Storm 17 - Development History

The completed GRP boat - it took 2 years from initial idea to complete boat    Way back in the Summer of 2003 we were thinking hard about introducing a new family day boat, something along the lines of our old Storm Petrel design but bigger and more capable as a result. The following pages give you some idea of the steps that we went through in arriving at the Storm 17 design. She took much longer than normal as Matt Newland was still working full time in a "proper" job, and was still getting to grips with our new design software. She started out life as a plywood boat and we intended to sell her principly as a kit for home construction. It was only after we started receiving enquiries for completed boats that we realised not everyone had the space, inclination or time to build one themselves, and that a boat of this size was a considerable undertaking. As a result we developed a glass fibre round-bilged version which is trimmed with plenty of wood so you can hardly tell. We thought most people would opt for the glass fibre boat and that we would be broadening the appeal, but as it has turned out, we have at this time, sold slightly more wooden boats than glass ones. Oh well! We enjoy building them more... Most of the following information is a direct cut and paste from the articles we wrote in the heat of the moment, so not all of it is relevant now, but we thought you might be interested to see where we have come from. The Storm 17 design Brief, and some early sketch work The vertical bow idea is developed The chosen design with a choice of rigs Building the prototype Initial sailing trials Final design changes Developing the GRP boat Building the plug More GRP work