The build - part 1

Just reporting that construction is well under way on the new boat. After reading Phil's post the other day about how the moth blogs are drying up, I thought I might as well have a crack at keeping this one a little bit up to date. Uncharacteristically for me, the build is well ahead of the blog, so this and the next few posts are going to be something of a retrospective about the various stages of the construction that began in December last year. I've tried out a few interesting methods that I'd like to share, that have really sped up the process and allowed for a bit of extra complexity.

So, this is what it's going to look like:

The design is based on the shapes I was playing with in the last post and prior. The design development/evaluation did progress to a better CFD package (thankfully), and the results looked promising enough to invest some time in building. You have to draw the line somewhere right? There was certainly still room for improvement but CFD runs take so much time that I got sick of trying new things and decided to aim for some real world testing. More fun. Notable features: wing shaped tramps blended into the hull for super sweet aero, forward mast and foil position, centre 'console' to consolidate all the messy lines and reduce drag, aero gantry and probably some other things that I'm not talking about just yet. The rig, mainfoil horizontal, complete rudder and adjustable wand are all spares that didn't go with 'Half Meanie'.

As usual my composite products and consumables have come from CG composites, Tubes are from CST, and the tramps will be built by Yancy and Pete Williamson at Doyle Mooloolaba. Thanks to all those guys, I appreciate their patience and technical know-how. The hull shell was built by Doink, and mate once I got all that furry shit out it looks great, cheers! Very light and stiff in pre-preg from John Gilmore's Alpha mould. All the little fiddly bits will be 3D printed from Shapeways where required -easier and cheaper than machining. Sometimes.

Current status: All the large parts are done, internal structure is half-in and the wings are about to go together. Here's a photo taken a couple of weeks ago of the whole deal held together with sticky tape. Target finished hull weight is less than 10kg.