Feeling the need...

Feeling the need...

Matt Mason describes building the new Mk5 Maverick in New Zealand

It’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.”

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 10- 12kg underweight with our building techniques We feel it is key to get the weight into the boat in the right areas like the hull, using the heavier foam. We also didn’t want a boat that dings easily if you rub together at a wing mark or something. Our goal is to end up with 2-3 kg in correctors.

Deck Layout

Under deck and conventional on deck layouts are available. Under deck has the main three controls consisting of the outhaul, Cunningham and tack. These all come underdeck down the centreline. They come down each side of the centreline then turn-in sheaves turning outboard to their cleats. The vang and centreboard uphaul come back to swivelling Ronstan RF70, and this allows the board rake to be adjustable upwind for different modes. The centreboard shock cord system is all under deck running to the bow and adjustable to tension in the forward hatch. We are still working on a few final tweaks and the latest is a 3D printed control panel for the sheaves, vang and board control cleats where they come out of the dashboard.

The first three boats all have under-deck systems.

Structural Stiffness

We have worked hard to make the boat stiff and eliminate twisting created from the hiking sailor and the rig side load. This is achieved by using uni-directional strapping diagonally across the deck from the forward cockpit corner through to the mast gate.

It’s also important to tie in the cockpit coaming to the hull topsides; this locks in the whole cockpit liner together structurally to reduce twisting, a key factor structurally.

I have been lucky to have had plenty of amazing advice from the likes of Adhesive Technologies director Grant Beck who I am on the phone to nearly every day and my great friend Giovanni Belgravno who is one of the world’s best composite structural engineers.

Conclusion

The first three boats are for John Cutler, John Cobb and myself. John Cobb was the main sponsor of the 2019 Symonite World championship in Auckland, and he has now joined the class. We are now able to go into production and streamline construction, which is key. The cost of the OK is very competitive which I feel helps with the success of the class. This is definitely not going to be a money making venture.

I wouldn’t want to add up the hours that have gone into building these moulds. The hundreds and hundreds of hours justifies why the last set of moulds was built 25 years ago. If I had known what a mission this was going to be I probably would have never taken it on.

However, we are now into the fun time and it’s time to go sailing.

I have sailed the boat several times now. After not sailing for 18 months and with the small amount of racing I have done, the boat feels really, really nice. As they always say, ‘speed is your friend’. We are finishing boat #3 now which is for John Cutler and are ready to build some boats. We have had a young boat builder that has joined us and come straight out of Emirates Team NZ and he has brought the build standard to a new level, so the boats are going to be built to a very high finish spec.

Hopefully we’ll see you soon somewhere around the world for a regatta. Go the OK Dinghy

If you are interested please email or call Matt on mkmason88@gmail.com + 6421 507444 and he can send more photos and pricing. He is planning on setting up a simple website in the near future.

JULY 2021 • www.okdia.org 27