.
..
From Jan 18th to the 26th, W17 was featured at the huge Dusseldorf Boat Show this year, courtesy of builder Thomas Simon who is a member of the German Multihull Association that kindly accepted to host his home-built boat as one of their members' exhibits. It was a wonderful opportunity to share the design with the Europeans that typically attend ... but having done a couple of these big exhibits myself, I do remember it was hard work, yet rewarding. So I thought I would share some of the preparations. and later the visitors and any special comments as they come in.
Being winter in Germany, first the stored boat had to be eased out of the snow and cleaned up for presentation.
The boat was then trailed some 70km up from Bonn, to arrive on the assigned morning (Wed Jan 14th) for setup .. where my associate Andre Baetz met Thomas, to assist with the manhandling.
The exhibition area at Dusseldorf is huge. There are apparently 17 Halls available for exhibits, with at least two of the larger ones also having the height to accommodate sail-boat masts.
Here is the layout of the exhibition grounds.
Thomas was able to drive into the hall to unload the boat and they managed to manhandle it off the trailer on to wheels and boxes, for a preliminary assessment of the space.
Once the W17 was unfolded, the mast was placed in position for raising and Thomas cleverly solved the lack of a trailer winch by mounting one on the bowsprit. Not sure if they raised the mast tip manually or with a gin pole, but up it went and so did the forestay with jib and the shrouds.
It was not long before the sail followed ... sails that Thomas had created himself using guidance draft figures from the website but then using dedicated sail-design software from SailRite to create the individual panel shapes. It looks like he did a fine job.
When the Exhibit finally opened at 10am on Saturday, visitors started the rounds. Above we see owner/builder Thomas Simon, explaining how the mast was built, while on the left, here is a shot from an overhead office, with their layout of Posters, Video Screen and Pamphlets, showing that Andre & Thomas were well organized to share the many unique aspects of the boat and wingmast.
Overall, the first day was fairly quiet, but those that passed clearly enjoyed the two enthusiasts who freely shared their knowledge. And its not unusual for such a show to start rather slowly. Sundays are typically good days and so is the last weekend. .. and that proved to be true again.
Below. Andre Baetz is engaged with a potential builder.
Andre reported that many were surprised to see what could be built by hand as the workmanship was pretty high and Thomas had build everything ... hinges, boat, mast and sails
Down at the Left, you can see the 2m high Posters that adorned each exhibit. with one each for the Wingmast and the W17, They show a range of photos and a summary list of the Technical Specs.
.
At the BOAT SHOW, we were handing out a new Pamphlet about the W17 trimaran. As not everyone could get there, we are now posting it here to be dnloaded if you so wish.
Please feel free to share it with your sailing friends.
It you set your printer correctly, it will print out on one sheet, and is then folded.
On our HP we use these settings: Here is the PDF FILE Download
LETTER Size ---> LANDSCAPE ---> Double-Sided ---> Flip at SHORT EDGE
.
.
.
.
.
.
For the final weekend, Andre added this 'Built it Yourself' sticker on to the sail and found more visitors stopped.
.
.
.
.
.
"Why yes!,.. that chine is indeed - dead straight!"
.
=================================================================================
" Copyright Information & Legal Disclaimer page for copyright info and use of this text or article"