It was interesting to read this, along with Bill H’s reply, because I too had similar thoughts when I was trying to meet the designed displacement goal of 450 grams on Bill’s “Cobra” design that I am still building. I looked at that beveled chine and wondered how much displacement it was giving up compared to a boat of the same plan with a single chine. I even thought about sticking some foam on the beveled chine, and reshaping it into a single chined hull to find out! Still, I do find the beveled chine much more aesthetically pleasing, even if it does carry with it a displacement penalty!
I’m curious as to what the displacement of the new “Bob-About II” will be. One of the big attractions of any small R/C sailboat to me, is to be able to use the most basic of 2 channel radios (since I already have several) with standard receiver, servos and batteries, yet still have enough “displacement room” left to allow for durable hull construction, and still be reasonably competitive. Somehow, having to buy a new featherweight receiver plus ultra-micro servos seems to get right back to a problem seen in the Marbleheads, and that is the need to throw money at it in order to be competitive.
Bill, small servos are getting very cheap these days, I think because of the popularity of electric sport planes. They are “standard” in many radio sets these days. I got 4 small servos with my DX6 that seem to work nicely for rudder servos.
But if you already have servos to use, no problem…you can save a great deal of weight, as I noted before, by using lithium AA cells. They are not expensive considering their life and the fact that you don’t have to buy a charger.
And don’t build your Footy based on your experience with bigger boats…you will overbuild. Footys built from 1/64 ply or 1/16 balsa need very little in the way of reinforcement…none of my Footys have bulkheads.
All that said, don’t kill yourself trying to hit 450 grams…Cobra will be OK at 500.
I don’t go in for fancy electronics as of yet either.
I mostly use a standard servo for sail control and a cheap 9g servo for the rudders.The 9 gram servos are cheaper than standard ones. for the RX I use standard also,I simply remove the case which saves a few grams.
Bob2 is not of particularly light displacement and will cope with the above setup without much trouble at all.
I see no evidence of marblehead type cost extremes in this class as yet,nor do I expect to see any in the future,sailing skill is a much higher % in this class than in others IMHO and “better” boats will have a hard time proving that they are indeed “better” as skill in setting up and sailing will mask many desirable traits in many designs for a long time to come.
In short at this stage pretty much any design that is setup well and sails hands off and is reliable with no obvious design problems will be fine for quite sometime to come.
That of course doesn’t stop us trying to improve the breed and of course improving the breed is fun and inexpensive.
Brett said: “sailing skill is a much higher % in this class than in others IMHO and “better” boats will have a hard time proving that they are indeed “better” as skill in setting up and sailing will mask many desirable traits in many designs for a long time to come.
In short at this stage pretty much any design that is setup well and sails hands off and is reliable with no obvious design problems will be fine for quite sometime to come.
That of course doesn’t stop us trying to improve the breed and of course improving the breed is fun and inexpensive.”
I couldn’t agree more…after playing with Footys for a few years, now, I still get a real kick out of them…and the design challenges still intrigue me as much as when I started.
send me an email jacksparrow and I will send a request.
Will package up the Bob1 plans(very complete) with the not so complete details for Bob2.between the two you will get her done.
Getting the drawing done,will be sending paypal requests to those who asked very soon.
Thanks for being patient whilst I get the plans ready for release.
Version one of the plans will be $7 and will include three sheets of drawings sent via air mail.
attached is Bob2 in profile.
Hi Nigel,
The boat is going great right across the wind range.
This is the boat that has the current best time around the internet course that I am aware of,
5min 29sec.On that occasion there was about 7 knots breeze. we have also sailed in near gale conditions,I will post more videos as I get them of the boat sailing in all conditions.
I’m finally learning how to muck with tuning, and my Footy is going pretty good (I’m comparing it to my first one I built).
I need to set up a course, and see what it’ll do. I also must find time and money to sail it in events with other sailors as well, to gage performance.
All in time, all in time.
Do you see any future to a monthly, bi-monthly, etc. postal events?
Maybe with a World’s postal at the end? Just wondering because of the hurdles to get to other global destinations for some of us.
:zbeer:
I have a limited interest in racing, but I have never been in a sailboat where when meeting another boat in open water you don’t start trimming sails very quietly while hearing the click of winches etc from the other boat.
It’s not just human nature either. I’ve ridden horses that when enjoying a gentle canter have decided that they were faster than the horse next to them and got into an all out race.
I think the reason for my partial disinterest is all the rules that have to be digested. If sailboat racing were more like bumper cars I might like it better.
I will take it as it is, and probably learn the fine points of the rules the hard way. At least no one will protest me for holding my jib out with a whisker pole. (had a guy quit our Thistle fleet over that particular rule)
Blah blah - Coffee time and it’s a working day for me. (National holiday here in USA)
Getting close to learning this stuff the hard way on my first boat. Just a sail and a deck away from completion. The rudder is not attached but all the other work on the rudder is done. (Through hull rather than transom)
Too bad the internet is so slow. (propagation delays through repeaters and bridges etc.) We could mail boats to the race and compete on video if there were less real time delay. (Maybe next decade) (Hmm… maybe there is something to this quantum entanglement stuff that we can use for instant response)
Edit: The term I was looking for is Latency, which is the time lag going through routers and what have you between any two points on the Internet. If we had enough bandwidth and no latency we could race remotely, assuming good enough video coverage. Supposedly quantum entanglement causes a distant entangled particle to change its spin etc in lock step with one under control nearby. This is supposed to happen instantly, but will probably never be useful for information transfer. It would be cool if I was wrong about that!
Nice when the caffein soaks in and you can remember the right words.
End of edit
there are only 4 basic rules ( Rule 10, 11, 12, and 14) that cover the basics and the others are there to fill in for just about any other situation. But basically, the rules were made up by gentlemen to avoid damage to the boats, and are based on “give the other boat room to sail.” So, if in doubt, let the other boat have some room.
I was in the spectator fleet when Ted Turner convinced the skipper of Dame Patty that he should give him (Ted, the American skipper) room at the mark. That was the end of the America’s Cup for Australia that year.
That’s the hard part for me, knowing when you are right and the other guy has to give way.
I’ve raced Thistles and crewed on larger boats, but I find more fun in casual racing rather than formal, round the marks stuff. Last one to Louis’ buys the drinks type racing, paddles allowed.
To Pete Schrug:
I sailed a 36-600 Graupner “Gracia” for nearly 10 years ‘all on my lonesome’ with only the company of small boys–“Does it have a propeller, Mistuh?”, and found to my horror that I had developed the habit of forgiving myself for my mistakes. When I found a group to sail and RACE with, I was appalled at my own deficiencies in seamanship. “How come he’s 10 ft ahead of me when I thought I was doing everything right?”.
My unsought advice is to race-race-race! Don’t ever think that “I’ll just sail around the pond and have fun!” That way YOU become sloppy, and then you start to not enjoy it so much! You can’t have pride in ‘sloppy’!
Find a group to sail and race with, even if you have to go around twisting arms!
Forgive the diatribe, but I do mean well.
Rod
Ver 1 of the Bob2 plans are ready,I will be sending paypal requests for those who have contacted me already.Plan sets will be $7.00 incl air mail.
ver 1 assumes some skill and perhaps a footy or two previously.
Suggested keel /rudder and mast positions are shown as well as sail dimensions.
I will help ver 1 builders by e mail if needed.
Thanks all for your interest