it's here. it's evolution. will it be quicker? prowler 4 takes to the water with rohan veal...


ready for launch sporting new MSL11 sail. the wings are restored (almost)to the transom after a briefly being cut short for the prowler 3 used by rohan at the europeans in garda. the lightness of this boat has to be felt to be believed. weight savings are made throughout especially the space-frame which is significantly lighter than in older moths.


prowler 4 features an adustable carbon tube gantry at the maximum 500mm length as pioneered by adam may. this gives control of the relative angles of front and rear foils and dramatically affects flying behaviour

the usual tidy control lines layout and cable to centreboard mount. we're not certain where the centreboard slot has been located. for prowler 3 john moved it forward a little but given the longer gantry maybe it's back to the conventional location?

older prowler details below...

the boat was only on the water about a week before the championships and with minimal practice Garth managed an eighth overall in the worlds and his best place was a very close second. there have been two more built from the same male mould using pre preg carbon fibre. this means oven curing the hull and mould at 80 degrees celcius. something that an MDF mould was not meant for. it has survived quite well but due to recent interest i am currently building a proper female mould with resins designed specifically for high temperature use.

the hull is exactly 30cm wide at the chines and has a fairly flat bottom from chine to chine. the significant difference is the weight, 12kg -9kg is 25% lighter. there is no corner cutting to achieve the light weight hull. garths hull is made using traditional wet epoxy resins and vacuum bag technique. his hull is 160g carbon on the outside and 63g kevlar on the inside. the new pre preg hulls are most likely the strongest moth hulls built. they are a 200g carbon inside and out of the foam core, which compared to recent boats sounds like a massive overkill on strength. well it is an overkill but pre pregs have such a minimal resin content within the fabrics that they are still really light.

once the moulds are ready I have two more on order to start. they will be hulls 4 and 5.

contact:
john ilett web www.fastacraft.com