Velociraptor unveiled

May and Chisholm talk to us about their new International Moth

So after many months of waiting, finally at the Dinghy Sailing Show last weekend, the Velociraptor Moth was unveiled to the general public. For those not in the know this is the second foiling Moth design after the Bladerider set to be built on a significant commercial scale.

As mentioned in our original article about the boat (click here), the new boat is the brainchild of Adam May and Dave Chisholm. Since then the boat has moved from being a concept on paper to a fully fledged Moth, all but ready to be rolled out to customers. So what, if anything, is new about the Velociraptor? “To start with, we just looked at every little bit of the boat and said, ‘where can we reduce weight and can we reduce windage and can we make it work a little bit better,’” Chisholm explains.

Above: Chisholm with the Velociraptor.

Weight and build:

Certainly one of the most stunning aspects of the boat on paper is its hull weight of just 7.50kg. We were impressed the boat could pop out this light for a number of reasons. Firstly the pair has made no bones about the fact they would like to mass produce the Velociraptor so it is not a special one-off. Secondly, and perhaps more significantly, when we recently spoke to Simon Payne about his new Fastacraft Zero – which weighs 8.3kg for the hull – his view was that this was “probably as light as we are likely to see in the next few years.” Payne would be the first to admit his field of expertise is not the technical manufacture of Moths, but it does seem this new boat is surprisingly light.

“The whole Moth weight thing is a very tricky area to measure properly,” May responds. “The only weight that you can really hang your hat on is the all-up weight, as it is the easiest one to reliably measure. Our boat, with racks moulded into the hull will be very different to the boats with bolt on racks, so it is only really when you look at the whole thing that you get a decent idea.”

The pair has also gone to great lengths to ensure this extreme light weight. “We have tried to price the boat into the market but there is a material choice to be made.,” says Chisholm. “The material that we are putting into the moulds is the most expensive pre-preg that [Carbonology] have ever used in production for anything.” One of the reasons they decided to undertake this venture was to prove that a boat could be manufactured in the UK, with high grade materials and still come in at a reasonable price. Certainly, the price is competitive for a production boat with a Veloceraptor coming in at £9460 (Inc VAT) on the water, whereas a Bladerider is more than £10,000 launched in the UK.

Of course the final weight figure will come down to the build quality of the production boats themselves. Though it might seem obvious for Chisholm’s company Carbonology to be manufacturing the hulls, this is not the case. While the boat was in the design stages the pair was looking around for a high quality boat-builder that they could bring on board to run the manufacture.

Essentially the chain of command, as it were, was to be May and Chisholm designing, Chisholm and Carbonology supplying materials and a builder taking care of production. Happily a close friend of both was brought on board for this latter role in the shape of Tornado builder Graham Eeles. “At that time there had just been the news that the Tornado had been taken away from the Games for 2012,” Chisholm explains. Eeles has been gearing up to build more of his Olympics catamarans, but with the bottom falling out of this market, the phone call came at an opportune time. Graham had some great ideas about productionisation, simplifying the design and making it appropriate for manufacture and he is a great builder of boats like that,” continues Chisholm.

Despite the alright very light quoted weight Chisholm and May say Eeles was keen to make the boat lighter still when he first came onboard. However, they wanted to ensure the boat was also strong enough to withstand the regular crashing of a relatively new foiling Moth sailor. “You would really need someone of Adam’s ability in a Moth to notice the difference of going any lighter and also not to destroy the boat,” Chisholm explains. Of course this comment rather begs the question of whether May would be tempted to build himself a special one-off, extra light boat - but more on this later.

Above: Distinctive 'V' transom.

Foils:

One of the things most commonly mentioned by both May and Chisholm when they discuss the Velociraptor is that these days Moths are spending less and less time in the water so the requirement for any sort of buoyancy in the hull is reduced. But this means the foils are becoming even more important as for most of the time they are only part of the boat in contact with the water.

Sadly there was not a set of foils ready to be displayed at the show, but May was still very keen to discuss them and it quickly became clear that, more than anywhere else, this was his area. “Basically I have had ideas for years [about foils] and we have taken a step in the direction which I think is important,” May, the former aeronautics designer, explains. “That is aspect ratios and spans really, so we have bumped out the spans.” He says they have done this primarily because the most important thing in racing a Moth is not the top end speed – which suffers with a wider foil from drag - but early take-off - which is better with a wider foil. “Every time a set of foils have come out with a slightly higher aspect ratio we have definitely seen a performance improvement,” he continues. “I have done a bit of tweaking on the section shape, but there are brighter people than me that have done pretty good work on that and I think aspect ratio is a pretty handy way to get the gain.”

Besides going wider there is not a great deal that will be obviously different on the main foil for the Velociraptor. May explains that due to the flap on the foil there is a limit to how much you can play with the ‘ellipticalness’ of it. This leads suitably into May confirming they have gone down the now almost universally adopted route of having a flapless rudder. “On the rudder you can do more because there is not flap to limit you. The Bladerider played with some 3D effects with a little bit of swept stuff, but they kept it pretty short on aspect ratio. Mike [Cooke] has also played with his swept-=up tips. Our rudder is pretty cool in that it has a full-on swept back, crescent wing effect.”

Rig:

Interestingly the Velociraptor at the Dinghy Show was not sporting a standard Ka sail, but instead had a new Tushingham. There are a number of manufacturers attempting to knock Ka off their spot as Moth sail manufacturer of choice, however, most would agree this has yet to happen. To us the instant concern would be with a brand new boat and a new rig, May and Chisholm might have bitten off a bit more than they can chew. A good look at the sail confirms this could well be the case as the Tushingham sail is clearly far too flat. “The plan has always been that we would like to see what [Roger] Tushingham can bring to the party, but we are not committing to them specifically,” May explains. “Otherwise we could obviously be taking a massive step back. We wanted to get them involved as, if you think you are going to be in the world of sleeve-luff sails then Roger Tushingham is a pretty good guy to start with. In terms of the boat, it is sort of separate; you can buy the boat without a sail.”

The pair also admits the sail they had up at the show was clearly too flat, but add that the sail is a first attempt and was first put on a mast on Friday night when they set up the stand. Roger Tushingham was there at the time and was instantly on the phone to some of his team discussing the changes needed for the next version of the sail.

They are also looking at a new mast for the sail to sit on. “We are working closely with CST on some of the tubes and the spars and they have come out with a much smaller diameter mast in a very high modulus material,” explains Chisholm. “It will mean the mast is slightly heavier, but a much smaller diameter.”

Despite the newest of both the sail and mast and their being relatively untested in the Moth world, both Chisholm and May seem fairly convinced they will be able to deliver a good rig package to buyers in the future although, as they mentioned, there is no need to buy the rig with the boat at all.

Company:

Clearly if the pair are happy with customers buying a different rig, then there is no aim towards the Velociraptor being a one design or a class within a class, as the Bladerider is. In fact May and Chisholm seem actively to embrace the fact that the International Moth is a development class. “Sure, we are doing a production boat, but we will always be looking at how we can make it better,” May explains. “I had an old Audi A3 [these two really like car analogies] and now and they have just bought out a new shape,” adds Chisholm. “I did not think oh b******s I wish I had not bought the old one, I just kept driving my old one until I had the money to buy a new one. I think it should be like that.”

Of course this means there could well be a number of different Velociraptors on the circuit. Clearly then if May were to win the World Championships next year he could presumably not be doing so in a standard Velociraptor. “The CEO of Aston Martin does not drive a bog standard car,” Chisholm comments. “He has all the top gizmos. We will keep playing with things and those things will filter down to the boat or be sold as optional extras.”

So far there have been a number of orders for the boat, though some of these will not be going directly to customers. “We applied for a grant from the East of England Development Agency and that was one of those great moments where Dave said ‘well, let’s just try it,’” May explains. “It was the full Dragons Den experience presenting to them. We blagged our way through and then a few days later Dave got a call telling us that they were happy to give us a bit of money.”

This grant will pay for two boats to be sent overseas to continental Europe and America to see how it might go down there and get feedback. In addition to these there is the boat at the stand, going to a Carbonology employee, the boats for May and Chisholm each and one solid order. There is interest from some others, mainly we understand, in Europe. So that makes six boats on order or being build at the moment. Not bad for a boat that officially launched just five days ago.