Wood Boat Plans And Kits | Regarding risk tolerance in a risky business

Wood Boat Plans And Kits

An uplifting story (of sorts) from Texas, a famous ships cat, and in the "unable to organize a pissup in a brewery" department...

While not about sailing or cruising as such, Dick Dorworth has written a great piece regarding risk tolerance that anyone sailing or cruising should take the time to read.

Youre still here?

Listening to Tindersticks

So it goes...

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Boat Plans Aluminium Australia | NEWS REGARDING DSS DYNAMIC STABILITY SYSTEM

Boat Plans Aluminium Australia

After the use of the System on Wild Oats the max yacht that won the last Sydney Hobart, contrary to what could be expected, there was not a rush to use the system. My impression is that the system will only work well on small boats on flat water and need by yachts to be able to perform adequately on Ocean conditions. Small boats have just to much pitch to make its use profitable.

For the ones that never heard about it is just a wing that goes perpendicularly to the boat hull, near the surface, on the opposite side of the wind and  that like an airplane wing provides lift creating RM and pushing the boat up, preventing it to heel. Its efficiency increases with speed. Look at this movie and you will understand how it works:

Recently there have been a lot of interest about it, since 15 October, when it was decided that contrary to the masts and keels, the appendices would remain free on the IMOCA class (Open 60s), with the already existent limitation of a maximum of 5 movable ones. There are several teams considering using DSS on their boats and even some interesting designs:

Hugh Welbourn, the system inventor and developer is working with several teams and even if for me the limitation of the 5 foils (two rudders, a keel and two daggerboards) make the utilization of the system complicated, he presents several solutions. Eventually there are two more that it seems not to have been considered: With a narrower boat the utilization of a single deep rudder that would allow an independent DSS system or a movable rudder, from one side of the boat to another, that would make possible the actual beamy configuration and again an independent DSS system.

But what have been studied  by now is a configuration that maintaining the two rudders as they are, modifying the movable foils that assume a double role:  Given grip to the boat upwind and creating lift. The drawing makes sense but the foil could not be completely raised out of the water and, as I see it, will create drag on light wind sailing. I am very curious and hoping any of the new boats will go for that, to see the real system potential and if the advantages will be superior to the disadvantages.

Another disadvantage, that has nothing to do with performance, but will be a practical inconvenient, is the impossibility to put the boat along a quay or pontoon. The boat can not go alongside but stay at some distance, with the foil hitting the quay. It will need some BIG fenders LOL.

Very interesting stuff anyway!
Hugh Welbourn and Dynamic Stability Systems Founder Gordon Kay says about all this:

"Dynamic Stability Systems welcomes this week’s decision by IMOCA to place no further restrictions on its class rule. This permits both the six new IMOCA 60s currently under construction, as well as the existing fleet, to be fitted with the lateral lifting foils which DSS has spent the last decade pioneering. ...

“These foils will allow IMOCA 60s to remain cutting edge as well as providing a performance enhancement every bit as significant as canting keels, which IMOCA pioneered during the 1990s,” ...

..Fitting DSS to a typical IMOCA 60 is complicated by the class rules which restrict boats to a maximum of five movable appendages – typically two rudders, a canting keel and two daggerboards.

The daggerboards are necessary to prevent leeway when the keel is canted, but on recent IMOCA 60s they have had a dual function as by being inclined in the hull is such a way that they are angled (ie off vertical) as they pass through the water, they also produce upwards lift. This lift helps reduce hull drag, but – most significantly – as it does not operate to leeward of the hull, it lacks the same lever arm and, in turn, the massive contribution to righting moment of the DSS foil. So while present generation IMOCA 60 boards make little contribution to righting moment, for their new boats teams have been investigating the use of more efficient L-shaped foils. With these one side of the foil prevents leeway while the other creates vertical lift down to leeward, in turn providing a massive boost to righting moment.

Teams have been looking at principally two configurations for these ‘DSS L-foils’:

a) Tip up: This is similar to a conventional daggerboard only its main shaft is vertical in the water when the boat is heeled, while its tip is effectively a DSS foil, close to horizontal in the water when the boat is heeled, to provide vertical lift.

b) Tip down: This is closer to the standard DSS arrangement where the main shaft of the foil protrudes horizontally through the bottom of the topsides providing vertical lift to leeward, while the downward-pointing tip of the board prevents leeway.

Welbourn, who is currently working with IMOCA teams on evolving this technology, says that while DSS is in the process of being accepted by the Class (just as canting keels were in the 1990s), the first designs to incorporate the DSS L-foils will be ‘middle of the road’ options, still retaining most of the familiar IMOCA 60 features. Thus rather than having the maximum permitted beam of 5.85m, he believes that new DSS L-foil equipped IMOCA 60s will end up closer to 4.8-5.2m....

According to Hugh Welbourn, an IMOCA 60 that relied even more on its DSS foil for righting moment would be an entirely different animal but unlike most innovations could represent further cost savings for the Class. The canting keel – along with all its added weight and complexity – could be dispensed with in favour of a simpler fixed keel and as a result there would be no need for additional daggerboards to prevent leeway as the keel foil could provide this (as it does on most yachts). Windward performance could be enhanced by fitting a trim tab to the keel, which is permitted for fixed keels under the present IMOCA rule. This would also allow conventional, straight lateral DSS foils to be fitted, which would be more efficient as their sole functions would be to provide vertical lift and increase righting moment.

Added reliance on the DSS foil would also result in less need for form stability derived from a beamy hull shape and Welbourn envisages the maximum beam of the ‘Ultimate’ DSS IMOCA 60 could be as small as 4.2m – at present the beam constraint is the shroud base required for the newly introduced one design mast, which has a specified size and weight.

A pure-DSS hull shape would also not require the fat bow that features in many modern offshore race boat designs to prevent nose diving when sailing downwind. “When you start supporting a lot of the boat’s displacement on the foil rather than the hull, what you need is something that penetrates waves very nicely at high speed, not a big fat bow. A slimmer type of boat does that,” states Welbourn.

The end result would weigh approximately 6 tonnes, almost two tonnes less than the present lightest IMOCA 60s. And once again, a substantially narrower and lighter boat, with a fixed, rather than a canting, keel and with straight foils, as opposed to L-shaped ones, can all result in a less expensive boat...

DSS foils or L-foils can also ‘turbo’ the performance of older generation IMOCA 60s. Retrofitting this to an existing boat would cost in the order of £50,000 maintains Welbourn. However this represents good value given that his simulations demonstrate they could take as much as five days off a round the world course compared to the same boat without the new foils.

Welbourn concludes: “Ultimately DSS is a way of producing more sea-kindly and safer boats, which are substantially faster for a negligible increase in cost and potentially with a reduction in cost. Almost all the daggerboards ever fitted to IMOCA 60s provide some degree of vertical lift depending upon their inclination in the boat. DSS foils are simply inclined much more and you get a lot more out of them.”

http://www.infinitiyachts.com/news-2/

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Boat Plans Catamaran | AND HERE THEY GO AT FULL SPEED POINTING TO STORMY SEAS BEAUTIFUL IMAGES

Boat Plans Catamaran

Le départ de la Route du Rhum - Destination... by routedurhum

Thats the start of the biggest solo Transat and probably the biggest of them all and the weather could not be more interesting: They are pointing to stormy seas and F8 seas. Some of the big monohulls are already reefed while the smaller 50 multihulls go with all sail out. I love those guys, the craziest on the race, the ones that take more risks and the more spectacular. Off course the Open 60 go with full sail as the Class 40 and i bet they want some bad weather ahead as a way to give them a chance to fight the multihulls, not the bigger ones (that are bigger then their monohulls) but the 50fters that are a bit smaller.

Passage de la bouée du Cap Fréhel by routedurhumInformation about the race here:
http://interestingsailboats.blogspot.pt/2014/10/route-du-rhum-worlds-biggest-sail-race.html
http://www.routedurhum.com/
The tracker:
http://www.routedurhum.com/fr/s02_corporate/s02p08_cartographie.php


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Boat Plans Stitch And Glue | Regarding the mythical 500 a month cruising budget

Boat Plans Stitch And Glue

In the "lest we forget" department, some scary reading, and taking dead, discarded materials and bringing them back to life...

Writing Boat Bits, Im often reminded that different folks have very varied experiences with boats, the sailing of such things, and cruising. That said, Im surprised at just how often tunnel vision becomes part of the mix.

For instance, the $500 dollar cruising budget...

Not too long ago I found myself on the receiving end of a reader rant that went on for about a dozen emails explaining to me how the $500 cruising budget was simply impossible. To prove his point he illustrated said emails with copious notes of how much he had to pay while cruising over a three year period. As it happens he was right because there is no way he could have cruised on $500 a month.

For starters, he had a newish 52-foot boat...

He didnt like to anchor so always chose marinas whenever possible...

Admittedly, not a very handy person, so most all maintenance and repairs were done by various contractors or marine businesses...

Loved to eat out and something of a food snob or so he said...

Had grandchildren (with more on the way) that he and his wife felt the need to visit on a regular basis...

So, yeah, not exactly a candidate for a $500/1000/1500/2000/2500/3000 monthly cruising budget and, in fact, told me he could not even imagine how someone could sail or cruise on less than he spent.

Im pretty sure the key word in all of that is "imagine" because to do something you really have to be able to see it in your minds eye before you can make it a reality.

As far as Im concerned there is zero wrong with the guys cruising budget or the way he chooses to cruise. He obviously has deep enough pockets to support that sort of lifestyle so all power to him. On the other hand, do I think he has a clue about cruising budgets for folks of, shall we say, shallower pockets or people who have simpler less expensive tastes? Well, the word clueless does jump to mind.

Which brings us to the same old same question...

Can you cruise comfortably on $500 a month and the answer is, more than likely, maybe not.

But, if you can imagine it with no rose colored glasses in the mix maybe you can...

Listening to a whole lot of John (who would have been 75 this year) Lennon covers

So it goes...


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Boat Plans Aluminum | A couple of thoughts regarding ballast

Boat Plans Aluminum

Follow the money, a good point, and someone doing good...

So, here are a few numbers to play with;

• A cubic foot of water weighs 62 pounds
• A cubic foot of concrete weighs 150 pounds
• A cubic foot of iron weighs 491 pounds
• A cubic foot of lead weighs 709 pounds
• A cubic foot of gold weighs 1206 pounds

Like a lot of people I like the idea of water ballast. Whats not to like... its free, you can lose it when you dont want it around, and it works. Of course, theres a downside (theres always a downside to anything) in that it takes up a lot more room than most of us care to give up within the interior.

Case in point: Phil Bolgers take apart three piece schooner that Ive often considered building as a non-take-apart boat which has often been on my shortlist for the next Loose Moose. Of course replacing the water ballast with other ballast types would gain a lot more room...

That said, somehow the idea of a 47-foot boat has lost a lot of its allure for me but would still make a certain kind of sense due to its 1.5-foot draft and enough room and stowage to be able to work on rigging jobs and build self-steering gears/dinghies/surfboards as a nomadic shop/business model.

Listening to Bob Dylan covering Frank Sinatra

So it goes...

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