Fareast 28R: Review

The Aussie-made club sportsyacht has long gone, but for sailors yearning for something fast and of more current design there are now some great products coming from China.

One of the most affordable of these is the appropriately named Fareast 28R. This is a stylish sports sailing yacht that is not only good on price but ticks the box on the latest performance styling such as rear-sloping razor-sharp bow and wide, low slung hull with minimal cabin structure.

The design hails from one of Holland's leading naval architect firms (Simonis-Voogd) and is bang up to date in delivering fast sailing potential with just a crew of four. We found it does exactly that when we test-sailed the first model to be delivered to Sydney Harbour.

PRICE AND EQUIPMENT
- Great value for about $85k race ready and also trailerable
The Fareast 28R is sold without sails but these you can buy sails from
the sail maker of your choice.

A set of UK sails (made in Brisbane) is
$8950 for a panel set made of ZZ black Technora from Contender Cloth,
party transparent or completely black.

The price of the yacht at time
of testing was $69,500 plus an extra $1500 for delivery and set up cost.
There would be perhaps another $5000 in for extras like the outboard,
racing electronics and necessary safety gear.

An interesting feature of the Fareast is it comes with a transport
cradle that can be used by owners as a yard trolley. This would be very
handy if the yacht was dry stored in a boatyard near the water. With the
keel raised you could keep the craft out of the water but ready to be
launched very quickly.

Alternatively you could keep the boat on a
road trailer. A Queensland -made Oceanic trailer allows the boat to be
road-transported with sufficient ground-clearance for safe highway
driving. The whole tow package is under 2000kg (boat 1360kg trailer
450kg), so you could tow the Far East 28R to different locations and keep
her at home.

The yacht is just only 25cm over the Australian road
width but you can still tow using state-approved wide-load requirements
like oversize signs and flag. There's also an optional winch keel lift
system if you need to lift the almost 600kg keel.

DECKS AND LAYOUT
- Lots of deck space and Harken deck gear
Providing plenty of room to actually work the boat is a key feature of modern era sportsboats and, to this end, the Fareast 28R doesn't disappoint.

She has a huge cockpit space with plenty of room for her intended crew of four, or five to move across the boat easily during a tack. The wider hull means more room aft for the helmsman and the open transom means any water coming aboard quickly goes out the 'back-door'.

The helm has neat rope controls either side including adjustable backstay, 4:1 adjustable mainsheet traveller and mainsheet fine-tune control. The mainsheet runs a 4:1 tackle and with the extra 4:1 of the fine-tune you have effectively 16:1 of power when you need it such as in strong winds.

The for'ard cockpit has a narrower work area with Harken sheet winches either side for trimming the jib and a low cabin structure with large hatchway slight off-set from centre, so it's possible to raise the keel when the craft is being trailed, or lifted from the water. 

There are another two Harken winches  on the cabin for halyards plus a nest of Spinlock rope cams for the halyards. Controls for pulling the spinnaker pole out and the tack line for the spinnaker are also found hereabouts.

A specially designed sail bag fits into the open companionway so you can set and drop the spinnaker easily during racing. This is standard practice in many sportsboats but it's great to see this included as a standard.

The yacht comes standard with life rails and bow/stern pushpit rails, so it's a pretty crew-friendly, especially in a racing situation where you need crew sitting outboard for extra power upwind.

The cockpit has moulded foot chocks for both the helmsman and jib trimmers and there are non-skid strips as well as canvas rope-tidy bags as well.

Harken blocks and tracks are all standard and there is a timber outboard mount bracket on the transom to take a small outboard of 3.5hp-6hp. The motor would probably be taken off and stored below in more serious racing sessions.

The Raymarine Race Master, by the way,  gives speed and compass heading that are easily viewed from the helm position. There is also a boom vang strut that will hold the boom up when you are dropping the mainsail.

Whilst the cabin doesn't have any bunks it's possible to fit bunks into the boat if you wanted some overnight accommodation.

As regards deck hardware — it's all top quality brands. The alloy spars are a practical solution to keeping costs down and the Selden mast is deck-stepped and therefore makes the craft more suitable for trailer-sailing than is often the case with sportsboats. 

The twin-spreader rig has swept-stays anchored to the outside gunwale so it delivers good rig support and will be pretty suitable for our tough Aussie summer sailing.

Some wave action created by passing ferries didn't
make it easy to hold consistent speed, but the Far East 28R did very well
to keep on the move in these testing conditions.

After sailing down
into the main harbour, we set the standard 80sq metre asymmetrical
spinnaker from its retractable bow pole to sail back upstream in a
series of fast reaches. In this mode we eventually had the speed up to 8
-9 knots as the sea breeze freshened and the water became a bit calmer.

The
immediate impression is that the Fareast is fun to sail, especially in
fresh breeze days when there is good opportunity to plane downwind.
Unlike quite a few sportsboats the transom hung rudder feels light to
steer and not at all heavy. 

It does require a bit of concentration
from the helmsman to get the best speed in light airs but generally I
would deem this craft well-behaved and certainly well balanced.

It
helps, of course to move the crew weight around for the best trim for
the conditions and in light airs crew forward and a bit to leeward
helped our speed immeasurably.

Best of all from the sailing test was
coming back under spinnaker and feeling the speed building and our
mast-mounted Race Master  Instrument showing speed ticking up to 9.5
knots at one stage.

The Fareast yard was founded in 2002 and is the world's largest ISAF-approved builder of junior Optimist and 420 class sailing dinghies. They also now build a range of small yachts and have obviously taken the same care and attention to detail from the small craft over to the bigger sail craft.

Fareast is very much a home-grown Chinese company and it's probably a good omen for the future that this company is a big supplier of craft in China as well as overseas markets like Europe, USA and Australia.

Only by having a strong home-grown sailing scene can China really move ahead in this sport and ultimately produce good fast yachts and sailors who can sail them.

I might mention there has been 100 of this model sold so far in 10 months and it's already been established as a one-design class in China and Europe.

If enough boats are sold here, the Fareast 28R could become a one-design racing class in Australia as well.

LIKES
>> Cutting-edge styling and top build quality
>> Easily raced with a crew of 4
>> Suitable for dry-storing or trailer-sailing

NOT SO MUCH
>> Lack of berths and cabin floor
>> Lack of navigation lights as standard
>> Lack of adjustable car-leads on jib

Specifications: Fareast 28R
Length overall: 9.07m
Hull length: 8.55m
Beam; 2.75m
Draft: 1.73m
Displacement: 1360kg
Ballast: 600kg
Mainsail area: 25 sq m
Jib area: 19 sq m
Spinnaker: 80 sq m
Auxiliary: 3.5-6hp outboard
Construction: Fibreglass/foam core

Supplied by:
FarEast Yachts Australia
ph 0468 648 554
See http://www.fareastyachts.com.au