Rowing across Atlantic

You could consider my method of boat building which would be unsinkable, light,fast and cheap to construct. My Web-Site is no longer being hosted, but you can view my Blog-Spot " Bournes Way " which shows a video of a boat being sprayed from the outside with expanding eurathane foam. Cheers from down under Peter Bourne

 

Traditionally solo rowers were very seperate to race rowers. In fact there had only been 2 solo entries in both the 2005 and 2007 Atlantic race. Solo rowers had always been quite imaginative in terms of boat design and many think that the solo discipline in ocean rowing in its purist form.

In an attempt to encourage boat development the organiser made the solo class into an open class. This was intended to have an interesting effect within the solo class only. The main race is held within the pairs class. The open class for solo was then governed by a box rule. We took the existing size boats, measured them all and then set a box no larger than the existing cabin size's.

Charlie Pitcher was the only person to start from scratch and come up with a "plain paper" design. He obviously turned the boat around, lowered the gunwhale, reduced the length, produced the boat from composite and flatened the bottom. By then reducing the size of the aft cabin, the boat could uniquely pick up wind.

Now Charlie is an exceptional athelete, has a good knowledge base, completed a large number of sea miles prior to the race and basically completely dedicated himself for two years prior to the race. I'm not convinced that just anyone rocking up with his boat would perform anything close to his level.

The other classes of the race will not become "open" in the same way as the solo has. There are very few solo rowers and the impact on the overall race probably won't be repeated. It was a very unusual weather year for the Mid Atlantic. The race was the slowest it had ever been, there were only a few short periods where there was any favourable following conditions. Most boats encountered counter currents and found the going very tough. All the crossing times were very slow - my personal view is that in a "normal" year, the pairs boats would have hauled Charlie in. I believe as the wind increased and sea conditions got tougher then Charlie's boat would have been a handful - but the next person that uses Charlie's boat will be the real proof of the design advantage.

Ocean Rowing will ultimately find "fair" windage on boats. Those campaigns that intensionally go out to gain a large wind advantage will ultimately de-value their own achievements. There is one boat in particular this year that is basically a house sat on two hulls - this has a very clear ambition to gain as much wind assistance as possible...

Mr Efficient - yes you can head down to the Southern Ocean and "surf" around the planet in a rowboat if you fancy. Be careful not to be rescued though!!! ;-)

Simon

 

Bit of an eye opener that ! Still trying to get my head around it !

 

Lacage, what was the density of that sprayed foam ? I assume the higher the density the better for structural integrity, with a weight/cost penalty though.

 

Might be worthwhile , educational and help your design doodling process to spend 40 quid and buy a copy of Uffa Fox's plans for Britannia 1 and 2

http://www.uffafox.com/britann2.htm

 

This is my sole contention, its not a 'rowing' boat anymore but wind assisted which distorts the purity of the challenge - to row a craft single handed across an ocean. Charlie's boat harnessed windpower to assist the forward movement and and efficency of his physical effort to maintain momentum. The distortion was great enough for Charlie to beat the leading twin oar boat by a substantial distance. I accept open rules might be a good idea in single rower however you have to define that the boat must be a rowing boat and avoid the passage becoming wind assisted or the ethos of teh challenge, the purity is compromised.

I'm not 'having a go', simply expressing my disappointment when I both saw Charlie's boat and the outcome of the race.

 

Yes, that is my understanding also. They have "Spinaker cabins" which amount to fiberglass sails. In my opinion that is plain cheating. There should be an upwind part of the race. That would eliminate all those boats and probably many of the competitors.

 

How do those boats deal with ballast ? I assume they leave fully laden with enough takeaway pizzas, mountains of Italian sausage, great wedges of Parmigano cheese, bucket of olives, bricks of Snickers bars... to supply power for a long leg. As the stack of pizzas and Snickers bars are fed into your intake and vented out your stern tube, the vessel must become lighter ? Do they use ballast tanks to bring the vessel back into trim ?

 

The density of foam is 2 LB / cubic foot. There will be a slight weight penality, but you gain a built in life-raft, and insulation that will save you from the elements when inside. The foam adds to the strength, but in my larger boats its nice to get as much strength as possible in the steel skeleton, which is cost and time effective. You can get a 4Lb and 6lb density foam. I have only used the 2LB density.
Cheers Peter

 

Alright, thanks for the reply, this is a bit of news to me........ferro/foam/GRP/ply construction.

 

Where in my Method of Construction does it mention ferro. Ferro has nothing to do with it.

 

err.......steel ? That's the ferro part !

 

ferro here will be easily understood as ferrocement - not ferrous metal. Thus the confusion - my guess anyway.

 

OK, I realise that but........instead of cement, he uses foam. I'd like to hear a structural engineer's opinion about that.

 

I would not use hardware store PU foam from a can either.

lacage has -21 rep with 12 posts so that might be an indication of something.