Paul Koch

Yes the 50 is sailing and from the report I had from one of the design team who was there it is a stiff solid platform that sails very well . Sorry but have only received very few long distance photos as yet so nothing I can offer there other than these . Boats was doing 9 knots hard on the breeze in 12 knots of wind . Also seems the weight was overstated in the past by a significant amount . It's new light ship weight including rig and sails is 8275 kg as weighed by the owners rep. From the owner : Hey! Sail was BRILLIANT. As to where we are at , we have now sold 5 x Rapido 60's ,

That's why we don't have inspection ports in Rapido Trimarans , they always leak ! We run pipes to the bottom of each compartment back or forward to the storage area near the deck so we can check if there is water in there with a pump , also act as vents as the hull pumps going through waves . If inverted also cannot flood the compartment . Back in the really olden days Ian subscribed to the submersible float theory but as time went by he increased the buoyancy of his floats to maybe 160% , I think Rapido's are about 200% but obviously depends on the weight of the boat or its loaded stat

Really this is all being blown out of all proportion here , I have a friendly healthy relationship with the owner and yes there are always some issues on a brand new design that need addressing and we will fix them . The owners rep also has his opinions about aspects of the finish which he is also entitled to ,we are far better at doing the structural aspects of a boat very well than having a glitzy interior for instance . Bottom line is we stand behind our products and we will make good with the owner and at the end of the day hopefully everyone will appreciate what a fantastic b

Actually I will wait until the boat is weighed with the rig on before commenting further but I am sure it is still quite a bit lighter than a 60 comparing apples to apples . Absolutely, structurally it is built exactly to plan and everything else is as light as we can make it and still have a decent finish . Being a 50 ft boat that is designed to cross oceans the folding system is massively strong and bullet proof .

Bob is getting number 3 and yes he has bought a fairly bare bones boat !

Here is the latest polar data I have for the Rapido 40 . doesn't look too bad in theory !

Price is still in the ball park , designers have upped the weight estimate , the 40 is looking fantastic and we are going to extremes to keep the weight down , first one should be sailing within 2 months , 3 rd boat started , 8 sold so someone likes it , heaps more guys sitting on the fence waiting to see it

Honestly I don't know why I bother even responding on here sometimes . Yes I started this thread because I thought some people might be interested in our approach to build relatively light weight high tech , well engineered cruising Trimarans that actually have some space in them . We are not perfect , our designers are not perfect , our customers are all great people who put their faith in us to build them a great boat which I think we do and most of our customers end up as advocates and friends . Yes we do make mistakes but at the end of the day we try to fix them at our expense . This

Time will tell but according to MM and their performance prediction software we will have both , better upwind and down wind performance and improved interior performance everywhere ! They are big slick looking asymmetric foils that will give a lot of lift .

No !

We are trying very hard to get Rapido 40 hull number 3 to Bob Gleason for the Annapolis Boat Show . This will probably come down to whether the freight rates have returned to some semblance of normality by the time it comes to ship . Freight prices are insane at the moment .

No we do not intend that the water ballast tanks to be used for sailing . they are just forward of the front beam so would be counter productive to use them while sailing . It is the right place for ballast folded in a marina . They will only be used if a large storm is approaching the marina .

No folding 60 coming ! Rapido 50 #2 has C foils being fitted to the floats in addition to the main hull daggerboard.

A couple of points , we don't have space in the main hull for 2200 litres of water . And if we did , we would have to pump it out to remove it . The Ama's are dry as the water is put in dedicated ballast tanks designed for this purpose . They self drain after opening a drain valve .The designers did a stability curve which shows a 25% increase in folded righting moment from no water in the tanks to tanks full . They are purely there for extreme weather in the marina , folded stability is very good without the water in the tanks .