The Launch Of The “SCALPEL”
Long time between posts, but I’ve been busy!
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.
6 Comments to The Launch Of The “SCALPEL”
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hey luka, what did you render that in, out of interest?
I used just the standard crappy Rhino render, because I can’t get Flamingo to work. It was then tweaked in Photoshop to look like a sketch. I’ll get the Flamingo going and do some better ones soon.
cool, i like the image. didn’t know rhino would output that.
ahhh i see, poster edges!
Looking into buying a Moth Foller and at 95kg (and a fair few other sailors I know) looking for a Stronger platform for us Fat Bastards. Knowing that there is market for it, what could be done in construction to cater for heavier loads.
Im thinking of getting a moth for the 2017 Worlds in Lake Bogon. What is the lead time for one of these babies?