Had my first full Blade F16 test ride today !

105 minutes of it and I got a full GPS track of it !

Sadly it is 2 am right now, so you guys just have to wait a little longer for the full report.

My test boat was a VectorWorks Marine Blade F16 with kevlar hulls, Ashby pentex mainsail and jib, Landenberger spinnaker, Catamaranparts Rudder stocks and rudder boards, Boyer (AHPC) daggerboards.

All parts except the spi were supplied through the Blade importer.






And here the GPS Track.

Dark Blue colour is boat speed across earth of less then 10 knot
Light blue colour is boat speed across earth of less then 12 knots
red is boat speed across earth of more then 12 knots.

Deducting the departure and landing on the beach we sailed 82 minutes and covered in that time 27 km. This translates into an AVERAGE speed of about 19.7 km/h = 10.6 knots.

The conditions were small waves with no more then 11 knots of wind, mostly less then that. We had trouble keeping on 69 kg skipper on the wire while I (87 kg) was way down on the trampoline. The luff hull was in the water when we both sat on the luff hull. This would mean we had less the 10 knots of wind.

Our combined weight was 69 + 87 = 156 kg. Boat felt fine with that weight on it.

Notice how all spinnaker legs were consistantly OVER 12 knots boat speed (red colour)





Wouter