Friday, October 22, 2010

more tinkering less sailing

I think the 'hours tinkering to hours sailing ratio' this year is about 278:6. Not doing my boat-handling any good at all. I've been thinking i should really just outsource the sailing part and focus all my energy on stuffing around in the shed. Anyway although I'm still not landing most of my maneuvers, my work with CNC and carbon is getting better and I've been busy applying the stuf I learnt building the moth to other products.

Anyway here are a few pics of my (almost) finished set of foils. They've been out a few times now and i think they could be on the pace. not that I can judge, of course, because no-one ever comes sailing with me! Thats probably my fault for having the boat in bits every time theres a race on and going out mainly on Tuesday mornings.. mm. The 3D model of the foils is available for download permanently on the right hand side of the page. Ill get back on here with an actual review when I've had a chance to line up against someone.


The top of this has become a bit of a mess. It functions, without any reference to form whatsoever. I like it.


I also chucked a set of spreaders together. So far they work. And they weighed in 300g lighter than my old ones.
Finally, has anyone got a carbon boom they want to sell? My alloy boom is nearly dead, (ugh, corrosion) and probably adds about a kilo or more onto the boat! Luka mentioned there may be Mach 2 owners who have upgraded to CST HM gear and have no use for their flexy Mach 2 boom. Anyway I reckon even the worst carbon boom will vastly improve my boat, so please let me know if you know of anything.

Right, now for some sailing.

6 comments:

Doug Culnane said...

Foils look great.

Karl said...

Nick you are a genius. Now go sailing and let us know how you get on.

Unknown said...

Hi Nick, congrats on your R&D + build quality it look super. I'm developing a kitefoil and seeking info on foils - evidently you moth boys are way ahead of the game than us kiters. Would you be prepared to swap a few notes on our design and any others sparks of wisdom that you can openly share? Kind regards

nick flutter said...

thanks guys, Karl hope you're being sarcastic! my boat frankly looks shit compared to a new production boat.
no results as yet, some of my
"that looks pretty underdone but im sure it will be fine" engineering let go in the bottom rudder gudgeon. gotta re-think the laminate a bit. was a shame because we had a fleet of about 6 or 7 on the water today, including some fast guys in mach 2s. hopefully next week! No major collateral damage, got the boat back to the ramp with a borrowed rudder pin and some string. typical fashion. seemed fast, still got the weird instability downwind in chop. i hear thats pretty common, but mine seems worse than others. the small rudder seems to make no difference here nor there to the stability problem.

@ the flip side,
i openly share everything but make no guarantees on the quality of the information! email me flutter dot n at gmail. Not sure how helpful I can be, because i think kiteboards are operating in a pretty different circumstances. dunno.

n

Karl said...

Changing your wand gearing can have a big impact. Also the Dial can help, but a telescopic wand is probably better.

nick flutter said...

yep.
have yet to retry the adjustable wand, you think its worthwhile?

went out yesterday and increased the gearing by maybe 20 or 30% and the boat was much more stable. massive improvement. might make another hole for next week and increase it even more. sound advice Karl!

foils going well, haven't had a chance to really wind it up or line up against the fast guys yet, will let you know. accidentally broke 20 yesterday kneeling on the tramp trying not to fall off, so i think theres potential.