A fool and his ideas...

So after some reasonably positive feedback, here are a couple of concepts. Please be gentle...

Two (of the many) possibilities are shown.

The dimensions required are:

AA - socket chord (should be maybe 10mm bigger than a standard blade chord)
BB - socket thickness (should be maybe 5mm bigger than a standard blade thickness)
CC - minimum height of pin centre above deck (for easy removal on concave decks, convex decks won't be limiting factor)

Is that something you'd be interested in?

Markla has been debating with himself the merits of a set of standard sockets for foil components. In particular all the bits that require re-work on other carbon components:

• main strut head (to hull)
  
• rudder head (to gantry and/or rudder stock)
  
• main strut base (to main foil)
• rudder strut base (to rudder foil)

This would not involve the linkages, just the male and female socket shapes.

The main strut head is the biggy since it appears as though to install new foils you either need to buy from the boat/foil manufacturer that the last lot of gear came from, or cut a gaping hole in your hull to install a new cb case.

Although the details haven't been worked out yet, above is an example of a possible main strut head socket that could be exploited.

Some things to consider are:

• should be slightly larger at the hull than currently built foils
• hull opening needs to be a fixed size no matter which hull
  
• tapering is easier to ensure fit, plus it is easier to plug in.
  
• taper is to be at a fixed angle rather than top and bottom fixed shapes due to reason below
  
• cb case depth would need to be standardised, maybe a range of say 200, 250 and 300. (advice requested here)
  
• construction could be a two step or single step process, depending on tooling.
• could usher in a whole new era for foil construction and experimentation
  
• structural continuity needs to be considered. large kinks in laminates are to be avoided at this high load area. this could be very easily achieved but I'll let you come up with your own methods.
  
• weight increase would be minimal. it would be negligible when considering the extra weight from cb case re-work with wet laminate.
• a tapered shape like this could easily be ordered from a builder and fit perfectly as opposed to quoting NACA or custom foil shapes and pin positions
• pin position and size would also need to be incorporated.
• trailing edge of socket would most likely need to be colinear with trailing edge of blade to facilitate push rod installation.
  

Do you think bikes would be as popular and easy to use today if they didn't adopt some standard component interfaces?

• wheels (eg. fork widths and axle diameters)
  
• tyres (diameter and width)
  
• brakes
• seat posts
• handle bars

Anyway, let Markla know your thoughts?

RAISE YOU ASSASSIN

N4rkla and I were going to do some training on saturday, but I couldn't make it to the yacht club until midday. When I got there it was blowing a little and he asked me if I really wanted to go yachting, or the two of us go to the shipyard and work on SLINO.

What a n00b! Free labour - what was I going to say!

So we fully test rigged the boat. Appart from seeing the boat standing on the foils there was nothing eventful. Everything went together well. Not much was missing from Stress Less - the unwitting surrogate.

We also proof loaded the gantry by putting our combined bodyweight on the rear wing bar - the boat was supported as shown and under the CB case.

GST PLAN

(start background info)

In Australia at the moment the government thinks they can fix all of the ecconomic woes by giving small cash handouts to all of the disgruntled public. I am not alone in thinking rediculus policy. My boss (who designs and operates ferries) has put it beautifully by saying when you are running your ferry in bad weather, smashing the boat and the passengers to pieces, do you:

• stay wide open throttle, slamming away at 20knots, while going around to the seasick passengers, refunding their tickets, or
• pull back on the throttles and plot a more favorable course through the waves and keep your revinue.
  

(end background info)

I have a plan which I haven't heard debated. I smsed my gst plan to ABC-local-socialist FM when they had a finance guest on. They appear to have ignored me and now I am gonna burn down their building.

I belive n4rkla is assisting me bomb ABC bloogs and message boards, but I will also put it here.

GST PLAN:

A temporary reduction in GST from 10% to 0% for the period of one quarter.
Consumers have a direct incentive to spend like crazy rather than paying off debts, using pokies or being boring and saving it. Things will sell like hotcakes. Out they go! Out they go!

I am but a lowly naval architect and I am trying to work out why this isn't an option.
Who else (of us privateers) wants a new CST mast with 10% off the marked price?

Whatever you do, DON'T PANIC!

Markla has been trying to offload the launch sail onto anyone and everyone that has any sailing skill because he is a big girls blouse. Everyone has declined, so now it is up to him. Only one piece of advice I have for markla, DON'T PANIC!!! Oh, and make sure you take a towel.

Paint System (and its 17 wrongies)

Painting is now complete, or has had as much time and weight put into it as I can be bothered with.



The system was:
Altex Epoxy High Build Primer #1
Altex Gloss Enamel (Capricorn Yellow) + Rapid Cure Additive
Altex Polyurethane Clear + Brushing Converter + U22 Thinners

While I can't understand how painters can charge so much, I don't think I will ever paint a boat myself again. After all of the effort Ncik and I put into the fairing, the final coat of the yellow was a textbook in all things that can go wrong with paint.

The epoxy high build went on first. I rollered that on, and wanted to tip it off with a brush to remove the roller texture, but I found it had 'cured'/gelled immediately - and the brush wouldn't level it (I knew I should have asked for a thinner for it, but I felt like too much of a n00b wanting to thin high build).
1. So I resigned to the fact I needed to sand the texture out of it.
What I didn't expect was how hard the surface was. I started with 240grit but couldn't make any progress with anything less than 80grit. I couldn't believe it - attacking paint with 80 grit! Sanding it took all day but it did look good eventually.

Next was the clear on the carbon. This was great paint - went on very smoothly and thin. No runs, great finish in one coat. It should have been two coats but I fell asleep watching 300 (for a second time).
2. Before I put 300 on I started watching "Meet the Spartans"
- I got thru 30mins of it before considering it the second paint disaster.
3. Third was falling asleep missing the recoat 4. and 4th was having 2 grass hoppers jump into the clear while it was drying.
The following morning I decided a single coat looked ok, and if any patches needed more I would attack it with scotchbright and patch it.


Finally, the gloss enamel yellow. First coat was put on thinned.
5. This sucked, the colour had no penetration, 6. and worked its way under the masking. The recoat time was listed as overnight (what a stupit way to describe recoat time - how about a number of hours?) Previous occasions when I have used other gloss enamels by the time you have finished one coat down the length of the boat it is ready for another coat. But as soon as I put the roller on,
7. it started to peel the first coat up into little peaks.
I phreaked and left it be, deciding I would eventually need to wet&dry these peaks off. So I left it overnight and when I went to recoat found that
8. I only had enuf paint left to do half of the deck -
so much for the theoretical coverage rate. When I got angry at the guy at altex and threatened to poison his dog he gave me more paint and a tin of rapid cure for gloss enamel.

When I got back to the boat last weekend I found:
9. Little mounds of uncured paint 10. Runs 11. Orange peel 12. Some missed areas around the wing mounts 13. Yellow all over the clear coat on my carbon coasters 14. These weird little peaks that looked like volcanos 15. and the same lack of penetration - the carbon and undercoat were still very prominant.
I keyed up the surface and put two more coats on, this time with the rapid cure additive. While I am now satisfied with the colour penetration, it still has all of the above problems to be wet and dried off. Also
16. the masking leaked in a few places 17. and is a dodgy shape.
I plan to fix these by getting vinyl pinstripes over the boarder between the carbon and the yella. I think silver, 25mm wide would look good.

But i think I will sail it in this condition first. I am so over sanding.