Mumm’s the word
Yacht designer Mark Mills nominated the Mumm 30 (now Farr 30) as his ‘Coolest Yacht’, plenty of readers agreed that it was a top choice:
Couldn’t agree more. It’s been almost 15 years since we had ours, but I can still feel the boat now. A perfect purest design, as others have said, with the fractional rig, non-overlapping jib, no runners, huge masthead kite.
We used to race under ORC in a fleet that included a Farr 40, OD 35, Mumm
36, and Farr 47, and it says a lot that we rated faster than all of them under ORC in both light and heavy air, and the boat performed accordingly. Slippery in the light stuff and first to plane in the heavier.
The thing I most remember is the sailpower combined with lightness meant you could be flying downwind at 18-20 knots and have a light bow person gybe the pole effortlessly provided you drove it properly. There’s an elegance to that which you just can’t get with asymmetrics, of which I’ve owned two since the Mumm 30 (Melges and J/80). Stellar boat.
Jeremy Smith
A yacht for the purist and a bundle of fun. I recall doing 18 knots under main after a massive wipe-out that washed the wind gear off at a Nationals in Melbourne!
Lee Condell
The cost of adventure?
How much does it cost to cruise the world in a 30ft cruising yacht like an Island Packet 29?
I’m thinking of a five-year trip down the east coast of America from Chesapeake Bay area, Panama Transit, Galapagos Islands, Marquesas, Tahiti, Cook Islands, Solomon Islands, top of Australia down the west coast to Fremantle, bottom of Australia to Sydney then Whitsunday Islands to New Zealand.
Apart from harbour dues, food and fuel what do you expect to pay – for example, to transit the Panama Canal? Are you expected to pay, let’s say, a $5,000 license fee to cruise in someone’s territorial waters like the Galapagos Islands and other Pacific Islands like Marquesas, Tahiti etc?
I thought you were free to cruise
(once quarantine checks cleared) lying at anchor in remote bays or pay marina harbour dues if marinas are your thing. Now I’m not so sure. Looks like you may have to hand over bucket loads of cash just to visit distant shores.
Ian Senior