Posted By: mayhem
New Bimare V1 A-class - 02/10/08 05:19 PM
I just saw that Bimare came out with a new A-class boat called the XJ-V1. http://www.bimare.net/17/main.htm
I have not seen too much talk about it yet.
Here is what I could find and some of my thoughts to start a discussion:
A Scandinavian website (not written in English so I am guessing) suggests the boat should cost just over 16K Euro (Take away VAT and convert to USD at it is just short of $20K USD before shipping). That puts it right in the range of a Melvin A3 or FlyerII versions-- both boats with strong, recent proven credentials. The old XJ showed that it was far from obsolete at the Worlds, but the V1 changes look more than just minor evolutions like we saw on the other two.
I remember a story about the worlds reporting that Peter Cogan was to sail "an evolution of the Bim XJ"-- was this a V1 prototype? If not, why was it not at the worlds?
My first impression is that the V1 looks to have severe wave piercing comparable to few boats other than the LR2. While there was a lot of expectations around the LR2's radical design being far superior;however, results at the World Championship were inconclusive and likely more hours on the water will be needed before we can say this for sure about the LR2. What do we know about the V1?
Normally someone proves that a boat works before they start full promotion and production, but this seems not to be the case-- I saw that the British distributor is already taking delivery of 4 V1s. (eg, the Bim2000 straight bow is generally considered faster than the first waving piecing 2001 Javalins; but the follow-on XJ and AJ were finally faster wave piercers than the straight bow Bim200s)
Is Bimare pushing the V1 based on computer predictions alone? Bimare has a great production facility, might they try to get market with an attractive price and credible boat like they did earlier in the decade? Did I get this all wrong, and it is really just a minor optimization that I am exaggerating all out of proportions?
I have not seen too much talk about it yet.
Here is what I could find and some of my thoughts to start a discussion:
A Scandinavian website (not written in English so I am guessing) suggests the boat should cost just over 16K Euro (Take away VAT and convert to USD at it is just short of $20K USD before shipping). That puts it right in the range of a Melvin A3 or FlyerII versions-- both boats with strong, recent proven credentials. The old XJ showed that it was far from obsolete at the Worlds, but the V1 changes look more than just minor evolutions like we saw on the other two.
I remember a story about the worlds reporting that Peter Cogan was to sail "an evolution of the Bim XJ"-- was this a V1 prototype? If not, why was it not at the worlds?
My first impression is that the V1 looks to have severe wave piercing comparable to few boats other than the LR2. While there was a lot of expectations around the LR2's radical design being far superior;however, results at the World Championship were inconclusive and likely more hours on the water will be needed before we can say this for sure about the LR2. What do we know about the V1?
Normally someone proves that a boat works before they start full promotion and production, but this seems not to be the case-- I saw that the British distributor is already taking delivery of 4 V1s. (eg, the Bim2000 straight bow is generally considered faster than the first waving piecing 2001 Javalins; but the follow-on XJ and AJ were finally faster wave piercers than the straight bow Bim200s)
Is Bimare pushing the V1 based on computer predictions alone? Bimare has a great production facility, might they try to get market with an attractive price and credible boat like they did earlier in the decade? Did I get this all wrong, and it is really just a minor optimization that I am exaggerating all out of proportions?