Two things
When I was shopping for a new boat a few months ago I asked NACRA AUS about a F16 and was told to come back in a year...

Also it must be cheap to follow the APHC route for the Viper, Scan an Infusion hull <$3000, scale it down (free), CNC cut female molds <$3000? Use Infusion beams and hardware. Read below about how APHC designed the Viper.

"We have followed traditional design procedures in the past but this time chose to engage Concentric Engineering Services and the CATIA design software. It wasn't that they were boating experts.

In fact, they work on anything from V8Supercars to jet aircraft to household products. It was the fact that they had a strong pedigree going back 20 or so years, they understood good design, they had a totally reliable 3D CAD package and could back it up with the inbuilt CAE properties", adds Greg.

Concentric Engineering Services also has a reverse engineering team with a portable tripod-mounted laser scanner.
Concentric Engineering Services started off the project by going to the AHPC workshop at Mulgrave, Victoria, and scanned an existing F-18 cat' to create the initial CAD data.
"The scanning showed straight away that the hull wasn't symmetrical", says Greg, " Concentric Engineering Services took this data and scaled it down to meet F-16 regulations. They were able to create a design that was perfectly symmetrical and accurate to within half a millimetre."

In CATIA, Greg was able to view how the Viper hull would eventually sit in the water and this contributed to the improved design.
"If I had to define this project in one word it would be 'accuracy'. All of a sudden we had the ability to make the Viper exact to very fine tolerances. This accuracy also meant that making parts was that much better. Our process improved 1,000%!"

Continues Greg, "The hulls and foils were developed with CATIA so that the plugs and moulds can be accurately CNC machined. This gives a production boat of unequalled quality and accuracy of shape. When we took the half-mould out we knew without a doubt that it would fit the other side."

"All eyes are clearly focused on the Viper F-16 as this model has the potential to match or even exceed the growth of its F-18 big brother. The Viper is the latest creation drawn on 30 years of racing and development experience at world class level and it won't disappoint. Reputation alone produced fully committed sales well before the prototypes were even sailed."
The Viper is expected to debut at the F-16 Championships in Holland in August 2007.
AHPC intends to take the Viper F-16 data and scale it up to make an even more successful 18-footer.
16/10/2007