Alternative to marvelous Buccaneer 24

Buzzman, good thinking and ideas ... but the difficult part is building the rig so that it works, without distorting, or being too heavy, or with too much mechanical action to be reliable ... thus allowing Sod's Law to lift his ugly head. Not saying it can't be done but there is a lot of R&D ahead ... and all the time you'll be beating Sod back. Sounds like I could be advising myself!
Why not make a model and see if you can make it work?
By the way, my wing is not totally skinned in ply, only the leading long D section, about 30%, the rest is a light skin of epoxy glass.

 

Thanks, Gary.
I didn't realise you'd covered 2/3 of your wing in 'glass - that will be a bit lighter than all ply I expect.

And yes, it would take a lot of experimentation and calculation to get around Sod's Law and that Irish bugger, Murphy, but a model..???

Hmmmmmm.....that might be do-able....will give it some thought.

In the meantime, keep up the good work your end. Very inspiring.

 

Don't forget O'Tooles law !

O'Tooles law simply states that Murphy was an optimist !

 

The Laws

LOL..!!!

Good one, RR!

Then there's this one, too.....

"Assumption is the mother of all screw-ups" – Wethern’s Law of Suspended Judgment

 

Older shot; how we furtively shifted Groucho's 15.5m wing mast; here as dawn breaks. We'll have to do a similar job with Sid's wing, creeping slowly through the early hours.

 

Great pic Gary - What did it weigh ?? Just so some of the other knockers reading this - will know that they are so heavy & that alloy $75.00 masts are much cheaper & have always been much better. Which is - of course a great load of 'crock-****' & we teach monuments to dance - as well. Ha

I'm sure we will never - get rock-stars to think.

Fab pic mate. ciao, jj

 

With rigging, we estimated 75 kgs.

 

Gary,

I believe two C Class cats (one USA, one French?) have tried this type of rig you are building.

Both had pretty spectacular endings in a short life.

Do you know of any craft that has used this rig for more than a short time before failing or being scrapped?

A good cycling helmet might be a grand idea when you get to sailing this one?

 

Hi Paul, yes, I know about them both ... and know about their failures too, have all the literature and images. The US Windmill, I believe, was unfortunate (how many times do we hear that?) in that a helicopter, "Say, let's get real close to that strange cat," - and that's what occurred.
I was on Sundreamer when a film company wanted footage of the big, new cat slicing through evening seas off the Mercury Islands - we specifically asked them not to fly close ahead upwind of us before we started out and the crew chief said, and this was most important, "we were not to look up at the chopper, even though the noise would be horrendous" - so we didn't. But those sadistic turkeys did exactly what we didn't want and it felt like Sundreamer's new rig was on the point of being torn from the boat, only saved by letting fly the sheets. I'm sure the footage was crap. So what I'm saying ... I know what choppers are capable of if close to you ... and you haven't a turd's chance in rotary mower of staying upright on a small cat like a C Class.
The French C Class Otip had the most sophisticated triple slot, aircraft like, asymmetric rig you could imagine - BUT - it didn't rotate athwartships very much; they altered the rig for offwind work by angling and opening the double flaps, but couldn't, from what I see and read, shift, rotate, the large main wing section ... and that is why they got into strife downwind, boat wanted to round up, broach ... and they did. Well, that's how I see it. Could be wrong, often am.
Anyway, if Sid's rig doesn't work as I envisage, what the hell, I just want to try the asymmetric, windmill rig concept out. Who knows, with my pivoting and rotating bearing, it might work okay. However, if you think I wake up at nights with frightening mental images of catastrophe, you will be correct. Cheers.

 

It will be interesting to see. Do consider the cycling helmet thing. Dropping75 kgs from a few meters up can make a serious dent in the coconut.

Helicopter or not, I don't think the USA wing should have been destroyed so easily. But it was an experiment, and early days in the high tech wing construction.

 

Yes, well, don't think I haven't considered that helmet through the wing thing ... but since it is around 4.5m (15 feet) up, there might be time to cringing-ly, flatten myself in the shallow cockpit before I wear it. However, to my advantage, the trailing 60% of the wing, is light glass with skimpy stringers and lightened frames; cycle helmet should be able to punch through?

 

Have been frustrated in not being able to move the wing down to our beautiful mooring area at Motions Creek mouth ... trouble with a couple of whiny residents overlooking the bay who don't like the look of my (radical?) boats, or the others in our disparate fleet for that matter, or us enjoying our fortnightly racing (to coincide with tides) or any basic maintenance like cleaning bottoms, touch up painting, and continue to phone Harbour Board and Auckland Council.
However, after much emailing and meetings with authorities, a semi-reasonable compromise has occurred and after we shift our moorings an average distance of a couple of metres or so, we will be completely legal and the malcontents thwarted. How many times do you hear the very same story, disgruntled residents against moored yachties?
Anyway, soon the wing will be on Sid ... and then I'll find out if the contraption works okay. Cheers.

 

Yeah Gary.
We are always going to get those whingers.
I'll never forget the character who told me "Every time I see a multihull I have the urge to beat it to death with a stick".

 

Pathetic, some people just have nothing better to do than get in other peoples faces.
It's actually quite sad, just pity them !

 

Just don't let them foil you; certainly not that SOB Sod person and consort with their laws.

Fair sailing, foiling, flying, whatever.
Best of Good luck.


Cheers