News

The new Riptide 41 sees daylight! The new Riptide 41 left James Betts Enterprises and was delivered to Cap Sante Marine for bottom painting. keel installation, and the stepping of her Southern Spars rig (with carbon standing rigging).  We are excited to get her in the water!

After 3.5 months of hard work following their crash and burn on the Bay, Oracle Team USA is back on the water with their AC72.  USA 17 is shown here sporting a new Bieker engineered daggerfoil (supporting the boat in this photo).  AC72s present the biggest structural design challenges in the sailing world and Bieker…

Here are a few pictures of Longboard, Peter Salusbury’s new Riptide 35 MKII under sail.  We hope to have more soon.

The Riptide 41 waterballasted racer is approaching completion at Jim Betts Enterprises in Anacortes Washington.  Target launch is in late February.

In the last few weeks the 32 foot proa that we have been working on with proapist Russell Brown   (more on Russ)  has evolved to the point where we are ready to enter the detail design stage. Significant development has been made in the steering system as well as refinement of the beam/connective arrangements…

New course Record Line Honours 1st on Corrected Time Bieker Boats is proud to have done the structural engineering and detail design of the asymmetrical daggerboard and centerline light air daggerboard used for the race.  These survived the strenuous offshore conditions, including a high force impact to one of the daggerboards.  In addition, Bieker Boats…

Paul is having fun designing a 32 foot offshore proa with long time proapist Russell Brown. It is designed for ease of construction using mostly plywood and constant camber foam cored panels (shown in green).  See the attached pics of the preliminary design:

The retracting drive unit in the 35 MKII is a little different from others that have been built.  Where others have employed single or multiple constant-velocity joints to keep the angular velocity constant, we can use a simple universal or Cardan type joint.  This works because the tail shaft is in alignment with the stub…

The new Riptide 35 MkII Longboard hit the water for the first time today in Anacortes. It was a beautiful November day, the boat trimmed well, and the retracting drive unit we designed for the boat performed better than our expectations (9 knots with an 18 HP engine and zero vibration).  Thanks and congratulations go to new…

Here’s some recent pictures from Jim Betts Enterprises in Anacortes of the Riptide 35 MkII and the Riptide 41 build progress.  It’s good to see them together!