Human Powered Boat - Feel free to criticise - I need the help

Alex
I did the reversal in FreeShip and reran the numbers. It was about 5% better with the pointy end going first.

I also let Godzilla loose with a displacement of 182Kg and the same stability. It produced a hull 6.7m WL length and 620mm WL beam.

The attached chart give the comparison. At 100W on either hull Godzilla does 0.2kts (0.37kph) better than you have managed. Not a lot in it. If you can make the drive efficient you will get the nominated speed of 5.1kts with about 130W at the pedals. This is an all-day level for an average joe with a bit of practice.

You should not have to worry about stability once you are on-board. It will be self-righting providing you can stay locked in the seat.

I always suggest enough solid buoyancy so it cannot sink. You can use expanding foam for this. Can help stiffen areas too.

Rick W.

 

"It does not use the convention of the stern at zero. Hence the Michlet export file is reversed"
Well, I hadn't caught that either evidently! We all make mistakes now and then....
Some excellent suggestions here so far, this one's really attracting some attention. I'll be back for more after work....

 

That's very pleasing, I guess I must have absorbed some of my dad's boating genes after all.

Now of course I have to work out how to power it.

Construction wise I've been looking more at some of the curves and realise that it might be pushing my tortured plastic to the limits - Rick it'd work well for the long thin hulls you're building though. So I'm now thinking foam core and fibreglass, just as soon as I can work out how to get Freeship to give me horizontal slices.

 

Right on to the prop set up, I'd ideally like to use the smallest possible prop I can, but I'm aware that big is better in the HPB world. As for drive, Rick's convinced me that a swinging arm dual roller clutch system is the one for me.

I like the fact that there's no long shafts, nor chains to twist, and pushing feet back and forth is just as relaxing as going round and round.