I would like to share with you all a project I am undertaking…
Some friends and I regularly sail East Coast 12’s and enjoy these boats. They are a good size, handle quite well and are, in my opinion, a damn fine looking boat. They are often referred to as “pretty” boats (I prefer classic but hey a compliment is a compliment right?) and the racing is close & friendly.
However…
They are getting on a bit.
After a few beers at a BBQ it was decided that we (we being me! - my mates bolt at the first sign of work) would build a new hull to place under the EC12 rig. Something newish looking, for a metre boat, and with maybe some keel wings. It was then suggested that we could build a mould and have a strict one design hull but not the keels. We put a limit on the draft and then all and sundry can design their own secret keel to win the Americas cup. Cool huh? A bit of tinkering without getting to far “outside the box” as it were…
So, in the interest of restoring some humour and good will to this board I ask you all to follow the progress of this boat.
Each Friday, I’ll post an update and some pics and you guys can let me know what you think. Think of it as a potentially historic event! One which you can all be part of. (It may only be a few boats that ever get built but it should still be fun right - )
Cougar and some others have seen some early lines for the new hull and I’ll post the final version of Friday as the first installment.
I welcome you aboard and hope you enjoy the journey.
troy
this sounds like a great idea? wow some good news. i should have realized all to good ideas, that come from down under. are always over a beer:-) hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm amybe i should have a few. i look forward to seeing the hulls. and seeing them in the water. good luck and fair sailing.
keep us informed
cougar
I’m in!!! 'Twoud be nice to have another hull to stick under my existing rig. I’ve got 3 displacement-hull boats, and will be finishing a new Star hull this summer, but a real ‘performance’ boat would be excellent. Something that’ll plane, perchance? Where are you located? I’m in central Connecticut, US…
There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. Kenneth Graeme, Wind in the Willows.
what do have in mind doug.
we are starting this class , and I have asked for help. troy and chicco and peter have all jumped on board. I did some design on tha rig. that chiico has on his boat. but i think i like the IOM set. but i also like the idea of the extra sail area. so i am working with the idea of a 1000 sqr inch sail. but like the iacc boat. we have to do one thing at a time. just ask the kiwis nzl 80. went to far to fast. what failed on the boat? the hula? the finger tip boom?. youcan see what i meen. ilike your idea of the rig experiment.
cougar
We’ve actually spoken about what to do with the rig and there are two schools of thought at the moment.
Option 1 is just use the EC12 rig. Being that the guys I sail with already have them lying around, we can just transfer the R/C gear and rigs onto the new hulls and go sailing.
Option 2 is we use the standard main and free up headsails. The new boat has a little more draft than an EC12 (215mm against 200mm) and is a bit heavier. This means we could use the standard masts and mains but just have a maximum I & J measurement to allow genoas, spinnakers etc. Since the boat has more righting moment it should cope with the extra sail well enough.
Its kind of a balancing act as to how much we want a new boat and how much stuff we just transfer over. This will probably be controlled by cost. Time will tell
The main class parameters as they are shaping up now are. One design hull. Upper & lower weight limit. Upper & lower LWL limit. Any keel/fin combo as long as draft is less than 215mm. EC12 mast & main. Headsails free (except for max I & J measurement) and spinnakers (to see if they are really worth having). Two movable appandages and the racing starts at 1:00pm
Troy
P.S. Stay tuned for Dummies Guide to RC boats - Chapter 1 - The Linesplan
troy
have you talked with peter rechebreg yet? i sent him some guidelines. and I think i included you in that list. but i have not heard from him lately
cougar
Tranth, having built over twenty rc spinnaker boats and raced in an rc spinnaker fleet for years I can tell you right now that a properly designed spinaker boat is a blast and that with such a boat you could not win without the spinnaker and knowing how to use it.
I raced an East Coast 12 for three years and it is NOT suitable for an rc spinnaker; it’s way too tender. Your new boat should be much stiffer in order to succesfully carry a spinnaker in all conditions.
An EC12 rig has much too large a jib to be used with an rc spinnaker. Now, if you redesign the rig with a smaller jib ,use a Hoyt jib boom so the spin won’t snag on a conventional jib boom and use a foredeck hole and tube at least 2.5"(64mm) in diameter along with the correct set angle AND significantly increase righting moment it might work. A rc racing spinnaker,as I’m sure you know, has to be able to be carried from a beam reach to a beam reach and be settable in 2.5 to 3 seconds.Gybing must be able to be done frequently…
The set angle for an rc spinnaker is the most critical design consideration: too high and the boat will pitchpole ; too low and the jib is too small.An rc spinnaker should noticeably lift the bow when hit by a gust.
The spinnaker opens up the downwind legs and adds an exciting challenge to racing…
Ned Kelly? [:-paperbag]
Troy, Any progress mate? I am one of the keen ones waiting to see your concept so I can use my EC12 rigs on a modern hull. Keep up the good work.[:-propeller]
Ian
Look under Beginners guide to RC boats and you will see the hull lines. They have been finished for some time and Im actually well into building the plug, I just wanted a bit of a headstart so that I can post at regular intervals…
Ironically… I started doing this several weeks ago since I have about 10 of the “old style” EC-12 hulls lying around. I can’t sell them as EC-12’s because they are not approved due to the new molds that are coming out this month. I can’t in good conscience sell them as something else (*unaltered) because the person that buys it from me might know what is going on… but I can’t control the hull from there… and that means that someone else down the line might get hosed when they bought what they thought was a legit EC-12. So… what to do with them? WEll I cut up a few of them and pitched them in the hopper, but some of the better hulls (I had practiced painting etc) I thought I would have to do something. So I started goofing with the keels, and the rig. Consequently I have some fantastic light air boats… going from 1200 sq in of sail as per the class to 2000+ sq in sail using a 120% genoa and deck mounted “wringer” style winch.
They are light air devils to be sure and a real handful in 10-12 kts. We have a lot of light air days here… particularly in the Summer when it is so hot the wind won’t even blow… so they will get a lot of use. I have seen them moving along when nothing else was stirring. We might have to compare notes and see what you guys come up with.
Larry,
Cutting up EC-12’s!!! MURDERER!!!
Nah only kidding, someone has to breathe some life into the old girls.
Do you have any pictures? The new boats I’m building here will have genoas (I’ve used them before) and I would love to see your ideas.
We have been discussing here what is going to be faster and the feeling is that the boats with the genoas should be faster reaching but running square the boats with jibs might have the edge. Upwind we are still undecided since the genoa boat will have slightly less righting moment due to the weight of the extra winch but the jib boat will have less sail area. At the moment the plug is being faired up so in a few months we might have an answer!
Troy