Peak performance from a new Enterprise
by Jeremy Nicholson 24 Sep 2015 18:05 BST
24 September 2015
Measuring the first Enterprise hull at Peak Dinghy © Peak Dinghy
A new Enterprise MkII, from a new builder, won this year's Nationals and took Peak Dinghy from selling parts out the back of a van to being a successful ISAF registered builder. It took five years, three prototypes, skill, commitment and lots of hard work, together with a little help from Allen Brothers.
Glyn Rawson of Peak Dinghy Spares heard that there was a MKII GRP Enterprise mould not being used back in 2010 and started to think "could we make a boat?" The finished article took longer than anticipated, but has proved successful. The first change was in materials. The class rules only allow the use of Epoxy for the Mk III, so in its MkII Peak decided to use Vinylester resin rather than Polyester.
Glyn explains, "Vinylester resin sits between Polyester and Epoxy. It is a hybrid form of polyester resin which has been toughened with epoxy molecules within the main molecular structure. It is stiffer and better able to absorb impact than Polyester, it is also less likely to show stress cracking. It bonds to core material much more effectively than Polyester and delamination is much less of an issue."
With many years experience in specifying hardware, Glyn went for an Allen fit out as, "we were confident in the quality and this confidence was quickly reinforced when we discovered the bow fitting was unique to our boat and no longer in production. However Allen Brothers were able to make a batch as they still had the original tooling."
So the boat was fully fitted out and measured and Tim Sadler and Richard Sault took it to its first outing at Tynemouth where it won, giving them good feedback for the 2013 Nationals at Abersoch. Experience gained there led to the strengthened second prototype, as the rigidity of the boat had not been improved sufficiently by the change in materials alone. The second and third boats incorporated numerous structural modifications and it was in the latter that Tim and Richard were victorious in the 2015 Enterprise Nationals.
Liz Adams, Managing Director of Allen Brothers, added "We were really pleased for Glyn and Peak Dinghy. Allen Brothers sponsored the Enterprise Master and the Nationals and we have a long history of supporting the class. It is great to see new boats competing and to work with new boat builders to help them achieve their goals."
www.allenbrothers.co.uk