I haven’t posted for quite some time, but I sailed my new boat for the first time yesterday, and I was very pleased with its overall performance…so I decided to show you I’m still around
Some people were taking pictures at the Scott Spacie Memorial Regatta yesterday, so if I get some action photos, I’ll add them here. I’m sure Scott was looking down at us and chuckling about my bringing a boat that had never been sailed before…as usual.
If I gave it to a better skipper, I’m pretty sure it would be a winner. It’s pretty light, so best in flattish water. Great acceleration…with the coincident quick deceleration. Tracks beautifully and tacks easily unless overpowered by waves. It was a bit twitchy downwind, but that will be corrected by changing the steering servo horn or expo on my radio.
Typical of my “kitchen table” boats, it is a chine design made from 1/64 ply, assembled with my usual tape and glue “air build” approach. The fin is a lamination of basswood, carbon strip, and balsa. The rudder is basswood with a carbon tube shaft. Displacement is 300g, LOA is 325mm, beam is 78mm.
The rig is a departure from my McRigs. It’s a swing rig based on an idea from Roger Stollery’s Marblehead rigs. I liked it well enough that I plan to make 2 bigger and one smaller to give me a complete set.
I wish you all well. As we compete this season, I fervently hope that we all keep in mind that the strength of the Footy class has always been in the friendship and camaraderie of skippers world wide. In the end, that is so much more important than having the fastest boat, biggest trophy, or most important title.
Hi Bill - good to hear from you - and I was not aware that Scott had passed away. If you are close to the family, please convey my condolences.
Nice looking boat, and hate to ask - but how is the class doing here in the US. I haven’t seen any posted regatta photos - nor any new boat construction pictures. Hopefully it is still strong and getting new members.
Hi Dick, Footys have gone through the typical cycle here in the USA. They were hot for about 3 years with terrific growth, then things stabilized, then declined as Micro Magics and RG65s took people away. There are still a lot of them being sailed here, and new ones being built every year, but mostly for recreation. Organized racing is pretty much confined to the Northeast. We had the regatta in CT on Saturday, and will have one in MA, one in NH, and one in RI this season. I suppose it would be a good idea to publicize our activities, and perhaps encourage others. I’m pleased to see a recent revival of activity in OR. Nathan Titcomb brings renewed energy to the Class Secretary position that may get some things stirring again.
I think the biggest deterrent to growth is the fact that Footys are a development class. Two factors are killing all the development classes here in the USA. First, people don’t want to take the time or develop the skills to scratchbuild. Micro Magics took off because they are a kit-built one-design class. Second, people have the idea that one-design racing is “fair” and that development class regattas are won by technology. I think the RG65 class would go the same route as other development classes here, but the ready-to-sail Dragon thing may keep the numbers up…at the risk of turning it into a one-design class here in the USA.
I’m active in two clubs. In one, we sail S1ms and US12s. It’s fun, but to me the sameness of it gets a bit boring, and it’s frustrating not to be able to change anything to improve performance. In the other club we sail mostly VMs…every boat different and new ones turned out now and then. Much more interesting, but much smaller turnout.
I don’t generally publish teasers, but I worked up a round version of the boat…I’m hoping that Nathan can use his 3d printer to make a plug for me. If it works, I’ll post progress.
Progress, Jim, but I’m not sure if I’m going to pursue it farther. Nathan printed the plug successfully. The nature of the process seems less than ideal, though. it lays the plastic in layers that leave notable grooves between. Nathan has been able to fill them with spackle to make a surface adequate for pulling a styrene hull, but it’s not good enough for making a mold to create glass or carbon-fiber hulls.
I’m also not sure where I want to go with the light versus heavy boat tradeoffs. More testing is needed to make up my mind to choose one or the other…or to define the conditions optimal for each.
Got it, thanks for the update. I understand your comment about the nature of the 3-D printer output. I have talked with a friend that uses a 3-D printer to create puzzles. He had agreed to make a couple of small items - 1" x2" x3" - as test cases for me. I had an idea that I might be able to use them as forms for some light 'glass shells. I had been creating some of these forms from plywood or balsa formers with blue foam sections to establish the lines of the shapes. That worked for me, but trying to make two forms that were asymmetrical in shape and mirrored left/right has been a lot of work and relatively unsatisfying. My eye can detect differences. The 3-D printer route seemed like a way to duplicate the mirrored shapes. But the grooves from the printing process were equally unsatisfying.
Groves on on the finish product are a function of the printer set up and software used I had the same part done from different printers with different results …
The printing quality can be improved.
Thanks for the input. I’ll go back and talk to my friend to see how his is set up and what software he’s using. With some improvements along these lines, I’d be more than happy to try again.
Hi
Any news on the 3D printing of a plug?
I’m really interested to know which 3D design software people are using.
After the 2013 and 2014 Gold Cups, I decided to make some significant modifications to my SliM design so started from scratch shaping a new split plug in foam. SliM2 is the result and I’m very confident this is a faster design, even though the results haven’t always suggested this was the case!
I’d like to make some relatively minor modifications to SliM2 but it seems rather exessive to go back to shaping another completely new plug from scratch. I have access to a 3D printer (and a CNC router if that’s a better option) so would like to digitise the designs and try some virtual tweaks.
Any suggestions would be gratefully recieved, however, …
I’ve been locked out of this forum for about a year and have discovered a few friends have also been locked out but none of us are aware that we’ve contravined any regulations!
The only reason I’m accessing the forum right now is that I’m on holiday and, on the off chance, having logged in on a different computer I dicover that I can gain access!
Regards to all
Phil
This is terrible news that you and your friends have been locked out of this forum. This goes some way to explaining why this forum has virtually died. You have been missed. It appears that Footies are mainly a European phenomenon now. This year there was very little to no information about the Footy Gold Cup. This includes using Google translate on the Italian sites etc. It would have been great to hear news of the boats, designs, sails etc used. We are starved now for Footy information in Australia.
Hopefully the issue of your access can be sorted out by someone quickly.
As to 3D design software for boat design we use Freeship or Delftship, both created by the same person. Freeship is the original software and not as up to date but supports surface developments, which we use. Delftship is the current commercial product but the free version doesn’t do developments.
Our last Footy which was a hard chine version of your Slim as far as we could tell was created on Freeship. http://www.rcsailing.net/forum1/showthread.php?7865-Rumours-afoot
These programs allow you to export stl files which is what you need for CNC milling or 3D printing. Attached are three zipped stl files of our design. One of each side of the hull and a merged file of the complete hull.
These programs are much easier to use and learn than a general purpose 3D modelling program especially to create boats.
Hi All
Thanks to Dick for making the necessary arrangements to allow me access to the R C Sailing forum again via my home computer.
Hi Peter & Clare
Nice to see Rumours afoot finished and in action.
Thanks for the info on digital design and manufacturing. I’ve already started looking at how I can have a go but in the mean time couldn’t wait any longer and have started shaping some foam manually!
The Footy class seems to be maintaining a good presence in Italy and England, with the French, German and Swiss fleets are being relatively small. Key features in both Italy and England being enthusiastic and dedicated sailors who maintain up to date web sites, organise local and national regattas and regularly sail their Footys.
The Gold Cup, of course, depends on participants being prepared to travel. I believe our Slovenian friends had the longest journey to be at the 2015 Gold Cup. It’s a shame the event wasn’t blessed with a little more sunshine and wind.
Lets hope for a great 2016
Cheers
Phil
This is great news that you are back on the forum.
Interestingly the email notification we received re your post contained the following sentence:
Nice to see Rumours afoot finished and in action. If you are still planning to build some larger rigs, here a couple of examples which may be of interest.
/Users/philtyler/Desktop/IMG_2180 (1).jpg/Users/philtyler/Desktop/IMG_1976.jpg
As you can see the actual post on the forum does not contain the sentence regarding the rigs nor the pictures???
Maybe you only have partial access?
Anyway we would be most interested in seeing the pictures and any information on your largest rigs.
We sail on small inland lakes which often have very light fluky winds.
This means that we mostly use our largest rigs.
The sailing is in mixed fleets and these conditions give a big advantage to the light footies. It is great to sail past large boats stuck with no wind:)
Also we don’t think we have seen pictures of Slim2 on any sites yet.
It would be interesting to see if you are happy to share.
Hi Peter & Clare
I am still struggling to insert pictures in my posts so in the meantime, while I try and work out what to do, you can see a little bit of detail of the latest rigs I’ve been using and SliM2 by looking at:
Sailfooty UK > Open Footy events > 2015 Open League > Birmingham open 2015
My rigs are all built using a slightly angled 6mm aluminium swing arms, 3mm mast stub and pivot and 4mm carbon tube. Sails are film, the largest using 25micron, has a luff of 850mm, foot of 420mm and an all up weight of 20g. The sail I used for all but one race at Birmingham is of 35micron film and has a 550mm luff.
Jonas Ahlstrand (SWE 41) and I raced SliMs at an informal mixed fleet regatta in very light and flukey winds with flat water and limited room for manoeuvre and, like you, found that in these conditions Footys were more than a match for much larger classes. I think Jonas must have won as many races on the water as any one else that day.
I’ll try and get some more detailed pictures for you soon
Regards
Phil
Thanks for the Birmingham link. We often scan the UK site but didn’t pick up your boat at one of their events.
Your boat looked very purposeful.
Very impressive sailing!!
Thanks for your rig information.
Presently our largest sail has a 800mm luff, 410mm foot and 2000mm2 area, made from 36 micron mylar.
We haven’t been able to source any lighter mylar but it would help for the large sails.
There are many occasions that a larger sail would be good and we have noticed the UK push for the big rig limit of 2200mm2 so this is likely to be our next sail size.
Also we have stuck with the so called Mac rig as opposed to your style of una rig.
This is an area we might experiment with at some time in the future.
On the picture insertion on the forum issue, it is a little involved process and a bit obscure.
We use “reply to thread” not “quick reply”, underneath the text entry box is an “additional options” box which includes an “manage attachments” link.
Clicking on this link brings up an entirely new browser window where you first have to upload your pictures by clicking on the “add files” button on the right top corner. Then make sure that the image files are in the attachments box at the bottom of the window and then click the “done” button in the very bottom right corner of the window.
We hope this is of some help if not let us know and we can see if we can include some screen shots of the process.
Good luck.
Hi Peter & Clare
Thanks for the guide to attaching pictures.
Here are a few shots which give an idea of the SliM2 lines.
You can also see the modifications I’ve made by bending the una rig boom to keep things as low as possible, as close to the deck as possible and shorten the gap between the boom take-off point and the sheeting post.
The swing rig is an experiment to try and match the sail plan more closely with the lower aspect profile of the UK big rig template. It seems to work OK but I’ve not had the opportunity to use it in a UK regatta to really see.
Regards
Phil
Thanks heaps for the pictures.
It is very interesting to see what you have done.
There is plenty of food for thought here.
We would be keen to hear how the swing rig performs when you get an opportunity to try it out.
