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  1. W

    SV Seeker

    Fair, but the water in the pipe adds a lot to rotational inertia. If the goal is to increase roll period without reducing stability, this may be a worthwhile trade-off.
  2. W

    Guyader-Bermudes 2023

    Alan Roura and Simon Koster must be pleased. They're moving fast on Hublot.
  3. W

    The Ocean Race 2023 leg 3: Capetown to Itajaí, Brazil

    In the 11th Hour videos, there is always someone sitting to windward holding a line in their hand. Yesterday, that line was named as a sheet. Does anyone know which sheet, and why only 11th Hour consider it necessary to let go at a moment's notice, and also how that works, seeing that the line...
  4. W

    SV Seeker

  5. W

    SV Seeker

    They do. It's not a dipping lug. Looks like Doug has gone for a flat cut sail that makes an awful airfoil shape on both tacks anyway. Air flow should look something like this: https://i.stack.imgur.com/kHr6r.jpg There is even a possibility that lift to drag is better with the mast on the lee...
  6. W

    Shallow water fun single-hander

    I went to the TopCat stand at a boat show 40 years ago and watched the dealer demonstrate the kickup feature by kicking the leading edge of a rudder, hard. The rudder swung back, released, and was pulled up by the bungees to a depth less than the keel. I never had opportunity to sail a TopCat...
  7. W

    Interior considerations for off-shore sailing

    I have a rudder that could fall off its pintles in a capsize. (I am converting a canoe into a sailing boat and the rudder did not come with the locking mechanism dinghies commonly use.) I mounted a cleat between the pintles, and will tie a line to the rudder and cleat it off. Something similar...
  8. W

    SV Seeker

    Primarily because you don't need to tension the leech to control twist. If you have a Bermudan sail without vang but with the sheet attached to a traveller, most of the sheet tension serves to tension the leech to limit twist. If you control twist instead by a strong enough vang, load on the...
  9. W

    SV Seeker

    Attaching a sheetlet to each batten drastically reduces the load on the sail. (A sheetlet is a line that connects two or three battens.) But if you then want a single sheet that gathers the load from the sheetlets, then you need some space behind the leach. Doug has placed the sails too close...
  10. W

    Gougeon 32 Roll Call

    In the Race to Alaska, Pocket Rocket capsized and could not be righted after the lee hull flooded. This video shows her floating on her side with the lee bow at the surface, but the weather stern in the water (from 4:04; I don't know how to make the video start at this point, as I have seen...
  11. W

    R2AK Team Skywalker Foiler

    On the one had, I can see what looks like the flippers of Mirage drives hanging from the two podlets.  On the other hand, in both the first and second picture of this thread, it looks like the decks of the hulls would have to be nearly awash to bring the Mirage drives fully into the water.  So I...
  12. W

    SV Seeker

    I don't see how that makes a difference to stability. Whether you put the lead in the middle or divide it in two and put each half out to the side at the same depth, the centre of gravity will be in the same place. Where it does matter is in rotational inertia. The lead in the bilge keels is...
  13. W

    When doing the right thing risks widespread injury

    I noticed. What I don't understand is how that is relevant to the moral issue you raised: 'Why is it not "ok" to consume fuel for pleasure?'
  14. W

    When doing the right thing risks widespread injury

    "Free" and "their" are doing a lot of heavy lifting here. When it comes to "free", you may have heard of the maxim "your freedom to swing your fist stops at my nose". If you believe in that definition of freedom, rather than "might is right", you should want to avoid creating externalities...
  15. W

    Dylan's New Boat Anarchy

    Would this kind of thing be worth bothering with? https://flin-solar.com/
  16. W

    Institute for Nautical Folly

    There is a Twitter account dedicated mostly to nautical folly, occasionally branching out into other substance-inspired engineering: https://twitter.com/TheDreadShips  One of my favourite threads is about the torpedo ram Polyphemus: https://twitter.com/TheDreadShips/status/1144365560551084043
  17. W

    Law "Seeks to Make UK Citizens Bad Samaritans."

    A very convenient rule for a country that is surrounded by countries considered safe.  But is it even UK law?  Someone stood up in the House of Lords and pointed out that even the Home Office, so dedicated to sending Johnny Foreigner back to where he came from (Russian Oligarchs and money...
  18. W

    Uglyboat Admiration Society Hang Out

    Exactly.  Designed by a gifted five year old who wants to circumnavigate Fairyland, and made real by a Womble engineer.
  19. W

    Radikal 26 folding system

    You may be able to adjust for your needs.  I defined the lower point on the hull, and two on the beam.  I drew a circle around the lower point to define where the outer point on the beam, and the strut between them, would end up after folding.  Because you wanted waterstays, I thought I could...
  20. W

    New on the water: The proa "Proasis"

    Very nice.  What is the reason for the foot of the yard only going to the forward crossbeam instead of the bow?  Is it that you don't need to shift the sail that far forward because you have a big rudder, that you want to load up the rudder to provide lateral resistance, that it is safer for the...


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