{"id":66519,"date":"2012-12-13T21:50:57","date_gmt":"2012-12-14T02:50:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/?p=66519"},"modified":"2023-05-30T08:02:25","modified_gmt":"2023-05-30T12:02:25","slug":"ker-40-best-handicap-racer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/sailboats\/ker-40-best-handicap-racer\/","title":{"rendered":"Ker 40: Best Handicap Racer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"\" <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t

Best Handicap Racer: Ker 40<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\n
\n The Ker 40 is a semi-custom boat for the serious IRC racing team. Our test boat, Catapult, was built for an experienced owner, and was fitted out primarily for offshore racing.<\/span>\n Walter Cooper<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n

Purpose: IRC and offshore racing
\nRecommended race crew: 11 to 12
\nBest attributes: build quality, cockpit
\nlayout, and versatility
\nPrice: $318,000 (base)
\nwww.mcconaghyboats.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the realm of IRC handicap racing there are two realities:<\/strong> If outright speed is your endgame, then a bigger, expensive custom build is your only option. At the other end, where the greatest number of owners can afford to compete, IRC levels the playing field by encouraging new builds to be heavier than they should be. The Ker 40<\/a>, built by McConaghy Boats<\/a>, best addresses this contradiction in high-performance handicap racing with a semi-custom production boat, allowing owners to enter the grand-prix IRC game with a boat that’s custom fast, without the custom cost. As with McConaghy’s other BOTY-winning boat (the MC38 One Design<\/a>), the judges said the Ker 40 was a work of boatbuilding art and excellent under sail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the 40-foot range in IRC, because the boats are typically heavier, they\u2019re not as exciting downwind,\u201d said Stewart, \u201cbut this boat is much more aggressive and wicked-up than what you might otherwise find.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jason Ker and McConaghy borrowed a lot of ideas from IRC\u2019s big-boat fleet and applied them to this, added Stewart. \u201cIt\u2019s a big 40-footer. Its beam is wide aft because of the flair, and IRC gives a lot of credit for the beam. With this shape you have a hull that goes through the water on a narrow waterline, so there\u2019s not a lot of drag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI could also tell they spent a lot of time on the deck layout, figuring out the leads, like the mainsheet stoppers that led to the winches, which is hard to do right. We got on the boat having never sailed it, and had no problems with any maneuvers. Everything worked great.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The test boat presented for the judges is campaigned by an owner coming out of a J\/122 program, and, says project manager Geoff Ewenson, he\u2019s the type of owner that prefers to not be bound by one-design rules. The Ker 40 offers the flexibility to do both handicap racing and a selection of distance races, and race results from Ker 40s being campaigned overseas confirm that the design is one to be reckoned with. To meet its dual-purpose role, the owner of our test boat customized his with a Harken pedestal, a generous nav station, pipe berths, and other offshore accoutrements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat I like about this boat is that you\u2019re not just saving money with a semi-custom boat, but you\u2019re also saving on the overall campaign costs of a bigger boat,\u201d said Rich. \u201cThe thing is incredibly well built, and if you\u2019re the guy who wants to play with rules and have something unique that\u2019s grand-prix, this is it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more images of the Ker 40, click here<\/a>.
For more on McConaghy Boats, click here<\/a>.
To see the rest of 2013’s winners, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jason Ker, master of IRC-winning designs, teams up with McConaghy Boats to deliver a no-excuses, semi-custom raceboat that’s dialed in for offshore sprints and buoy racing triumphs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31365,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"BS_author_type":"BS_author_is_guest","BS_guest_author_name":"Dave Reed","BS_guest_author_url":"","hydra_display_date":"20121213","hydra_display_updated":false,"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":"160","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Jason Ker, master of IRC-winning designs, teams up with McConaghy Boats to deliver a no-excuses, semi-custom raceboat that's dialed in for offshore sprints and buoy racing triumphs.","_yoast_wpseo_title":"Ker 40: Best Handicap Racer %%sep%% %%sitename%%","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","arc_story_id":"HFKXP4AP3PHUKAVC4N3KB6ZA5A","arc_website_url":"sailboats\/ker-40-best-handicap-racer\/","custom_permalink":"","arc_subtype":"right-sidebar","arc_exclude_from_feeds":false,"sponsored":false,"sponsored_label":"Sponsored Content","sponsored_display_label":false,"sponsored_image":false,"post_right_rail":true,"post_right_rail_ad_1":true,"post_right_rail_ad_2":true,"post_right_rail_ad_3":false,"post_right_rail_ad_4":false,"post_right_rail_recirc":true,"fixed_anchor_ad":true,"post_top_ad":true,"post_off_ramp":true,"post_taboola":false,"labels":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":"","ad_targeting":"","ad_settings_ads_on_this_page":true,"ad_settings_automatic_ad_injection_into_the_content":true,"sponsored_url":"","social_share":true},"categories":[160],"tags":[173,300,443,317,298,336,164],"class_list":["post-66519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sailboats","tag-boat-of-the-year","tag-boatbuilding","tag-boty","tag-handicap-racing","tag-keelboat","tag-mcconaghy","tag-sailboats"],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}