Project Blade F16
Winter 2005/2006 contained lot of dreaming of getting back to catamaran sailing (I used to own couple of Hobie Cats). First idea was that getting to Archipelago Raid is a must. This would mean that I need to find a crew interested in sailing a F18, but after some time trying to find one I gave up. Later that winter I saw an ad of cheap used Tornado (with new rig) and I tried again to find myself a crew. Most of possible crews said that they would be happy to come sailing but they could not give any guarantees of their participation. There was no point of getting a Tornado and then not to sail it, so no Tornado for me.
During the winter it became obvious that a) I need a cat and b) it needs to be easily sailed just by me and also it should be possible to have a friend on board. After doing some surfing on the net my choice was clear, I’m going to get a Formula 16 cat. At first I thought about getting a factory built cat but then building my own cat started to feel more appealing. I decided to contact Phill Brander who is the designer of the Blade F16 cat. He directed me to a gallery of Blade build process and I was sold. I got the plans in a week or so after ordering the plans in spring 2006, but didn’t have time to start the project before the summer holidays. The first task was to obtain all necessary materials and with help of Puukeskus (Okume, normal plywood and rest of wood) and Kevra (epox and rest of laminating stuff) everything that I needed was ordered.