Oh you guys are great. I volunteer to be the F12 forum moderator so I can lock this thread before my kids see it . I'm happy with the black annodised beams but will probably be a bit tricky like Gato with the paint, the only problem I see is touching the paint up. I like the thought of 1 can of paint for all the boats. Scarecrow or RG had you given any thought to a rubber bow protector as I will be loaning my boats to novices, it may stop us sinking a 420
regards.

Hi all,
short update, all the hull halves for the 4 boats are finished now, a couple of boards have been made and the flanges for joining the hulls are being installed. Billy's wife wrote an article for the next Aussie Multihull mag that will be out in the next issue, with luck that will generate a bit more interest.
Jeff....why wouldn't we want to sink 420's ? <grin>
Other than that I think life has generally intruded significantly on boat building recently, but some progress has been made.
Cheers
RG

Luiz, given that we have such different bow shapes and other designs will probably be different yet again, how do you think your going to come up with a standardized design ?
cheers
RG

Sorry Luiz I reckon any bow protector needs to look part of the boat and not mark the skipper as a novice. I'm thinking of putting just a rubber strip on the bow painted the same as the boat to be unobtrusive but if someone has a better idea.
Great to see you've been flushed out and back online again by abuse of your thread RG. Cant wait to see the article and see if it generates some more activity, I don't want to upset the 420's because we may sink them with a below the waterline shot but then I'm the clubs repairer. My biggest concern is kids swimming, with a 420 not a problem, with the F12 the bow is on the waterline and would crack a skull at very low speed.
regards

Not really a fan of bow bumpers. They deteriorate pretty quickly (within a season of regular use) and are only effective for very slow speed collisions.

I've seen Vagabonds (slow speed training dinghies), Pacers (higher speed teams racing dinghies) and model yachts all get holed or get significant damage after a T-bone with the same boat, both to the "T-ee" and "T-er". All had rubber bow bumpers.

Better to reinforce with learners to keep a good lookout and not run into anything. That concept will hold them in good stead for the rest of their lives, as opposed to relying on bow bumpers.

They dont bump much in the current optis, so I see "safety bows" as kind of overdoing it. Hypothermia is a far more likely danger, but I dont think the boat should be designed with that in mind either.

The DS12 has a solid timber stem. While a little more complicated to build this was done to prevent the ply "splitting" in the event of a collision. Its not unbreakable but it is definitely more robust.

Any measures beyond that are up to the owners.