Upgrades

As my commuter powerboat nears completion I'm diving into my Moth projects.

I've got a new Mach 2, but I've had got a few upgrade topics sketched in the notebook. I figured I'd dive right in and do most of them in one hit before getting back on the water.

It is fair to say the Exocet has established itself as the dominate boat at the moment. It has shown its pace for a while, but only recently won a Worlds.

To combat this, a number of upgrades have appeared across the Mach 2 fleet.

Not all of these have been done all in one boat yet, so I’ve taken the hacksaw and dremel to mine.

• Bowsprit. Control benefits through the spacing of the wand from the main foil. Becoming universal across the front of the fleet. Not a standard Mach 2 item (yet), but a few kits and custom options around. (Note: this was originally tried by John Ilett at the Garda Worlds in 07)

• Lower king post. Lowering the rig for RM gains. A number of boats have been doing this. Some with shortening the mast as well to have the measurement band just above the boom.

• No compression struts. Not many have done this as the narrow beam of the Mach2 in the bow area is not ideal for the required support but there is a nice windage gain.

• Fairings. Originally fairings were added to the existing platform, but with the best way to reduce drag being to get rid of the item in question some of the areas where fairings were added are now removed ( comp struts and high king posts for example). Rear beam fairings have featured in the past, but have often been impractical. Small aero gain, but they look good! The aft wing bar connection on the M2 has always looked a bit messy, with the bars straight into the hull being a neater solution. New deck and internal structure required though, so we are into bigger mods.

• No rear strop. Another benefit of doing new stiffer rear wingbars is the windage gain of removing the aft strop.

• Bow modification. The dreadnought bow does nothing for you when foiling other than use up some of your allowed overall length. Trimming the bow back to a vertical stem, the length recovered there can be added to the transom, and the gantry can be made longer, increasing foil spacing. Approx 85mm can be gained in foil spacing.

And a few other upgrades planned as well....

Photos coming soon.