Doug,

These are my observations.

The construction of the boat looks extremely first rate. It is 100% carbon skins with a Nomex core using epoxy resins. The hulls are hand laid up and then the hull is vacuum bagged in a controlled environment. The front beam is strikerless and reminds me of a carbon version of a Marstrom Tornado front beam. It might not be the prettiest thing to look at, but I believe it is very strong and Pete felt the boat had no flex at all sailing in waves.

At first the boat looks radical but then it grows on you like a Flyer. It's motion through the water looked very smooth (very little pitching in chop). Unfortunately, the North Americans did not provide a good test for the boat. On the Tuesday before racing, Pete got out for about an hour and a half in non-trap conditions, there was no wind on Wednesday, he flipped on the way to the starting line on Thursday and had to come back in to replace some broken battens and then racing was cancelled, and finally Friday was extremely light (just enough for racing). The fact that the boat got third in the event with it literally being on the water for the first time since it was built probably means it will be a very competitive platform.

Pete told me that they have five deposits so I expect five boats to be sailing in southern CA by March.

Bob Hodges