I built the fisrt hull badly. Second hiull on the way much better. I have also made my first set of reduced area sails for the PAPAYA based on the original set (way to much canvas for my last fet trips). The only major change is that I have a jip boom with in set pivot to keep the rear of the jib down. I tried it last night and the behaviour in very gusty conditions seems reasonable. The first attempt failed as it momed the centre of effort (CE) too far forward.
I have built a second sail based on theUNA rig for the 507 but this eems to need the CE some 20 mm rear to match that of the original rig; is this typical changeinbg from Sloop to UNa rig? Sailing trials await the second hull.
Finally anybodey using the Stollery power lever? It looks easy to make and does appear to offer a significant gain. Is it as good as it looks?
I have built 4 of Rogers various designs and currently own one of his Ice. I have used the power levers on all of these boats and found that you need a bit of thought to get them to the right length. To begin with the end of the lever in the forward position must allow the sheet to go sufficiently far forward for running. That fixed, then the lever is brought back to the beating position. In moving it back, the mainsheet ring should slide along the length of the lever from its tip to a position nearer to the servo. If it does not the then in high winds the mainsheet remains near to the tip of the lever and because of the length of the lever tends to overpower the servo. Since we are now using miniature servos a bit too much leverage will burn one out.
In Roger’s designs we are now using lighter wire for the lever that we used to do. It then has a bit of spring in it and that in turn helps when sailing in gusty weather. To attach the lever to the servo arm simply thread one end of it through the holes in the servo arm at one side of ther screw - and thread the other end smilarily through the other end of the servo arm making sure that you leave a little kink in it so that you can get the servo screw in and out.
Incidentally I don’t lay out my electronics in the Stollery way, but put the rudder servo on the centre line and further aft so that he power lever has a clean sweep. Speaking of rudder servos in these cassette systems - I make the hole for the servo a bit over size. That way - with everything swithched on the servo can be orientated so that the servo arm is exactly at right angles to to the centre lione of the boat.
I’ve been using aluminium tube as servo sheeting arms for a few years now and they have been working consistently well. Normal round tube can also be slightly sqeezed in a vice to produce oval section tube, making it stiffer in the direction the arm is pulling.
Having seen Roger’s power lever, I decided to make a few modifications to my original arm with nylon bolts and washers, producing a ‘power bar’ !
Bench testing has been fine but I’m sorry to say I’ve not had the chance to try it on the water yet. Please let me know how it goes if any one beats me to it and manages some on the water testing.
The first picture shows my original arm with Micro Magic Racing standard block and squashed end to facilitate fixing to the servo.
The second picture shows ‘power bar’ with bolt added to limit the amount of slide, end stop arrangement and washer as the sliding take off point.
Regards
Phil