NZL Feeling the need... Matt Mason describes building the new Mk5 Maverick in New Zealand
I
t’s pretty crazy to think it’s been two years since the Worlds were here in Auckland. Wow. Time flies.
The OK Dinghy fleet is still holding really strong in New Zealand and we are still getting 15-20 boats every fortnight at Wakatere, even in the middle of winter right now. We have finally launched the new Maverick Mk5 after building female moulds for every part. The moulds are all set up for infusing, which is a clean controllable method. Here is a short brief of the boat and build.
Design
“The Mk5 Maverick Leech design is an evolution of the 2014 and 2019 World Championship winning boats, using hull refinements from the very successful Leech Mk 1 and Mk 2 hull shape. The volume has been moved aft to increase better all-round performance for a wide range of crew weight.” Dan Leech. After sailing Maverick in Napier for the Brass Monkey June 2021, John Cutler commented, “The boat feels great, fast upwind and super fast downwind.”
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The build-female moulded-epoxy Infused
The construction of the dinghy is epoxy ADR270 from Adhesive Technology with PVC 10mm/100kg foam in the hull and topsides with PVC 8mm/80kg foam in the deck. The cockpit liner, which is also female moulded with the forward and aft bulkhead, is PVC 10mm/100kg foam. We have used epoxy compatible gelcoat on the hull and deck. The hull plug has the centreboard case built as part of the hull lamination, so when the hull comes out of the mould the centreboard case aluminium plant gets removed. The centreboard plant is CNC machined and modeled off the Kiwi Foils built by MacKay Boats, with minimal board tolerances which results in minimal drag. The cockpit liner has flanges to glue down onto the hull floor which allows the CNC U-Dek 6mm foam cut floors to fit in perfectly. The weight of the OK Dinghy is very generous and these boats could easily be 1012kg underweight with our building techniques We feel it is key to get the weight into the ok dinghy international magazine
