OK guys here it is:

I must preface this ‘report’ with the statement that it is entirely subjective, and totally my personal opinion, based on just one afternoon’s sail in conditions and a sailing area that I have not sailed a Stealth in. There was no other Blade or Stealth around, at the time that we were afloat, with which to compare speed or behaviour, my views are therefore based entirely on experience and my best judgement. With this proviso in mind, please feel free to read into the following whatever you wish.

Boat: [color:"red"] VWM Blade F16 [/color] Sail No. [color:"red"] SIN 708
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Wind conditions: [color:"red"] 15 – 17 knots [/color]

Air Temp: [color:"red"] 31°C [/color] Sea state: [color:"red"] Moderate chop [/color]

Mast: [color:"red"] Superwing with Proctor spreaders [/color]

Main: [color:"red"] Ullman [/color] Jib: [color:"red"] Ullman [/color] Spinnaker: [color:"red"] Redhead [/color]

First impressions:

The boat is apparently well built with good quality fittings and beams, the trampoline area is relatively uncluttered with the important controls easily to hand. I particularly liked the ‘de riguer’ self-tacking jib track moulded mounts and the double sided jib sheet system (the Stealth has a single jib sheet). The mast rotation arm is centred via the trampoline with controls out to the side deck each side, whereas the Stealth has the more common boom mounted system. The sails, once up, looked very good with plenty of shape quickly available to either sail via the downhaul systems. I didn’t like the mainsail Cunningham though as there was insufficient travel available on the cascading 8:1 system. This was re-tied several times before launching but was still insufficient to properly flatten the main once on the water. The hulls are the main thing I was interested in though and Matt should be very proud of his product. Scott (McCook) tells me that the VWM stem is shorter at 410mm than the 450mm shown on Phil’s plans and as built by ProSail Asia into Agent Orange. This gives the VWM boat a slightly more aggressive look, but does it affect the boat’s performance? The hull finish is excellent and I could not fault the joints, beam trays or board trunks. Speaking of boards, I was amazed to see that the Stealth centreboards are almost double the depth of the Blade’s but around two thirds of the width! For my test sail this Blade was fitted with AHPC Taipan rudder blades as the owner was adapting the ones supplied by VWM. This may have had some repercussions on my test sail as I shall explain.

On the water:

I was fortunate that Scott agreed to crew for me as my wife had decided that the Changi S C swimming pool and sun loungers were more attractive than blasting around Serangoon Harbour on the end of a wire! We therefore set off at a brisk pace upwind with me out on the trapeze while Scott adjusted the mainsail cunningham and mast rotation (see earlier). Once we had established that the main was as good as we could achieve in the circumstances, Scott joined me out on the wire and we began to really push. The Blade slices easily upwind and feels like a much bigger boat. Whereas the Stealth will ‘bounce’ on the waves upwind due to its flat bottoms and relatively high buoyancy, the Blade handled the waves in a more cushioned but still very buoyant way. The sailing angle of both boats seems to be very much the same with the forefoot of the bow just out of the water, but the Blade seems to give a more comfortable ride. It was a shame that we did not have a Stealth with us to compare pace. There was a Taipan 4.9 F16 also out for a sail and the Blade was clearly faster. At this stage it became clear that we had an issue with the rudders not being parallel, the boat was sailing well enough, but occasionally the rudders would ‘lock out’ as I tried to play the waves. We continued though, as we were having a really good time in the building breeze. The Blade tacks every bit as well as the Stealth and carries its speed through the tacks – I was starting to really enjoy the ride and getting quite a good feel for the wave pattern. We started to really fly and Scott played some more with the mast rotation – the Blade seems to be more responsive/critical of mast rotation due to the Superwing – the Stealth uses a more pear shaped, tapered carbon mast and although it does, of course, respond well to correct rotation, it is more forgiving than the Superwing. I quite liked the Superwing mast, but I think I prefer my carbon tapered mast for this reason.

After a fair bit of this upwind work, we turned to try the spin. The kite was up very quickly and smoothly, the system is exactly the same on my Stealth with a single line hoist. First of all we heated things up with me out on the wire and Scott playing the kite from on the hull, the main was cleated in hard and I played the traveller. The Blade absolutely LOVES downwind! It’s not as solid downwind as the Stealth though, which (with its foiling rudders) simply picks up and drives with every gust. The Blade needs to be worked downwind to get the best out of it and (when you get it right) is very rewarding. The lee bow would occasionally bury but the boat simply shook it off and carried on. I was having some difficulty staying on the side of the boat with the rapid speed changes and no aft toeloop(s). A couple of times we nearly came a cropper as I left the boat and went waterskiing! We carried on and tried a few fast gybes, now though Scott was trapezing behind me and I stayed on the hull up against the rearbeam. The Blade is just as responsive as the Stealth, and the misaligned rudders were not a problem at lower manoeuvring speeds. At the higher powered-up-with-spinnaker speeds though the rudder issue was a bit more of a problem and within minutes I’d flipped the boat in one bearaway gust as the rudders locked out.

This now gave me a chance to see how much of a difference there might be between a carbon and an ali mast – I weigh about 70Kgs soaking wet (which I now was ) Scott is around 75Kgs I would guess, so the F16 should pop up real easy with our combined weights. In those conditions, on my own, I reckon to get the Stealth back up within a minute of putting the kite away. With the Blade, Scott quickly had the kite away, but the boat showed no sign of coming back up with just him on the righting line. I quickly got up onto the lower hull and then leaned on Scott. With our combined weight it still took probably more than a minute for the mast to ‘unstick’ but then only seconds after that for the Blade to pop back upright. Our pitchpole had been a biggie – we’d lost one centreplate (I recommend attaching the boards to the shrouds with a length of line and a caribine) and the tiller bar and extension! A quick sort-out and then we sailed a short distance upwind to collect the (floating) centreboard. A tack and we picked up the tiller bar. I should explain that, because of the borrowed rudders, the tiller bar had to be retained on the tillers by bungee. No breakages though, so some more sorting out and we set off again. We made some more distance to windward and I was again impressed with the smooth action upwind in the moderate chop. A couple of reaches for fun, fully powered up, with us both wiring and then we turned downwind again. This time I hiked the boat at the outset with Scott trapezing behind me and locked up against my back. With the boat heated up again we managed to surprise quite a few onlookers with the speed of the Blade downwind, incredible amounts of green water splashing across the trampoline, the lee bow disappearing and reappearing, and the boat barely slowing. It’s a much wetter ride than I’ve experienced on the Stealth, but fun! The Stealth tends to plane easier with its much flatter bottoms, it’s not as smooth a ride upwind but downwind I think it has the edge over the Blade – it’s predictable and I think you can push harder in strong breezes. That said, I still think the Blade is a superb boat that feels much bigger than an F16.

How much of the Stealth’s downwind strength is in it’s rudders is difficult to tell- the Blade and Stealth have very different hull bottoms. But, as already mentioned on the catsailor forum, I’d really like to try the Blade with John Pierce’s latest Stealth rudders.

Overall I’d say the Blade is probably a more comfortable boat upwind than the Stealth, the two boats seem to handle equally well and both have almost identical systems and gear. I also thought that torsionally the Blade is not as stiff as the Stealth and the hulls could be seen moving a lot in the chop upwind. This may well have helped the ride. The Stealth uses nice large 3 1/2" dia round beams as opposed to the smaller mast section beams on the Blade. The Stealth is, in my opinion, a stronger downwind boat and can be pushed harder than the Blade and in stronger breezes. I particularly am sold on the Stealth carbon mast, both for its lightness and its non-critical nature in terms of rotation.
Which boat would I buy given the choice? That’s a tough one! I think if it HAD to be the standard boat, it’d be the Stealth – just. My ideal though would probably be the Blade (because of it's looks and upwind ride) with a Stealth mast and rudders (if – as I suspect – the Stealth rudders are the real power behind the Stealth’s amazing downwind behaviour). For the moment though, I’m very happy with the boat I have.