Build Team????????

So, was very busy today, so busy I couldn't get any boat construction "stuff" done. That's not to say nothing "boat related" happened. While "hanging" with my coworkers I came to the realization that I work with all the people that I would need for the perfect build team. I know a form/press builder (Shop foreman Scott Murphy), a PR guy (Jacob Duncan), topnotch craftsman/finisher/daredevil (Cliff "Big Daddy" Wege), and a mad Russian vacuum bag/lamination specialist (Dmitri Panfilov). After some persuasion, each agreed to join my hydrofoil build team, which is good, because there is a ton of work, and every job will be overseen by a specialist as apposed to hacked by me (and I was going to get them to help anyway). We'll see how it works out, I know the boat will be better for it. Now that we have a PR guy, we can even start looking for a project sponsor.

I did get the numbers from Mike over at Aardvark, unfortunatly the foils aren't big enough to lift this boat at a reasonable wind speed, so I'm going to have to go the homebuild route after all, oh well, whats the fun in buying pre-built stuff anyway?

Maybe I'll get some work done tomorrow.

Sam

MDF dust

Well, I finally got around to working on something today. During my lunch break I found some time to get over to our woodshop to finish cutting all support frames for my moulds (Thanks to Scott Murphy for all his help, and Avalon Acoustics for the shop time). I'm using a mould building technique I adapted from Bill Beaver, Its a braced and framed MDF mould with slotted L brackets on the outside to hold all the stanchions in place, and a T bracket strongback to hold them down the middle), I hope to get those glued up tomorrow, and who knows, maybe have pics. As far as hull construction goes, I'm making a ply skinned male mould that I can vac press to. I also have a foredeck mould and a deck mould in the works. Can't wait to get back to it, See you tomorrow...... (I might have some foil pics as well, I'm thinking of just using some standard foils from Aardvark Technologies, Mike is suppose to send some pics of the new foils he's building, if he does I'll post em)

Sam

A blog is born.

So I've been getting some requests to start a blog about my monofoiler project. Here you go, this goes out to all the peeps.

First, a little history.

I started thinking about this project in mid March 08' after finding foiling Moth vids on youtube, seeing Rohan Veal and Adam May skimming across the water on what looked like a sailboat/airplane, I knew I had to do it. I put aside my plans to build a single handed skiff and started looking into homebuild Moth foilers. After a couple weeks of research I came to the conclusion that, although the Moth is a great boat, It really didn't fit me well. For one I weigh 190-195lb so I'm out of the competitive weight range. I'm also not a big fan of hiking straps, I didn't like them when I sailed lasers as a kid, and I'm sure I wouldn't like them now, especially after spending all my time since highschool sailing trap rigged cats and performance dinghy's.
Right about that same time I found out about another foiler class, the RS-600ff, which is a RS-600 single handed trapeze boat retrofitted with a foiling kit. Now this boat was more my speed because it had a big sail and a trapeze, but it to had its drawbacks. It was being marketed as a one design (which means no homebuild option), its still a big bulky hull where the foils where an afterthought, and there is no US fleet. I quickly came to the conclusion that if I wanted a boat that fit me I would have to design it and build it myself.
I started off by talking to anyone that I could. Local A cat guys, moth bloggers, moth sailors, Na's, random people, Airplane and glider designers, sail makers, carbon fiber manufacturers, anyone who might have some info or idea. I also started spending a lot of time on Boatdesign.net soaking up everything I could about design and construction. (and learning Rhino OSX design software when I wasn't thinking about my boat).
After Talking to all these people and mulling over all the information I had gathered, I started constructing a class box formula that I could use as a basic framework for my design. My basic criteria were, manageable size, enough sail for average sized people, light construction, and good performance.

Final(ish) Formula:

LOA: 4 meters + 50cm (max) gantry
Beam At Gunnels: 75cm (min)
Beam at racks: 1.8m (max)
SA: 11sqm (max)
Mast: 7m (max)
Boom: 2.4m (max)
Trapeze: yes
Minimum Weight: to be determined

**no kites
**no windsurfers, no multihulls
**open foil design (centerline mounted only,)
**1 sail only
**only to be raced 1up

The Construction:

Core: Foam
Hull Skins: Carbon
Deck Skins: Carbon/Kevlar
Mast/Boom: Carbon
Racks and Gantry: Carbon
Reinforcements: Red Cedar


I named the class after my favorite airplane of all time (the SR-71 Blackbird), and started to draw. After two and a half months on my computer, I finally had a design.
Its been a couple of weeks since then, and I have actually begun to build my mould frames and strongbacks.
I will post some build pics as soon as I have something worth showing.