Mistress Mk2 - 'Nemesis' GBR 4073


by designer adam may...15-12-05

2nd in the 2005 Europeans with a close battle with Mr Payne, the second in the Mistress line was a successful evolution.

The aim of the Mistress MK2 was to implement those lessons learnt from the first design. With the first generation of foilers being traditional Moths with hydrofoils fitted, the M2 was intended to embrace hydrofoils, modifying the hull and boat as a whole accordingly.

During the build of the original Mistress I'd always said I wanted a standard boat to learn in, and then quickly move forward with a design optimised for life in the air more than the conventional designs. This desire to develop quickly is always a tricky one for the class builders, as they have invested time and money in moulds, and are reluctant to change too often or quickly. This naturally controlled pace of development though is probably good for the class.

With a season on foils, and a considerable number of flying hours I'd amassed a fair few ideas I wanted to try on a new boat. I purchased a Mistress MK 1 bare hull shell from Linton at Full Force, and took a jigsaw to it! Poor Linton looked on with concern, but just let me get on with it, I guess happy that if it worked, he'd be able to take onboard lessons for his next boats, and if it didn't he could just say, 'oh that was Adam just doing his own thing!'

Fortunately it all worked, after 5 days of sailing 'Nemesis' was the fastest recorded Moth in the World, finished a creditable 2nd at the Euros and is the basis for the next Full Force production foiler.

There were many things on the list of things to potentially try on a new boat, but there are only so many things you can do. With limited build time, you end up doing incremental changes rather than anything too radical.

The driving concepts with the new boat were of reduced windage, weight reduction, increased foil spacing, and a few hull shape mods I wanted to do.

Features:

Hull

A variety of subtle changes to optimise the hull shape for higher speeds, and a reduction of surface area to aid weight and windage reduction.

- Wingbar angle. The angle on the M1 was great for windward heel during upwind foiling, but manoeuvres were tricky, with little margin for error, so the wingbar angle was dropped slightly on the M2.

- I'd never used the back corner of the wingbar, so decided it wasn't necessary, and angled the rear wingbars forward. I chose to angle rather than move them fwd and come straight out so I could tie in the wingbar joints into the transom, and also use the wingbar stubs to support the gantry with a wider support base. With the wingbars coming in at an angle and the gantry mounted onto the bars, the transom could be curved.

- The angled wingbars enabled shorter outer bars, hence a lighter wing structure.

Rudder Gantry

- Adjustable Gantry. It took quite a lot of playing with little packers to set-up the correct rudder gantry angle on the M1, and I wanted to be able to achieve this in a much shorter time. I felt I knew the feeling I was after, but I didn't want to have to come ashore to do a change, or wait for the next day, when conditions may not be the same. The adjustable gantry allowed me to get my rudder angle in the ball mark straight away.

- With a maximum length gantry, and the awareness of the huge loads imposed on this structure, I opted for a wider support base at the inboard end.

Foil Changes

- With full order books at both foil builders and no real changes in the pipeline, I stuck with my original set of foils from Fastacraft.

- The only change made was a redistribution of area from the front foil to the rear to aid stability. The centreboard span went from 90cm at the Euros in 04 to 84cm in 05, and the rudder from 52cm - 66cm.

All in all, I'm very happy with the boat, so I'll be campaigning this one towards the Worlds in Denmark, with the emphasis on small refinements. But I have plenty of ideas on what I would do next…..

Mistress MK 3 - Latest Full Force Foiler.

Few people have seen or heard details on the M3 that is currently taking shape down in Weymouth. All that can be revealed at the moment is that for his 2006 version foiler Linton modified a M1 hull shell much like that undertaken for the M2, taking onboard lessons and suggestions from the M2, advice from his M1 customers and putting his own touch to it.

A plug has been made and a female mould taken off it. Loads of orders are in already, so its looking like a busy year.

What can be expected? It's a Mistress - it will be younger, lighter and a better shape than your current version!

Watch this space…..