Premier 45 in April YM

[Way]

Has anyone seen the test? Any thoughts? Very fast boats capable of cruising seems to be the thing now, or am I behind on that one? Looks incredible and very fast but never heard of them. The older I get the more I seem to be drawn to Pogos, J109s, Arconas etc. Shame I'm highly unlikely to ever afford one!

 

[Way]

This is the test


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Zfi1Zm_g_TU

 

[Seajet]

I would say that's a great racing boat and a rubbish cruiser.

For cruising things like the anchor requiring planning to deploy are OK for blue water but not otherwise; the recessed traveller trough is just begging for stuff to fall in and jam not to mention difficult to extricate or even clean.

The main thing I object to though is carbon fibre which to my mind is unsuitable for a cruising boat.

I was technical photographer at BAe when the Harrier II AV-8B was introduced, in Britain as the GR5; at the time the wing was the largest carbon fibre structure in the world.

I was kept busy photographing major panics whenever someone dropped a tool or similar anywhere near the carbon fibre; the horrible thing about this material is that after an impact it looks fine on the surface but may be delaminated on the inside exactly like plywood.

I had to go to RAF Wittering to photograph two GR5's ( inc inside the wings as far as I could ) after they were hit by lightning, frankly there was a lot of conjecture and mild panic as no-one knew what might have happened to the wings - and they were £5 million apiece even then.

Technicians using ultrasound were going all over the aircraft but they admitted they couldn't be sure of the structure.

I took a series of photographs for a colleague doing a thesis on carbon fibre repair which got him an MBA and a job with Boeing, later lecturing at a Test Pilot school.

If someone with very deep pockets wants to use CF for racing, spiffing; but it is not a sensible material for a cruising boat if one is going to rely on and trust lives to it far from technical support or for that matter rescue.

A lot of people, me included thought the CF wing and bits on the Harrier II made it unlikely to survive the rough handling of a real war - with an all metal aircraft ( or boat ) one just knocks out or lives with dents and scrapes.

A much better compromise material for light weight high performance applications is lithium alloy, and it seems the one time proposed Harrier III woud have used this; CF also enslaves one to a certain monopoly supplier too.

So no order for the Wunderboot here !