Dario's Lab

Inevitable

Here is an extended mix showing some early runs with experimental control system foil configurations. Though there is still vast untapped potential, these sequences give a flavour of what is surely to come. Everyone who tried it commented, through a persistent grin, that it is easy and feels secure.As often repeated on this site, the […]

Tamahagane

Another symbolic milestone: the last batch of Katana Marblehead hulls from the existing tooling is here. The old moulds have been ‘retired’ and work will begin soon on updated tooling. Deliveries are expected to start again in mid 2015. Get in touch for more details…

A Different Look

Some quick snaps of the last shell just out of the mould. We are building a series of 10 Katana Marbleheads using a special hybrid cloth. The red bits are Kevlar. No change in structural properties, just a different and unique look. We will keep the boats in stock so grab yours today!

Digital Age

The first batch of our new Swing Rig Blocks. They come in three different ‘flavours’ to accommodate different main boom angles for different clew heights between suits. As our regular followers know, we are always passionate about sharing lessons learned in development and explaining evolving methodologies. For Katana we engineered and prototyped moulds for making […]

Another Rubicon

Chris Woods, John Fisher, and Roger Paul, have been building the latest incarnation of our Rubicon 10 Rater under license. They have added their own touches in deck layout and fit-out, and the project is moving along nicely. Production of our Marblehead Katana in house is underway. Our IOM is next on the list as, for […]

Glossed

The process and resin we are using for our Katana Marblehead are optimised to obtain the best ratio of resin to reinforcement fibres. In practice this means minimising the amount of resin that cures around the fibres which are themselves a fixed quantity determined by the weight and number of layers of carbon fabric put […]

Piercing Insights – Part 3

We saw in Part 1 and Part 2 that generalised statements about the handling qualities of ‘wave piercing’ bows miss the point that bow profile is a reflection of sectional volume distribution, which is a much more useful indicator of design priorities.Multihull bow sections have recently tended to carry volume lower down rather than above […]

Piercing Insights – Part 2

As we’ve seen in previous posts, conventional hulls resist bow down trimming forces by immersing more volume forward. This shifts the centre of buoyancy forward. If the centre of gravity remains stationary or moves aft, the resulting separation gives a bow up righting moment.Tornado style ‘conventional’ raked bow profiles indicate flared hull sections. Meaning the […]

The New Black

Katana Marblehead specimens just out of the moulds. More to follow shortly…