and partnerships with other industry leaders to deliver top quality. For full prepreg construction of the Gunboat 80, its partners include two world class raceboat builders: Fibre Mechanics building the hulls, bridgedeck, and secondary bulkheads, and Multiplast supplying the deck, coachroof and primary bulkheads.
Gunboat’s proposition – using process-driven, quality control- focused operations to deliver the best aspects of a full custom build whilst removing the worst and most unpredictable elements – makes a lot of sense.
Owners have almost complete free rein to customise the interior of their Gunboat. The primary bulkheads have to stay in place but the secondary bulkheads can all be moved, so there is a lot of flexibility with what you choose to do with the space. The first two Gunboat 80s are extensively customised and have very different interiors. The first boat has the owner’s cabin starboard side aft; the second has it port side forward. One boat has a family room and a kids’ room. The galley is highly configurable and you can have helm stations inside, outside or both.
Leveraging the best of the best Gunboat has always used a carefully judged, meticulously evaluated combination of in-house production
Top, left and right: Progress on Gunboat 8001 Highland Fling. Fibre Mechanics and Multiplast apply the latest build techniques and hi-tech materials proven on elite grand prix racing yachts. Above: the VPP for Gunboat’s new flagship breaks 30kts
‘Outsourcing different elements of the boat means that there's no compromise in the build process,’ says Gunboat’s chief operating officer William Jelbert. ‘For me as a boatbuilder and project manager it's like being a kid in a candy shop because we get to work with the absolute experts in their field.’ ‘The raceboat teams at Fibre Mechanics and Multiplast have worked together for many years, collaborating on high-profile Volvo and Imoca yachts as well as giant Ultime racing trimarans, ’says Geoff Stock, managing director at Fibre Mechanics. ‘We are using the same materials and techniques to build the Gunboat 80 as we do for custom racing yachts.’
The hull is cooked and cured three times during hull shell construction with a final cure of 10 hours at 95°C, Stock explains. The majority of the fibre is unidirectional carbon, pre- impregnated with a very accurately controlled resin film that makes up just 35 per cent of the total hull skin weight. The foam core is thermo- formed to shape on a hydraulically controlled adaptable mould surface, then bonded to the outer hull skin at 90°C with an epoxy adhesive film. Another big benefit of building hull components at Fibre Mechanics is the shipyard’s strict quality assurance. ‘Our laminating techniques and oven cure processes have been developed side by side with the increasing ability of NDT specialists to analyse a cured laminate,’ Stock explains. ‘We have been working with the best ultrasound experts in the business for many years, and as their accuracy
has improved we have been able to adjust the way we do things to eliminate the faults and flaws that used to go unnoticed. This is all equivalent to an America’s Cup level of quality oversight’
Safe and reliable
Safety, reliability and seakeeping are just as important to Gunboat as their boats’ remarkable speed and superb quality of finish. All aspects of safety on board receive the same meticulous attention as weight savings and performance enhancements, from the height and strength of the stanchions to the placement of handholds and clipping-on points, the reliability and control of sailing systems and the general ergonomics on deck. Whether you’re planning to use the boat for inshore regattas, offshore passage racing, trans-ocean voyaging or coastal cruising, all Gunboats are built and outfitted to the same extremely high standards. And that’s one of the keys to their notably high resale value. The build quality of the brand is widely known and when a Gunboat comes back on the market it tends to sell quickly.
Perhaps the strongest aspect of Gunboat’s offering is that buyers can have full confidence, backed up by the brand's reputation, that their new boat will be delivered exactly as expected, on weight, on time and on budget. The full joy of ownership starts straight away – without major snags or surprises. 'We give a realistic project management proposal with a cost and a timescale that we’re actually going to deliver to,’ Jelbert says. ‘You can’t tell someone there’s no risk in boatbuilding because there always is. But we are very good at mitigating the risks, even with an ambitious, complex and sophisticated project like a Gunboat 80.’ And if you’re a sailor who loves performance, you’ll end up with a boat that really grabs your soul.
www.gunboat.com
q SEAHORSE 61
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