Mumm 30: World’s coolest yachts

Yachting World has been asking top sailors and marine industry gurus to choose the coolest and most innovative yachts of our times, and yacht designer Mark Mills nominated the Mumm 30. Launched in 1995, and later rebranded as the Farr 30, the one design class was recognized by the World Sailing from 1997 to 2018 but remains a sweet ride … here’s the report:

“I picked the Mumm 30 partly out of respect for Bruce Farr,” says designer Mark Mills. “[Farr] was so competitive in IOR in my teens, then equally strong in IMS as well as dominating the Whitbread Round the World Races, while penning some of the most successful ‘big boat’ one-design classes ever.

“Through all those different briefs he managed to maintain a fidelity to light, clean, simple design, no matter what rule pressures applied.

“The Mumm 30 for me is the most distilled essence of the clean, light, simple philosophy. The first production one-design to bring non-overlapping jibs on swept spreader rigs to the mainstream, it was drawn to be fast, easy to build, and straightforward to sail.

“It went well in all conditions but perhaps its finest achievement was 11 years of the Tour de France à la Voile, where the variety of conditions and distances challenged many of the world’s best sailors in one of its best boats.”

For Yachting World’s list of cool boats, click here.