RACE YACHTS

Sea Ventures are specialists in short handed yacht racing. We proudly present the Jeanneau Sun Fast range and the brand new Farr X2. Sea Ventures Managing Director, Nigel Colley, is an expert in the sport and is always keen to help and encourage anyone who would like to get involved. We also specialise in Race Yachts brokerage.

ABOUT NIGEL COLLEY

You could say Nigel was born to sail, he started his sailing life in a carrycot, stuffed down below in his father’s Folk boat, and was whisked off to events around the Solent. The love of the water was passed on from father to son and while his father then moved to racing a Contessa 32, Nigel started dinghy sailing and spent his teenage years racing Firefly dinghies. It was definitely a family affair with his sister often crewing for him in her bikini!

Nigel then moved on to Fireballs, a high performance trapeze boat and then from there to 505s followed by International 14s, a twin trapeze boat. With racing firmly set as his passion in life, he began racing keel boats, starting with the family Folkboat and Contessa 32. When finishing school, of course working in the industry was a no-brainer and he completed a Diploma in Yacht and Boat Design at Southampton – an obvious starting point for anyone setting out in the marine industry.

So, Nigel’s professional working life in the industry began! Working as a boat builder with Jeremy Rogers, building cruising and racing yachts, gave him valuable experience and he was then fortunate to be able to work with a wealth of Yacht Designers on some high-profile projects. This saw him through the 80s, and it was in 1990 that his life changed again when he teamed up with his father to buy Sea Ventures, which back then, was a charter company – exciting times! Not long after this, in 1991 on a trip to the Jeanneau yard, Nigel found a boat covered in a tarpaulin in a secret part of the factory. Curious, he pulled back the tarpaulin which revealed the first prototype of the Sun Fast 36. This was a defining moment in Nigel’s career as Sea Ventures bought this prototype, with Nigel going on to successfully race the first ever Sun Fast in the UK. From here Nigel’s 30+ year relationship with Jeanneau was born moving Sea Ventures into a hugely respected boat dealer/broker, a vision Nigel had long held in order to grow the company.

Over the years, Nigel has been a firm stalwart in the Yacht Racing community, successfully racing a wide variety of boats including all the Sun Fast models, from that early 32 right through to the 3600 and 3300 – all with the Fastrak prefix. His passion for racing and unsurpassed knowledge has shone through and he is highly respected throughout the industry. Sea Ventures has grown into an award-winning new and used boat dealer, with offices in Swanwick, Southampton and Noss-on-Dart, Devon, and is unique in its ‘complete approach’ with customer service at the heart and the latest technologies at its fingertips. It’s subsidiary, Sea Ventures Race Yachts, continues to thrive as the ultimate race hub, with used race boat sales and the latest addition being the introduction of FarrX2 Yachts.

As well as being the reference on the double-handed racing scene, Nigel also sits on various boards and is Director of Racing of the Solo Offshore Racing Club He has mentored many budding racing talents and sponsored youth sailors.

So, what’s next? He’s not ready to hang up his life jacket just yet, in fact the opposite is true. He’s hoping to spend more time enjoying what he does best, and this year is planning to compete in the Triangle Race in July. 2025. Watch this space!

A few of Nigel’s racing highlights

Competed in 1989 International 14 World Champs in San Francisco at 28 years old
1983 – crew member on winning boat in Scottish series
Winner of Spi Ouest Regatta in France in the Melges 24 One Design Class
Mid-90s – Won the Triangle race won in a Sun Fast 32 – 700 miles
Late 90s – 3^rd overall in Cowes week in SF 36 racing with family – wife and kids
2010 – 2nd overall in the Double Handed Round Britain & Ireland Race
2011 – Won the double-handed North Sea 1000 race
2015 3600 – raced solo in Azab race from Falmouth to Azores and back – 2500 mile race – 3^rd overall
2017 Sydney Hobart race in 3600 – podium result in division
Competed in multiple Fastnet races
Many more podium results in JOG, RORC and SORC races
Crossed the Atlantic 4 times, including the first ever ARC rally in 1986, winning the class

As featured in SEAHORSE MAGAZINE

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JEANNEAU SUN FAST

Most recently Jeanneau has directed its Sun Fast range to creating uncompromising short-handed racing boats. The emergence of single and double-handed racing has been driven by Jeanneau’s Sun Fast 3300 and 3600 models. With large fleets entering classic races, Sea Ventures is the expert leader in setting up Sun Fast yachts that are immediately ‘on the pace’. The Sun Fast 3300 and 3600 speak for themselves on the world racing stage and Sea Ventures is the place to buy one – either new or second-hand.

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FARR

Short-handed sailing has grown substantially in the last few years, and Sea Ventures has been at the centre of developing this great new format in the UK and beyond. So it was only natural that when the Farr design office and Project Manager Brett Perry created a new race-winning boat they would choose Sea Ventures to represent them in Europe. The Farr X2 design with its dreadnought bow, chamfered foredeck deck and chine from mid-bow aft is ultra-stiff and light. The hull’s low CofG (with resulting high righting moment) has allowed the team to concentrate weight low in the fin and bulb keel. Twin cassette rudders, and a deck layout that incorporates a coachroof overhang, leave you in no doubt that this no-compromise short-handed racer with a provisional TCF of XXXXX is the new reference design for this short-handed racing.

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