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.

Marty also made a wing jig that proved quite handy with wing geometry set up. I think this is probably the trickiest part of the boat to get right. There are not too many reference points to measure off, however contrary to some beliefs out there the computer model can be quite handy here. We basically know what number we want to get to and just need to replicate that.

I have included a few photos below of my hull after decking with nosecone plug trimed to size. It’s had a bit of a hard life, however the mould itself has turned out nice.

Photo on left: Deck bagging at 1am. Photo on right: Maybe we should be more productive during the day?…

….A must feature for 2010, the crocodile nosecone.

In between work, boat building and the occasional Mothcast, there hasn’t been much time left for blogging.

Bruce gave some hints of the latest development in Sydney and launch of Scalpel Moth from Rocket Surgeon Composites, and that’s exactly the boatbuilding I am talking about.

After the sale of my Zero I decided to go down a different path and team up with Marty Johnson from Rocket Surgeon Composites and together design and build a new Moth. By the way, for those that are not sure who Rocket Surgeon Composites are, think of that Velocitek bracket you bought from Sailing bits or the small rudder Scott has been using. Marty also worked for Bethwaite Design building 49ers as well as Divola Boats and with a Naval Architecture degree is no stranger to composite work.

The “Scalpel” originated from Marty’s 2007 Garda boat so the shell design is therefore along the lines of what Marty originally designed. The rest however required some changes and consequently we made new tooling for both the nosecone and deck.

I felt that the deck could be carried all the way through to the bow and allow us to make a stiffer bow structure with all linkages lying along the floor eliminating the need for push rod tubing going through the foredeck. The nosecone or “The Crocodile” as it has effectionally been referred to be also a little different. The thinking is along the lines of what Adam May designed on the Velociraptor.  With the back of the cone hollowed out the air will re-attach quicker while the volume remains the greatest towards the bow. Typically where you need it when the bow goes down.

Photo by Bruce McLeod – Nomex Pre-Preg prototype shells came out at 3.9kg. Alias model on right.

Working at CST also brings certain advantages to this boat that otherwise we wouldn’t have access too. With the help of Chris Dixon who designed my HM wings for the Zero, the Scalpel will have all HM wings from CST. My boat will have foil front wing frame with all efforts intended to reduce windage.

Overall the boat is a little smaller than the Mach 2 with reduced freeboard to 310mm however it is by no means radical. I don’t really believe in radical development, but incremental improvements in different areas to hopefully make a sizable performance improvement at the end.

I did all of the design work in Alias which is a little more powerful than Rhino. I highly recommend it as it gives you better surface analysis which will come in handy when producing foil files for CNC machining.

So how about the foils? We’ll that’s of course the most important part and still in design stage. Initially I will be using my existing rudder foil to Dave Lister’s design while the main foil is fairly mainstream. The new foils will come probably around the start of the sailing season in September.

The Scalpel is not designed to compete with Mach 2 or Monstro in terms of production numbers or availability but certainly is on quality and performance. At this stage it is a small run of 2 prototypes and with the emphasis on built quality and attention to details this unfortunately takes time, so don’t expect to see too many of these built per year.

I have little doubt that with Marty’s expertise this will be one of the best built boats on the market. After all not many people can build a 3.9kg shell and still make it bulletproof!

 Quick sketch render of the Scalpel hull.

So I’m boatless now with some cash in the bank pondering my next move. I have to sail at Belmont so getting out of the class is not an option. After all how often do you get a World Championship within 200k from your place? Flat water and good wind guaranteed too.

There are a few choices around…. A Bladerider (hah, just joking Mach 2, another boat from John, something home built or wait for any one of the 3-4 new production boats that will hit the market by the end of the year. Time will tell, however I plan to have something shiny by the NSW States.

It wasn’t a 100% standard Mach 2 either, with custom smaller rudder and nice looking centerboard, he was able to sail 5-10 degrees lower than the rest of the fleet, often leaving us in his wake by the bottom mark.

Andrew Stevenson also sailed well to finish 2nd after a tie on points with myself going into the last race. I suffered with lack of downwind pace but had excellent upwind speed, unfortunately not enough to claim 2nd.

It was an excellent event thanks to John Ilett and Guy Skinner as well as Richard and Chris form WA fleet + other volunteers. Disappointing result for me but thanks to these guys I had a fantastic time, and that’s what counts.

So far it has been an interesting regatta. Amac has been dominating with 6 firsts in the first two days. His downwind pace can’t be matched by anybody here and would always gain or extend on these legs. Andrew Stevenson has been fast too but ultimately it has been a one boat race.

I have had a mixed bag of both luck and results. On the first day I broke my belcrank fitting on the centerboard and had no full flap up or down. Just  lot of slop in the system and struggled to stay near the top. I had a 4, 3, 2 scoreline, but fixed the problem for the afternoons dash for cash. With $1200 of prizemoney on offer it was worth trying to win. I won the 3 elimination heats and then disaster. On the way to the start line I managed to hook up a trawling line from a fishing boat 50m away. It wrapped itself around the centerboard and pulled the flap down hard, breaking my linkages. The idiot didn’t even stop  on going until the line broke. Man I could have strangeled that guy….. Andrew Stevo picked up a nice cheque for his efforts.

The next day was good. A bunch of 2nds and 3rds behing Amac and Andrew put me into 2nd overall.

Yesterday was a hard luck story again. I lead the first race from the start and once the breeze dropped to lowriding the starter decided to abandon the race. What the? He claimed a windshift was the reason. Sorry to inform you buddy but the wind shifts. That’s sailing…. Besides I had to gybe down the last square run 3 times so what wind shift was he talking about anyway?

Next race was tough. I think I was still fuming particularly after he told me to go home if I don’t like his calls. I think I should have strangled him as well as that fishing bloke… I was way back after 2 swims and tried to get back into 5th with a port tack run towards the finish. I might have gotten in a way of a starboard tacker, but that’s another story.

Race 2 on the day was great. Neck and neck with Amac around the whole course, he would get me every downwind run but I pulled some nice tacks and fast works to pop in the lead again. I held him off down the last run as he droped back to 3rd after breaking his linkages in a cartwheel.

Amac unable to foil in the last race left it to Andrew and I to fight it out. I had better upwind pace while Andrew was quicker downwind. I was in the lead until the last lap when the camera boat decided to mount themselves right in between the two bottom marks. Realising they would get in the way they bolted our of the way leaving nice 1m waves behind their boat for me to cartwheel over. Andrew poped through and I got 2nd. Not happy Jen.

After the race, I was nformed of a protest over the finish of the race 7 and consequently disqualified for my dodgy manouvre.

Today should be fun. Strongest breeze of the series forecast with decentwaves too. Amac is up and runing again and I am still tied up with Andrew for 2nd after the DSQ drop. What will today bring? More reports tomorrow…

I arrived on Sunday but I’m actually in Margaret River region taking a bit of a break before heading to Perth tomorrow and doing some training. The racing starts on 4^th with invitation race on 3^rd, however I traditionally don’t sail in this for religious reasons…

John Ilett has been fantastic in letting us stay with him and has been a perfect host and organiser with help from small but keen WA fleet. In fact I haven’t seen John since the Garda Worlds so it’s great to catch up and show him some of the stuff we have been developing in Sydney. It should be a great event with 5 days racing and total of 15 heats. 3 morning days and 2 afternoon ones with the afternoon course alternating between the flatter waters north-west of the club to choppier area directly in front of the launching area.

Either way, my boat has been pretty fast lately in most conditions so it will be a game of minimising mistakes and staying focused if I want to do well. Andrew Stevenson is probably the dark horse that will do well. He hasn’t raced against fast Woolahra boats for a while, but after winning the last race at St George many actually don’t realise how fast he is an a bit of breeze.

I’ll post more updates as we go, in the meantime Happy New Year.

In the races I did complete, I did ok. Dave still has an edge on boatspeed and has won most St George races. Last weekend at Belmont Nathan was really impressive. He won all 3 races of the regatta even though his boat wasn’t the fastest. Dave’s was, but he snapped his magic wand so I finished 2nd.

This weekend I’ll be doing some 16ft skiff racing and getting my boat back together after more breakages on Wednesday. New gantry is also on the way as is a new sail/mast combo and yet another version of my wand. Lots happening, with exactly 5 weeks till the boat leaves for Perth Nationals.