Over the years, many a yacht designer has released a concept stand up paddleboard to show off their 'versatility', but never have they committed to moulds and production! Founded by the Kiwi yacht designer Bruce Farr, Farr Yachts have made some of the worlds fastest, and most comfortably yachts since their beginning in the 80's. From the 18ft skiffs he used to design in his early days living in New Zealand, to the 100ft racing machines he now models in the USA, Farr designs are renowned for their sleek lines and class-leading speed. Will that heritage translate to a 14ft stand up paddle board? By the looks of it, maybe! With a wave piercing bow and extremely sunken deck, the Farr stand up paddleboard looks similar to a Starboard Dart. Obviously suited for flat water paddling, the video released this month shows minimal wake from both the bow, and stern of the board, hinting to the hydrodynamics that went into the design. "We developed a parametric model of a board that allowed us to easily make design changes, such as width at various points, rocker curve and rail hardness. This was wired to automatically mesh the designs and run the boards in Fine/Marine, software that shows us hydrodynamic force predictions. Over 100 designs were created in this way with the final design shapes having an advantage of 15 to 20 percent over the reference shapes." Will other yacht manufacturers like Beneteau follow suit, jumping on the stand up paddling bandwagon, or is this just an enthusiastic employee at Farr using up a little of their surplass carbon cloth from last year? Check out the video of the Farr Horizon F14 stand up paddleboard, built by yacht manufacturers Farr during testing.

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