I can see better what the role of the carbon fibres is now - some of them will be under tension as soon as even a small distortion of the tube...
My question was about the value of carbon fibres in the epoxy when it's under compression. If you have even pressure acting on a tube or ball, it...
Why use carbonfibre? It only works in tension while the epoxy handles all the compression load, so he essentially built the thing out of epoxy...
That video tells a much clearer story than normal. It shows the air being slowed down by both surfaces (pushed to the right when we're watching...
Hi John, With a wing you also have an input of energy from a propeller or gravity with a glider, while for a sail you're tapping energy from the...
Hi John, They're two different aspects of the same underlying thing, so they have to be simultaneous, and yet one of them still has a role in...
As before, I don't want to get dragged into a series of replies, so I'll just put a pigeon in amongst the cats and see what happens. To...
I don't want to get dragged into this so I won't bother to respond even to non-valid objections, but the thread's stuck in a rut and I'd like to...
[I engineered a way to ban myself from posting to sailing forums a few years ago as it was taking up too much time and getting in the way of work...
How viable would a large kite (on a string - no mast) be as a back-up propulsion method? You can't rely on being able to salvage mast parts or...
The boat shop (garage) should make it all worthwhile, and a boat under construction isn't such a bad replacement view. You're now well placed to...
The boat worked well enough to justify building a full-size prototype, but it takes money to build one, and how do you raise the funds for that if...
A lot less than that - I reckon the prop would be just about level with the aftmost point of the hull.
Look at the picture though (the pink hull one) - imagine the curve of the drive shaft the other way up and it would join to the propeller with the...
Why not miss out the belt? Just put the flexible drive shaft inside a curved foil that ends up horizontally linking direct to the prop.
Folding inwards or out? I'd look at opening it out into a flat sheet to fill the gap between the beams to minimise drag when not in use. How...
But he is listening, and he's making progress towards something practical and non-lethal - it's a massive improvement. It's even heading in the...
That looks viable, so long as the transom doesn't go too deep - I don't know the rules for that, but I'd have thought it shouldn't go further down...
You might get a better idea of the route by reading a book called "the unlikely voyage of jack de crow" - a mad Australian rowed/sailed most of it...
I still don't understand your outriggers. Why do you need them for stability in calm waters if the keel/ballast will keep the boat upright and...
