Aside from the two guys sailing it, that is??
We’re going to write a few bits about the boat in coming days, but there were a couple of “under the covers” ideas which has the FF Blog staff thinking…..
Just study this photo of the stern deck here and look carefully at the reflection of the lights. Unlike the other Ovington on the stand, can you see that the reflection of the lights is imperfect? It appears that’s because the gel coat there is thinner and you can just about make out the underlying weave showing through. There was a similar effect on the bow too. So they were working hard to reduce weight at the ends.
Next thing – compare these two mast gates from the show boats….
The top mast gate is that of Justin Waples’ boat, and the lower photo is of Graham and Chris World Champion boat. You can probably just about make out that the vertical thickness at the gate is reduced in the lower photo.
I am told that the alto section fits the standard gate very well, but you will also see in the lower photo that it looks like the gate has had a bit of grinding done. There was in fact around 2mm of sideways play in the gate – wonder if that is to improve the sideways profile of the mast, or if I’m reading too much into it…..
Fantastic attention to detail from Ovington, eh??!!
The Flying Fifteen Blog 