Some more news has come in during this week. Actually, the last two weeks have proven to be very interesting. Jennifer/Kelly winning both the Wildcat 2004 in Florida and the Area D South Alter cup Qualifier. The women are showing us the way ! Okay I'll admit, I think this to be extremely cool. It is not that often that an all female crew win an spot in a invitation-only sailing event. No wild-cards or something, just the plain hard official route. Hard earned by beating the other (all male) competitors on the course. A great honour to them and I'm thrilled that it happened in the F16 class.

But I was talking about new news.

Here is the first.

VectorworksMarine (florida) are making progress on the Blade F16 production.

Matt has told me that all 5 boats in the initial production run have been assigned to financially committed buyers. All apparently in the Florida area. The Floridians can therefor look forward to some expantion in the near future. The delivery dates are still confidential (you never know if another storm is about to hit and delay production again) but the feeling is good. Grapevine has it that the majority of parts is on location. I think only the sails are still expected to come in.

Some pictures of the building of the hull moulds are shown below. Dated : early oktober.


Foaming the bunks that will be 3D printed into the plugs.




The computer controlled 3D cutter is transfering the computer model of the hullshape to the foam.
Note the storm damage to the wall/door in the back.



Here the worker is fairing the foam plug that has just been cut.




Then the foam plugs are laid up with glass to stabilize the shape and reinforce the plugs




Of course they are only halve way yet as now the time has come to make the female mould using this reinforced foam plug. The female mould will later be used to produce the hulls. In the picture you can see an Epoxy compound being added to the bunks containing the plug to make up the body of the female mould.




And then we we see the end result of adding the Epoxy compound. The outside is still rough but the inside is smooth and true to the computer stored hullshape.

[img]http://www.catsailor.com/bb_files/40404-VWM_BLADE_F16_HULL_PLUGS_IN_EPOXY_FIN_1.jpg[/img]


The boats in the initial production run will undoubtably result in feedback from the owners to the boatyard and the official production run will build on this and the experiences gained during the start-up phase. The fact that all owners are in the Florida area means that they are among themselfs and the Taipans. This means some good feedback is in the works. I think this is the best way to an assured quality product. It may be hard if a setback is encountered but one rather has this in the very beginning of a project when corrections are still possible than later on. And we all know by now that the Taipans are the best benchmark around. Merely equaling those will signal the Blade will be a winner. I maybe be getting a little bit out of line here but when I look at the stages the design went through I have good hopes. Afterall, The designers Phill Brander and Ian Markovitch have both years experience in the Australian Taipan class as owners. They know the benchmark very well so to say. Then the prototype was tested and the feedback coming from that was used to finalize the Mark 2 Blade F16. This is the version that VectorWorks Marine are building in their initial production run. This version will then go through a group test/feedback loop and the findings acquired here will once again be used to finalize the design as it will be produced by the VectorWorks Marine yard. We already know what the Aussies test sailors said regarding the original mark 1 Blade F16 prototype and I personally don't expect that the other feedback loops will have resulted in a worse platform.

I'm as anxious as anyone to see the start of the second feedback loop. I know the builders themselfs are as well. Lets hope that no more delays are planned by the All Mighty and that we can see some VectorWorks Marine Blades in some racing this winter. But don't feel you are under any pressure from us VectorWorks Marine ! (joke)

Like I said the feel is good.

Wouter