The rig is now up and ready for testing. The hull shape is being looked over by David Allan-Williams, technical adviser to two winning America’s cup campaigns. I am keen to hit the water again in the next couple of days to get some more realistic testing against similar boats – and of course to get some more exciting video footage. Its a relief that we now have a rig that is designed for the boat and a centreboard position that should enable me to blast to windward. I can’t wait for testing…..
I note from following some of the forums that there are many who are keen for the boat to be readily available as soon as possible. I share that frustration, but it should be noted that this project is about making a mass production boat. There will be no room for later modifications or rectifications. We will have to work towards getting it right. I don’t think anyone would be keen to ‘buy into’ a new class if they thought that the 2,000th boat would be quicker or more reliable than the 1st boat. For this reason we are going through a very rigorous design processes. We aim to iron out the flaws before we get to production. The process which we are undertaking is as follows:
1. Pre production prototype hull (a piece of polystyrene, CNC cut and coated in glass fibre ), prototype rig (currently using a mixture of aluminium and carbon sections to get the right bend characteristics, plus a mylar sail, cut so we can alter the luff curve easily)
***THIS IS WHERE WE ARE AT THE MOMENT***
This pre-production prototype will be on display on the Rooster Sailing stand at the 2010 Dinghy Show. We aim to use the show to help market the concept and be able to answer your questions face to face.
2. Pre production hull. (made conventionally with an epoxy foam sandwich construction using the ‘A’ surface tool) This is the test bed for final hull using estimated finished thickness, weight distribution and durability. The initial purpose of these hulls are to test them to destruction. We expect to make between 10 and 20 hulls from this tool. There will be a number shipped around the globe for demonstration purposes. [Expected availability mid/late 2010]
3. Early A and B surface hull production. [end 2010/early 2011] More rigorous testing. Boat’s expected to be shown and retailed at the 2011 Dinghy Show.
More coming soon.
January 29th, 2010 at 1:24 pm
love the boat, it looks great and i was very interested.
but no tracked mast and halyard,so its a no-no for me i think
January 29th, 2010 at 1:34 pm
Many thanks for the comment and the interest- remember guys, nothing is set in stone and we are just testing at the moment…
January 29th, 2010 at 2:04 pm
my only concern is that it looks like the sail has a full length top battern, so how is the mast end of the battern stopped from moving about without a tracked mast?
also sail on small inland res. so halyard makes life a lot easier.