Miami time with AST + Mothcast Show No.20

So it seems my timing is a little off as Moth Miami regatta is over just as I am about to head over. I can’t complain too much really, as I have been asked to go over as a support person and as a part of the Australia Sailing Team and help out with the Scud 18′s.

A good friend of mine is trying to get selection for London Paralympics and with final spot for Australia yet to be decided, there is lots at stake. I’m actually off tomorrow afternoon, so sadly I will have to miss the Moth Nationals for the first time. It would have been interesting to see how I go, as 12 months after the boat  has been launched I finally feel the boat speed is there. Goes to show you how long it takes to develop a new design…

So my pick for the Nationals winner? I’d say Scott, however it wouldn’t surprise me if Joe or Nathan proved me wrong. With far less time than Scott in the boat this year, they have some work to do. However this is Nathan we are talking about, so I could well be wrong!

Photo: All the gear, but no idea!

… And speaking of no idea, Mothcast show No.20 “My Boat Scares The Shit Out Of Me” can be downloaded here.

Australian Season Kicks Off

I think  forgetting your log in password is a clear sign of lack of blog updates…

Well, the truth is I haven’t really had the motivation plus blogging is so 2003, frankly I am also a little embarrassed to do so.

So what’s new….hmmm not much. Same boat, same foils, rigs etc. I spend most of the 10-11 sailing season on the water instead of in the garage, so the boat has been refined and now feels quite good.  At least last time I lined up against somebody fast…

Still plenty of jobs on the list to do like, build a gearing adjuster, repaint the foils and rework the control systems to continuous, however I am happy to take the time and do this in between sailing. I think the key word for this season is “Consolidation”. A new Mach 2 small main foil would be the only thing I would like to try, however realistically I cannot see myself getting one in time for the Nationals, so I hope they are not as fast as a lot of us expect them to be…

What else…yeah season starts at St George this Saturday, so hopefully we will get a reasonable turn out. At the moment we are likely to have about 12 registered boats and more of a disorganised class structure due to yours truly re-claiming the position of the section organiser.

M356 and Nano 5 masts for sale

Time for a winter garage sale…

* Near new CST M356 (2 piece) mast $750

(rrp, $1375) – no cam wear, used at 2011 Worlds 10 times.

* 18 months old CST Nano 5 (35mm diameter) mast $750

(rrp, $2145) – used for one season, with plastic cam protectors.

I also have  an almost new Raptor sail to suit the Nano 5.

Please contact me if interested.

Blast from the past…

I just came accross this trying to find some Belmont regatta stuff… Will we see the return of Rohan for Garda 2012?

Scalpel Cuts Monster In Half…

Not really, but Dave needs some stirring. Clive took the below video before the breeze kicked in to 32kn. I had a go on Dave’s boat too and it is really good. Smooth and fast. I’ll have to go and copy something of it

For the record the lever boom was first done by Dave in the Moths. I’ll claim my wand. Good, now we have the record straight! Enjoy the video…

You are only as strong as your weakest link

Thanks N4RKLA for running the load analysis on the boom. I have to admit I didn’t go to that extent with my calculations, instead it was based on theory of reducing the leaver due to vang take off being further back, combined with better triangulation = more power.

The boat will certainly take the extra load as it is just super stiff, however i’m not so sure about the sail. These are the remains of it after the sail on Sunday…. Maybe I’ll pull a little less next time.

“Custom boats take a long time” – Project Scalpel finally hits the water

I have been so busy finishing bits off that I simply haven’t had the time to blog.

The boat finally hit the water though, and I have to say I am super happy with the end result. Marty did an awesome job and anybody that sees these two boats will learn to appreciate that his skills are amongst the best in the business.

Our goal from the start was to design and produce two boats that would hopefully be a step ahead of the Mach 2 design. I think time will tell if the improvements prove significant enough for any performance gains, however with 9.5kg hulls, 300g external skins , Nomex cores and about double the amount of framing compared to any other production Moth,  these things are super stiff yet really light. I weighed a Mach 2 hull the other day and it came in at 12.3kg with swivel cleats so we are a few kg in front there.

My boat still shares lots of good things from the Mach 2 design such as stay base and centreboard location/rake. I think Amac certainly got this right and with his boats being the benchmark out there, it would have been silly to reinvent the wheel for the sake of being different. Instead we have tried to copy bits that work well and improve on things that we consider problem areas.

Anyways, here is a few photos from this morning’s sail with Bruce. I think some more tuning is still needed before I can get closer to pace, not to mention lots of sailing needed as I am really out of practice at the moment. 600 of my hours spent on the project with little sailing in between will do that to you.

Photos unfortunately don’t do it justice as the carbon pattern has turned out perfect.  Red boat this time was just not an option.

Finish Line In Sight

Lots happening in the Moth world at the moment. Wing sail by Adam, Europeans in Switzerland and near completion of the two Scalpels in Sydney. We plan to have Adam on Mothcast pretty soon to talk about the very cool wing sail. The Europeans should be a good test to see just how quick it is and how the class wants to go forward on the issue.

The Scalpels are probably a few weeks from getting on the water. Few more things to get laminated, gantry completion and then sand and clear coat the whole lot. Few pictures below are from the weekend’s progress…

“Skywalka” head-cam

I made this video over two years ago and never got the time to post it on YouTube. St George sailing prezo and Bruce’s efforts to make a class video for it prompted me to do upload it… Interestingly the crash near the bridge is due to rudder vetilation and loss of steerage.

Wings

As suspected the wings were not easy to do. Particularly my front elliptical wing bars which not only required lining up fore/aft and up/down, but also at the right angle of attack. We also had to make front socket tubing so all up I’m not sure I would do it again. The whole procedure made Marty get PMT, so yeah sure they look good, but it probably worked out to be double the amount of work. Anyways they are done now and so are the rear and outer bar sockets.

Interestingly I measured about 6-7 different designs for wing geometry and what we ended up with is something quite similar to the Hungry Tiger. Mach 2 is not too far off this number, however I felt that the BR wings are quite flat and consequently you lose a bit of power. It’s a fine line between making the wings nice and high for foiling, vs low and easy to climb on.

This week will be all about laminating the sockets followed by building some nosecones. The Photoshop-ed photo below shows the plug nosecone with a cut out to allow access to the wand.