to accept that they were wrong. We had the Manager on board as crew.  Although the sails were new we had to trash them and re-build a Main - # 1 - #2 Jibs. Much flatter and straighter Aft. Don’t forget in those days we only had Dacron!!  By the time we got to Sydney we were “flying”!  The reason for our poor performance in the One-Ton Cup was we smashed the bottom of the boat forward of the mast whilst leading the last Ocean Race.  If we had won that race we may have won the One-Ton Cup – depended on order of finishing.

Bruce Farr’s original VPP had the boats in 20 knots-true with one reef in the Mainsail and #3 Genoa.  By the time we perfected our sails and the different boats wound each other up…..we were carrying full-main and #1 Heavy in 25 knots, feathered to the max – traveler right down with little or no helm.  We were achieving a 5-mile beat on an old Olympic course in one hour five minutes, which gave us a VMG of almost 5 knots.  Boat speed was 7.  I still find that hard to achieve in 2007, in my carbon Laurie Davidson design 35 footer Jive Talkin’. 

We used to rake the mast an incredible amount, I can’t remember exactly, but at least a meter.  In your photographs, your mast looks very up-right and also your photographs only show what we call very light winds. Perhaps that is what suits your local conditions as apposed to back here.

During the Hobart Race we experienced 65 knots in Bass Straight and were reduced to tri-sail only, trying to keep the boat flat and boat speed down – by feathering over the waves.  Boat speed approximately 3-4 knots. That’s all we could handle, and if we pulled away in inch – it would leap up to 7 knots and try to self-destruct.  After the storm, wind dropped to 30 knots; we hoisted full main and jib to continue racing in earnest!  No sooner had we sheeted the mainsail on, the boat leapt off a “left-over wave” and smashed the ring-frames up forward, which we’d only just repaired after the One-Ton Cup -  Damn-it.  Mainsail down, we backed off until the waves dropped. Fortunately the damage wasn’t too bad; the Wind-Gods were kind and we were able to continue to Hobart as the only Kiwi boat to finish. John Kilroy from California bought the boat from me in Hobart.

 Again, sorry about the lack of photos – I had plenty but that’s the way of the world!  Glad she’s in good hands.  

Best regards Ray Haslar"

"Hi again Tom

Sails:  I didn’t like to say it first time around, but if you’re going to buy new sails – I’ll speak out.

When Jenny-H first arrived in LA – its first race was around Catalina with our NZ sails.  It sailed over the horizon and no one could believe how fast it sailed. Immediately after that, John Kilroy THOUGHT he was doing the right thing – and bought a brand new wardrobe from Hood Sails in LAX – who THOUGHT they were doing the right thing. Too full. The boat never sailed properly again. The Dave Pedrick keel was not fitted for another 12-18 months and it was a huge S and S high lift – big drag appendage. The original fin was much finer and the boat had to be sailed flat upwind – which required a lot of feathering.  Hence the big flat sails.

We only ever sailed with seven, and if you need 10-12 crew it’s because your existing sails are way too full – mast is too vertical – and the boat just heels over.  

Over to you if you want to repeat anything for your site – and good luck with the photos.  Talk to you soon, Ray"