FIRST LOOK: 2019 Southern Formula 19 takes shape
EXCLUSIVE: The latest addition to the growing Southern Formula fishing family is readying for a 2019 Melbourne International Boat Show revealThere’s a section of the Haines Hunter factory at Derrimut in Melbourne’s west where only a selected few are invited in. It’s a large, airy room where boats are born, making their way from a set of two-dimensional blueprints into three-dimensional fishing weapons.
It’s here that the Southern Formula 19, the latest addition to the growing Southern Formula family, is taking shape.
This is the plug that will become the template for every Southern Formula 19 that rolls out of the factory. Designed and engineered in CAD, built from MDF and foam cut in a CNC mill, and coated in fibreglass and gelcoat, it’s a life-size model that shows exactly what the finished boat will look like.
The plug is the result of months of work “and a lot of bloody sanding”. Southern Formula’s research and development team has focused since September last year to develop the template, taking the lines created for the larger 24 and scaling them down, adjusting the proportions along the way to keep it true to the Southern Formula fishing ethos.
The hull, top deck, windscreen and console are all made separately and slot together like a jigsaw to make a complete boat.
From this point, the plug will be covered in gelcoat, and the long, careful process of removing any imperfections will start. High spots will be sanded back, low spots filled, and scratches and other marks smoothed over.
Shape of things to come
From this boat, Southern Formula will make the moulds that the future 19s will be laid up inside. Made of extra-thick fibreglass, the moulds will have steel supporting frames built around them to carry the extra weight of the parts they will help form. The inside of it will be sprayed with a special red tooling gelcoat to help boatbuilders see if the thickness is right – any hint of red showing through the layers means the fibreglass skin will be too thin.
Once all that is in place, the factory is good to start producing boat number one. The Southern Formula will measure 19 feet along the waterline, but around 20.5 feet with the bowsprit. It won’t have as much freeboard as its larger 21- and 24-foot siblings outside the boat, but just as much internal freeboard. It’s also guaranteed it will have one of the driest cockpits in its class. The same Carolina-style bow with its variable deep vee will help provide a similar soft, stable ride as the 19’s larger siblings.
The first of the 19s is expected to make its official debut at the 2019 Melbourne International Boat Show in mid-June. Interest in the boat is already high as potential customers – some of whom have closely followed the 19’s evolution ever since the 24’s debut in 2018 – chase the same seakeeping abilities as the larger boats in the Southern Formula line-up, but in a package that’s smaller, cheaper and easier to manage.
Boatsales.com.au will follow the progress of the Southern Formula 19 as it readies for its official launch in June.
Specifications
Model: Southern Formula 19
Length: 6.2m
Beam: 2.44m
Draft: 300mm
Deadrise: 21-degree variable
Hull weight: 1100kg (est, dry, no engine)
Weight on trailer: 2400kg (est, dry)
Maximum power: 250hp
Maximum outboard weight: 350kg
Fuel: 280L
Maximum passengers: 6
Built by: Southern Formula
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