couchsurfer
Super Anarchist
......coming down the pipeline..an OD foiler,, simpler,more robust than moths,,,a good answer to the crazy quiver that'$ nece$$ary to compete in moth$ now.....
http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/news/180912/Exclusive-A-Mac-interview
JF: Talking about future development, you mentioned a while ago that you've got a new project in the can with the Waszp (one-design, one person foiling monohull), tell us a little bit more about that?
AM: We've got the plug made and I think they're pulling the mould off that this week. All the aluminium dies are about 20 days off, once we get them we'll be able to do all the injection moulding because there's a little bit of tolerance in that and we want to make sure that they'll fit. There's a bit of work to do on the rig but we're looking at having a boat available in about 2 months. That's the plan and obviously there will be a few little teething things.
JF: Could you tell us what the Waszp is all about?
AM: As far as sailing it's going to be very similar to a Moth, we don't ride tricycles for a very good reason, you don't fall over on a tricycle but they're not right really, and I think that's the same with trying to making something too stable, it's not right for what we're doing. We need to heel the thing to windward, we need a narrow hull to be able to get up and foil and the scale of a Moth is pretty good, even for a kid, as long as you get the foil size right and the sail size right, so what we've done is actually make it so that it's actually more tolerant to a heavy guy than the Mach2 is, it's got a slightly higher volume hull. The Waszp is really the answer to all those kids' fathers who come up to me on the beach and say, "I'd really like to get one for my son but..." and there's all the buts; the cost, the launching, the danger, the not having a mode for learning, which this one does, and the one-design factor. The Moth is always going to be a development class, and it's going to be fun because of that, but it's not everyone's cup of tea, particularly for a kid who's just starting out where you've got to tinker or you won't go fast. So the foils are out of the box, you can't do anything with them, they're aluminium, the tips are moulded so everything is out of the box - you go sailing, you go racing and have really as much fun as you're going to have on a Moth. You're not going to do 30 knots, or 35 that supposedly we've done, but you are going to do 23-24 knots fairly easily and you're going to get up (foiling) in about the same wind speed as a Moth does.
JF: So almost like a perfect feeder class really?
AM: Well there's going to be 3 rigs and there's going to be 3 foil configurations and that's just simply having different length foils as they're all having the same aluminium extrusion, and it'll be very easy to fine-tune that over the first year of working on what is the perfect foil size for various weights. So it'll actually cross a much bigger range of weights than the Moth class does. The biggest sail will be 8 square metres, we could do a bigger sail, we're building everything strong enough so it'll take a 100kg person and it will work for a 50kg person, or even a 40kg person. Perfect feeder, yes - I think that so many people are put off by some of those factors I just talked about with the Moth and I've put far more effort into designing this than the Mach2 because there are so many restrictions; you're trying to get it light, you're trying to get it cheap, you're trying to get it so it's easy, you're trying to get it so it's fast, all these different things and I think I've thrown out the basic design about 4 times and just started again saying "no, that really doesn't work". So yes, it's been nearly 5 years of design time.
http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/news/180912/Exclusive-A-Mac-interview
JF: Talking about future development, you mentioned a while ago that you've got a new project in the can with the Waszp (one-design, one person foiling monohull), tell us a little bit more about that?
AM: We've got the plug made and I think they're pulling the mould off that this week. All the aluminium dies are about 20 days off, once we get them we'll be able to do all the injection moulding because there's a little bit of tolerance in that and we want to make sure that they'll fit. There's a bit of work to do on the rig but we're looking at having a boat available in about 2 months. That's the plan and obviously there will be a few little teething things.
JF: Could you tell us what the Waszp is all about?
AM: As far as sailing it's going to be very similar to a Moth, we don't ride tricycles for a very good reason, you don't fall over on a tricycle but they're not right really, and I think that's the same with trying to making something too stable, it's not right for what we're doing. We need to heel the thing to windward, we need a narrow hull to be able to get up and foil and the scale of a Moth is pretty good, even for a kid, as long as you get the foil size right and the sail size right, so what we've done is actually make it so that it's actually more tolerant to a heavy guy than the Mach2 is, it's got a slightly higher volume hull. The Waszp is really the answer to all those kids' fathers who come up to me on the beach and say, "I'd really like to get one for my son but..." and there's all the buts; the cost, the launching, the danger, the not having a mode for learning, which this one does, and the one-design factor. The Moth is always going to be a development class, and it's going to be fun because of that, but it's not everyone's cup of tea, particularly for a kid who's just starting out where you've got to tinker or you won't go fast. So the foils are out of the box, you can't do anything with them, they're aluminium, the tips are moulded so everything is out of the box - you go sailing, you go racing and have really as much fun as you're going to have on a Moth. You're not going to do 30 knots, or 35 that supposedly we've done, but you are going to do 23-24 knots fairly easily and you're going to get up (foiling) in about the same wind speed as a Moth does.
JF: So almost like a perfect feeder class really?
AM: Well there's going to be 3 rigs and there's going to be 3 foil configurations and that's just simply having different length foils as they're all having the same aluminium extrusion, and it'll be very easy to fine-tune that over the first year of working on what is the perfect foil size for various weights. So it'll actually cross a much bigger range of weights than the Moth class does. The biggest sail will be 8 square metres, we could do a bigger sail, we're building everything strong enough so it'll take a 100kg person and it will work for a 50kg person, or even a 40kg person. Perfect feeder, yes - I think that so many people are put off by some of those factors I just talked about with the Moth and I've put far more effort into designing this than the Mach2 because there are so many restrictions; you're trying to get it light, you're trying to get it cheap, you're trying to get it so it's easy, you're trying to get it so it's fast, all these different things and I think I've thrown out the basic design about 4 times and just started again saying "no, that really doesn't work". So yes, it's been nearly 5 years of design time.
