MartinRF

Last weekend: Turning around: Some other examples (different years): https://get.google.com/albumarchive/103341501341482571816/album/AF1QipNO2At8uQOMcPkCsXO-GU24ME8ynUiGu0JgbDz6/AF1QipOB91dIq0F4t_3qMNLRmsGSfGKBUCOO4AD950cq https://get.google.com/albumarchive/103341501341482571816/album/AF1QipNO2At8uQOMcPkCsXO-GU24ME8ynUiGu0JgbDz6/AF1QipP8dRqlC1uenSbsDP2CtXQTDYOyt5KsA-lUjIyL https://get.google.com/albumarchive/103341501341482571816/album/AF1QipNO2At8uQOMcPkCsXO-GU24ME8ynUiGu0JgbDz6/AF1QipNfx_5M0dN6bcjL55h1VX-FHKy0k_vUicSbSm2k /Martin

Great shot! /Martin

Re sleeving, here is a summary of work I did to help a Belgian Spyder owner. /Martin Spybeam.pdf

I had this problem when my Spyder was almost new. We didn't crack the forebeam. We 'only' bent it -- beafed it up and then bent it again. Other Spyders in Europe have broken beams so clearly a weak point with this design. In 1989 I re-engineered the crossbeams from the ground up together with a friend and that was that. /Martin

Not new. A German aerodynamics professor came up with this in the 1960s (I think) but he was doing it on trimarans that were actually built and marketed. I should remember the name of the professor but I don't I think the trimaran brand was called Sigma. In the 1970s a guy in my native Gothenburg did it to his own Telstar trimaran. In his case the rig was fixed but the side hulls were hinged in a spring-loaded way that allowed the boat to stand up to the wind up to pre-defined load level. Me and my brother joined him to test the system on a windy day. The boat was heavy and leaning ove

I was actually thinking about racers in general not only the ones in VOR. /Martin

Well, we all know this rarely happens. /Martin

Two old (August 1990) photos by a newspaper photografer and two recent photos. The last featuring a becalmed F22. /Martin

Great photo. /Martin

There is no shortage of urban legends related to military harware. I have heard quite a bit about what the vessel I did my military service on could achive from colleagues who also did their military service in the navy but elsewhere -- none of it true... Anyway, Gabart is now some 600 nautical miles from entering the south Atlantic and over the last 24 hours he covered more than 800 naitical miles. /Martin

Works like a charm here but I am much closer to France than you are /Martin

And to the engineers who designed the boat and to the people who built it. He is now sailing into the western hemisphere doing 38 knots. That is pretty close to the top speed of the vessel I did my military service on and we had three gas turbines powering us along. Cold war stuff for the Baltic Sea. /Martin

He is passing south of NZ now. Some 600 nautical miles to the south doing a mere 33 knots. He left France only three weeks ago! /Martin

You need to move aero center of effort back in the boat. Either that or move centre of gravity and hydro forward. That is what the strange mooring for the AC45s is all about. The former was demonstrated by my brother on a 9 m day sailer trimaran back in the late 1980s. This particular design went through full tacks when on a mooring. My brother stopped this completely by acting as an air drag device by standing on the aft deck and opening his jacket to the wind. If he reduced his air drag by hunching down the tacking started again. My boat is very calm on her mooring but a Corsair 36 n

Self-driving cars anyone? /Martin

Recommended reading: http://www.westsystem.com/wp-content/uploads/GougeonBook-061205-1.pdf /Martin

The beams are of wood, or? Mine are and I have used epoxy throughout construction and protection. Epoxy is a *much* better moisture barrier than any paint system. Epoxy does not stand up to UV so paint is needed to block out UV. I use 2-part polyurethane directly on the epoxy. Re-paint when paint fades or you want to change colour scheme. This works for me and my boat is 30+ yeras old now. Primers and undercoats are in my simple mind good for filling pores in putty and the like. They also help the topcoat by covering colour variations in putty and wood and whatever. /Martin

+1 for using pigmented paint. UV is your enemy -- even at N60 (it just takes longer here). /Martin

Washing regurarly helps. All types of lubrication I have tried also help but nothing stay for long. This is a little off topic but may be of interest anyway: http://hem.bredband.net/b262106/Boat/Blockfriction.pdf /Martin

I use small, cheap, plastic soap dispensers for my easy to bring epoxy repair kit. The local (Swedish) epoxy brand I use have a 2:1 volume ratio so 2 pushes on the resin pump for every time I push down the hardener pump. The result is a tablespoon's worth of epoxy. /Martin

These works: http://www.jumpotrainer.com/ After moving to Stockholm I had terrible problems bird droppings -- untill I happened on the Jumpo. When the first batch finally died of UV-exposure I ordered a new batch. The rubber cords need replacing every few seasons. /Martin

This may be old news but this book is old enough to not being copyrighted any more. It is available for free here: https://archive.org/details/TheAshleyBookOfKnots /Martin

Below the video I read "The bad winter weather didn't deter New Zealanders cheering on Team NZ. Source: 1 NEWS" Bad winter weather? /Martin

I am starting to realize my trusty old dingy is beyond repair. It is a Norwegian, thermoplastic thing I use to get to my mooring. I bought it used for very little money many, many years ago. Its demise was not welcome but no surprise. I don't seem to have the same luck with the second hand dinghy market this time around. Yesterday evening I started pondering the possibility of a rubber dinghy. Are they worth considering? How do I tell good from bad quality-wise? /Martin

Artemis Racing stayed in our marina for some ten days the other year. It was very clear that while maneouvering in the marina they were not in their comfort zone. /Martin