Comanche powers out of the lee of the much narrower Wild Oats XI at the start of the Sydney-Hobart. Oats would retake the lead when the wind lightened off later in the race, but the power-reaching potential of the new 100-footer was clearly stunning
3,000,000 BTU, which was fan-forced into ducting that was carefully positioned to ensure even temperature throughout the oven’s 2,180 cubic metres of volume! You can never be too cautious with oven curing processes, especially when cooking the hull and deck as these are obviously the main components. Although smaller ovens for production of structure and so on have exactly the same issues as large ovens, the environment inside the smaller oven is easier to control and will be used many more times during the build of a boat. This means that over time the smaller oven will be modified to the point of perfection. A much larger-volume oven is more likely to undergo subtle changes each time it is used; minor adjustments will need to be made and all this is considered normal – but Maine challenged us. Although the large oven was designed with thermal loss in mind, the winter in Maine was brutally cold (we recorded -22°C) and so found ourselves having to modify and remodify
the oven to cope with the ever lowering temperatures and strong winds, mainly by adding larger and more gas-fired burners. Early testing of the oven is critical. You can get a good feel for the capabilities of an oven after running it the first couple of times but it will always perform differently depending on what you are cooking inside; size and shape of the article as well as the density of the materials that are being cooked are an important consideration. The rate at which the part and tooling absorb heat is important, as pre-preg resins are designed to heat (ramp) up at specific rates. Correct ramp rates ensure the resin flows as designed and good fillets are formed for the bonding of the skins to the honeycomb. Failure to do so correctly will result in an unusable part.
We have been fortunate to have worked with many designers and engineers but this was the first time that either of us had worked with VPLP or Guillaume Verdier. It was a great working relationship.
Their design and engineering were different from what we had built in the past which added another level of interest to the project. As a team we openly discussed the best way to construct each part to achieve the best possible end result. VPLP/Verdier also provided us with onsite design and engineering support from Hervé Penfornis and Philibert Chenais which was invalu- able. The time we gained from VPLP/ Verdier being able to understand all con- struction issues and respond immediately saved us countless hours of correspon- dence. Pure Design NZ provided additional engineering support to help meet tight design and engineering deadlines. Not only was it great to see how VPLP and Guil- laume Verdier have been designing both monohull and multihull ocean racers, they are just a great bunch of guys to work with. Alison Colladarci, Kevin Houghton and James Anderson from Hodgdon’s design team provided additional design support. Drawings received from VPLP were often modified to maximise clarity and quality control before being issued for construc- tion. Quality control check-boxes were added to ensure that no steps were overlooked and would be executed in the correct order. In some cases a single design drawing would be broken down into many pages before being released for construc- tion. Every drawing that made it to the shopfloor passed through their thorough hands. They also provided design support for the enormous amount of tooling that was required throughout the build. Hodgdon have their own CNC machine which was utilised for most of our tooling needs, although when it came to the hull plug and other large tooling we used MouldCam in nearby Rhode Island. We had previously used MouldCam to provide the hull plug for the 2011 Volvo 70 Mar Mostro, so we were confident in their capa- bilities. Being able to have the hull plug made elsewhere was key for our time con- straints, as the build shed filled up with the construction of the deck at the same moment that the hull plug was being made. Careful timing had the deck completed and moved to the top-floor mezzanine just as the hull plug sections were arriving. The hull plug arrived in seven sections as these were the largest pieces that could be fitted onto a truck. Once the sections came they were assembled and the infused carbon female mould was constructed over it. Carbon for tooling is expensive – the advantage is that during cook cycles it will expand and contract nearly the same as the carbon hull being built inside it. If more economical materials are used for the mould the expansion and subsequent contraction will be different from the hull. And then there are the pre-release issues…
SEAHORSE 37
DANIEL FORSTER/ROLEX
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