According to Scott, Rohan and the UK moth website the Garda carnage total is already as follows:
- 5 broken Bladerider main foils (2 for Amac, 2 for Rohan and 1 for John Harris)
- 2 broken Prowler gantries (Simon Payne and Sven Kloppenburg (GER))
- 1 Bladerider king-post and foredeck (Scott Babbage)
And the regatta hasn’t even started yet !
In other news, it looks like the Bladerider’s have an upwind speed advantage, but the downwind Prowler speed is significantly faster.
Update 23/7 : 6 Bladerider main foils now that Glenn Raphael has broken one as well.
Work continues on the new boat with the centerboard case the next item on the agenda. I was um-ing and ah-ing on what to do exactly here as my current foil has no vertical rake forwards and may be subject to ventilation. Not wanting to make a nice molded case only to have to rip it out later if my foil still doesn’t perform, I decided to make one that is a little bit bigger than a molded one yet significantly smaller than a regular case. I will need to fit a top onto my current board, however, this will allow me to play with the rake if I need to tweak the angle, and keep my options open in the future.
The interior of the case was laid up on Monday, along with the plates, and the next step is to glue them together and wrap the whole thing in another couple of layers of carbon.
Centerboard position was another interesting decision, and all I’ll say here is that whilst the current position is a bit of a compromise, it is significantly further forwards than the old boat. On the hull front, my trusty technical advisor is tied up with end of financial year work commitments, so I am stepping aside for one of the other guys to get stuck in to their hull for the next couple of weeks. This time won’t be wasted however as it simply gives me more time to make up all the internal frames and odd bits and pieces (like the transom) that will be needed once the hull is finished.
Maybe it’s time for another to-do list !
A while ago Rohan mentioned a new unit that Velocitek had a new unit development that would include a countdown timer, and a compass. Well it looks like they have finally released the new unit, the SC1.
The SC1 looks to be a great unit, and has gone on my mental I want one for the new boat list.
Whilst the unit is not cheap at $599USD ($710Aus), a Tacktik T060 micro compass will set you back $498Aus by itself. Then throw in a watch with a countdown timer and a GPS, and it soon looks like pretty good value.
With a brilliant weekend of Sydney weather, starting the new boat proper was simply not an option. However, like anything there is a ton of preparation that needs to be performed before anything can start. Saturday was spent doing an impersonation of the Karate Kid: “Wax on, wax off”. Six coats of wax and 3 coats of PVA later and it was time to trial fit and cut the carbon cloth for my outer skin.
Unlike my last boat which was made using a male mould and painted, I am going for a clear carbon finish with this one, so a large amount of time was spent trying to get the cloth looking as “glam” as possible. This was made a bit challenging as I was doing this by myself and some of the carbon edges were a bit frayed.
Overall though it went quite well and she is now ready and waiting for some resin one night later this week.
