Sweet, can't wait to see it finished

Awesome, that will definitley be one bad ass boat! Jamie

Any new building techniques such as foam coring, epoxy, carbon fibre etc. going into the new hull?

Mark told me that 75% of the stringers will be foam. The hull is Kevlar/Carbon Fiber. Mark started using Carbon Fiber in the early 90's. I can't wait to see the hull in person

Cool! How much weight has he been able to reduce in construction? I think OL saved something like 1500 lbs when they switched to Epoxy? I believe they also didn't need as many stringers because it was so much more rigid, further reducing the weight.

BUT, I'm somewhat old-hat in thinking that if you reduce weight too much you loose ride comfort.

Would be cool to see all the Apaches be light weight just like the one El Indio owns.

Bad azz hull, new technolgy...could have a winner again!?!?!?!

That's not old thinking, that's the laws of physics.

Ask anyone that's ridden in an epoxy boat the ride is harsh.

Depends on the size from what I've experienced.

I'm sure if Benny stuck around the hulls would have advanced like Cig did over the years.



Boat is a monster, good luck to Mark with the completion. Look forward to seeing pictures of the stages!

I stopped by to see Mark this evening and he gave me look at the new boat. I am awestruck.

The Kevlar portion is completed and he layed in all the carbon fiber today. Fifty one feet of black carbon fiber, shiny from the resin curing is an f'n incredible sight. There's almost six digits worth of carbon fiber that went in to the mold today. Stringers go in tomorrow. The stringers I saw today are rigid structural foam. Pretty neat stuff. As already mentioned, Mark is using a great deal of high tech materials to build this one. He expects to save a great deal of weight in the process.

An interesting thought occurred to me while driving home; when this boat comes out of the mold each of our Apaches becomes a little bit more valuable. As the new one gets finished, our boats become incrementally more valuable. I am certainly biased on this topic, but as was mentioned in another thread, we can be thankful that he has not been pumping out an inferior product, i.e. Bayliners, for the last ten years and subsequently eroding the value of our boats. This one can only serve to enhance the image and value of the Apache brand. We all benefit from that.

Tom

cant wait to see it!!!