Farr 1104 Racer / Cruiser

FARR 1104 (Built by Compass Yacht, NZ in 1977)

Cannonball has been my pride and joy for the last 5 years. I have put hundreds of hours of labour and love into her, transforming her into a modern, safe and fast racing yacht. I am now a proud father of two girls so priorities have changed.

This boat was built way ahead of it's time with design technology that is still used today. It was built by compass yachts in New Zealand and it's sister ship 'Piccolo' won the 1976 Sydeny to Hobart yacht race.

Cannonball (formerly known as Golden Eagle) is a well known boat in WA, with a long and rich history of offshore and inshore racing. It has won many races including the 1988 Fremantle to Bali and the Fremantle to Cocos Islands yacht races. More recently, she has had many wins on IRC, in blue water races such as the Bunbury and Return yacht race and the Cape Naturalist yacht race between 2020 and 2023. She was also the Blue water state champion for Division 2 PHS in 2021.

Cannonball is capable of both inshore and offshore racing with all equipment (minus life raft and SAT-phone) required to race in CAT 2 races. She is well equipped with comfortable beds, kitchen and toilet, making it also a great boat for cruising.

This boat offers a unique and affordable option to race offshore competitively, against boats that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase and maintain.

She has been optimised for short handed racing with a long carbon-fibre bow sprit and an asymetrical spinnaker wardrobe. All sheets and hazards run to the cockpit. It has a state of the art B&G autoplilot that uses machine learning to accurately hold true or apparent wind angles. And a remote control so you can steer the boat from anywhere on board. These upgrade have been pricless for double-handed racing and single handed family cruising.

Recent upgrades include:

2015
- New Nanni 21hp diesel engine
- 2 x new Harken ST-40.2 radial winches
- 2 x new cockpit/cabin hatches

2018
- New mast lowering system installed

2019
- Aluminiminum toe rail removed and deck/hull rejoined with fibreglass
- Steering converted from tiller to wheel.
- New engine morse
- New 2-pack deck paint and non-skid
- New stanchions, bases and lifelines
- New B&G VHF (AIS/DSC) radio
- New masthead antenna and coax
- 4 x new Harken ST-40.2 radial winches
- New Spinlock clutches for all halyards
- New electric and manual bilge pumps
- New through hull fittings for bilge pumps and engine exhaust
- 2 x new top hatches
Furling forestay replaced with new harken carbon-foil twin luff track
- New dyneema backstay and control blocks
- New stainless cabin top handles
- New stainless mooring cleats
- New teak toe rails
- New stainless folding propellor
- New dripless propellor shaft seal
- Electric water pumps installed for both fresh and salt water
- 2 x new lightweight water bladders (110L)
- 6 x new spinlock life jackets
- 4 x new 3 clip tethers
- New jackstays
- New Mainsail and cabin-hatch covers

2020
- New B&G electronics installed:
- Vulcan 9 MFD
- NAC 3 Autopilot contoller
- Hydraulic autopilot ram
- rudder position sensor
- 9 Axis compass
- Wireless wind sensor
- Bluetooth Autopilot remote
- Triton 2 instrument diplay
- Fusion Bluetooth sound system
- New external speakers
- External antenna for Iridium Go sat-comms
- Seatalk-NMEA converter for raymarine log integration
- NMEA 2000 - USB adapter for computer/ instruments integration
New Toughbook laptop for offshore navigation
- New 100ah lithium deep cycle house battery
- New inflatable tender and electric motor (uses lithium house battery)

2021
- All new sheets and hazards replaced with race spec rope with dyneema core, kevlar blend sheath and dyneema chafe resistant spliced tips
- 7 x new Tylaska T8 snap-shackles for hazards and spinnaker sheets
- New Tylaska main halyard screw shackle
- New custom gooseneck fitting, rod kicker and vang assembly.
- New custom 1.5m carbon- fibre Bowsprit.
- Carbon-fibre bow reinforcement and bob-stay installed
- Diamonds installed on mast to support Masthead spinnaker.
Both masthead and fractionioal spinnaker sheeves replaced with Harken racing sheeves.
New masthead spinnakers recut to fit boat
- All standing rigging and turnbuckles replaced with Dyform wire
- New Onesails forte 4T No. 2 Jib

2022
- New AIS transponder and antenna splitter installed
- 2 x New Racing lightweight danforth anchors
- Keel removed and bolts inspected
- Hull sandblasted and osmosis reglassed
- Hull Faired and long-board sanded
- Hull painted with 3 coats of epoxy primer and Ultra 2 anti-foul
- Rudder re-shaped for hydrodynamics
- Keel re-sealed with thickened epoxy for 'perfect fit'

2023
- New interior and bilge paint
- New bilge pump float switch