Victory Challenge starts new build with Volvo Ocean Race winning builder

Dagens seglarnyhet i Sverige fanns att finna bakom en omärkt dörr på Lindholmen. Nedan min korta rapport till BYM News (det är därför den är på engelska).

Här är pluggarna för de nya förar som man just satt på SWE 63 och 73. De ser mycket lika ut men skall ju passa på olika båtar.

Här är den 40 meter långa ugn som man byggt. I denna bygger man pluggen i trä, på vilken man sedan bakar själva formen i kolfiber. Separat finns också ett bord som man kan skjuta in för att baka enskilda detaljer.

De första bitarna till pluggen sätts på plats. Man inser hur smala dessa båtar är; 3.9 meter i förhållande till längden 24 meter.

Killian Bushe, Irländare bosatt i Sverige. En av värdens bästa båtbyggare eller vad sägs om: ABN Amro One & Two, Illbruck, Kvaerner, Juno, …

Victory Challenge has been sailing Örn (SWE 63) and Orm (SWE 73), which were recently modified in the bow section (7 meters) to improve speed and to gather valuable input to the new boat, which started building today.

In charge of the building process is Killian Bushe, who has lives in Sweden since 1995 and joined Victory Challenge a couple of months ago. Before that, Bushe was responsible for building ABN Amro One and Two for the Volvo Ocean Race (VOR) 2005-2006 and also the V60 Illbruck (VOR 2001-2002) and Innovation Kvaerner (Whitbread 1997-1998). This means that Killian built the two most recent VOR winners.

When comparing the build of a VOR boat, like ABN Amro One, with this Americas Cup boat, he finds this much easier. “It’s all very regulated and everything get measured. So I just buld to the minimum specs.” Killian says.

Initially the team consist of 10 builders, but that will expand to 25 after the VOR ends and many of the ABN shore team stay in Gothenburg to work with the Victory boat. In total it will take 25.000 man-hours to build the boat, which should be ready in time for Christmas 2006.

On Lindholmen in Gothenburg, not far from the VOR finish (the exact adress is a secret), Killian’s team has been building a 40 metre oven, a vital part of any composite carbon project and, today, started making the male plug for the new boat. After that they will build a female mould in which they will build the new boat. SWE 63 and 73 were built on a male mould, but now the goal is to get the best result possible.

When asked about the differences between the teams, Killian seems pretty confident that Victory would have a good boat, believing that he has the prerequisites to build a better boat than Oracle or Alinghi. “I couldn’t build a better boat even if I had a bigger budget.” he says. The largest differences, he thinks, are in the sail development area and how the crew learns to shift gears to get the most out of their boat.

The designer is Mani Frers and he and Bushe will be talking daily during the build. Magnus Holmberg, skipper and helmsman, feels very confident with Frers as designer and Bushe as builder of the new boat. Victory Challenge got more speed out of their existing boats with the new bows, and test shows a significant improvement with this new design as well.