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

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Saw those on 1desing.net And yes it is good news that this boat is being built here in FL. Hopefully we will have a small fleet. I personally cannot wait!!

Will any of the new Blade F16s be on the water by March 19,2005?

Jennifer Lindsay
Taipan 4.9/F16HP #262

Good question , if confirmation is really important then there is only one person who can give it to you.

Of course I have absolutely no influence in this matter but I am in need of money and if I were to make a gamble where a months earnings were at risk I could do alot worse then betting on this particular outcome.

If you understand what I mean.

By the way, what is special about march 19, 2005 ?

Wouter

It's her birthday?

March 19 & 20, 2005
Gulfport Yacht Club is having an A-Cat regatta and they have invited the F16HPU back again. In March 2004, GYC had a similar event and racing the A-Cat and F16HPU around the same course with separate starts worked out well. The only stipulation is we need at least 5 F16HPU to commit before February 1st. The Taipan 4.9 fleet is becoming less active so it is doubtful if we will have enough boats to meet the 5 boat minimum but if we can get 1 or 2 Blades to attend, we should be able to meet the minimum.

I'll post the NOR for the regatta soon.

Jennifer Lindsay
Taipan 4.9/F16HP #262

This is good news because I'm considering going to the F16 Class instead of the F18, and the Blade looks promising. I would be downsizing from a Hobie 20.

Believe it or not, you won't be losing any/much speed around a course--F16 is slower upwind than the H20 but zips by it downwind because of the spinnaker. And you'll get the versitility of sailing (safely) one-up or two-up.

That is the option I am looking foward to. The "A" is way out of my budget, I hate having to count on a non-motivated crew, or diferent crews for every race and having to teach em every time. Ide rather sail solo! Plus the spinnaker kicks it up a notch or two. Plus I can always go sloop in a matter of minutes if a crew were to go. Enough bouyancy to take the misses out on the weekends as well.

In my opinion the F16 is by far the perfect platform for the soloist or crewed racer.

I20 way over my head
F18 you need two folks
"A" Cat too expensive, cant take the wifey out.
I17R its to low profile for two people - cant take the wifey out either
F16 perfect for one or two folks - solo racing, and weekend cruising.
F14 too small
F12 is there a such thing yet?

F16 is just perfect PERIOD!

FYI
The I17 platform was designed as a 2-up boat.

[quoteI17R its to low profile for two people - cant take the wifey out either
[/quote]

So why is it raced solo?

Actually I-17 was designed as a 2-up sloop boat without a spi.

It originated in Australia, where it was lighter as well.

Then things changed when it was brought to USA and Europe.

In chronological order

I-17 (Aus)
I-17 (EU, US no jib, little more weight, later spi added)
I-17R (USA only, taller carbon mast, more sailarea, recently introduced to Eu but replaced again by F17)
I-17XL (EU only, more sailarea on same EU alu mast)
I-17 (US, EU with jib but smaller than the original I-17's, Again Australian and Asian I-17 fly a different jib)
F17 (US, same as the I-17R really only now you have two spinnaker sizes to the boat)

Wouter

I found some more pictures of the Blade F16 mould being made :

I think I actually misunderstood what was being machine in the earlier post. I thought the brown shape was the plug and the first epoxy layer would make the mould, However it seems that the first post only showed the first stages in making the plug. So the plug is made from an inner core of foam that was 3D machined after which the foam was covered with a machinable expoy compound that would later become the outer shell of the plug. This epoxy layer is then also 3D machined into the final plug shape from which the mould will be taken.

The pictures in this post show the shell of the plug being machined. The end result is the final shape of the Blade F16 hull. This will be later mirror into a female mould if I uderstand it correctly this time.

So here goes :


FIRST PASS OF THE FINAL MACHINING OF THE PLUG.





THE FINAL PASS OF FINISH MACHINING





HULL PLUG FINISHED MACHINING


Wouter

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