http://www.aquataurmodels.com/index.html
any experiences or heard from it ?
Eric,
just saw the pics on their website some time ago…nothing more!
I also was wondering
-Wis
_/ if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it! _
At one time MicroSail had considered being the US sales rep for Aquataur. Doug bought an A600 (the model shown above) and had a chance to sail it. He felt that the “guy” was a little too light and resulted in not enough righting moment (note how small the sail area is). He said it was fun to sail but was pretty slow (probably due to the small sail area).
He gave/sold that boat to Dave Goebel. I don’t think Dave has had a chance to sail it. I asked Dave if I could borrow it (I wanted to study the mechansim to see if I could do something similar with an RC Laser). But Dave never got around to sending it to me and now the ponds are frozen. I will ask him again in the spring and try to spend some time sailing it.
By the way, there is a 1.2m boat made by the same company with the same idea (movable ballast) called the APS1200. That boat may have a better ballast ratio (but judging by the sail area on that boat it looks like it might be a bit on the light side as well).
- Will
Will Gorgen
the model above ist the big one, i would be interested if anybody has pictures of the mechanism
I didnt know DL was willing to introduce these boats, they do look nice though…
Will, when you inspect the system, post some comments plz…
Thx
-Wis
_/ if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it! _
Eric,
You are right - that is the bigger boat. The prototype of the smaller boat was read, so when I saw the red hull, I assumed it was the A600.
Wis,
Yes. For a while the Microsail website had a picture of the A600 indicating that they were going to be the US distributor for Aquataur. But that did not pan out. That was before the APS1200 was developed.
If I ever get the boat, I will share what I find out. Like I said, I am looking at building an “add on” for the RC laser that would have a similar system. I am actually looking at using 2 radio channels for the ballast so that you can adjust the “hiking” in and out as well as fore/aft. Steve Lang has been pretty helpful so far. It looks like I would be able to procure some extra parts (a deck hatch and daggerboard) that I could hack up for my prototype.
The guy on the Aquataur boat swings through aft, so your ballast shift pretty far aft during the tack (and also when you center it for sailing downwind, I assume). This has got to be slow. My idea is to design a scissor type system that would allow the head of the sailor to pass through forward while the arm that hikes him out would swing aft. This way, the ballast would move along an athwardship line rather than in an arc. The bonus is that by hinging the arm and body this way, I can also move the ballast for and aft when the guy is hiking. I have worked up a prototype of the mechanism out of LEGOs and it seems to work pretty well. Given the ballast that will be supported at the end of the arm, I think I may need some pretty hefty bearings at the deck to support the overhung load. But that should not be a problem either.
- Will
Will Gorgen
BTW, Wis,
If you look at this picture: http://www.aquataurmodels.com/pages/gallery/aps%20gal/pages/aps7.htm and this one: http://www.aquataurmodels.com/pages/gallery/aps%20gal/pages/aps8.htm you can get some idea of how the mechanism works.
The sailor’s “feet” slide in a track comprised of the two forward tubes of the “rack” system (the rest of the rack is just for show near as I can tell). A rod (attached to the servo) swings from side to side and is inserted into a tube that runs inside the sailor (starting at his feet) such that the sailor is always pointed away from the axis of rotation of the servo.
I’m not sure how the weight is distributed in the sailor. The sailor has both ballast and flotation in it. I’m guessing that the need to right the boat in the event of a capsize has force the designer to keep the flotation high in the sailor (as well as high above the deck for leverage under water) and thus the ballast got relegated to his lower torso and feet. That probably contributes to the lower righting moment for the given amount of ballast.
- Will
Will Gorgen
more pics at:
http://www.asqq32.dsl.pipex.com/photos/bigimages/Aquataur%20A600%20a.jpg
http://www.asqq32.dsl.pipex.com/photos/bigimages/Aquataur%20A600.jpg
http://www.asqq32.dsl.pipex.com/photos/bigimages/AT600.jpg
the ball on top of mast is flotation device
ed