Slickest folder ever

Marc - No question about how challenging the EC was this year. I'm pretty sure none of my super-light boats are tough enough to have survived it. We really only intend to do the first leg, but still will need to sleep on board - or camp onshore, as some folks do.
Sorry about being so slow on the leeboard article. Maybe I can get that one done and posted this weekend. The close-up shots will also be activated.
Dennis - We do pay quite a bit of attention to the rules and regs. We will definitely be prepared well in advance. Laura reads every word on the watertribe site and follows the participants closely -- especially Sandy Bottom. Thanks for thinking of us. We hope that all us folks can meet there one day.
- Frank

 

OK, big news here I just finished and posted the new article, "How To Make GOOD Leeboards That Will Really Work Well For You And Be A Pleasure To Use" It's at http://www.diy-tris.com/2012/articles/2-leeboards-how.htm
Also, the close-up shots of the aka folding mechanism and the E-Z-Up mast & sail rig are now viewable at http://www.diy-tris.com/2012/5-close-ups.htm
I hope you enjoy them...
- Frank

 

Hi All

I just hoisted my sail after modifications. For the top batten I ended up using one full length 3/16" batten with another shorter batten next to it that goes down to the second draft stripe on the sail. This combo is used as the top batten as the 3/8" was to thick for it to reef properly. What do you all think? I am going to try and sail tomorrow if it warms up enough.

 

I was searching for used hulls and I ran across this 2007 Department of Marine and Environmental Systems case study (PDF) for "CODAC" (Coastal Operation Data Acquisition Catamaran) and it uses a folding cam system for the catamaran hulls.

An entire set of fabrication drawings for the cam mechanism are at the end of the report. It's model scale but I'm sure you can scale up to whatever size you need?

Your U.S. taxes at work, $36k was spent on this 'toy" project.
http://my.fit.edu/~swood/CODAC%20Final%20Report.pdf

 

Our tax dollars at work. God help us all...

On one hand, it's a cool exercise in engineering -- if you're building a 19th century clock. But for a real catamaran in the real world, it's incredibly complex -- and incredibly in the way!

Bet they wouldn't have done it this way if they were spending their own money

- Frank

 

Holy cow that has to be some of the worst engineering I have ever seen. They could have saved 36k by spending a few hours of research on the internet.

 

This was typical university "research" by undergrads. Most have no practical experience, the project devolves to the lowest capability. When I did a similar project, the university staff had no one to give practical guidance for a key part of our project.

I didn't read the whole thing, did they every come to some conclusion besides they built a boat? When you see the description of the ram air effect to support the boat you know there is not a lot of expertise here.

 

Boy, nobody offered me big taxpayer bucks to create anything when I was an undergrad. But if you gave me $36K today, I could sure as heck come up with a better folding system than that. Heck, I could create something better for free!
I didn't read it all either. Seeing the "product" they came up with was enough for me...
- Frank

 

You said it Frank, I felt physically ill on sighting their solution.

 

My guess was that they were going to try and adjust beam to investigate the "ram air" effect on reducing drag. Hopefully they did not think that was anything useful in the finished product.

When I was in school, I saw a senior project which was somebodies model of a triamaran, it looked like 3 bathtubs linked closely together, powered by a mast/ sail shorter than the boat length. I asked the prof about it and he didn't see anything wrong.

You got to think back to how raw you were at 20yo. The pitty is that some professor supported the thing and probably solicited the money.

 

I was indeed pretty numb at 20. But even at age 10, I was making go carts with lawn mower engines. So was my neighbor. And they worked. We used cut down army cot frames.
Yet even way back then, simplicity was a primary goal. By comparison, that folding system on the cat almost looks like a Rube Goldberg contraption! Maybe the secret goal was to see how complex, expensive, and failure-prone they could make it?

 

I think this modified rapter should get it's own thread. It is a very interesting boat, and i wouldnt mind learning more about it,

 

I agree. This is a very interesting boat, but it's not related to the subject of this thread. How about starting a new one, EDVB?

 

Agreed about a new thread. I am really interested to see just how well this boat does. Somehow it does not seem to perform as well as I assumed it would. Is it the very large size of the foil? Or am I mistaken?

 

I do have one question, EDVB.

Where do you get cool sails like that?

Thanbs - Frank