BLUESTORM is a slightly larger version of BLUE LIGHTNING , at 7metres LOA. With her vertical stem, she uses her full length when sailing, and should be a match for sportsboats like the Hunter 707. Though she has only 70% of the sail area, she has the same sail area to displacement ratio (24) and a much lower displacement/length ratio (84 vs 126). Unlike the 707, she can be towed behind a Volkswagen Golf!
She promises to be an exciting development of the original Blue Lightning concept. A German company - Tischlerei Förster GmbH - is building several boats to this design. The newly opened-up regions of the former East Germany and Poland contain vast areas of forest lagoons and lakes which are ideal for the trailer-sailer. The first boat, named 'Antje' was completed at the works of Tischlerei Förster GmbH in Wardenburg, Germany. She was launched in early 2004, and had her first sailing trials at the end of April 2004, in company with 'Blue Lightning', on the Baltic coast around Stralsund.

Heiner Förster's opinion of BlueStorm

photographs of the building, launching and first sail of "Antje".

Video of Antje sailing at Kiel, November 2005. (12 megabytes - right click the link and click 'Save Target As.." to save it on your PC).

The German magazine 'Yacht' has published a very positive boat test review of BLUESTORM. An English language transcript of the "Yacht" article is available here.

STUDY PLANS. (Adobe Acrobat Reader required - Download Acrobat Reader).