Ian Farrier to end plan sales to homebuilders

Just thought some might be interested to know that Ian Farrier is ending plan sales for his F series of trimarans on the 25th of September. Apparently the sales of plans to home builders has dropped so far that it's not worth continuing with. If you want to build one of these you might want to buy your plans soon full support will still be offered for any plansets sold before that date.

 

He wasn't making any money out of the plans for the time spent supporting builders apparently.

You still have options. You can buy an existing set of unused plans, you can buy plans from Mr Kendrick for $150 or you can buy a set of kit hulls and complete from there.

It's sad but it's not armageddon

Waiting with baited breath to see what the F22 kit will cost when it finally arrives

 

It will be interesting to see how much it will cost I'm tipping somewhere a little shy of 50k (could be 60k) for the full kit and maybe 40k for the bare hulls and beams. I dont think it will be that much cheaper than buying a Corsair Sprint but I hope to be surprised. It would certainly be a shot in the arm for our club if a modern compact multi could be delivered at a moderate price. We have hosted heaps of mono sailors over the years and the overwhelming response is "great boats and really fast, pity they are out of reach financially" then they will buy an endeavour 24 or similar for 7k with a trailer.

 

How much trouble can it be to print up sets of plans?

 

Sam, buy and maintain a 36" wide printer and see how you feel about it.

 

I would think that any active naval architect would want to have a 36" printer anyway. Besides, you can always get Kinkos or Staples to print off a set easily enough.

 

What I don't understand is that he says (all at the same time) :
- I don't sell plans anymore anyway (that is there is no demand for them anymore)
- It was never sufficient as an income
- It takes too much time to do new ones
- I will not sell existing plans anymore

On the other hand obviously :
- quite a bit of farriers have been built by amateurs or amateurs buying plans and dealing with a boat yard
- today if you're looking for "cruising tris" detailed plans, especially foldable, and in the 30 40' range, Farrier's plans appear like nearly the only choice.
- they obviously are good boats

Seems to me the problem might have been the level of support provided with the plans at no extra cost, don't see why he doesn't keep selling existing ones :
- clearly mentioning limited support associated
- offering extended support at some cost (on a per support action basis or other).

 

I thought he offered too many options- wide hulls,racing versions,aft cockpit,aft cabin, tall rig etc....I imagine he spent a fair amount of time just trying to help people figure what plans to buy. They are very detailed plans, well proven. Does he have a building video? Such a thing and a builders forum might be all that is needed. Many people want to be told what to do but if they know they have to figure it out because there is no one to ask self reliance should improve. And of course a 10 minute video section on consequences of stupid owner changes to keep the faithful on the path.

 

Yes, like yves puts it, all those things. Like IM puts it, farm out the printing. And like cmk2 says, trim the excess options (which might be the f series itself, for all I know) and provide video and books for a price and a forum for free to deal with the vast majority of questions.

Maybe the guy is getting out entirely for one reason or another (health) and doesn't care if the reasoning is valid, he just doesn't want to give the real reason to the internet public. That would be understandable.

 

Ian's pretty clearly stated that he'll get more return for time if he concentrates on getting the F22 to market (and other production builds after that) than if he spends time on selling and supporting plans. Pure business decision. And he will not sell plans without also supporting them.

 

Yes I also think that the real reason is to concentrate on the f22.

But when you see the work done on fram's 39' for instance (member here : http://www.fram.nl/), a bit of a pity of closing this kind of possibility, and again don't see why plans couldn't be sold with no included support, if that is very clearly mentioned upfront. (and as said by cavalier, today's "crowd sourced" support through forums can do quite a bit)

But then again, if there is no more demand ...

 

For a moment I wondered if this was required groundwork before reestablishing a partnership with Corsair. In the music biz it's like leaving the indie label for a big one, though in this day of digital self publishing it doesn't make as much sense as it used to if you like having artistic control.

 

From what I gather on his web site forum is that he is focusing on the F 22 at present, then wants to put the F 33 into production afterwards.

As well as time constraints and being a perfectionist, possibly age as well.

 

I am not Ian Farrier and don't speak for him. Having said that:

Printing the plans was never the problem. Supporting builders was.

He regards every boat built from his plans as bearing his name. He wants every outcome to be a good one, both for the builder and his reputation. This is evident in the plans, most detailed I've seen by far.

I would be EXTREMELY surprised if he'd get back into bed with Corsair. It'd only be slightly more likely than him teaming up with Lenneman.

When you buy a set of plans you get a range of options included. There aren't that many different sets to choose from. Look at the web shop. My F82 plans cover A, R, strip and foam hulls, dagger and centerboard. Later they included aft cabin. It's just not that complicated, really.

While plans will not be offered for individual builders to do from scratch you will still be able to buy hull kits to complete boats from various builders about the place. Further I SUSPECT if you can convince him you can build the boat unsupported (having completed another F-boat for example) I suspect he'd sell you a set. The trailertri plans have been unavailable for a long time but he has said he'd supply them if someone desperately wanted to build one.

This is not armageddon.

 

Well obviously it's not armageddon. I just put the post up as I thought some people might not of heard about it and were putting off their plan purchase. I'm not really a fan of the f boats to be honest but they do tick the boxes for a lot of people from a practical and performance perspective. Having met a few people who have built boats from the plans it seems a bit of a pity. If demand is falling off as he says the support time required should reduce proportionately as well. By ending plan sales in this way it's likely to cause a spike in sales and possibly more of a requirement for plans support. Perhaps a steady phasing out of plans as boats went into production may have been a better approach. Anyway at the end of the day it's his business and his decision.