Four years ago Ker Design led the way towards faster mid-sized IRC designs with the instant success of the Ker40. More recently the much revised Ker40+ also won straight out of the box. But there is more to come… much more

In 2010 the accepted view was that a state-of-the-art 40ft IRC design was by definition a 6.5-7 tonne ‘leadmine’, with a lightweight cruiser-racer interior that was never used. After some investigation we dared to offer a Ker40 to the market as a fast, relatively light (five tonnes), yet 40ft production design that immediately generated a lot of interest.

Ten examples were built by McConaghy Boats and they have had a lot of success around the world, while also providing a lot of fun for their owners and crews. Successes include top boat overall at the Commodores’ Cup in 2012 and 2014, Fastnet and Middle Sea race class wins and multiple IRC National Championship titles.

Since we designed the Ker40 the IRC algorithms were adjusted to enable even lighter yachts such as the best GP42s to also be competitive.

Late in 2013, sensing that the demand for Ker 40s was drying up, we announced the Ker 40+, which could take advantage of both this latest rule adjustment and the significant design technology advances at Ker Yacht Design. This coincided with the launch of the Fast 40 initiative by Rob Greenhalgh, to create proper class racing for high-performance boats in the UK; we initially assisted Rob with investigating some of the technical solutions.