Construction of new Victory Challenge boat advances at rapid pace

[Source: Victory Challenge] The eyes of boatbuilding manager Killian Bushe, foreman Andrew Lowe and the boat builders are shining with joy. They have just lifted the female mould from the plug and are looking at the result. “Excellent, perfect,” are the words of Killian Bushe. An extremely important part of building Victory Challenge’s boat for the 32nd America’s Cup has been completed.

The place is Victory Challenge’s boatbuilding yard at the Lindholmen Science Park in Hisingen, Göteborg, in a cluster of high tech and development-intensive companies which have grown up in an area that was previously part of the city’s mighty shipbuilding industry.

There is really no shipbuilding activity remaining, instead there are companies like Volvo Cars, Volvo Technology, Ericsson, IBM, Semcon and WM-data Caran, as well as Göteborg University, Chalmers University of Technology and the joint IT University. It is difficult to think of a more suitable place for the building of a boat for sailing’s Formula 1, in an area with its roots in the shipbuilding industry but which is today characterised by innovation and optimism. This is where Victory Challenge’s boats, SWE 63 (Örn) and SWE 73 (Orm), were built ahead of the America’s Cup in Auckland 2002/2003.

The female mould of Victory Challenge's new boat. Photo copyright Oskar Kihlborg/Victory Challenge

This is also where a new bow was built both for Orm and for Örn, as a part of the boats’ modifications. And this is where the new boat is being built, which has not yet got a sail number. Just like SWE 63 and SWE 73 it has been designed by Mani Frers and his team at the design office in Milan, Italy.

At present Victory Challenge has 25 people on the boatbuilding team in Göteborg, with 14 different nationalities represented. That they are part of the team is also about innovation and development.

Boatbuilding manager, Killian Bushe, is uncompromising in order to achieve the best possible result. He built the winning boat for ABN AMRO for the Volvo Ocean Race in the same way.

At his disposal he has a newly-built 40 metre-long oven, which is an important part of building a carbon fibre composite boat. This is not the only new thing; the entire building process has been changed from when Örn and Orn were created.

Last time Victory Challenge used a male mould. Then the boat was built on a wooden plug, which was somewhat smaller than the actual boat to get the right size. It was quicker, but also required more finishing work with filler which, in turn, made the hull heavier.

This time a female mould is used. Therefore a wooden plug was built first, exactly according to Mani Frers’ drawing of the boat. A carbon fibre mould was laminated on to it, which was then hardened in the oven, just like when the actual boat is made.

Killian Bushe, boatbuilding manager, examines the female mould of Victory Challenge's new boat. Photo copyright Oskar Kihlborg/Victory Challenge

The boat, with one layer of carbon fibre, one layer with a honeycomb of Kevlar, and another layer of carbon fibre, will be built inside the mould. It is that mould that has just been completed.

It’s a Saturday, but it’s a working day at the boatyard where it’s a six-day working week. However, Killian Bushe had thought about taking this Saturday off. Yet he is at the boatyard.

“We’re ahead of my time plan. I just have to be here when the mould is lifted from the plug.”

It’s the foreman, Andrew Lowe, who gives the orders, step by step, as the lift is carried out. There’s nervousness in the air. “Anything can go wrong, however thorough and professional you’ve been,” says Killian Bushe. What he and Andrew Lowe and all the boatbuilders look into is a female mould with a perfect surface. That is why they are beaming with joy. “I’m very happy,” says Killian Bushe.

There are many advantages to this more time-consuming process of building an America’s Cup boat. One obvious one is saving weight. A lot less filler is needed – and simply that reduces the weight of the boat by more than 100 kilos.

Then remember that the hull of a 24-metre-long America’s Cup boat that is built on a male mould weighs about 800 kilos. Using a female mould means that more than an additional 100 kilos can be moved down to the bulb, which increases the boat’s speed. The total weight may still not exceed 24 tons.

For Killian Bushe and his boat builders, what remains now is to build the hull itself. “But we have taken a very important step forward,” he says.