Any advice on how i can get my hands on some plans for ANT, or BUG3, or whatever Roger Stollery plans exist? I haven’t seen any any of his boats on this side of the pond yet, and people seem to be having good success with them.
Regards,
John W.
He’s on holiday at the moment. Send me a message around 1 September and I’ll deal with it for you.
Thanks Angus!
I think that the success of Roger’s Bugs and ANT may have more to do with the swing rig and the concept behind the boats than the hull shapes per se. What the hulls do have going for them is loads of displacement which provide the inertia so that his boats coast more through dead spots and have the power to tack in strong winds.
Coupling a heavy hull with a swing rig makes for a strong performer in all conditions. The swing rig provides superior light wind performance. The weight and beam, which normally would be anti-acceleration due to the wave making and the immersed surface area, provide carry and power in the stronger stuff. Leave it to Roger to make a dominant design sailing against the lightweight boat tide.
Being on the heavy end of the spectrum these designs are ideal first projects. First time builders have a tendency toward robust construction so the heavier weight of these designs would be more forgiving of overbuilding than some of the under 500 gram designs. I encourage Roger to make his boats available to all, and to post the panel shapes and building tips on the Footy website.
The recent U.K. Footy Nationals were held in mirror calm drifting conditions - the last race took 30 minutes apparently. I was there and almost fell asleep 
O.K. there were 4 Bug or Bug derivatives in the first 6. But lets not forget that these 6 places may also have represented almost 80 years of sailing experience which must count for something.
The size of the rig was also very important. Those with less than 150 sq ins counted for most of the attrition rate - of the 22 starters there were only 14 after lunch. Roger’s standard Bug sail from his plan is about 170 sq ins, but I suspect he had a lot more than that at Watermead.
My Mistralette had about 200 sq ins but it didn’t swing as easily as Roger’s Ant which meant for a lot in the low winds. Even though it was statically balanced the pivot seemed to have a lot more friction than the swing rigs.
Its worth pointing out that a number of people seemed to think that you were only allowed to own 2 sails, rather than own as many as you like but only chose the most appropriate two at race meeting. I hadn’t used my big sail before, but on the day it was invaluable.
Sail to hull balance also played its part. My Mistralette was sporting a new bigger rudder but I hadn’t got round to readjusting the sail position. Consequently, when aiming for the first mark I kept drifting off course which at the very low speeds my killer rudder could do very little to correct.
So the lessons from the day were :-
- Light weight was no particular advantage.
- Use the right sail for the conditions.
- Preparation and rig set up is vital.
- Practise, practise, practise - this is not something you can find on EBay.
Cheers,
firstfooty
O.K. there were 4 Bug or Bug derivatives in the first 6. But lets not forget that these 6 places may also have represented almost 80 years of sailing experience which must count for something.
I think this is underestimated…1st place has more than 40 years easy,and I know 5th place has more than 50 years,so we are already at 90 years with 4 more skippers to count!!
There is no easy way to get good at this game…
I very largely agree with Neil abiut Bugs and Ants. However, I do have some comments, which are not purely the result of sour grapes because Roger’s steamrollers continue to better than they ‘should’ against my lightweight flyers.
The most important thing to emember is that Roger is a world champion several times over in a variety of mainstream model yachts. In terms of experience, if nothing else, it would be pretty remarkable if the boat he was sailing did not do well.
ost of the other noxious insects that do well come from the Guildford Club or thereabouts. The setup of their rigs has almost certaibly had a lot of input from Roger.
When the windspeed goes up a bit, the superiority of a Bug in terms of boatspeed (which we lightweight freaks acknowledge in ghosting conditions) disapperas. As far as we can see, a Duck, a Mistralette, a Mooonshadow or even perhaps a Voortrekker is better in all circumsttances - if there is any wind. Unfortunately the Guildford mob are s*** hot drivers.
Ease of construction: yes - but most designers (including me) are their own worst enemies. If Razor had been published as a detailed design rather than just a set of panel templates (and Bug comes as - I think - 4 A2 sheets of highly detailed drawings), there would be far fewer Razors weighing in at 1000 g and fit to take on the Bismark. Inexperienced builders build heavy patrtly because they have not acquired the specific skills of building light, but more importantly because few published designs give the remotest idea of what the scantlings should be. In other words the designer (and I’m pointing mostly at myself) has failed to do his job properly.
Before he retired Roger Stollery was an architect (and a very good one). He has the professionalism to document his designs properly, which means that you can build a Bug pretty much as he intended. I think Graham McAllister (another very professional guy) is going the same way with his Pond Sprita and its relations.
I am sure that if a few pople ask him. Roger will send the drawings of Bug or even Ant for the price of the postage. However, strictly speaking, you can only get the drawings through the MYA. This is equivalent to the plans made available by the AMYA. The MYA makes a small profit and Roger makes nothing. Ufortunately the MYA has no ready facility for receiving money from abroad. If you deal through me, I shall endeavour to do something about this
Hope this helps all round. :zbeer::graduate:
The nice thing about Bug 3 is that the hull may be built of all sorts of materials. Roger likes to use Correx andis highly sucessful with it. I have two Bugs I built that way plus one built from 32nd ply of which the foils are also plywood and balsa. I shall be building one in balsa in due course. These wooden versions were/are built so that my grandchildren could patricipate learning some woodfworking skills along the way.
The second nice thing about these boats is the removeable electronics cassette. I always carry two to a meeting - in case I wreck one! I have one set fitted with standard servos (each weighing 47 grammes) and one with lighter servos (19gramme each) - I chose Hi Tec against advice but they have a higher torque rating than the ultra light weights (at 9 or so grammes) that I used previously and on which I succeeded in stripping the gears (carlessly perhaps - one skipper I know is sailing these lightweights in all weathers).
Cheers
Charles
And another thing
The Bug derivative second at Aylesbury was built I think from Plasticard
Charles