A scintillating new Kiwi-designed America’s Cup 40 chase boat hit the water in Auckland in late April. Built by Fusion Marine Boat Builders in Silverdale, it showed its paces before being packed up and shipped off to its new Swedish owners. Story and pictures by Roger Mills.
Boating New Zealand captured the new Bakewell-White-designed craft going through its paces on the sparkling Waitematā Harbour. A stepped-hull design powered by twin Yamaha 300hp outboard motors, this new craft’s sleek lines shout performance. And performance there is, topping out at 55.2 knots or 102kph.
Built specifically to service the AC40 fleet in upcoming America’s Cup Youth and Women’s regattas, the craft is built to meet exacting requirements.
Stu Bettany from Fusion Marine Boat Builders explained that there were a few design hurdles to overcome – the RIB must carry sufficient fuel, and provide enough storage and deck space for sails and spares, to stay out all day servicing AC40 yachts. It also required an onboard toilet, which is neatly fitted in front of the steering console.
The design needed to be fast enough to keep up with AC40 yachts, and it had to fit into flat-rack containers for shipping to AC40 events around the world.
Tasked with coming up with a solution, Stu approached Brett Bakewell-White for the design.
The twin stepped-hull design was chosen because it allows the boat to run on a reduced wetted surface area, while providing a RIB that runs flat, is stable fore and aft, and handles well.
The boat is constructed from E-glass in vinylester resin. The floor is solid, which, as Brett Blakewell-White explained, “is simply because the boat is going to be travelling fast in various parts of the world and you never know what’s going to be in the water. The boat could be built lighter out of carbon, but from a longevity and practical operational point of view, the boat is glass.”
The hull plug was CNC-milled in Warkworth, in the old Core Builders Composites facility, to create a female mould. The accuracy of the mould shows in the crisp, straight lines of the finished boat.
It’s great to see another locally-built craft exported to Europe – the FMB Raptor 11m RIB is a credit to Kiwi design excellence and boat building skill.
