NAMT is pleased to announce its agreement with Race2win to import the Schickler/Tagliapietra  (www.styacht.com) design 2win650 Series to North America.  The 2win650 is in production in Germany and is immediately available as a complete boat or as a kit boat.  The kit boat is sold with the rig, rudders, keel & bulb, stanchions etc., but without deck gear.  As the first German built Series Mini, the 2win650 is designed to be the 'BMW' of its class.  The price is higher than its immediate competitors and commensurate with its higher standards for quality of construction, gear and finish. Four boats have been built and the boat was featured at the 2009 Hamburg Boat Show as the first German built Series Mini.

Please visit the yard's website at:   www.2win650.com

Doug Schickler on the 2win650 Design.

The core idea was to build a solid but light boat, with high stability targeted at the German, Dutch, and Scandinavian markets.

The hull shape was selected and then optimized from the many shapes we studied for an earlier Proto campaign. A highly refined VPP was applied to the task of qualifying the shape and the boat's overall balance. Aft, we have opted for slab sided, nearly vertical above the chine. Forward, slightly less flare and a lot more freeboard can be found, when compared to other Series minis. We have pushed a lot of volume outboard under the chine. The more we looked at the chine, the more we saw what an advantage it offers. Contrary to popular misconception, wetted surface is reduced when sailing upwind, because of the tendency for the yacht to lift with added heel. In this kind of boat, such a tendency does not adversely effect sailing waterline length. Downwind, the flat aft area is excellent for planning.

A significant amount of the development time was spent on the engineering of the structures and appendages. Particularly the keel area was improved through a complete FE study of the yacht. A variety of load cases were the basis of the study, including: upwind at 30 deg heel, downwind nosedive, and knockdown at 90 deg heel. While we tried to save weight, we emphasized creating an efficient structural system and the effective use of materials. The net result is a structural arrangement which is simplified, speeding the repositioning of movable weights from one side to the other, as well as fore and aft.

The deck shape was developed with great attention to detail. The shaping includes a low area aft of the cockpit where weight, 60 kg of water and more, can be stacked. By moving these weights often and to their optimum position, we see an excellent improvement in race performance. We have also developed more space under the protection of the house and cuddy, for taller skippers to find a good place to store and save energy. The layout of hardware has been repeatedly refined, before and during deck tooling construction. The emphasis of the layout has been achieving a higher ergonomic efficiency. The critical steering and spinnaker systems have been considered with extra care.