proto footy update

The unarigg was moved 2cm forward, now the boat has better helm balance at bigger angles of heel, and is stable while nosediving downwind.
The 200g ballast is a good choice for this hull. but a 250g bullb will be introduced, because bigger riggs(more than 1500cm2) will also be used on this boat.
I also tried it with the 350g bulb of of a KARo, but that was too much, the boat didn't want to heel, and with no grip from the chine leeway increased. Responsivnes was also compromised.
Today the wind went from 2-3 knots to some 7-8, A+ to A rigg conditions.

Autum is in full swing, later the wind blew the leaves away, luckly

The light conditions were just to demanding for my Iphone today

downwind is now stable, this boat does lose more speed than a KARO does when nosediving

reaching is good, even when overpowered.

More conclusions will be drawn when i get a chance to sail against a KARO, or other footys..
here are a couple clips:

and with the 350g bulb:

jif update

the jif 65 is comming along nicely the deck was glued on and the hull was laminated.

ready for deck and lamination

the aft par of deck structure

the deck was glued on with thick CA glue, it is a 2x 80 g7m2 glass laminate

the hull was laminated with 1x 50g/m2 + 2x 20g/m2 glass and is now sanded awaiting 2k paint

i am not happy with the weight increase, 72g is what 3layers of wood varnish on the inside, the deck and the lamination have brought so far.

the deck looks like this, the two holes in the back are as by plan, the forward ones will provide acees for gluing the shrouds and the fore stay to the bottom of the boat and for adjusment of the mast post( a 5% variation of CE is posible. with blocks the mast can be mowed forward and backward, rake wil be adjusted up to 5 degrees backwards)

Now the mission is to build a thin(3mm thick) finn and a rudder.
After that two riggs will be build a swing and a classic.

new footy prototype

Yesterday a new design went waterbourne,

It is a fat design, made out of 4 3mm depron panels for easy building.
It is placed longitudinaly and nose down into the box, 153mm wide at stern and has a 32cm lwl.
The bulb is 200g, total weight is 380g. The updated KARo a rigg is used.

The goal for this boat was to create a light weight(sub400g) boat, which is beamy, with lots of volume, so it can go over the waves(no through them like KARo does), i decided to go for the 4 panels so i can modify the hull quickly, and so that some one will decide to build it cause it is a 4h project if u already have a rigg.
templates follow.

It goes quite good already. I will shift the rigg forward tho for a more neutral helm when heeled(the 12% lead of CE to CLR is not enough, there is some weather helm, too much for my liking. The hull is very stable obviously(lots of volume is shifted forward so the entrance angle is quite bad but that doesn't seem to affect speed.
Upwind the chine bites, and the boat is shaky over the little waves, i don't like that..  ..but it seems faster upwind than a karo. Downwind it has a problem..     ..it is so light that it gets thrown over it's bow and onto its side, it takes too long to get to the old course again..   ..a possible solution to that is a longer rudder. But when not heavily overpowered it goes well.

Tomorrow it will be in the water again with the changes. There are also some leaks that have to be fixed.
After i am happy with the balance upwind and downwind is solved this proto will be taken apart for templates.

clip

Funky funk plane!

A week ago a great deal was made. I managed to buy a slope soarer plane:

It screams 80's! and it is about 30 years old, vintage stuff.
Some people would put it on the shelf, but i will fly it. It's a slope soarer and slope soaring is super enjoyable + there is a perfect hill for soaring only 10 min of driving away from where i live and another one is 20 minutes away, the hk bixler i use as FPV is not that good at slope soaring but it can do it.
I am not sure what model this plane is? neither was the previous owner, but i know that it was built from a kit as it has a "q.c. passed" stamp in the fuselage.

 It is masively built the fuselage is 5mm balsa, the wings are foam balsa sandwich laminated together in the middle, it also has air brakes.
The control lines are made of stainless steel wires, and are 3mm thick(heavy duty)
no servos came with the plane, it has space for standard servos, tho 12grammers will be used.
the transparent cabin is missing.

Some repairs will be made, oracover re-glued, and servos instaled.
It will fly again!

Jif 65 build

Because i have no will to continiue with the angeldust rg65, i decided to build myself a jif65 wich will be equipped with my design rigg, and will be used for comparison to new designs.
The jif65 is a classic rg65, ment for easy building, but results from some regattas show that it can perform if executed well.
The hull seems to have a low prismatic coefficient, a relatively deep v and is quite beamy for a canoe style boat.

planks are 2mm balsa, bulkheads are 3mm balsa as suggested by the plans

Todays progress was good, managed to get all the templates cut out, and build the hull.
The front two bulkheads also have holes cut in them to save weight. The hull with no servos now weighs 76g which is ok according to some build logs on the web.

Not sure why this pic is downside up, but here are the servos. Fresh from hobby king this servo ripps pants with only 60g of weight and lots of torque. the rudder servo is a corona something 9g servo for rudder. The servos are set on a (50g carbon/1mm balsa/ 50g carbon) sandwich wich is supported in the middle and weighs a mere 7g, the finn box has a 3mm wide slot and is made of the same sandwich, the green stuff is some very stiff foam found in baumax.
That's it for now, by the weekend i hope to have the hull glassed and the deck bonded.

Last race, no wind, offseason, national champion etc.

Today the last race of our national champ series took part at Koseze pond. The picture below sums up the whole race:

It was like that almost all the time. Damn drifters :(
Dispite the lack of wind i had a good time, just chatting and debating about prototypes present at the race.

The race went allright for me, finishing most of the races in second place, behind the best light air boat:

prototype one, nothing that special about the boat, just anice looking setup, only thing i would change is the bulb

it caries a boom with a sort of trolley setup, creating an overlap of sails, like a genoa does on real boats.

The above prototype was in the water, but not racing. It is here to stay so we will have a chance to get to know more about it next season.

prototype no. two, a almost 2000g very heavy wingsail boat, the wing has direct control from a 180deg servo, the flap is also trimable

Great props are to be given for inovation, but an about 3000cmsq wing can't cope with fila or #93 and their 5000something sqcm riggs, also i think that fat profiles with no camber don't realy work in low wind conditions(up to 3-4m/s) where renolds numbers for 30cm chord are below 50000.

The winged prototype was also special under the waterline, carying this bending keel with a winged bulb

proto number three, a wingmasted swing rigg, the sails were somewat to stiff

under powered, far a boat as hevy as fila, but a great idea, with a food box hatch wich must be nice to use compared to my patches

underwater a classic setup is to be found, carbon everything, and a half profile bulb

will be great to se this boat sailing in winds, when the rigg functions as it should

the mast from above, carbontube, two wire cut stirodur halves wraped in dacron

a KARO being build by one of the guys

it was a good day i was second in the race, a good margin behind #93 but also barely touchable by the rest of the fleet.
I am also the national champion of 2013, with two wins and two second places on the scoreboard

the two medals(silver second place in the race, and gold for national champ)

Fila raw sailing clips

Here is fila sailing with flaps, this are clips from friday, when i went for a session to tune the rigg in detail.

I really love this boat now that it is finalized, handling perfectly and sailing close to the hull speed at all times.

New rigg for Fila

After the parts for the rigg were sanded with 600grid paper they were polished

the rigg:

10 grams of weight was added to the mast with new parts, too much, would be better of with a carbon spreader, the main benefit is the reduction in bend.

the mast bends sideways only 2-3 cm when heeled 90 deg wich is alot les compared to previous 7-8cm without the spreader

Triming the main is much easier now that the twist of the sail doesnt increase that much when in a gust

Today i checked all the sistems and marked the basic setup

The telescopic bum enables fast changes to the depth of teh jib

reaching and downwind nothing has changed, the travel of the jib was bang on for butterflies, the jib weight is missing

The 3 points of improvement on this rigg are; easier trimming of the sails, less mast bend sideways(the boat accellerates better upwind), and the looks of the clean design which is to be refined with the mast head improvement and a new main boom, comming in a months time.

Weight of the mast is to be improved, by using a carbon spreader. The lower part of shrouds will be replaced with wire(now 50kg dyneema) because the rostfrei tensioners tend to cut the rope..

The upper seam of the next jib will get some camber(now all seams are flat) to keep the jibs luff abit tighter, now it opens too much under gusts.

I am looking forward to the race on saturday, it is the last race of the season, in case of a win i can win the naitional series, but the number of competitors will play a big role due to the new scoring method.