Home again... but not journey's end..

It's a couple of days since the last heat of the 2014 Moth Worlds - Nathan Outteridge was in another class and totally smashed the last day to win the title by a long way.  Awesome sailing.

I didn't win anything. I think I was last in every race I sailed in fact... But for me, the event was a great success - I would have liked to have figured more in the racing and been a bit further up the fleet of course, but I am a realist (sometimes) and just getting the boat to the start line was a massive achievement and one I am pretty proud of.  Every objective was reached.

In an ideal world the boat would have been launched in February and I'd have had all spring and early summer to get it up to speed, and equally importantly, my own sailing up to some sort of standard... But changing jobs, moving house twice, and life generally got in the way.... C'est la vie eh? I'm not even slightly bitter...

If anyone has built their own boat and sailed it in a World Championships then they will know how it feels to cross the finish line and get a result.  The Hayling Worlds were made especially difficult as there was a time limit to contend with too and I must admit my first race I didn't make it... But Just getting around the track felt amazing.

My goal was to get fit, build a moth, and get to the Worlds and sail. Even sailing one race would have equalled what I did last time. This time I sailed and completed three races.  I'm a stone lighter and a LOT fitter (thanks to a much improved diet as much as anything), I met up with a lot of old mates and made a load of new ones and yup, outside my house is the Blackbird.

The boat is low volume and that is the biggest issue with sailing it - but then in waves I watched Mach 2s and Rockets going down the mine on take off at times too.  After a few swims I figured out that I just had to sit a bit further back and move forward as the boat lifted off.  Then I looked around me and saw just about everyone was doing that anyway!  Difference? Not a lot really.

The great great thing about the moth class is the sailors. I had a long chat with Adam May and another with Andrew McDougall (Amac) about the boat and there are some strong features which if not perfect, are at least really quite good.  Talking to these guys and others that sail the boats a lot gives you a lot of ideas, but Adam and Amac are particularly well experienced in design and construction of moths - Amac's boats have won the last 7 World titles in a row... Yup... That good.  We chatted before I left Hayling on saturday morning and his design approach is fundamentally different to mine.  I don't mean in the physics of the boats, but in his overall concept -  and just in that one conversation I figured something out and it has changed the way I will develop the Blackbird...  Adam is always great to talk to and we went through the boat from stern to bow, picking out stuff that need to change and stuff that can be developed in the same direction.  Note books full!

So what's next?

Well like I said, the boat's out front. I've just stripped it down and double checked everything after a tough week or two of being crashed and rigged in sand and sailed hard.  Nothing critical to fix - apart from the gantry mounts after the pin failure on the last day I sailed, and I need to build a new wand mech. I'm really pleased as there is very little to do to get back on the water. A splice here, a new way to rig a system there. That sort of thing. But as for the future....? Well the plan has always been to develop the boat and straight off the bat I have a list things that I think will improve the boat in key areas to prioritise and work on...

And finally... On the day the picture above was taken (Monday 21st July - Day 3 of the worlds) I sailed all day, foiling around and nothing broke, nothing went wrong and I realised that I bloody LOVE sailing moths!! I'm going to sail this thing whenever I can... I have new targets and they are not just about finishing races, they're about RACING in races!!

So stick with me - the build up to the 2014 Worlds was the intro.  Here's comes the adventure and you never know - I might be looking at flights!

D

Day 209
Days remaining 24

Launched!!

Under leaden Suffolk skies, the Blackbird first took flight

25 June 2014

Well we're down inside a month and the last month has been hectic as you can imagine.

I managed to get some time to finish the boat and launch it... A few teething problems but nothing major major to sort.  A nice lesson in [re]learning to fly by the new boat, in that I'd wound in too much rudder foil and it went from light on the helm to very light, to tiller extension snatched from the hand and windward capsized.... It's the relationship between the gantry and the rudder angle of course, and pretty easy to get wrong for a first time out (and pretty easy to fix in time for the next hop)

I felt a little beaten up by the boat, but I think that was the stress of the day and the driving to and from Suffolk and just using muscles I haven't used in a while, but now it's time to shut up and drive - after I fix the rudder issue and the tiny crack I found in the starboard wing on inspection.  Other than that, all good.

D

Day 179
Days remaining 54


Wings on

Just a quick update from sunny Hamble Lane. I got the tramps from Tom at Sailmedic at the weekend and they fit pretty well for a first go... Just a few mods to get them spot on, so hopefully they'll get back to Suffolk and back to me pretty sharpish cos we're nearly ready for a topcoat of paint and put all the fittings and string on and then I guess it's going to be time to see if it floats again!

Laters!

D

Day 171
Day remaining 62

I'm ALIVE!!!!!

(Tail fin envy? Just you wait!!!)

Well the new job is just great - Everything I do all day is focussed on making the Youth and Junior programmes of the British Sailing Team work better and maximise the training we can give the youngsters coming up through those programmes - but man is it a busy job!!!!? and well, the transition and move back to Hamble has meant not only finding somewhere to live, but finding somewhere to finish the boat and then moving it and all of my tools and kit to that spot, so it's only really in the last 2 weeks I've got my act back together. It's 50 days since my last entry on here, and those 50 days have all been about work and not about building a new bus. Dust has settled, it's time to crack on.

My first sailing club as a kid had nothing to do with the RYA and I feel like I missed out on some opportunities as a result, so to be given the chance to be in it up to my eyeballs and ultimately deliver better prepared athletes for the road to Olympic glory is a real honour for me. Ultimately of course, I got to march in the opening ceremony (Sydney) and be a part of Team GB in my own way, but I will always wonder 'what if' I had been coached from 12 to 20 (by which time I was about 9 and a half stone and perfect 470 helm size by the way!) instead of having to learn quite literally my own way for everything... But hey, I'm really not even slightly bitter and I have a huge number of racing miles under me to help me understand the process of developing good young sailors into truly great sailors of the future....

OK, the boat... I'm getting towards the last few jobs - I have everything built or a long way into build apart from the spreader unit and the gantry while the fittings, wand/flap linkage, rudder screw etc and suchlike are all in boxes and ready for assembly. The trampolines are made and will be with me next week - They look fabulous and hopefully will fit just as well - Thanks to Tom at Sail Medic.  Thanks also to Luke for bringing the boom to work so I could just put it in the car and get on with my day. Cheers mate.

Sure, I am disappointed that the boat will now be a bit late from even my revised plans - but I will have a solid 6 weeks or so sailing in it before I arrive in HISC on the 12th for a week of venue sailing before Race 1... and if in January, you had offered me:
 "A brilliant job with the RYA + a new moth a month before the Worlds + 2 weeks leave to sail at the venue and enjoy the event"
verses
"A new moth in March, but you have to stay in Suffolk and carry on doing the same job indefinitely and you might only just have the week at the event in the end because of work"
I'd have taken the former to the bank in a blink of an eye. Have in fact.

I have realistic goals for my training and my racing (more on that next time - but I reckon I'll have my gybe back after a few days and then a month to work on tacking!) and there are some outstanding features on the new boat which I are sure will make a difference but I might need a month to get some numbers for comparing them, but generally I am happy.  Plus as any home builder will tell you, it's actually a fun thing to do, and rushing it isn't as much fun.

Finally in this catch up, a couple of weeks back,  Mr May came over for a visit from SF so I got a chance to 'show the workings' of my maths and ideas and go over some V1.2 ideas and just feel really comfortable about how I've got to where I am with the Blackbird, particularly on controls, aero and foil shapes (not a lot else to it really!).  So many brilliant ideas came out of the few hours we poured over the boat... But then he's a walking sketchbook of brilliant ideas and we talk the same language  - Thanks mate :-)
Adam sometimes sends me some cool stuff that he finds on the 'net and here's my favourite... It's a bit like when you're in the sailing club and you overhear someone saying that they got double figures out of their cruiser, then someone kind of bragging with 'is that all!? I got 15knots this afternoon in my ..............." (fill in dinghy class you don't like that much) ......and then you casually drop your max speed of the day into the conversation.

http://oppositelock.jalopnik.com/favorite-sr-71-story-1079127041/+TylerRogoway

Blackbirds and Moths are very similar you see ;-)

Won't be long now.

D

Day 120
Days remaining. 114

Worth the weight?

Final panel, the working deck (not sure you can really call it a cockpit floor!) just being glued on.  You need lots of squashing down onto the glue power - and just about anything will do!
Heaps of work in the control area forward of this is already done - including fitting the large ringbolts that a lot of the controls will need as an anchor point (you can see them in the pic, shining away!). It all takes time, but it's done now and the primer is going on... I've decided not to send it away to paint. I really like the uber flat paint finish on Rob's boat so I'm using Durepox and a roller and am happy to spend some time flatting and cutting back over the next few weeks as time permits.

In other news, my life is about to change radically as I have decided to leave carbonology, where I have been for over nearly 11yrs and leave Suffolk, where I've lived since coming back from the Sydney Olympics.  I'm moving back to Hamble full time and taking a job in the RYA as Youth Racing Operations Manager - where effectively I'll be running the logistics and devising/implementing the programme for the British Youth Sailing Team.  I start pretty soon actually because they want me in post before he season kicks off properly. Carbonology will carry on and will be in excellent hands so please continue to support the firm.  Exciting times. Expect to see another RYA Volvo with a moth on the roof... If it's a white and black one with tail fins, it's the Blackbird!!

97 days to go... Crikey!! - Anyone got a rudder I can borrow?! (yes seriously!)

D

Day 114
Days remaining. 120

Measure twice, measure again. Make some tea. Ring a mate for a chat, ask him how he measured it, measure again.... Cut once...

Sometimes you have to quit measuring and let

your eye be the guide... 

Slightly chastised by an old mate who reads these ramblings, here's a post for anyone who is contemplating or currently home building a moth, to maybe give some good ideas, or maybe to make you feel comfortable that your way is miles better than mine.

Before I start however I need to be plain about a rumour I have heard on the grapevine.  This boat has NOT been made out of a redundant A Class catamaran mould.  Where that rumour began I am not sure, but anyway - just to make sure we are all clear.  When you see it you will see that it could never have been an A... It has some rocker for a start off!! 

Anyway... back to the plot... In no logical order:

1. Dry fit the thing 'til you are blue in the face, but at some point you are going to have to stick it together, so get on with it. 

2. Plan ahead.  Have a really good think about systems on the way through the build. Drilling the hole in the kicker tang and sticking it on the mast post or whatever you're using to take the mast loads is SO much easier on a pillar drill than putting it off and drilling the hole in situ using a 90* drill ;-).

3. Consider getting the thing professionally painted. It will come back looking like a million dollars and in the week it's gone you can get a straight go at making wings, gantry's, foils even.

4. The old adage is the best ever.. But if you are not sure: Measure twice, measure again. Make some tea. Ring a mate for a chat, ask him how he measured it, measure again.... Cut once...  You'll still be out maybe, but at least you'll be in the right ballpark.

5. Sometimes you measure the thing over and over and then dry fit it and it looks wrong.. Well guess what... It's probably wrong.  The human eye can see an error in simple measurement (sadly not International 14 Measurers, but the least said about that the better!) and in particular in measuring angles. If the deck is square to the centreline of the c/b case for example, then a straight carbon or metal rod down through the case, snug up against the leading or trailing edge, will be in line with the mast post and with a similar rod through the rudder pin... Now try and find a way to measure it you'd be happy with!

6. Start early and take your time and enjoy it. It's as much fun building a new boat as it is sailing one in many ways. I got snowed under with real work with this build, but it'll still be built 3 months before the Worlds start.

7. Don't scrimp on trampolines or toe straps or ropes or fittings.  Moths are ferocious on fittings and sailing a boat with poor quality trampolines or toe straps is a total fun-sponge.

8. Register it with the IMCA early so that a sail number on a nice official ISAF sticker turns up when you least expect it. It gives the boat an identity and is a really great boost to morale.

9. Be radical! Break some boundaries (not rules!) And so what if your ideas don't work. Anyone can build a carbon copy (see what I did there!) of a Mach 2 or whatever.... Be different. Try stuff that no-one else has tried out.. You might not make it work first time, but the class is about innovation and right now we're only 10 years into foiling. Milliseconds in history... You might be onto something that when you are old and grey (older and greyer in my world) you can say, I did that first and now it's on all of the America's Cup boats.... 

10. You are awesome!!! You are building one of the fastest sailing dinghies EVER. Your home built creation might even one day be the Fastest Sailing Dinghy ever clocked... Try and remember that when you come down in the night for a glass of water and smack yourself on the wing bars you left in position to work out the height of the mast stump!

D

Day 113
Days remaining. 121

Float Test.
(flōt tĕst)
v
(1) A mechanical test to confirm the buoyancy of an assembly or construction.
(2) Naval Slang. To discard an unwanted item overboard. 'Ill give it a float test after sunset'

The municipal Model Yacht Pond at Woodbridge

The perfect spot for the Blackbird to first touch the water.

It might be an odd thing to do a static floatation test on a moth - I mean it's bound to float right?! But It's the sort of thing that keeps you awake at night.  The Blackbird has very low volume and hardly any of that is at the bow.  So finding a static waterline and giving yourself the assurance that before an expensive paint job and screwing on a load of fittings, and doing a load of splicing, that the thing is going to have enough freeboard to actually be able to sail has got to be a good idea... After all, we all start with them on the surface in pre take off and at times need to sail them in LR mode.

I had done heaps of maths to prove the total volume, integrating the section over and over and in the end I came up with almost exactly 222 litres, but an actual confirmation of that would be nice too!

The total sailing weight of the boat will be around 30kg and wetsuited up I'll be around 77.  So that makes a total of 107kg - using just about half of the available volume (and staying well inside the class rule on buoyancy of course)

So today's test was an important one as although it gave me a fairly meaningless waterline at 9kg, once I stepped aboard - ably assisted by Si Cox from Synergy Marine holding the wing bars to steady the beast, it gave me a very useful waterline at 84kg (9 + 75).  From here I can do some very simple extraction and get a waterline at 107  (current waterline x 127%). Which I am happy to say looks about half of the freeboard, which means everything is just about according to plan and maybe now I can get some sleep.

In other news, I am sort of sorry to say that I missed marking the exact halfway point in this project - which would have been 4 days ago. Ah well. What did I do 4 days ago? Errm well on Saturday I was in the kitchen building a moth!!

Gotta go - Tickets for Franz Ferdinand in So'ton tonight.. All work and no play, and it's not every day you put a new boat in the water - even if it was in the local model yacht pond!

D

Day 100
134 Days Remaining

ONE HUNDRED NOT OUT! The 100th day of this blog and the Blackbird Project.

I am so close to finishing the boat and sending it away to get painted I can taste it!!
To get there I need to:

• Fit the decks.
• Fit the gantry take off points and the transom moulding.
• Make the gantry elements and assemble them ready for laminating
• Fit the bonnet with a proper closure system and fair in the mast stump fairing
• Fit the foredeck fairing/control system cover with a proper closure and get a final fit
• Do a trial fit of all of my lovely new Harken hardware.
• Fair the centreline of the hull after fitting the c/b case.
• Make the cups for the trolley (OK I have relented. I need a trolley as I need something to strap it to when it's on the roof of the car)
• Spend a day just fettling and tidying up on the detail as once it's painted I won't be able to touch it!

With my current workload, there's 2 weeks there.

So... Should be ready to go for paint by the 20th - that's 2 weeks from today, and it should be back by the 28th - a week or so later.  I might be able to get it over to Paul before then, but I'm just thinking worst case. In fact, looking at the pile of stuff on the dining room table at the moment, yeah, 2 weeks.

As for colour scheme you'll have to wait, but one thing is for certain, it won't be black! Besides the obvious cliche, as Cookie always says, black boats suck* and this one being nomex is going to be even worse if it does...

OK, in that week it is away, my plan is to:

• Make the rudder and tiller assembly....
• Finish of the gantry 
• Finish the first centreboard including the pit-head gear
• Make the outer wing bar tubes and do all the secondary laminating on the wings.
• Assemble the wand mech and push rods
• Build the bloody trolley!!
• ...and start making the mould for V2 of the c/b if possible

This lot will extend to the end of the month I think, but man by then I'll be REALLY close to going sailing!! Better start digging out my sailing kit!

D


*Black boats suck.... They get hot in the sun while rigging. The last check you do is a water check and put the bung in. The boat then gets launched and cools down and cools the air inside it, causing it to reduce the pressure inside the hull. Which causes it to suck.... It sucks water through every possible way the water can get in, including in thin laminate boats, right through the laminate. Bad idea.

Day 96
138 Days Remaining

Sunday 2nd March 2014

Missing!...... FEBRUARY!!.....   Where on Earth did it go!!
Send out a reconnaissance plane to see if we can find it!

Before I start, many thanks for the emails and FB messages of encouragement, and some awesome Blackbird pictures from Adam in San Fran, like the one above...
Thanks mate - appreciated as always :-)

OK Boat build SitRep:

Weighed with all but the working deck and transom resting or taped in place 8.8kg. Nicely on track. I predict 9.8kg ready to sand for paint.

Control deck made from 9mm marine ply, shaped for the cleats to go on so all the controls live under the deck line, made, laminated in carbon and trimmed to fit. I toyed with the idea of making it half in foam core and half in MP, but it only saved me about 200g and I want to be able to just screw fittings into it wherever I want to... The main control layout is figured out, but hey - when did that ever stop a change of plan, and for a 200g penalty when I'm under my weight budget this close to the end of the build - No brainer...

Centreline join complete on inside of hull. This thing is stiff and very very fair - I think it will look awesome when it's painted - I love boats with a true reflection - not ones that look like the side of a 1973 VW combi!

Tramp tracks along outer edge of sheer glued on with 9323, filled faired and laminated over with M46J Twill at 45/45 - They are not going anywhere and the track isn't going to open up any time soon.  If you've ever had a trampoline pull away from the boat you'll know that it is quite distressing - not DE stressing.... the other one!

Wing bars fitted, front wing bar dog-legged at 800 mm from the centreline - radius smoothed and about to have the chainplate detail added. I wanted to have a bit more sweep back to the wings from outside of the chainplate - I think it looks neat and minimises the length of the outer wing bar.

C/B foil vertical made and being used as I type to make the CB case. Nothing too fancy about this.. The laminate of the leg is massive - 10 layers of M46J UD and 45/45 woven, then the core just UD.

>>>Big jobs this week that I'm on track for and should be ok to get done even though I'm all over the place :-)

Control deck and C/B case in and secondary bonded *as you can get right around it before putting the main floor down which starts immediately aft of the CB case trailing edge.

Main cockpit floor section of deck made

Transom made and fitted

Wing bar assembly completed to first stage (framework) and a start made on the detail (hard points for blocks and tabs for toe straps) and a strategy for fitting the trampoline figured out.

Detail glimpse... Spoiler Alert!!

I hate trolleys... cumbersome, time consuming to make, generally a pain, always the cause of boat damage.... So, seeings its a Blackbird and even they had ground wheels, I'm thinking I'll put a carbon tube through the hull at about a metre from the arse end, just up from the bottom of the hull -  then simply slide a carbon axle with wheels on through it when needed?!  Then a simple moulded cup/handle for the bow which will protect the wand and the knuckle from damage while still allowing the bonnet to be removed for access?  I guess a need pair of blanking plates for the axle tube for sailing and that's it.... Might even be able to sail it as a land yacht (how many times have we all thought that!!!)


OK.. Back on it... Tide and time and all that.... Thanks for popping in.

D

Day 77
157 Days Remaining

Crikey it's going fast!! Time that is!!!

Looking more like a steam boiler than a sailboat, 

the Blackbird is starting to take shape

Having been chastised publicly by my old pal Tom, I have sat back in front of the computer to write where I am up to...  I don't want to let the project slip - every second on the water between launching and Race 1 will be valuable, but it has been a really busy couple of weeks with the firm, teaching, out seeing clients and driving all over the country leaves little time for carbon fettling. I am thankful that it is busy because Christmas is very quiet, but work has to come in front of my own projects... That's life in a blue suit as they say in the Navy.

Well, where am I up to... I have stabilised at 73Kg and slimmer than I've been for ages.  I'm out running again after tweaking a calf muscle, and I'm about to hit the bike for half an hour....
As for the boat... well after a week or so of delays cos of work, things are happening pretty quick... Rig collected from Rob's place last week, vang take off and fwd wing bar sockets in and secondary bonded, and as you can see from the picture, the tubes for the control lines and elastics for the bow are all in...  In a day or two's time I'll put up the picture of the way this looks when it has been fettled and tidied up.  The control tubes are from port to starboard, Manual Override & Bias Control, Push Rod, Wand Length Control.

Gotta run.. Or cycle in fact!

More on Thursday.

D

Day 59
Days remaining: 175

Build it strong... - 4g is a lot!....

This G Meter goes down to -ve 4g

Just about enough for a Moth.

I'm building a lot of my boat stronger than I would build a 14. I'm on my weight budget to have a boat around 9.5kg, but some bits might look a bit rugged for a moth... I care not.

My worst case load test in my head for a 14 is a nose planting down the bottom of a wave, from max chat to almost stopped.  It is rare, and the fastest I've ever sailed a 14 is about 22 or 23 knots.. and we were so chicken we had the rudder wing on max bow up and never crashed it. If it ever got really sketchy, you just came off the wire, slowed it down and had a bout of tourettes...

A Moth will see 30knots or thereabouts max. High twenties are common when racing.  I predict that in 5 years boats will be reaching speeds higher than Crossbow II's 1980 top speed (and at that time World Speed Record) of 36 knots....

....and the classic main foils popping out at speed and the inevitable 30 degree nose down 'stick thrown into the pond' stop is commonplace.....

Well staggeringly that sort of a crash is a Negative 4g acceleration (or a 4g deceleration if you prefer)

Here's my maths to support that by the way..

Quick conversion first... 1 knot = 0.514 m/s so 30knots = 15.42m/s... So we'll use that speed as our start point.

A moth is 3.355 m long.   30 knots = 4.7 boatlengths per second  (Yeah, pause at that point- Crikey!!)

Crash stop from 30 knots to a dead stop = 2 boat lengths = 0.425 seconds... Which when watching video of pop-out / spear in crashes, and experiencing a few of them as everyone has, that seems about right....

Deceleration from 15.42 m/s to 0 in 0.425 seconds is around 36.28m/s/s (my mac doesn't do little uppy arrows to do a 'squared' it seems!)

1g = 9.82 m/s/s

36.28m/s/s = 3.69 x g

So all this time, the moth really has been pulling 4g negative dives, just like in the film!!


D

Day 58
Days Remaining 176

23/1/2014

Around the Buoy!!!!

Back in the bad old days of the Navy, way before my time... When Nelson still had both eyes and the Dead Sea was still just sick on shore, new recruits to the service would find themselves learning the ropes, literally, at HMS Ganges on the Shotley Peninsula in Suffolk. Whether you were destined to become a mechanic in the Fleet Air Arm, or a stoker in a warship, a cook, a clerk or a deck hand, you went to Ganges and learned to march and clean your kit and do as you were told and grow up. Real fast.

Up until 1976 Ganges was the new entry facility for the RN... And in it's time boys as young as 14 could join there, though the average age of a baby sailor was 17.  As you can imagine, it was a tough life from Day 1. Bullying was rife, the food was poor, and having a quiet chat with your Divisional Officer to explain that your pillow was a bit on the firm side wouldn't have happened. The instructors were notoriously savage and beatings for poor drill, dirty kit and lateness were common not only from the staff, but from your mess mates who would also face extra drill and duties if one of the division made an error.

There were many things Ganges was famous for, and while lenience and tolerance were not two of those, manning the mainmast and rowing of whaling boats in the estuary certainly were.  The former involved 80 volunteer boys of the ships company manning the 143ft mast - and yes the Button Boy would shinny up the last 15ft of topmast, then climb around and onto the button and stand supported only by a lightning conductor at his back... And Salute!

The latter, shown briefly in the film, is the boat section. Boys were taught to sail and row in whalers in the estuary and out in Dovercourt Bay, come hell or high water. Literally every day of the year the sections (age groups) of boys would take it in turns to be out first light, rowing the mile and half each way to the Harwich Harbour buoy (in front of the original Trinity House) and back.... The last boat home would pay an awful price as the duty instructor would be standing waiting for them at the end of the pier and if he felt that they were last through lack of effort, would point back at the Harbour entrance and shout...  "AROUND THE BUOY!!!!" and they would have to do it all again...

The phrase became commonplace in the RN for instructing a subordinate to repeat a badly performed task... And this week I am afraid I have been Around the Buoy a few times on the working deck of the Blackbird... It is a simple piece of carbon on foam core, but the inserts for the cleats and fittings were wrong in the first and the second fitted, but not well enough.... Finally in cure as I type is the 3rd and hopefully final version....

Sometimes I gain inspiration from looking out of my back window where I can just see the top third of the mighty Ganges main mast... This week I certainly have.

D

Day 49
Days Remaining: 185

When the going gets tough....

It's not me. But it could be.

Crikey I am beginning to hate the whole running thing.  I used to love running. Bounding, gazelle like, between puddles, accelerating like a hare across busy roads, climbing hills as if they were gentle declines... Where did all that go?! Beware my brave lads... When you get to 45 you are going to struggle to find the form you had when you were 35, let alone 25... and seeings as some of you probably think 25 is OLD... Just you wait!

Still, tomorrow's a day off the phyz thing, and I can look forward to a lie in and just a walk down to the marina and back to loosen up.

Now then... The boat....
Well I forgot to mention something apparently... It's got a nomex core... It's actually M40J prepreg on Nomex, but that's not that important, any carbon skin on Nomex is going to act like an HM material provided it's stuck on properly... I got hooked on using nomex when I built my last 14... not just for the way it feels in the water (like you are sailing a boat made from shards of steel struck from the hammer of Thor, or something!) but I really like making things with it cos it's so easy!  Anyway, yes if it get's holed I'll sink without a trace... If Tom O wants to duck me, I'll let him! :-)

Sort of sticking it all together now... Taking a little time to line it all up, but it will be worth it... and yes, I know I wanted to be sailing tomorrow, but real life means I couldn't anyway because it's going to howl again!

D

Day 43
Days Remaining: 191

Skinny-Mini-Malloo

Looking ever so slightly like a reindeer - good job it doesn't have a red nose! (D'oh!)

When, in the early 90s I was running in the Field Gun Crew for HMS Seahawk and HMS Daedalus in the jolly old Navy, us Fleet Air Arm types used to sing 'Skinny-Mini-Malloo' whenever we heard one of the Devonport (ie Plymouth) crews sing their famous 'Oggie Oggie Oggie' nonsense.  Always made me smile. It's meant as a total piss-take and I am glad to say it usually worked!

ANYhoo!! Yes. Skinny isn't it! The boat is very narrow. Narrower than the M2. Maybe about the same as the early Ninjas? Maybe even narrower. You can see the rear rack tubes are on and the bow cover is made so all the wand mech and forestay gubbins can keep safe and warm and dry under the front and not get in the way of the air molecules hurtling past at 15 metres/second.

Couple of ups and downs this week so far.

-ve. Got to say that whole front end is taking some time. When you see a Mach 2 with all the wand gear 'tray' open and you think, oh that's clever, it really is! When you build a boat from scratch on your kitchen table and you want to do something similar, you have to do it before you fit the mast bulkhead so that you can put the tubes through that carry the push rod and the control lines etc... It's a lot of faffing about, making components from scratch, making sure it all fits, fitting screws from the back of panels so there's something to mount the wand mech on... It's going to be worth it, but it is taking days not hours... Little bit of project slippage I can deal with though as in the long run I'm not missing a lot with this rubbish weather and the boat will be so much better from day 1 (or Day 60 or whenever it is it gets launched)

+ve... I am pleased to say, dear reader that since I started this adventure I have lost nearly 2.5Kg so I am safely in the low 72s now... Skinny-Mini-Maloo again you see!  Now I've nearly lost the fat % I needed to get rid of, I am feeling a bit more confident about getting back in the boat and putting some shoulder strength back on. Already I'm finding the press-ups and the tricep presses easier but I have a long memory... Mothing is hard work, especially on the arms and shoulders...

AND FINALLY..  a BIG +ve to end on. I finally got round to dropping in on Rob on Monday and we've done a deal for the rig he won the 2013 Nationals with.  Mast and Sail... Great place to start from and a good solid performing set up... No excuses and I'll be able to compare a lot of data.  Another box on the plan filled with a big tick!

D

Day 40
Days Remaining: 194

Sunday 5th January

Moth Building.  The 1000 piece jigsaw without a picture.

Find the corners first - then it's a doddle. Yeah, right!

I was explaining to a friend of mine the other day, what it is like to build a moth.  One design boats have class rules that provide tight specifications - the picture on the box is pretty clear and the instruction easy. Make the puzzle like the box - all the bits are there, and they fit perfectly.  Moths are different.  11ft, x 7'4" x 8sqm... No cats, no cheating the RRS... Go! No picture on the box, no instructions, no idea how many pieces, no clear idea of where they all go or how they are joined and.... and in the end all you have is some parameters thanks to Reynolds numbers, density, UTS and Modulus of materials and your own wits.. oh and then when you have figured it out you need to have the skill and patience to put it together... In your kitchen....

I say no picture - you do kind of know what it should look like if you look at what's out there, and for that you have the current cream of the crop....
The Rocket looks awesome - the product of nearly 10 years of fascination with all things carbon on water and a big heap of left field, off the wall, tea fuelled "why not?"  Maybe its the Bristol connection? The home of Brunel et al, Bae at Filton where they were building string-bag fighter aircraft for WW1 and went on to build all sorts of fast jets and commercial aircraft.  Rolls Royce's very own Skunkworks for engine design was also at Filton...  Add a bit of Nick Park's Wallis and Grommit design style - again all products of the region and you'll be getting the idea! What is for sure though, Cookie's boats have some real pace and work very well..... and they have a wand on a sprit a full 500mm in front of everyone else's and I think I am right in saying the longest foil platform (distance between main and rudder foils). Gotta be quick.  Genius.

The Exocet looks like it was designed by Pininfarina with the numbers crunched at Bletchley Park and then the drawings taken in a velvet lined oak portmanteaux to Gaydon where gentlemen in white coats smoked pipes and carved the thing from the finest walnut and cherry they could lay their perfectly manicured hands on.  If you have to look up who they were, what they did and still do at those places, you're sailing the wrong boat. Go and buy a Laser.  It is exquisite to look at... If Ian Flemming had ever written his heroic assassin into a sailboat race, he'd have turned up with an Exocet. With Union Jack trampolines. Except I have to say that being a Naval man, he wouldn't though would he... because Flemming/Bond might, like me, find the name abhorrent and that it reminds him too much of the horrors of the Falklands War and in particular the loss of the British sailors and airmen of the Royal Navy on HMS Sheffield, Atlantic Conveyor and closest to my heart, HMS Glamorgan, which came under attack from an Excocet and was turned to head away from the missile, presenting the smallest target and saving the ship, but killing virtually all of the maintainers and aircrew of the ships flight when first the missile exploded and then the fully armed and fuelled Wessex aircraft ranged on the flight deck turned into an exploding fireball.   Jus'so you know the full story.

What next? Name a brilliant and ground breaking chain of kiddies play centres 'Auschwitz'?

Then or firstly perhaps, there's the Mach 2. If Bond sailed (name change pending) an Exocet, then Darth Vader, Batman, Jason Borne, Bora Gulari or any other hero or anti hero you could name would sail the M2... Except, instead of it being specially made and monogrammed and handed over by a man in a white coat called 'Q', they would get one from a vending machine on a street corner.  It is awesome yet it's brilliance is it is so brilliantly universal. A platform to base multiple upgrades on... Such a fantastic concept. On V6 of the foils and want to go a little faster, Sir? And you weigh 77kg you say? Oh well you need the V7.2 foils and while you're at it, how about the new Mode 3 Ka21 sail on a M65J 30mm 3 piece mast....? Fancy a colour change too? That boat will be winning championships when I am getting reprimanded for pinching the arses of the nurses at my retirement home...!   (Stop Press_ Now I really don't have an inside steer on this, but I have noticed a particularly well decorated British Mothie who might have had a hand in the M2 made a trip to Oz recently, and I listened (or read maybe) with interest the Jedi Lord AMac saying he was working on the aeropackage and a 'sort of wing'... or did I dream that? Maybe the Blackbird will be late to join the Mach 3 party? Good job it's set at M3.3!)

SO, I kind of have a picture on the front of the box - it's got to be as well set up, bomb proof and easy to adjust as the M2, it's got to be faster than that Exco mainly because true British pride is a stake, and it has to be as forward thinking as the Rocket, because otherwise it will be out of date before its maiden sail.... and like all moths it has to look fantastic, even when it's in it's box and flying to somewhere sunny where the water is blue and the sun is hot and the breeze is 15 knots all day and the beer is cold and girls are....................zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

D

Day 37
Days Remaining 197

The Moth Factory

Polystyrene blanks for gantry and compression struts

ready for gluing to an MDF base for mould making.

It's official. My house has become a moth factory... It's not as clinical as the workshop, or as well equipped, but it is warm and dry and there is tea. Lots of tea.

As I type the kettle is boiling and the following items are glued up and curing off.

The Bow Fairing.  Location: Dining Room Table.
The bow on the Blackbird is very blunt and full - This looks odd compared to a water cleaving points that we are used to, but water cleaving pointyness stalls very quickly and causes a lot of drag in the air, and the most usual mode for the boat will be airborne, heeling to windward, with an apparent wind speed of 10 to 35mph at an angle of somewhere between 22 and 12 degrees, and - a sharp bow will be very stalled after about 5 or 6 degrees.  A rounded bow, will have a higher stall angle and should be a significant factor in keeping the platform drag numbers down.

How will it perform in water? - ie low riding or in transition? Depends how it is set up I guess. If we set up with a bow down trim it will push a fair bit of water out of the way. Bow up a smidge and it should be fine. That's what testing is for.

Oh there's something else about the bow you might like. It is asymmetric.  To allow the wand to be closer to the centreline, the bow is kind of rotated anticlockwise when looking from the bow to stern. It affects the flow over it not one jot, but the wand is in a better place and puts less strain on the wand mech to stay linear, which means it works better across the range.

The Wing Bar Sockets.  Location: Kitchen Floor.
Finally I got my head around how to do this - I want the wing bar sockets to be bonded together and laminated to form an elbow that is completely watertight before they get bonded into place as they pass right through the boat - if they leak, the boat will leak... So they need to be at the right angle when bonded together. I got the geometry of the racks from studying a lot of pictures, and figuring out rig loads and such. The front bars are at a compound angle (ie they rake backwards AND upwards) and the total included angle came out at 122 degrees.  The rear wing bars come outwards perpendicular to the centreline, so are only angled upwards (at a similar angle to the front bars) and that makes the rear bar elbow a shallower angle of 139 degrees.  Once these were known it was relatively easy to set up a bit of geometry on the kitchen floor (floor tiles can be surprisingly accurate to use as guidelines!).  They are curing off now.

The Gantry Moulding Blanks.  Location: Utility Room Work Top.
The Mk1 Gantry I want to try is pretty punchy. It is made up of aero section mouldings (and no tubes) to form a rigid structure in a sort of H section.  The individual aero sections are NACA 0008 and the longest is 580mm in chord. I'm currently preparing the CNC machined polystyrene surfaces to make moulds from them and the parts will come from those moulds. Fitting the gantry is a while away, but these things TAKE a while!

The Compression Strut Mould blanks.  Location: Utility Room Work Top.
The all important compression struts that link the chain plate to the mast post are highly loaded. The Mk1 rack arrangement for the boat uses round wing bars with fairings, but the comp struts need to be all carbon, so I am making a mould that will produce an ellipse of the right sort of proportion and size (about 22 x 50mm) An aero section would be better of course, but that would have a sharp and fragile trailing edge. I don't like compromises, but in this instance, an ellipse is ideal - and I can always make a stick on trailing edge fairing for it for race days......And you guessed it, the Mk 2 front wing bar assembly uses the same tube for the comp strut as it does for the wing bar, with the inboard end transitioning into a tube to slide into the same wing bar socket.

D

Day 36
Days remaining: 198.  1st January 2014

New Years Day - Not that quiet at Blackbird HQ.

I woke up this morning and it is of course New Years Day... I wish all my moth sailing mates all over the World, and you dear reader of course, a happy and prosperous 2014 and I truly hope that if you are a mothy, you are starting to get excited about the Worlds, now less than 200 days away...

Bit of a private party at the Blackbird HQ last night making 2014 start with a bang, but that's enough of my private life!  January is always a dry month for me. Usually, only so I appreciate a good glass of wine better ;-), but this year, I'm actually looking forward to it.... I put on under one Kilo over the holidays and still closing in on my target on my chart.... Result!

My resolution this year is that every day the boat will get quicker and I will get fitter.... and remember, every day that I am developing the Blackbird, or doing some daft Pilates stretch, or running/cycling/swimming my 46 Summers old frame around the local bridleways.. Every step, every crazy idea, every drip of sweat, I am focussing on making the boat+me package faster around the track on Race 1 (through however many) at the Worlds in July.... I'm not rattling my sabre, indeed this is a friendly statement... Some of you are a long way ahead of me on pace, some of you are going to be the same speed as me, and some of you will be behind me... Every day I try something totally crazy on the lake, or in the workshop... Or come in from running to load my washing machine with my mud covered running kit, and scrub my trainers ready for the next day's torture, I am doing it to catch you, to overtake you, to leave you further in my wake.... So Thank You for being there, every step of my lonely cold dark slog, wherever you think you are in that imaginary running order, you are my target, my prey, my motivation.

Happy New Year.  198 days to go.  Lots of boat work to do to right now, but I don't go back to work til the 6th and that is 5 solid days of graft away - and some muddy runs of course...

Catch me later!

D :-)