New Trimaran Being Built in Australia

Watch the construction of the new B&Q 75-foot trimaran live on-line via the new Sony webcam that has been installed in the boat construction facility at Boatspeed., Australia.

Every 20 seconds the webcam will update and it will be possible to scroll back through the archive images – just so you don’t miss anything! The webcam will be live via BT Openworld from around 16h00 GMT for 12 hours which is effectively the working hours at Boatspeed’s yard just north of Sydney, Australia.

Currently the main hull and deck are being worked on by the team at Boatspeed in the main boat shed – the webcam will show how the bulkheads are being fitted into the main hull as work continues on the deck and dog house.

Team Kingfisher Technical Director, Neil Graham and Ellen MacArthur visited the boat yard recently: ‘She will look like a real boat soon,’ said Ellen. ‘The hull, deck, beams and floats are in various stages of production but all the main components have been deplugged [ie removed from the moulds they are built in]. Everything is coming together including components from all around the world for the assembly period in November.’

Whilst the construction of the main components takes place at Boatspeed, around the globe other parts of the tri are under construction. Parts for the nav area are being constructed at the base in Cowes, England, including the chart table and facing back panels that will be fitted with all the electronic hardware as well as Ellen’s custom-made chart table seat.

The rudders and centreboard are being built at Tropical Engineering also in Cowes by Steve Mellors. On the other side of the world in Auckland, Southern Spars are building the mast and Future Fibres will be manufacturing the rigging. The sails are being designed and produced by Norths 3DL in Nevada, USA and finished by North Sails France, whilst the winches are being made by Harken in Italy.

All these parts will come from around the world in October for the huge task of assembling the trimaran which should take the best part of eight weeks.