Saturday, January 10, 2009

done

So the aussie flasheart design is done... sort of. feel free to email me if you would like the rhino file. note the bridle attachment point. i think its cool. wand mechnism: grearing is adjustable by a thumb screw. the front bung goes in above the pushrod exit point, under the cover.I thought of a neat way of adjusting the rake of the centreboard too, which is basically a stevo top rudder gudgeon for the centreboard, that the retainer pin goes through. a thumb screw at the front of the centreboard, just above the deck, pushes a rod back and forth inside the top of the foil and the pin goes through that. the rod would be like 50mm long and is held in there pretty well so the hole in the carbon can be elongated. it means your centreboard case needs to taper slightly, but the range of adjustment is no more than 1 or 2 degrees to accommodate all wind conditions.. just a thought. i think ill be doing that if i build another foil.

also had a glamour sail in 12-15 kts and pretty flat water at RQ, took my iphone with recently updated gps software and for the first time i could download my track. the data was pretty noisy, but i used excel to average it out and im pretty sure i hit about 20.5kts, my best average over 100m was 18.1. i was doing about 12.5 - 13 upwind, but not pointing very high at all. I might try again one day with a real gps. it really didnt feel that fast, and i think the boat has gone faster so ill keep pushing it.

^ i entered the seabreeze.com.au competition. i couldnt help myslef, the prize is pretty amazing. i reckon the dude with his hair on fire is a definite winner but.

fixed the mast, sort of. have been sailing without using too much vang or cunningham, and because it has two sleeves in it now its pretty much the stiffest topmast ever. so i dont really get a good leach anymore and hence the no pointing. im getting a new one.. just as soon as i go to work, earn some money and get paid, subtract bills and living expenses. i think i logged 6 hours this week so im not looking good.

finacial situation doesnt look good for a speedy build either, i might have to find a sponsor. though i am in brisbane, going to uni full time, its all a bit hard. anyway at least that gives me time to go over in my head the procedures and simplify it right down.

anyway thats about all, best of luck everyone at the nationals, hope you dont break anything, forget what hole it was in etc, hope your knots all stay tied up, and that the breeze is between 8 and 20kts the whole time and that the chop is less than 2 foot!