Hop2it Mark III completed.
Mark III is now complete with an AUW ready to sail of 340g compared with 416g for Mark II.
Regards
Peter & Clare
Peter and Clare,
I have not brought up this point about aerials as criticism of you two personally. I just see your design and execution of the Hop2It boats as exemplary of the sort of evolution of ideas that the Footy rule is meant to foster. And although you guys may be isolated geographically you are bright spots internationally and the elegance of your boats is bound to have influence on others.
Hi Niel,
None of your observations are taken negatively by us . In fact the opposite is the case. As most of our research for ideas comes from looking at Internet pictures and having never seen another footy other than our own we need outside input. The aerial is another reminder that assumptions should be challenged as it was only the rule summary sheet that led us to that method of mounting and we never looked any further. We have a reasonable investment in 36M radio gear so will be staying with long aerials for the foreseeable future. It would be interesting to see other methods for mounting long aerials on Mac rigged boats.
Regards
Peter & Clare
HOP2IT Mark III first sail.
There wasn’t much in it between Mark II & Mark III.
The Mark II boat has a new sail and rig on it that we have been working on for some time and is the best setup we have managed to date. (We have meant to update the aspect ratio thread with details but haven’t gotten around to it.) We seem to have achieved the Holy Grail of hands off sailing to windward.
We just made another one of this sail and rig for the new boat and it isn’t correct. Different mast step position etc.
Still Mark III was faster down wind but the two boats were virtually the same to windward. The difference being who did the better job of reading the wind and sailing the boat.
More work on the rig is now needed.
Regards
Peter & Clare
Hi Peter and Clare,
Beautiful shots of a pair of attractive Footies!
*****
The Footy is a brand new class, and many builders are new to model yachts and are working alone in their area, basing their craft on photos on the web and the the rules sheet they can download. That makes the various Forums like this one so important as a line of communication for keeping a finger on the pulse of the creativity out in the world. That is also why I am emphasizing that builders bring their questions to light so that the pros and cons can be vetted. Attractive boats, like the ones above, are very influential to new builders who are looking for inspiration. Discussing issues like the how the aerial should be mounted are key to keeping everyone’s design and building efforts in line with the class at large. Peter and Clare might not pack up their boats and travel to a race somewhere, but if they did they would want to find that their boats conformed to the rules so they would be able to compete.
P & C,
An already pretty boat would look even better with no visible aerial at all.
Here in the U.K. I use 40MHz AM radios and have never experienced any range problems with the aerial wire glued directly to the underside of the deck. I cut the aerial about 2 inches from the Rx and use a screw connector to achieve interchangeablity.
Cheers,
firstfooty.
Hi Firstfooty,
We would never have thought of putting the aerial inside the hull. Coming from an aeromodelling background the consequences of radio failure are catastrophic, therefore such things weren’t worth trying. Those that did paid dearly.
When you say that you attach the aerial to the bottom of the deck what exactly do you mean? Is it the full length of the aerial in a flat coil? Perhaps a pic at the construction phase?
Regards
Peter & Clare
Glue a drinking straw around the perimeter of the under side of the deck with a cotton pull thread through it. Tie a washer end stopper or similar on one end and tie the other to the aerial. Pull the aerial wire through the tube. Leave the cotton tied on so the process can be repeated if the receiver has to be removed.
You may be able to retro fit by poking the straw with aerial through the hatch and tack gluing only the ends to the deck or hull.
Coiling an aerial will reduce range, but there is usually plenty for a small boat!
Actually, with 72mHz we often put the antenna inside fuselages which are largely carbon fiber. Usually it works fine and a good range check confirms. In special cases, such as the “hybrid” carbon/kevlar fabrics, or when using 2.4 gHz. These are large gliders flown to the limits of vision.
So unless you’re making a 1 to 1 scale model of the Club Mediterranée, you probably won’t have a problem sailing out as far as you can see.
Or perhaps 40 mHz is different?
P & C ,
Photos of my aerial installation would be difficult since once the deck is glued on the aerial wire cannot be seen let alone photographed.
My hulls all have an Inwale of balsa strip glued to the side of the hull and a deck’s thickness down from the top edge. I use this as a ledge onto which I run the deck fixing glue.
So, what I do is to glue the aerial wire immediately below this Inwale. I use the full length of aerial wire, either 19" for a Futaba radio or 40" for a Hitec. I cut it about 2" from the radio and attach a small screw connector and then lay the remainder in a single run around the whole deck edge with a short free length adjacent to the radio for handling purposes. This allows me to be able to change the radio if necessary without affecting the main aerial run.
I suspect that range is not such an issue in a boat as it would be in a plane and being enclosed is not significant. I am using 40MHz AM radio gear an it works just fine. I would imagine it would work for 27 or 7? MHz too but I have heard somewhere that 2.4GHz sets don’t like being under water so I wouldn’t risk this layout with one of those.
Although lincolnr is prepared to put aerial wire in a " largely carbon fibre " fuselage I would certainly not be prepared to run one up a carbon fibre tube mast.
Cheers,
firstfooty
Hi All,
Thanks for the suggestions.
We have some experiments to do.
The drinking straw might be the best way to go for a retro fit.
Regards
Peter & Clare
Although lincolnr is prepared to put aerial wire in a " largely carbon fibre " fuselage I would certainly not be prepared to run one up a carbon fibre tube mast.
Hey, that’s a great idea. As long as the stays aren’t electrically connected to it, that might work. For that matter, a stay might make an excellent antenna. I guess most Footies are unstayed, though.
I’m not “prepared”. I’ve been doing this for two or three years.
The thing is, you can do a range check and get a pretty good idea how well it will work without risking anything.
Hello Peter & Clare,
this are very nice boats and the result of your pictures here is that i will built two HOP2IT.
Red one for my wife and blue one for me 
Can you tell me the the location of the keel?
Regards
Hi Udo,
For the HOP2IT III the bulkhead is 90mm from the bow minus the 6mm stem post or 96mm from the very front of the bow. The mast step is immediately aft of the bulkhead and the front of the keel is a further 60mm aft of the centre line of the mast step. The keel has a constant chord of 40mm. The pivot point of the rudder is 25mm forward of the back of the transom. The rudder has a constant chord of 32mm and a length of 105mm at the pivot point.
We hope this helps.
Have fun.
Regards
Peter & Clare
That’s perfect. Thank you very much
Regards
Hi All,
Thanks to all with the suggestions regarding aerials.
Although it didn’t feel right we took the plunge and put the aerial internal to the hull.
Well guess what? No problems at all.
After thinking on the installation method for sometime a simple answer was found.
We used a length of NyRod inner (aeromodelling product) to put the aerial in.
The NyRod was placed up under the deck and because it wants to spring out straight it wedges itself in position without glue.
See pics.
305 has the aerial inside, there is still the end of the external tube and 308 still has the aerial external.
They both now have internal aerials and their tails docked.
Definitely looks better.
Regards
Peter & Clare
HOP2IT III Update
After sailing the HOP2IT II & HOP2IT III against each other, using the same rigs, for sometime we found that there was no performance advantage with the HOP2IT III. This didn’t seem right. Also the HOP2IT III heeled a lot more than HOP2IT II. After much discussion and theorizing we decided it must be the keel. The decision was made to cut out the keel and bulb from the original HOP2IT and fit it to the HOP2IT III. This keel is short (200mm) and has a narrower chord (32mm) and the bulb is heavier (196g). The keel is a carbon model helicopter blade. This has made the sailing weight 406g. The new keel is fitted with the leading edge at the same position as the original ie. 60mm aft of the mast step.
What a difference. The boat is now markedly faster to windward than HOP2IT II. Also it no longer heels dramatically.
Regards
Peter & Clare