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MartinRF

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Posts posted by MartinRF

  1. 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

  2. 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 over so it was a three-hulled monohull.

     

    /Martin

  3. 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

  4. 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

  5. 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 nearby is hunting all the time. Furled headsail moves center of air drag forward and sometimes they leave a rolled up screacher up which makes her  really lively on her mooring.

     

    /Martin

  6. 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

  7. 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

  8. 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.

    Artemis_AC45_i_Saltis_77.jpg

     

    /Martin

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