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

How did you feel the controls were?
How about them rudders, tell us how you think they are better than your rudders.

How did she power up compared to your Taipan F16?

<img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> lol!

Well Wouter never said they are better, So its my error, or typo. What I meant to say, is, Wouter, how would you compare the Blade's rudders verus the AHPC rudder setup you have on your own boat.

You have already mentioned once, that the AHPC setup is far better than the McKenzie setup which comes stock on US Blades. Obviously by looking at the photos those are NOT a McKenzie setup.

Well, here goes !

Test conditions were very gentle or at least they appeared to be so while sailing the VWM Blade F16. 10-11 knots max. Some 1 foot high waves, maybe a little higher, but the Blade just passed them without much reaction at all. Once in a while the top of a wave hit the bridle tang fitting and some spray would be thrown-up. Sometimes this was against the mainbeam but never did we feel the boat decellerated as a result. You see and here the spray but you don't really feel the thump that older designs used to have. The fairing is doing its job very well.

I also found this boat to be dryer than I expected it too be, which is very pleasant. In general the boat felt really stable. I now understand why people say that the boat feel longer and bigger then it really is. Because it does feel exactly like that. My own Taipan feels noticeably more like a 16 footer. This Blade feels like it is 18 foot long.

I knew the rig from my own boat as it is largely a copy of the Taipan but with an updated fat head mainsail and a Landenberger spi. That Landenberger spi is just fine. Very predictable and easy on the required sheet tension. It is however cut to make full use of the available luff length so you really do have to make the bowlines as small as you can get them or risk sailing with a slack spi luff. The spi is much better then my own 2003 spi. It was very easy to get the boat to go under spi. Actually when I helmed it under spi the boat felt really calm as if we were not working the boat hard enough. But as the GPS track showed, we were doing excellent speed. On my own boat the spinnaker legs feel more like work on the Blade is feels, again, like a bigger boat. It has nible steerage so that is still there but it doesn't feel as "on the edge" as on my Taipan, but I'm sure the speed was just the same or better. I think this to be a very good thing, even though I had to get used to it. Afterall this blade is less demanding to sail under spi then my own boat.

Control was excellent under spi. On my own Taipan I really do have to steer and sheet the mainsail traveller at the same time otherwise the boats doesn't want to turn quickly enough OR you can feel the boat slow down because of the large rudder movement. On my Taipan doing both simultaniously feel really responsive but it is work and you need to develop the right coordination for it. On the Blade however I never sheeted the main traveller. I just steered and steered and steered through all the waves and wind changes. Control, in my opinion, is absolute. Calm compared to the Taipan but absolute nevertheless. Not once did the rudders stall or vent or even throw up rooster tales. The boat was easy to put through the required S-curves when sailing competitively under spi.

Because of the overall calm feel and the assured control no matter what happens I feel the Blade is one of the best boats for relatively inexperienced but serious sailors. I personally could find a fault with the design, but then again the conditions were not extreme in any sense.

The boat I was on is still very new and the owner still needs to modify his control systems so that they work spotlessly. This often means using bungees and guiding rings/shackles. So the lines did occassionally get into a tangle or dropped overboard creating drag that could be felt by some loss of boatspeed.

We sat on the retrieval line a few times and that control will be modified shortly as well. I remember that I took a whole year of modifying my boat so that every system worked as intented and without hang-ups. The new owner still needs to cover that ground.

Glenn Ahsby has made a very good jib and mainsail. The allow full control and the jib remains firm what ever you do, pointing high or running low for high speed. I already covered the Landenberger spi. I personally considering buying one of those.

We did tweak a few stuff here and there. In the selftacking setup we took some friction out of the system and that made a noticeable difference. It is too much to cover all of this now, but as I said earlier a full season of tweaking to get the max. out can be expected. But still the boat felt nice and stable and bristling with potential as it is now. Phill I really do like the design !!!

I also like the fact that the fron foot of the hulls are still cutting the water instead of slapping it. The slapping is further back. This means that with the right trim teh boat enters the wave very nicely without much fuss at all. Also as soon as you lift the luff hull clear of the water the boat finds a groove and becomes completely quiet. In htis attitude it feels just like a cutter and not at all like a planer. Remember the discussions of past ? I think the hull strikes a really good compromise between these two modes.

.... I'm extremely tired now, so I'm going to bed, more report tomorrow ....


Wouter

Part two : Answering the questions :



Well we must remember here that the mast was build-up by the European Blade importer and not by vector works themselfs. So there may be differences in the fittings and controls.

The boat came with a 1:12 internal downhaul system just like I have myself on my boat. This system works extremely well on my own boat. On the Blade I think it does so too, BUT the conditions didn't call for continious working of the downhaul so I don't really know. I think I adjusted it twice, just briefly, and that was it.

Outhaul system is right in concept and I think I'm going to replace my own setup to one very comparable to that. I'm now using a ronstan 180 degrees swiveling cleat just like the Taipans but I find that I hardly ever adjust the outhaul once I'm racing. So a simpler, cheaper and more out of the way setup is better here. The Blade setup seems to provide that. On my own boat I would place that control further towards the mast and have a bungee pull the excess line parallel to the boom. That is all.

Mast rotation on this particular boat is different from used on any F16 today. It is a copy of what some A-cats are using. However even the A-cats are mostly gravitating to the setup that the VWM Blade has as standard and I think that the standard Blade setup is better, although I would probably move the cleats to the outer gunwhale of the hulls instead of putting them near the tramp rail. In that setup you can also adjust the rotation from the trapeze.

Jib luff tension control is working well, but I do not really know whether matt changed that setup between the first blades and the newer ones.

The Jib sheeting system really needs to be a 4:1 setup over being 2:1. I personally started on my own boat with 2:1 as well but rather quickly upgraded it to 4:1. This makes sheeting alot easier and the control of the leech of the jib will more noticeably more accurate. I think this to be a modification that would be high on my personal listing. It is also a very simple and inexpensive mod, as you just place a small block on the jib sheet corner and tie the sheet of the the jib traveller car. ehh voila a 4:1 sheeting system instead of a 2:1

Spinnaker sheeting is just fine.

The mainsheet traveller will be much helped to get it really centred on the beam if the traveller line is split in two lines right after leaving the car on the backside of the beam with each line attached to its individual eyestrap. I think many of you know the system. I started with my the same standard setup on my own boat but upgraded it to the split line system and it is better. Also this is a very easy modification. Actually I don't have any special fittings for this setup on my boat. I just folded and stitched a small diameter line into the traveller line and have its ends end in a bowline knot. These knots I just throw over the little mushrooms on my rearbeam that take the trampoline lines. I did this before the trampoline line was fitted and do the loops or locked into place by the trampoline line. This is a modification that each sailer can easily do himself.

Mainsail Halyard set up is just fine. Hooking and unhooking in the first try each time. That system just works fine.

I really do love the daggerboard setup. I think the daggerboards slide up and down in the wells really well. Even under load I could lift the leeward daggerboard relatively easily. But the sticking force is just large enough to prevent the boards from floating up or sliding down during manouvres or when parking the boat. This setup is just perfect.

Harken blocks through out and those work fine. Very nice and very small harken autoratchets.

Some control lines were cut too short and that is a pitty because that is really not necessary. Rather a little to much line then too little. But I'm sure this will be sorted out soon.

In general the controls are well done and we must not see the above mentioned points as saying anything other then that. The above named points are just easy upgrades to get the control maximized in the way of handling, but the controls are already good and allow easy maximizing so the base is sound. They allow the boat to be trimmed properly as the are as standard and get the boat to perform. I personally just like to see them perfected so that a 58 kg female crew an work them fully as well, that is when standing in the trapeze (=longer lines).




Well I never said that. I think the rudder board profile is better then may AHPC rudder boards. No howling when at speed and absolutely no stalling or venting of the rudders. The latter can sometimes happen with AHPC rudders although it doesn't happen often enough to really be a serious issue with the AHPC rudders. The AHPC stocks are just as good as you can get them in the way of design. I would like AHPC to lay an extra layer of carbon on the stocks just to get them a little more abuse resistant but that is all and the rod lock down on the AHPC setup is just very well done. I have not set the rudders that were on the test blade, the owner did that, so I can't comment on the lock down setup as used by these catamaran parts rudders. I can only say that the boards themselfs are well done and provide very good steering with garanteed control in any situation. I also really like the fact that you can rotate them upwards by 180 degrees (even more then that even. Really gets the sharp trailing edge away from any shins and it also protects the rudders from getting damaged when handling the boat on the beach. My AHPC setp can't do that.

The alu rudders stocks appear to be solid and stiff, they are well made.

Both setups, both AHPC and These catamaranparts.nl setups are way better then the McKenzie setups that were provided to the VectorWorks Marine. I'm told the Australian sailors got realy good McKenzie setups but for some reason neither the European builder or the US Builder got comparable setups.



Difficult to say as we were not sailing in any "power sailing" wind conditions. The conditions were much more favouring careful trimming and seeking optimal boat attitude. May Taipan appeared to feel more powered up BUT then I have a mainsail optimized for 150 kg crews WHILE the Blade I testsailed at 156 kg combined weight has sails that are optimized for 135 kg combined crew weight ! SO pretty much we were test sailing the boat 20 kg overweight with respect to the sails while sailing in conditions that strongly favour a closely optimized rig. It would have been far better to have sailed at combined 135 kg and a 150 kg optimized rig then the otherway around as we did. HOWEVER, we did get the boat to move really well. We were closely matching windspeed when sailing upwind and we were sailing faster then the wind under spinnaker. That I consider good performance !

Also I feel that the calm feel of the boat makes it appear like the boat is less powered up then my Taipan then she in reality truly is. The whole Blade platform feels and sails more relaxed, like a bigger boat. So it may well be the case that my experience is strongly coloured by the fact that I personally own a Taipan. Because we ever my comments above are, it didn't feel like we doing anything but fast. Actually fast and calm at the same time is a good thing ? In the way of design I would personally strongly favour that.

If the Blade setup that I test sailed is any promise of the future state of the F16 boats and F16 class then I think we are looking towards a really bright future. Sure some things can be tweaked further here and there, but the basic potential and feel is already there. It will be up to the individual sailor to get it out of the platform both by skills and maybe some personal modifications to the controls as I described above. The hulls, boards, beams and mast however are just well designed and build.

I'm really looking forward to our training sessions and club races. I feel that the crew on the Blade and my crew on my modified Taipan will be able to really push eachother to high performance. I know that both crews are looking forward to it. Please note that this includes two 58 kg women. THAT I think is the TRUE board of evaluation. If they like the boat and feel comfortable on it, just like Gina McDonald, then I believe the boat has truly proven its worth beyond doubt. As far as we can tell now both have two thumbs up. My crew for certain and the other one is quickly learning the robes and developping a trust of it. Afterall she is only on it for less then 4 weeks now. I think she only sailed it 3 times now because of the weather.

I'm also really looking forward the third F16 (also a Blade) to be added to our club, I hear the boat is already on order and he is a racing crew. So with all the sailors gravitating to F18's and F16's I think our club races are beginning to look really interesting.

Wouter

Summary :

Blade F16 build by VectorWork Marine and imported by www.catamaranparts.nl

Mainsail and jib by Glenn Ashby of www.ashbysails.com.

Mainsail was cut to best suit a 135 kg combined crew weight

Spinnaker by Andrew Landenberger of http://www.landenberger-sailing.com/





Wouter

That kite looks like it's got a looong luff--true? Is it speedy?

My kite is getting a lot of holes in it since it's from '03, so I've got to get a new one soon.

That is true. it doesn't have a much margin at all. We really needed to make the bowlines small as possible else the luff would be slack.




I want to do more testing, but the first test was succesful, it was easy and fast then.




I'm on the same trajectory. I don't have to many holes in it but the cut is not entirely correct leading to high sheet loads that my 58 kg crew doesn't really appreciate. Neither do I when singlehanding. The Landenberger spi is definately better in the respect and so I'm seriously considering a new spi as well. That is why I was so interested in testing this spi.

For now I'm still looking to order a Landenberger spi. I liked his spi design for the Stealths, it was really good there and I like his Blade spi design as well. This gives me more assureances that he can make a proper spi for my custom Taipan F16.

But hopefully I get to test it a few more times in different conditions before I order.

However I will ask for a few more centimeters of luff margin.

Wouter

Paul had Jay Glaser make his new main. Jay was with Ullman until reopening his own loft. I believe he makes Pete Melvin's A-class sails and has been doing F18 spinnakers as well as kites for skiffs and 505s. Anyway, I spoke with him recently and he was certainly interested in making F16 sails. So I may have him do my new spinnaker since he's close enough that I could drive down and have him measure the boat to get optimal shape.

I had Jay make all of my sails for my Blade (#714). They look nice, but unfortunately migrating from a H16, anything would look nice. So even though I have a spin made by Jay, I won't be in the position to really make any comments. When I get more experience, hopefully, I'll be able to comment on the feel.

Since my current sails are from Ashby and Goodall, my expectations are pretty high...

Please keep us updated on that ! I'm very interested.

Wouter

From the photo's it look like the Blades Spinnaker pole is way longer than what the F16 Box rule allows, has any one run a tape measure along them as it will really affect the luff length and hence the type of cut you can have on the sail and ultimately the performance as the sail will become more and more like a screacher rather than a spinnaker.

Ohh no, not that discussion again.

I can assure everybody that the poles lengths are full compliant with F16 rules. The Dutch buying group has been over this one several times.

These poles may well appear longer as the earlier F16 boats like the Taipans (and also my own boat) as they only used 3.25 mtr long poles. They were all allowed 3.50 mtr but the way Goodall cuts his spinnakers makes it better to have the tack out at 3.25 mtr then at 3.50 meter. On the Taipan is also better to have 3.25 mtr as that will maintain a good balance on the helm. The newer boats of course could adjust the hull design to make full use of the F16 rules and they did.

But to keep you guys happy I will measure the pole length of this particular boat tonight. I have to go to the beach anyway.

Wouter

Its not the length ( as all good girls would say ) of the pole but how much it sticks out the front of the hull, most newer designs seem to be getting the main beam further and further back in the hull which makes the pole length irrelavent according to the box rules.

I stand corrected, it is only the length that matters, ignore the last post

The pole length is 3,5 mtr's and because of the angeled nose it looks longer in front of the boat but that is only the look. The pole is in front of the nose about 825 mm.
We measured it during assembly.

Regards,

Hans Klok

I was about to reply to you last post but I see that you have discovered the fault in your own line of thinking.

Indeed, an important parameter is how far the luff of the spi is in front of the mast. By ruling on a max pole length this measurement is always the same and so too performance. The same measurement together with the gate high measurement (also a fixed length) fixed the luff length of the spi which is the only other important parameter of spi performance. Therefor these two rules are very effective in forcing all spinnakers to the same performance. That is unless a builder decides to use a shorter pole then allowed by the class rules. But that is a private decision.

I'm also very happy that we have done away with that complex pole length rule that F18 rules and Texel/ISAF use. That was both a performance equalizing nightmere as well as impossible to explain to most owners/builders.

Wouter

Wouter,
thank you for the comprehensive report of our sailing experience last Saturday. I couldn't have said it better.

What I do like to add however is that for me sailing the Blade means a learning by doing process. This is my first season (or first five sailing days so far) on the F16 and I am enjoying every minute of it.

So far I realy like the platform and sails. This combination gives me the impression that a the all the jig-saw pieces fall on their place.

Regards,
Frank (NED 013 Blade owner)