The 18 foot Unrestricted Racing Dinghy has enjoyed a long and colorful history through almost a century of strongly competitive racing in Australia and New Zealand. In the quest to have the fastest 18 footer in Australasia, designers have ranged over a comprehensive and intriguing variety of solutions. In the 1930's boats carried crews numbering 15 plus bailer boy, and hiked on wooden planks inserted under the lee gunwale and over the windward gunwale. In those days the 18's carried up to 2400 sq. ft. of sail - a mainsail, ballooner, spinnaker, water sail, top sail and a ringtail.

Bruce Farr's design genius was applied to this class in the late 1960's and early 1970's. He was the first designer to develop the conception of a smaller, lighter, 3 man boat that was capable of outperforming the 5 man boats that dominated racing in the 50's and 60's. Farr's designs won World titles in 1972, 73, 74 & 75 and dominated the fleets during this period. The boats owe a good deal of their success to carefully detailed construction in high quality timber and plywood.

Farr's commitment to other design commissions has limited ongoing involvement in the development of this exciting dinghy. The design presented here is free of many expensive and awkward characteristics of the modern 18 footer of the 1980's and is a classic still capable of 12 knots on the wind and exhilarating off the wind sailing. Plans include full size sections, construction details, fittings drawn full size, rig details for 3 sizes of rig for wind strength ranges 0-13 knots, 13-22 over 22 knots real.