Day 23
Days remaining 211.

Update: Blackbird.

OK, quick update, as you can see the bow is nearly all on and (what you can't see because it's black on black and inside!) the transom frame, forestay and wand base assembly and a 1/4 frame to keep the rear wing bars vertical when gluing (and give more support in use) are all in place.

I guess what you can also see is just how low profile the foredeck is.. Well there's not a lot of one is there! It seems from scaling and looking at other stuff that there's as much volume  up forward as everyone else, and a total of about 220litres, so it's going to float just fine, but I think it will be a bit 'twitchy' on the lowriding bear away... Until I've figured out where to sit :-)

Next is to cut the 'bonnet' and start fitting the deck - which like all fine craft built these days has a sunken garden and a water slide to the sundeck.  I'm serious (although you would have to be very small to make any use of either)... The sunken garden is pretty obvious.... With such a low foredeck, I wanted enough space behind it to put all the systems, and also, I want the vang take off point to be as low as I can get it, so locally behind the foredeck bulkhead and back to the centreboard case, I have dropped the deck by a couple of inches... As with all gardens, it slopes away from the house (mast bulkhead) and drains (into the centreboard case)... Hey presto, loads of space for controls tucked out of the way (under the fairing in fact) and a better vang angle...

I have also, I think figured out a very elegant way to adjust ride height while sailing without using the usual screw assembly which, if I am right, will be a lot quicker than the screw system and work the same on both tacks... I think! Anyway - it's time to start making the main foil so I can take a surface off of it to make the centreboard case, so excuse me while I go and do some stuff!

D

Day 22
Days remaining 212

The running thing. A tough road.

More on the boat tomorrow cos it's nearly time to stick the deck down... but today the fitness programme kicked my arse.

I'm happy to report that I have dropped a couple of kg so far to be pretty stable at 73, and I can do a couple of laps of the 2.2 mile circuit I use on my bike pretty easily without sweating, but as I knew it would, the running is getting harder, so considering the sensible route I did a bit more bike work - that is until I had a bit of an Off - with knock on effects as you can see above!!

Some of the loop I use is road, some is bridleway, and some is just a muddy track down the edge of the field. This goes down to the back of the marina (the one at the join of the Orwell and the Stour) and as any lad of any age would, I was kind of going for it... Big ring at the front, about 5/9 or 6/9 at the back and as it was downhill and pretty easy going, I was pushing... Big grin... Getting fit is fun!

The bike was always slipping a little here and there, but then it started to slide - not particularly violently so I kept pedalling and briefly thought to myself that I'd control it without slowing, but it kept sliding and me pedalling wasn't helping with reducing the rear wheel's tendency to overtake the back whenever I applied any steering effort, so I stopped the latter and concentrated on keeping the wheels in the right order... Which with a bit of reverse lock and a fair bit of luck, I managed to do...

It was as I say, downhill so I was still going pretty quick, but felt that some of the speed had come off dealing with the sliding issue, and seeings the next bit was uphill, I went to change down... So with pressure still on the pedals, I pop to the middle ring and to compensate a bit and not end up pedalling uncontrollably quickly, I simultaneously changed up through 6 to 7 or 8 on the back....

This however.... (bikers have already clocked it) meant the chain went very slack for a second, and maybe that was the start of it, but something went ping at the back (later to be found to be the parallel casting on the back of the rear mech) and the chain jammed or something and the next thing I know is the rear wheel has locked and I am properly sliding - sideways and around, with my weight thrown forwards as I come off the pedals...  and into a very muddy ditch.... With a broken bike....

I scraped most of the mud off (of myself) and walked my bike home sort of chuckling that I had got away without hurting myself, and only my pride was bruised.... But I guess it's a long road, this fitness thing... and as until the new mech arrives it's 100% running, that means for me it's a tough one....

D

Sunday 15 December 2013.
Day 19.
Days remaining 215.

No Rest for the Wicked.

3D Router busily saving me hours of hand shaping time
and getting the exact profile I want...

Skipped church and went round to Synergy Marine today help my old mate Si Cox do some work on an International OK mould, so he can get the first boats coming out sooner, and in return while I was there, he did some profile machining for me on his 3D router.

In 45 minutes we had the plugs machined for a number of sections and components.  Far from wanting to keep this amazing resource to myself, I really think that any mothy should have his number in their phone - maybe for machining a mould for a new rudder foil, or a trick new fairing you want to try out or whatever you can imagine...  It is just fantastic, to be able to quickly machine a simple mould or a plug for a mould in core foam, which can be laminated with a single layer of glass, then worked up with some resin and tlc to a perfect finish for waxing/release and a vac bagged mould (or part), or if you really want it in a hurry, machine in high density polystyrene, then coat with resin with a little silica in it, and after a very quick sand, finish it with some PTFE tape and off you go... Mould made, part curing, job nearly done...

The new gantry elements and some of the transom detail for the Blackbird has being machined like this.... and by mid week, these complex, profile critical parts will be ready to trial fit on the boat...

Rapid prototyping on what I hope will be a rapid prototype!  Makes sense doesn't it!!

D

Day 16
Days remaining 218.
Star date. 121213

Welcome to my World

So this is what I do on the project when I am not gluing bits of boat together or making low calorie high protein chicken salads or running up and down the hill outside my house...
...
I study aerofoil data.. A lot of it...

It's not rocket science - and I can see that to many it's a bit boring really, but the number crunching has to continue until I have isolated the section I think best fits the function and then a specification can be generated.... Which goes into the Bill of Materials and means I can identify when I selected the section and on what criteria, and how much it will weigh per unit and how much it would cost in glass or carbon or aluminium... and then I can look at mould tooling or machining time and decide on what I need doing and get it under way...

... and that can take some time!

D

Day 14
Days remaining 220.


[Stop] Review. Plan. [Go]

So with November's milestones pretty much reached, it's time to take stock and make sure things are going to plan so far...
Here's the plan for December I wrote out on Day 1.

• Tech. Ideally by the end of December, I'd like the boat, foils and rig all ready to go together, with maybe just the fitting out and control systems to put together...
• Diet. Christmas and New Year will be tough - but I should be able to keep the deadly sins to a minimum if I focus.
• Exercise. OK, so I'm going to try and jog 2 miles and cycle 4 miles every other day all month... Sure i'll miss a day here and there with work, but on average, that's my target.

And here's where I'm up to on December 10th....

Tech. 

The hull is coming on just fine... All of the frames in, the mast bulkhead made, transom to gantry arrangement figured out, the bow shape just about right.. It's taking a bit of time, but I want to get it spot on... I'm pretty quick at making things but I hate doing jobs twice, so the way I work is lots of thinking, sketching, rethinking, a fair bit of maths, then finally when I have what I want in my head it's just the easy bit of making it happen.  To say the boat is 'low profile' is an understatement! My aim is the lowest Cd of any moth to date and that takes a bit of courage with a jigsaw I can tell you!

The wing socket tubes are made and I'm about to jig them up and start fitting them. The gantry isn't made yet - but I've only just figured out how to do what I want it to look like.
Foils. I'm initially going with the main leg from the Velociraptor programme with a torpedo on the join, so a little alteration to make to the mould and I have a million ideas on the rudder but will start with a cut down 'raptor rudder, but that might change very soon! No materials have been cut yet, but a set of foils is a weeks work, so I have some time on my hands. I'll make them over Christmas.
Pit head gear for the main foil is a little unusual on the Blackbird, as is the way the wand mech works - but I think I am on to something and I know it's new and a little left field, but I can always just plug in a standard mech and bellcrank.  No it's not hydraulic - Too much resistance...
Rig. I've done a deal and am buying a very high quality 'pre loved' mast and sail from a very fast sailor that weighs about the same as me... This will be my first programme purchase outside of buying the mould tools.

So, in total pretty much on course and provide I don't get too many problems building foils, I'll be starting the fit out in January... Launch target of Jan 15... Yeah, I won't be fair off that.

Diet. I feel as if I have lost a LOT of weight but in fact there was a dip of about 1.5kg to 72.5 and since then it's come back on a little to 73.0. The classic mantra of 'fat turning to muscle'?  - which is of course impossible.... Most likely I lost a bit of lard and then just a small fluctuation. I don't feel any stronger. I think my scales are shot anyway, and the kitchen scales won't be up to weighing the whole boat, so I get some new ones anyway. I'm trying hard to just eat less (easier than it sounds) and avoid processed meat (very easy) and carbs (very hard) and the biggest help has been starting the day cereals and fruit as opposed to missing breakfast and then stopping at 10 for a bacon sandwich... Still not drinking enough water, but have knocked the beer down to maybe 2 or 3 pints a week... (yes that says week!) and the odd glass of red to keep my blood the right colour.  Pretty pleased really. I actually think for me diet is about what I call The Peninsular Effect.  ie what I buy at the big supermarket each week - because I live right out in the sticks and the two village shops near me sell nothing I would ever eat, and you can only eat what you have in the house!
Exercise.  I ended November running twice a week and doing lots of stretching and so far this month I've kept that up and added some ab and shoulder work, which as there are a couple of park benches on the run around the peninsular to use, has been pretty easy to add in... Yeah, I feel ok on it and running for 30 mins every other day is pretty easy to keep up... I haven't got my bike serviced but time is ticking so this evening I'll get some boat drawn up and then switch to getting the treader up to scratch... 

It's going ok.. But there's a long way to go and not much time to do it in!

D

Day 13
Days remaining: 221

Moth Design Considerations 1. Construction.

... but first a quick Boat Update

2 Halves of combined hull and foredeck, joined. 4.8kg

By the time you read this, the mast bulkhead will be laid up and the rear wing half frame and centreboard bulkheads will be in place. We'll be at 5kg,  My target weight for the entire hull, with wing sockets, centreboard case, deck on, painted ready to fit out, is 8kg mainly because my kitchen scales won't read accurately past that ;o)  
Seriously tho, that should easily give me headroom for any hull mods I want to make before I go racing. I think if your hull, fitted out is in the region of 9 or 10kg, and likewise wings 6kg, foils 6kg and rig 8 or 9kg you're pretty much ready to rock with a circa 30-32kg boat. I think now that it has been shown that heavier boat/helm combinations just point blank go faster above say 15knots, and that the whole boat is literally on your side in terms of righting moment, the only advantage to going lighter than 30kg is in the marginal stuff - and with some boats in breeze at 10knots and others lowriding in flat calm at 3 knots, that is a lottery in any case... So I'm happy to add an extra laminate here and a bit more adhesive there and have a much stronger boat, provided I stick to those general weight parameters.

Actually, I want to use some of my diary to open up a discussion about home building of Moths.... and it would make sense to start with construction.

So, with a perfect radio announcer link...

Firstly, build strategy....

Assuming that the first part of a home build Moth is to make a plug and a glass or carbon mould, we're firstly going to jump forward a step to consider what that mould needs to look like, by which I mean, what parts is it going to make.... There are two clear ways ahead... a mould which makes the hull in one piece, to which you add a moulded deck, OR a pair of moulds which produce the sides of the hull and usually the foredeck too at the same time....

With the latter: The foredeck being an integral part of the hull mouldings is cool when making the boat from a pair of symmetrical halves, but you do have a long central seam to join and you then still have to stick the deck down on top of your internals.  Is this seam join more vulnerable than that of around the edge of a stuck down foredeck? Well I really wanted the foredeck to be integral with the shape and add a lot of stiffness (the foredeck is the same carbon on nomex laminate as the rest of the boat) so I went for this arrangement. Joining the two halves together out of the mould proved very easy in the end - using 2" wide wooden batten inside and outside of the hull, screwed together through the join to locate and clamp the halves properly.  I think anyone could manage it really - so it will work well as a kit - which is for me of course the idea eventually.

Traditional, 'Hull + Deck' moulding means of course you can be sure of never having an issue with the two halves coming undone down the middle!  ...and you can mould the bow in one piece too.  This is a big deal with moths as there is a potential for a lot of water pressure at that join on a big deceleration. However, you do need to plant the foredeck down onto the edge of the hull and then get inside to laminate the join unless you have made a rebate in the mould for the joining area.  Not a massive deal, but one to consider. What you do have with this method, is a boat to look at just about straight away - and that means the rest of the build can happen very quickly as it is easy to envisage what you need to do next....

The key 'same stage' point for these two common methods is with all of the internal frames in, and the foredeck on and the deck ready to go down. I wonder sometimes about a single piece moulded hull (very easy to do technically) and I used to think the requirement for internal frames, a mast support and a centreboard structure would make that impossible, but after my short time at Caterham F1 where out of necessity, they make closed moulded structures wherever possible (to reduce process time) I figured out a pretty easy way to get around those issues.... If I had the budget, you can bet your bottom dollar one of my R&D projects would be a single piece moulded hull, bladder moulded in a carbon tool...  Then you could have to option on going super LIGHT (I would say 6kg ready to fit out), or use that 2kg to 'tarmac' down a load more M55J carbon and go MASSIVELY strong... Yeah, like I say... Budget...

At the other end of that budget curve, I've often thought about carving a one off boat from a block of polystyrene and then putting a single skin of carbon or indeed 200g glass over it, just to hold it all in. The issue is the stiffness around the mast and case and gantry mountings (as usual!) It would be fun to pay around with, but I think ultimately the boat would be heavy and not last very long, particularly in the working deck area....

Next time we're looking at boats, we'll jump back and look at that plug/mould making process...

Right now I need to do some stretching and go for a run... but I have to make some orders go out of the door first...

D

Sunday 8 December.
Day 12.
Days remaining 222 - The number of the Beast - If it were 3 ducks...

Born in a Storm.

Well that's a new one on me... All of my boats have been built in a storm, but never have I had an Evacuation Notice for one before...! (If I have published this, by the way, it means I'm ok!)
The Police came around 4pm on Thursday afternoon, delivering the above notice - I asked them casually what time High Water was and they said they thought it would be about 8pm but didn't know as 'it varies'... A little taken aback, I asked what height of tide above Chart Datum, they were expecting... Pretty much knew what answer I would get......

Now I live at the end of a peninsular. In a very rural part of Suffolk, England.  According to google earth I  am surrounded by water for 280degrees out of, lets see.. What was it, 360? so perhaps the Environment Agency has a point in sending a policeman round to give the the above notice - or maybe, just maybe seeings as my house is 8m above the highest tide ever recorded it was just paying lip service to the powers that be - either way, it's a storm and so I must have a boat on a bench somewhere...

I'm thinking of spilling the beans on a lot of the new ideas on the boat, but to be fair I can do that in one word... Aero.  The Blackbird is all about getting aero drag down as low as possible.. and soon you'll get to see what I mean!

OK, I got a moth to build, so excuse this post for being quite short...

Glue mixed up, clamps ready to go, peel ply cut... Laters!

D

Day 9
Days remaining: 225.

Mental Math.

Truly Awesome.

(But never raced in fleets of 100+ did it?!)

It might seem like an easy boat to build, but a foiling moth is a mathematical nightmare... Just figuring out wing angles and where the wings are going to go on the boat, and where the mast is going to go, where the foils go through the boat and at what angles ... It's all a moveable feast - Open rules you see....  I know it was a bigger deal, but the REAL Blackbird would have been easier in some ways... No rules at all... (apart from physics and gravity)... Also, the SR-71 was going to tear through the sky in glorious isolation, with the odd SAM to have a pretty one sided drag race against...
Not race in fleets of over 100!

Of course you can copy what's already going on - and indeed there are some very fine boats out there.  I have massive respect for the current top designs - bearing in mind how long the Mach 2 has been King of the Hill for example.... But if you copy every detail of the boats you are racing against, you are just about guaranteeing that your boat won't be any faster, and also I quite like my mates that designed and market the Rocket and the Mach 2 etc, and I'm looking forward to having a beer with them, and the conversation not starting with 'So, Dave, tell us about which bits of our boat you DIDN'T copy!'

SO... Back to the math of my Blackbird.  Volume is a pretty straightforward bit of integration, ie As the boat is 11ft long it's pretty easy to calculate the volume of each 1ft section and from there you are home free.  Mast to centreboard position is pretty easy too. We're dealing with some finite numbers - sail area, positions of centreboard and rudder, and centre of buoyancy mean you're pretty much strapped down to a small range of positions from the moment you pick up your pencil.  What I did struggle with was some tooling to guarantee one of the most obvious, yet influential parts of the boat: Wing angles.  The sweep back angle is pretty straightforward, and the rise angle I can copy from the rest... but you find yourself trying to figure out what the included angle between the 'stumps' that will be fitted into the boat and how to hold it all still while the glue goes off. Get them wrong at such an early stage of the build and the wings will be wrong... and that would make the whole boat just awful to sail - and it would all go back to getting a simple bit of geometry wrong months before.

Welcome to my world!

Off for a run to think about it..


D

Day 7
Days remaining: 227.

Boat build update.  Peace of Mind.

Well the first Blackbird is coming on just fine.  All of the assembly drawings are done, control systems designed, hull coming together nicely..... But the weight jitters have already started! My target was 28kg or so, but after a quick chat with one of my design guru's, anything around 30 will be more than good enough - reminding me that in Moths, the weight is less critical than one might imagine (provided it will take off!) as once foilborne, the hull weight is part of the righting moment.

The jitters are maybe as I have been criticised in the past for making a boat heavier than it needed to be (even though it was very competitive in it's class and I was proved to be right* ;-) ) and it is always a dilemma. By which I mean matching the desire for a light boat to the need for stiffness and strength - and longevity... I mean, this blog might only have 227 days left, but want to take this boat to Australia in 2014 and beyond!!

The construction of Blackbird 01 being carbon on Nomex is a blessing and curse in this case. Super strong and stiff and very light -  but if the skins LEAK water into the core, the Nomex Honeycomb cells will become saturated and that will be the end of that!

So I have just taken the step of sacrificing 220g of resin to paint the inside of the hull skins before they are assembled to make sure they don't leak and so that they remain totally watertight... I am glad I did because though the skins were properly consolidated and vac'd down, it was obvious straight away that there was some porosity (common in thin laminates and the inside skin is less than 0.5mm).  Only in a few places, but enough to have been an issue.. 220g for peace of mind is a very small price to pay I think...

The other thing that makes me think I am sure this is the right thing to do is this. The inside of the tanks and mouldings are usually peel ply surfaced. Over time boats develop leaks, or water gets in one way or another... Peel ply surfaces seem to me at least to hold a lot of water, whereas shiny resin coated surfaces don't... So I'm going to take a little time, and make absolutely sure the inside skins in particular at this stage are coated, sanded back and coated again until they are 100% tight.

Not sure I'd do that with a foam core boat, but this isn't foam... It's a fragile paper honeycomb, made by the Nomex Bees...

Like I said - a blessing and a curse.

*I'm not going on about it here.. Ask me over a beer when I'm old!

Day 6.
Days remaining. 228.

The Running Man

Those pictures of a fit looking early middle aged dude running effortlessly through the park or along the beach... That's not me. Not anywhere near.  I kind of like running and I have been trained well to run by various PT staff and coaches but it's hard and once I've stopped for a few days (hours!) I can't stand the idea of doing it again. BUT... There is no other way to exercise as completely without for me at least, an hour long round trip to a swimming pool or the gym. You're going to say cycling, rowing, home gym stuff, right?  I like cycling, I love rowing machines but they are to running as those cable/weight machines are to free weights. You miss the core strength stuff that goes with it... Running is about balance and technique and breathing properly and feeling your body move and watching where you are going.  It's hard to do properly but so much better for you when you do. I've been a runner since I was 19 (as opposed to someone told to run around a field in PE at school, which I did between the ages of 5 and 18) so that's nearly 28 years of it. The Navy PTI's are great at pushing you to your limits - and Field Gun training is all legs and arms... so learning to run properly was an essential for me or I'd be made out of plastic by now.

I'm not claiming to be Mo Farah, but if it helps - Here're my 10 top tips on running for fitness... They might not be that extraordinary, but they've kept this old carcass moving for a while so if you're thinking about keeping some of that fat under control during the festive season, this may be of use!?!

• Run in minutes not miles. The distance travelled is irrelevant..  Run for somewhere between 20 and 30 minutes at a time to start with, and only go longer when you have no problems with running for 30minutes at high intensity. 45 minutes at most is my top end when I'm fully fit..
• Wear good running shoes - not tennis shoes or football trainers.. Running shoes are a totally different thing and will stop you getting shin splints and help prevent bad posture.
• Warm up and stretch it out.  Just jog lightly for 5 minutes at the beginning of a session, then stop, preferably by some grass or on the beach and shake out your joints from your feet upwards -  Start with circling your ankles, then doing some slow full squats, stretch out your calves and your thighs (look up some stretches) and hamstrings. Do some light torso twists, then maybe 10 press ups and some arm stretches, stretch out your shoulders and back and neck... And then shake it all off and start running again... Knowing that you are far less likely to pull something. 

Now we're running......

• Keep your jaw loose. A strange start of a sentence I know, but relax your upper body, keep your shoulders down, shake out your arms a lot. Keep your fists unclenched and wriggle your fingers from time to time.
• Try to concentrate on keeping a good posture, a regular cadence and good foot placement - Mid foot landing  - not on your toe and not on your heel, with your feet parallel and your knees never straight. Try to concentrate on your hips staying the same height from the ground with your legs circulating. Don't twist your shoulders. Look at your shadow to make sure you are not lopsided or hunched
• Vary your speed. A good cadence and stride are essential but to prevent fatigue, stretch your pace for 100 paces, then slow it down to a bounce, for a minute - that sort of thing... And set yourself little challenges, like I'm getting to that lamp post before I slow down/ start walking.../ throw up.... :-)
• Hydrate, Hydrate, Hydrate. Or hurt yourself. 
• The second you feel a muscle start to pull or stiffen, gently pull up and even more gently stretch it out.. If it still hurts or feels pulled (most likely a calf or hamstring) massage it and keep it moving gently... Get your heart rate back to normal and only when it stops hurting, try walking then very lightly jogging on it... If it feels 'tweaky' like it's about to pull again, walk slowly home... No shame in it...  You may find it will walk out and you'll be able to pick your feet up again... but the second you pull it, you're off the running programme for a week at least and will have to start from scratch even if you can find your running shoes, so try to prevent it before it happens....
• Warm down for the last minute of the run at a slow trot or even a walk, and then take some time to stretch and bring your heart rate back to normal.
• Keep a record of how far you ran - or even better, how long you ran for... Aim at a couple of hours a week to start with. Then 3 hours a week after a month or so.. In miles, that would be 20 miles or so I guess...
  
  Right.. Here I go... 30 mins before it get's too dark to see.. Laters!

D