Blade F16's arrived in Netherlands and are being hand out to the new owners.

The first to leave the premisses of www.catamaranparts.nl was Paul Warren's (UK) new boat :

( For full size high resolution picture go to : http://www.catamaranparts.nl/BladeF16a.htm )






Wouter

Nice!

.....and soooo much better without that awful VWM logo on the hull

I WANT the VWM logo on my boat.

I think the logo looks kinds nice as well.

Wouter

I think the logo is nice on a letterhead, but it's far too big on the Blade hull. I think it detracts from an otherwise beautiful looking hull shape....

So sorry, no apology from me for my personal view!!!

[quote] I think it detracts from an otherwise beautiful looking hull shape.... /quote]

This from a man who drinks warm beer!!

How do you know that I drink warm beer?

Actually, my preferred poison is Guinness Extra Cold!

Here a joke about Brits and British lager.

What is the similarity between English beer and having sex in a rowing dinghy ?












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It is both "f@cking close to water".




Wouter

For the record...I passed on the logo as well, but for different reasons. I did; howver, apply the f16 logo to the hull behind the rear beam today...one is a little crooked. Maybe it will not slow me down too much.

I'm skipping the logo also, mostly to make it easier to wax and polish the boat, as it will be sitting in the sun 5 months a year. Additionally, I have asked to put the F16 logo at the top of the sail instead of the "B" because I want to promote the F16 class. Just from the hull shape, everyone that knows what a F16 is, is going to know it is a Blade.

Wouter, tell me about those rudders in that picture, they don't look like the AHPC rudders or tillers.

The rudders are designed and built by Hans Klok. I've only sailed with them once so far, but they seem to work very well. Hans has designed them so that they can be flipped to the inverted position shown in the photo, which I understand is not possible with the AHPC rudders. This works well, because it means that as you land you can get the leeward rudder completely clear of the water and still retain full control with the windward rudder. You can then pop the windward rudder at the last moment.

Paul

All the things Paul wrote down earlier plus :

The profile of the wetted part of the rudder is the same as the ones you tried in the pas Tim. So steerage should be very comparable between the two. The stocks are made out of bend aluminium square tube and look/feel very stirdy. I THINK the rudders come with a manually adjustable nut (with wings, wingnut ?) so that you can adjust to amount of stick when the rudder lock down arms are disengaged. This means you can unlock the rods and keep the rudder boards down. Thus you sail through the surf with full control and at the first sandbar they kick up with a very small amount of pressure. When the sandbar is in THAT shallow water it means that you have succesfully traverse the surf anyway and the big rollers are behind you. This is actually a very nice feature and I've used it myself alot when coming in. It can also be effectively used when going out. It is simple and effective.

The rudders can be turned all the way up. This can indeed be used in the surf again or when the winds are really light but the orginal intend is to have the boards out of the way of the feet of clumsy people. Not to mention their shins. It is a way to reduce risk of damage while the boat is parked. Personally I like this feature alot as well.

I've seen these rudders and stocks being developped as Hans is quite near to me and they are in my opinion pretty well designed. I haven't sailed with them yet though, so give my some margin. However, I do believe they are better then my current AHPC setup and I'm quite happy with those already.

Wouter

This time Geert Ruesink.

As you can see, Hans fully rigs the boats together with the new owners upon delivery. At that time some of the components are put exactly were the owners want them. Talk about customer service !

The original high resolution picture can be found on our www.formula16.org website, in the gallery for boat specific pics and the Blade F16 folder.



Wouter