News

April 5, 2008

The ins and outs of the new Mean Machine build…

Building a 52-foot racing yacht isn’t as simple as you might think… Even before the sawdust hits the shipyard floor every corner of the boat is already being imagined and re-imagined, drafted and re-drafted and designed in the minutest of detail. In reality the boat is alive for the team long before anybody even looks at a piece of carbon-fibre.

That doesn’t mean to say there aren’t decisions to be made or changes to be applied once everything gets going. The build process is a long and complex task, which requires expert supervision and a hell of a lot of teamwork!

The Captain of the brand new Mean Machine TP 52 and Build-Manager Chris Reid took us through some of the key stages in the making of a Mean Machine.

“The Mean Machine 22 build began in the first week of November 2007 at the Salthouse Boatbuilders in their yard at the top of the Waitamata Harbour in Auckland, New Zealand.

It was decided early on that we would build from a male mould. The reason for producing a male mould was due more to the time frame we had to work with and being confident in the accuracy of the staff at the yard. The upshot was that we could give the designers at Judel / Vroljik as much time as possible to finalise their desired hull lines.

The most difficult thing about producing this mold was that fact we had 3 variations in core thickness to contend with. To deal with this we built a main section from the stern to the area in front of the keel followed by another section through to the stem. The third core reduction in the centre of the boat was made by vacuuming extra marine ply on to the main mold surface. We changed core thickness in certain areas in order to optimize panel strength. Basically the thicker the core between the carbon laminate the stiffer the panel will be. This can be used effectively if you want to reduce the amount of structure in any certain area.

Construction of the deck mold began two weeks after the hull mold was started. Working out the geometry of our entire foredeck and pit area was quite a feat in itself and endless contact between the designers in Germany and myself back in the yard. Concepts of the pit area had begun to take shape in my garage as early as October by building a full size mock-up out of construction ply. During this period I would have members from our team come over and give input for more development. Three re-constructions later and we were happy to go ahead and finalise the geometry.

By the end of the first week of December we were ready to begin laying up the first skin of the composite sandwich that was to become our hull shell. This shell was completed on the 21st of December in time for the Christmas break. Over the Christmas period we had a small crew come in the yard and disassemble the oven around the shell, destroy the mould and prepare the area for the deck mold that was now half completed.

When the Christmas break was over we went straight into getting the hull shell set up on water filled drums in an upside down position. All the bulkheads and girders that had been built over the previous two months were then fitted and bonded into the boat.
Meanwhile at the other end of the factory, the deck mold had been completed and by mid February we had the deck shell finished and began fitting the hull.

The best thing that saved us time when setting the two components in position was leaving the deck on the mold with access points cut out at the companionway and forward hatch. This meant with the deck set up in its design position all that was required was to fit the hull until we were down to our designed waterlines. Once the hull and deck were bonded we then fitted and cast the keel and rudder in their final positions. The gantry that they have in the shed was by far the most useful tool for this type of work.

On the 22nd of February we rolled the boat over and got a look at this creation in its natural position. For sure the rule that requires the 100% headroom volume does not give rise to the most aesthetically pleasing creations, but in the end function always wins over.

From that point on we had three weeks to get all the boat building done, have a full finished paint-job and run all the systems. We also had the class measurer come down from Spain to measure the boat. This in fact went extremely well with the outcome being the finished item was within +/- 1mm of the designed lines.

The boat has now been loaded onto a ship bound for Antwerp in Belgium, from there she’ll be transported to Valencia by road where we will do our final preparations at the Emirates Team New Zealand compound. All going well the boat should arrive by the 24th of April. The Audi Medcup will be starting in Alicante 100miles south of Valencia on the 12th of May so this does not give us much time to get things dialed in.

Fortunately we do not have too much of a work-list to get through now, which is a credit to Greg Salthouse and his crew.

In summary I am very happy with the job that has been done and would happily go back for another boat. It is good to see what a small close-knit team can do when faced with such a large task.”

Chris Reid
Boat Captain