A beautiful family day out turned in to disappointment

[Brerabit]

On behalf of the Excel Volaire RD390 @harrison all I can say is bring it on.
At a slight angle if absolutely necessary...

[harrison]

Missed your chance matey.
We were out last Friday. Where were you.

[Brerabit]

Touche - I bottled it … but no regrets on reading the accounts of the return trip.

[gratemaker]

Hi folks.so sorry to hear this, when mine came it took me 2 days to open and blow it up due to nerves but i am glad to say it was fine tho i don,t know about leeks i have not had it out yet that will be more nerves.

[chris moody]

A very good point made by @Brerabit. Just because the boat that was previously considered the “best all round sib” has a high pressure air floor, does not mean that is the only way to build a great performing hull. I’m personally very interested in seeing how the Volaire and Volante both perform.

I’m always ready to try new and different designs, just look at my own sib it’s got no front or back.

.

@chris moody, you say the other manufactures such as excel make straight boats, but not one of them makes a high pressure V floor the length of the T38 (possibly for good reason) so you aren’t comparing apples and apples there.

I think you’ve hit the point here @chrisparish, if possibly from an alternative direction. In general we are talking about sub four metre sibs with a keel of some sort to provide stability and responsive handling.

Honwave chose to create their V hull with two high pressure slabs cleverly fabricated to create their desired shape. However, the symmetry of the beam profile from front to rear is very dependent on accurate assembly - which apparently is where the problem is arising.

I know less about what is sometimes called the ‘sausage’ keel but again it is a completely different method of achieving the desired hull shape used by some very well known makers.

The Volaire, to the best of my knowledge is the only boat to use it’s method of construction which is in effect nine vertical chambers running from front to rear. The centre one defines the depth of the keel with those to either side gradually reducing in depth till they meet the tubes. The resultant shape is the closest I’ve seen to the sort of gull-wing shape you get on a RIB, the effect further emphasised by the front to rear ribbed effect of the nine chambers. The entire hull is one air space and although only inflated to 0.4 bar creates a very firm and rigid hull - up to a point - and that to me is the clever bit. Whereas the hull is very rigid and retains it overall shape extremely well due to the nine parallel vertical chambers - it is also capable of absorbing local shock very well. This together with it’s beam, seems to be the reason for it’s stability and smooth ride.

I did my PB2 last week in a very nice RIB. At one point when we were doing around 20 knots across some pretty choppy stuff I couldn’t help but notice the quite violent smack as we came back down. Although my boat hasn’t been out in heavy chop, the effect as @nala put it is a bit like landing on a cushion because any local distortion is minute, relative to the overall volume, the effect on the hull structure is minimal.

If you contrast that with the Honwave construction, anything not quite right that results in hull distortion even momentary, will impact the entire hull shape.

The point I’m trying to make, if a little long-winded, is that we should be looking for methods of construction which work the best. Rather than trying to match the Honwave design - we should be trying to find boats that match or even surpass its performance - if that’s not heresy in these parts.