Hi,
We built this boat to race in Antigua in a fleet of 5, 6 and 7 footers. The 5 footers are allowed to be 65" so that’s how we would up at 1.6m. The (sorta) AC inspired look comes from my son who designed the sails for Team China through the Lous Vitton cup rounds in 2007. Big breezes in Antigua this time of year; always 15 or more. These test sails were done in Connecticut in early November. Cold and windy all three days.
Have you thought of adding a set of jumper stays above the jib on the front of this mast?
They would give you much better control over the bend in the top of the mast which from the photo appears to be a bit excessive.
Apart from that the concept looks great. Well done.
Thanks for the comments. Re: Jumpers…we avoided them so far until we get the new all carbon mast on the boat. That should be in about 2 weeks in Antigua for their RC Race Week. The carbon spar is so much stiffer in both planes that we want to sail a bit before adding more structure.
After Antigua we’ll probably build a 1.8m hull plug; kind of an amalgam of AC hulls 94-100. We’re trying to avoid some of the problems of more scale boats in open water (like submerging bows) so we’ll be sticking to a high volume forward section but building something that is more like the “IACC look”. We’d like to get 4 boats built and sailing here in Connecticut, USA by this summer. Maybe a bit wishful, but you gotta dream!
I still need to add the video from Antigua that my son did last month. “Box” spent lots of time in the passing lane especially off the wind.