Carbon wing-wang and racks

The first pics that I've found a little disappointing, not from a technical standpoint, more from a cosmetic visual, they look a tad ugly just sat on the deck of a flat grey primed hulk. They'll look better I'm sure when the rest of the fittings are in place and it's duly painted.

I hate the colour of the rack tramps, insipid cream, they'll have to go, they need to be black and mesh or there'll be to much windage if the day ever dawns when she goes over.

So in the essence of warts and all publishing, I give you this latest lot of pics, technically they'll all work well enough, but something will need to be done about the visual. We're due on the water come wednesday for the initial sea trials, if all works out well we'll have to see about tidying up the look.

The wing wang and spinnaker chute mouth, it does need to be big, but it looks so ugly not recessed, maybe when the bags in place and the mouth is all black with the jib mounted it won't look so bad, but it does address all the issues I've had with other wing wang devices, not least weight, it's all carbon with a nylon block which should prevent the pole lifting and make it easier to adjust under load.



Oversized, over engineered and all over my boat, B14 washerwomen racks the downside of expedience.

Well, it's incomplete, so will only get better... Once I've ditched those rack covers, they totally suck and don't even talk about the battleship grey primer, a necessary evil if we're to get it wet before we settle on where everything finally goes..

More Progress missed in the email box

Some more pics of the laminated hull have been languishing in my email box, it's been that busy recently at work.

These show the final lamination of the hull and the screed fill and fair the surface prior to undercoat, which is now on and I'm waiting for more finished shots, as all the fittings are about ready for assembly.

Hoping to go down at the end of the week and see it going together.

The lines are becoming clearer, showing the hull planing facets, it all looks the way I wanted it, just hope my guesstimate calculations work out with the weight it ends up being and how early it'll get on the plane.

It's finally flipped and stuck together

More pics arrived today and the two bits are now together and work to smooth the underside in hand.That's the underside of the deck showing the inserts and deck moulding for the racks and fittings
Same thing from another angle
The internals, the centreboard case and bulkheads to reinforce the hull.
Couple of shots of its raw state out of the mould frames...
Prior to sanding.

Next step is to rub and fair the surface
Prior to filling and painting.
Clearly quite a lot of work, these stages which took most of last week.
It is however taking shape, and looking remarkably like the original plans and CAD programmes which although expected, is surprising nonetheless and very assuring.
Looking at the shot of the bow and these stern sections, it looks fully capable of taking what the sea is going to chuck at it. That nose lift should deal with anything and the stern flats look well capable of fast planing, it is a beast, I certainly won't be naming it after anything floral that's for sure..

Coming Together

Nearly a month has gone by since the last update and the summer is already flying by. I've lost another chum to cancer since this started and it does lend a sense of urgency to 'doing it while one still can'.

Anyway this is another exciting update, it's been tricky sorting all the fixing points and making certain that the swinging pole swivel works and that the racks won't dig in. They're a little wider than I'd first planned, but that is due at the moment to the expediency of using B14 bits I'm going to guess.

You can see the preparations for the internals and the raising points of the racks and the whole craft is beginning to look a whole lot more racier, it's definitely going to have enough righting moment for my weight, which at the end of the day was the whole deal.

I can see this thing maybe being able to be sailed flat and bang the corners planing like a Formula Board on certain types of water. I can't wait to get on it, with any luck we may even be getting it wet this weekend according to Jamie, although I must admit it doesn't even look close, but then he knows what he's doing.

Just looking at that plan view, it must be 3m 20 wide by the look of it rack to rack, that's going to take some moving across, but then us small folk are nothing if not quick and needs must when the devil drives..

Saw the two bits together for the first time today, which confirmed just how big she is, but it's exactly the parameters I want, long waterline so she'll go upwind just fine, and wide so she'll be stable.

So today was all about decisions, poles, kites, jib, mast position, tillers, centreboards, racks, obviously to prepare the fixing positions for shrouds, mastfeet etc.

We're basing our dimensions on what's going to be a bit of a cross between an RS700 & 800, we're going to definitely go with a wing-wang, a jib boom with a furler, the pump system to hoist the kite and a mix of the fittings of those two boats, the hull itself is already radical enough to best to go with tried systems initially to make it go.

The stern, we've decided to go with carbon racks centred at 1.50m each given 3.00mtrs width and righting moment which should be more than enough to keep her as upright as she needs to be and able to fly a hull. So to prevent the racks digging in they'll need to be set into the deck and wedged.

The centreboard case is going to be and extended plated similar to the RS200, it'll need to be longer to compensate for the tunnel height and high aspect ratio so will extended pretty much the entire length of the tunnel, the case is built already and we've allowed for pivot positions so I can bring the mast back even further if necessary.

It still looks like it could be a potential twin handed thing, but we're still going for the original concept, it'll have a fairly long tiller extension , we had a lot of discussion about twin rudders, twin tiller extensions off one rudder, for or aft sheeting, off boom or centred, but given the jib and the need for the main to be centre sheeted, we've opted for conventional centre sheet bridled and the jib and main connected, we're also considering a jib pole to facilitate goose winging the jib for the odd occasion when running with the kite isn't feasible.

I'm going to settle for two sail sizes, one as big as I dare for light to medium, we may as well go for broke, see just how fast we can make it go, and a smaller main for breezy conditions.

So with any luck next time I see it, she'll be together and maybe even on the water..

More Progress

More pics of the deck laminate. I've been away all week working in France, so I shall popdown next week and have a look at it in the flesh.

Looks big enough, might even have room for a pool in the front deck, should have no problem with cupholders

Taking shape at last

Deck Laminate

It seems ages since I last had anything to update with and time seems to be flying by, but this month things should start to accellerate, now we have the deck and hull bits 'planked' and glassed.

I'm stuck in a sales meeting in France right now and the last month or so seems to have been an endless round of travels and new product launches so the jolly old v-twin has been a bit on the back burner. I've sold my RS100 just this week so now I'm single handed boat less, this will focus me a bit more.

One thing that's worrying me as she comes together is the sheer size of her, looks more like a radical two hander than something I'm going to be able to launch and recover alone, she's a big old girl.

April 27th

So today, after much procrastination and a couple of delays, I finally got to see the ribs laid out on the floor of the builders.

Laser cut MDF sheets, they are spaced a fw inches apart and the foam strips will be laid into them, then glassed on the inside, then flipped and the external surface glassed, not sure wether to use carbon yet, it's a tough decision, it's very expensive when the hull isn't exactly tried and proven.

The Deck Mould

The Hull Layout.

Straight edge to check the rocker.

They've altered the original spec to reduce the wetted surface and to encourage the hull to heel and fly one side up wind, it'll be interesting sailing something deliberately designed to heel, I can do that bit well enough, although I had hopes it could also sail flat and plane should the water conditions permit, i.e. flat estuary stuff or offshore wind where I sail.