Proud empty-nesters, Gunboat is excited to share some highlights from the launch, sea trials, and first sailing adventures of Gunboat 68 CONDOR.
After leaving the factory in March, CONDOR set off on an Atlantic crossing to the Caribbean, with plans to enjoy Caribbean island hopping before cruising the Bahamas en route to the New England summer.
The Gunboat team carefully guarded this first handover, ticking off the rest of the 1250 point checklist during sea trials – the culmination of which had the owner of 6801 asking if we were done polishing the anchor so they could make wakes already. But it was all out of love and passion for the project. We’re confident in our testing and quality control measures and ensuring that all learnings feed immediately back into production and our processes.
Now start the sightings and organic media attention to a project that has been under our roof for the past 2+ years, and we’re ready to sit back (definitely not with our feet up, read below) and watch the reactions to our first Gunboat 68.
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The first public opportunities to see the Gunboat 68 will be Newport International Boat Show September 12th-15th and Cannes Yachting Festival September 10th-15th.
Gunboat 68 production
Meanwhile at the factory, Gunboats 6802 and 6803 are cruising right along.
6802 is currently in the paint shed, set to hatch in a gorgeous custom blue-gray in just a few weeks. While this exact color is all her own, we’re sure the inquiries will be coming our way from boats that want to replicate this hue, so maybe we’ll see what we can do to get “68 Shades of Blue-Gray” officially added to the Akzonobel color chart! Stay tuned in May for the unveiling of a freshly painted 6802, another significant step closer to joining her sister on the water.
The infusion of 6803 brought great satisfaction to the production team – the hull infusion process was even neater, tighter and more efficient. For hull 3, we used a flexible, formable 3D mold that can bend to any shape, for an optimized core fit and quicker thermoforming turnaround. This was a nice refinement in composite technology (not a change to the structure), and we’re pleased with the process and outcome.
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