Flavio, I eagerly check this thread every day to see what you will contribute next. I am in awe of your artistry. Your models are a delight to the eye.
Regards;
DaveG
I am very happy ( very ) to know that so many persons around the world are enjoyng the progress of this catboat footy, but at same time I don’t want to give the misleading impression that this model is very nice but unbelivable skills are needed to be able to convert few plank of balsa into a sailing object
Once again I wish to underline that this type of model needs only several working evenings of careful of work and a bit of love of wood and boats
Building of prototype is only the first part of this nice story
The second part will be about the launch ( I hope ) of many other models around the world.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
And now let’s speak about the future :
Brando has been selected by wooden boat magazine as their “official” wooden boat footy.
Wooden Boat magazine will sell the plans ( paper version, or downlodable pdf ), and - may be - a kit box too.
My own model will be mailed to them and put on display during Mystic Wooden Boat Show ( may be as a competitor to the race too )
I have proposed them to post on this forum a semplified version of plans for free, and they are currently evaluating this opportunity
Fianl decision will be based on evalution of both alternatives
Just to clarify the point - final plan most probably will be approx a 15 tabloid sheets booklet ( A3 size or 11"x17" ), and second class version one or two sheets only.
I have envisaged to write a quite detailed building manual too, to speed up the work and to help beginners
Planned deadline is for the end of june ( mystic event ) even if they are looking for good quality work instead of a prompt one ( and I agree with them )
I will give notice about igood news
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on next saturday Brando will take part to a footy regatta, and it will be interesting to have a first appraisal of racing potential
most obviously I will post results and photos next week
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This evening work on new spars , and a third keel should be finalized
stay tuned
Flavio
Broadly speaking in order to offer also a simplified way to built this model I would like to explain - as far as possible - at least two different methods to make details : a “best quality” standard and a “good enough to sail” alternative
Spars are a good example of this philosophy
I have arranged a preliminary rig, in order to have a first appraisal of sailing performances.
After three sailing tests I have fine tuned the project and new spars are now “semiscale” enough to match the classical look of the hull
Basic sticks are untapered, and gaff and boom jaws are made using copper wire ( see below )
Pretty sticks, are tapered, jaws are made using thin birch plywood, and here and there there are small cleats
Weights, stiffness, and sailing performances are almost the same
But most obviously the simpler version will be easier to manager for a novice ( or lazy ) modeller
++
Tomorrow Brando will enter a footy race in Turin , against four competitors… more about the results on monday
Flavio
I resemble that remark 
Thanks for all the info on the details, Flavio. Hearing you tell us how simple it is tends to be at odds with looking at your gorgeous little boat ;). I appreciate seeing some of the little details, since I plan to build a Brando as my first model sailboat.
-Rick
Good luck, Flavio!
Regards,
Bill Nielsen
Oakland Park, FL USA
Notwithstanding the careful and perfect organization , the Turin sailing event on saturday was to be considered only as an happy “barbecue party” due to wind close to zero, a lot of weeds, huge carpfishes and an impressive fleet of ducks on the small lake.
The funny side of the day is that , due to the fact that this gathering was also opened to electric driven models, many small yachts have been rescued by model tugs
Two new sister papayas have been build and skippered by Marco and his family team, and even if they seem to be balanced enough , their lack of sail area under our light italian breeze was evident.
My Brando, using a very light keel, was - at least - able to cruise around the lake without help from model tugs or ducks
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Yesterday ( national holyday here in italy ) I have been able for the very first time to take advantage of a nice northern wind to test Brando under a wind close to 15 kts
Even if my photos are far from perfection ( I was also steering and tracking dangerous motoryachts close to my test area ) , many of these pictures are quite useful in order to show sailing performances.
Steering is delightful both upwind and downwind
Balance has been purposely tuned to need few degrees of weather helm in order to solve the usual footy problem of slow tacking performances
According my first impression maximum allowable wind speed ( before moving down to the storm rig ) is almost the same from heel point of view as well from pitch side
In other words, under wind gusts deck start to be underwater ( going upwind ) at same wind speed the model starts to put the nose down when going downwind.
Even if small adjustments to rudder, keel, and rig are possible, this nice sailing afternoon seems to be a good confirm of a balanced design
I will work on final touch before mail everything to the other side of atlantic ocean
( by the way : bill hagerup himself will be so kindly to help the wooden boat magazine staff to learn basic tricks of footy sailing ! )
I hope to be able to have a final sea test before the packaging
Flavio
Flavio,
You have a very excellent boat there. It also raises, again, the much-debated question of whether a fat Footy is faster than a thin Footy. Scott Spacie had compared two boats, thin diagonal vs fat conventional, prior to the US races in Florida, and decided on the thin one; but his decsion was based on controllability, not speed. You now have two boats to compare, where your fat boat is lighter than the thin boat. It would be interesting to see what happens if they sail against each other. Can you also do some comparative drag testing?
Happy sailing; experimenting with these little boats is fun, isn’t it?
Walt H.
Hello Flavio
I have been quitely following and enjoying your build.
A good method to compare sailing performance might be the Internet Course times including times at each mark rounding. This way we can see both upwind & downwind times. We may be able to estimate speeds up and down wind by assuming a 45 deg tack angle up wind. I measured time from camcorder on screen time display. Maybe I will go back & make some calculations on last years Jaunt & Jostle?
OK math experts, throw some darts at these numbers.
3 laps of IC = 375 feet
Best IC Time last July = 3:18 m:s
Average Speed 1.29 MPH
Assunptions
1 tack up wind @ 45 deg
1 foot radius /4 mark roundings
Straight down wind course
Total Distance = 375 feet
1 ft/sec = 0.652 MPH
I will let others compute knots.
walt and frank have re-opened the pandora box of “the” most important footy design choice : narrow or broad beam
this point has been discussed a lot elsewhere on the forum, and may be this is a good opportunity to make a brief summary about it ( at least from my own point of view )
1 from teoretical point of viewaccording my calculations , taking in account speed only, it seems that narrow diagonal boats are faster than fat and broad hulls
even if my computer estimations are not able to make prediction about steering or other important performances
2 from practical point of view
it seems to me that at least three big names in our footy world :
bill hagerup - razor, cobra , cobra mk II -
graham pugwash - kitty and now dragon -
brett mc cormack - bob about 2 and comet -
have moved their focus to this design option ( narrow and diagonal )
even if we are still far from final word about footy design, it is interesting to note that at least 4 persons seems to have reached a similar point of view
3 about my own footies
it would be very nice to compare my boats because both of them are flat bottom, balsa build and gaff rigged ( even if there is remarkable beam difference )
unfortunately up to now I have not been able to have such pleasure due to several problems
the biggest one is a safety recovery fishing line I use for a quick model rescue when a big motoryacht is approaching my favourite testing site ( see below )
Using two models ( and two fishing lines ) it would be a nylon fouling nightmare
Last but not least my cat boat will leave italy soon, and such test shall be postponed
As Frank have correctly pointed out, internet course is a valuable tool to asses footy performances, as weel to have a good experimental check of computer calculations
One year ago I have done a simple excel spreadsheet in order to assess average measured footy speed assuming an upwind true wind angle of 45° and few seconds lost for taking ang jibing
I will try to recover it from my hard disk to post the bar diagram on the forum
So far I am looking forward from graham about comparisons of his new narrow and diagonal dragon in comparison to older hull forms
He is a pro , and without doubt I imagine that it his thoughts and impressions about the matter are interesting
an interesting topic - without doubt -
Flavio
My comment was simply that IC course times might be better than drag racing. At least it can be the same skipper and reduce 1 variable.
but then you have the weather variable…
Hi Marc
It is nice to relate your name to a face after meeting at the Footy Nationals.
I was suggesting one skipper racing both boats on the IC, one shortly after the other. The times could be understood by all and put a relative measurement on the results. Also, with this systems, anyone can post times and see how they do vs. boats from all over the world.
Last July’s Jaunt and Jostle hosted by Brett McCormack was open for a one month window. It allowed skippers to pick wind conditions that they think are best for their boat. Everyone has the same opportunity, so I think this is fair. Maybe the guy living in the Summer doldrums won’t think it’s fair.
I recommend everyone tryout the IC and see how they do in different wind conditions and compare to the results showing on Brett’s web site. I think the best time was around 3min 18 seconds and as high a 6 minutes. Brett has talked about hosting the IC event again this year, I think in July. I posted my time a week after finishing my first racing boat.
Even if we are slowly drifting a bit far from the catboat topic, internet course testing is an interesting argument.
In my mind something is better than nothing
even if a lot of things can be confusing ( wind, waves, sail setting, skipper’s thumbs ) at the end of the day you have a least one good number to think about : time around buoys.
If you live on the Titicaca Lake and there are not many other competitors in your area , and your time is promising in comparison to time recorded by frank or brett or flavio tor angus this is without doubt a good new
If your time is not so nice, it means that something is wrong and there is room for improvements.
Following the wise decision from brett to reduce the distance, there are now good chances to sail a model several times during the same afternoon , testing several settings, and reducing the “luck” ( or unluck ) factor
One year ago I have done a small survey on available data in order to obtain the average footy speed on the internet course ( not only the best one )
I have assumed a true wind angle 0f 45°, to take in accound the extra distance covered going upwind, as well a ten second “time wastage” due to tacking and jibing
Best speed was 1.12 kts ( bob about 2 - brett mc cormack )
average speed among 13 model was 0.67 kts
- see below -
Even if have not ( yet ) made my own testing around buoys, these numbers have been really useful to start calculation for my Folgore design
Unfortunately I have been too lazy to update the database with the outcome of internet course 2008
Meantime on the web on a german web site I have discovered the ultimate internet course testing site… see below
footy race instead of saturday billiard, or poker, or bowling ?
( note also the high dressing standard of competitors )
flavio
, Great Idea…RC in suits…who knew? Bet you spent more than a few minutes taking pictures:D There is an idea…Our picture on our sails for ID…no numbers for registration delima:lol: Great having “eyes” for the rest of us stay at home felllas.
Thanks
jim:)
mystic event is approaching and I have added to Brando final touches :
- new spars , sail and rigging installed
- new rudder finished ( deeper and narrower )
- black boot top added to topsides
- rudder servo linkage slighty modified
- several coats of paint and varnish added aiming to reach a wooden boat magazine minimum standard quality
- wooden classic stand built
- handmade “Bodoni” registration stickers added
If I am lucky with the weather a final sailing test would be nice
More about it during next days !
Flavio
Under a cloudy sky , yesterday I have been able to have a final sailing check before mailing Brando overseas.
My catboat was rigged with new spars and mainsail , using light rc ( micro receiver and 4 cheap AAA ), and a new rudder.
Fin keel has been shifted about 10 mm aft, to fine tune balance
Wind was between 12 an 15 kts, and on the water there were small wavelets.
Even if attached photos are self explanatory, it is interesting to note that :
[i]- due to a lack of kicking strap mainsail was twisting a lot, most probably reducing wind pressure, and helping Brando to manage stonger gusts
-
a deeper and narrower rudder blade have improved downwind control,
even when sailing with an impressive nose down trim, the blade is wetted enough to properly steer the model -
there is a good agreement between experimental and calculated downwind trim ( see “downwind nosediving” post on 04-06-2009 )
the black stripe I have added on waterline is also a useful way to have a rough appraisal of pitch angle from digital shots recorded from the pier - see below the comparison -[/i]
Next move will be the start of an international effort to manage the catboat on her arrival on the west cost of united states
Under the careful eye of wooden boat magazine staff, and with the precious help and advices from Bill Hagerup and Frank Thorley brando will add an international status to the Mystic Footy Race
Even if final choice about the skipper has not been made yet, I can disclose that most probably brando will race under the flag of Tangle Wood model yacht club.
Many interesting news are to be expected during next days, this time arriving from USA instead of Italy
I am looking forward to have comments from other persons that have sailed this model and raced against other well known projects
… a funny and happy story started by chance two months ago
Flavio
Looks really great on the water (and on land)
I was looking at your stand with my wife (she really is wanting me to build one for her) and she said" how come Flavio doesn’t make those round supports look like the roman colums?" I don’t know why, but I will ask him…how come?
Thanks for the great thread and build. I,we, look forward to you being published and getting a set of plans for Brando. Keep us posted on your progress please.
jim and pat:) she made me add her name:lol:
Flavio, my friend…nobody does it better. Your work inspired me to build a more traditional-looking boat for Mystic. I just finished it, and there are some pics in the Mystic Race thread. It’s certainly not to the same standard as your boats, but it’s intended to be a competitive race boat (I hope)…so compromises needed to be made. At least, that’s my excuse
Bill
pat, jim
even if I was born in Rome, the building standard of my footy stand is most probably not up to ancient romans quality.
( anyway I have added a small detail close to the hull bottom not shown on pictures )
I feel confident that Jim will be able to give Pat something better for her next birthday ( along with a smart new footy catboat model )
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Bill,
as I have written on the mystic thread, your new model looks pretty and - without doubt - also very competitive
I hope to have soon good news about future sailing tests
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My model is currently crossing the atlantic ocean ( in a box - most obvioulsy ) to start this new yankee trip
Robert Fritze has been appointed as official skipper, and I hope he will share with us his comments about Brando
stay tuned
flavio