Just so everyone is completely clear on The Richardson/McCormack projects.
Moonshadow’s hull is completely the design work of Angus…I designed the fin,Angus the bulb.
The rudder is a mixture!! I of course designed the rig.
I took care of scantlings/engineering and of course built the boat(rather hurridly in the end!!)
I am in no way connected with the next Richardson boat “Voortrekker” in anyway whatsoever.
Angus and I have not fallen out in any way whatsoever,we are good friends!
I will be designing and building a boat for the Liverpool event.It is very unlikely I can attend but should be able to arrange a fairly high level sailor to compete with her.
I am surprised (and bewildered) at the resistance to using AAA cells.
Four AAA cells are 45 gms. The light boats are using disposable and costly AA lithium cells at 60 gms. So AAA cells are only a weight saving of 15 gms ~ 1/2 oz. Being rechargeable they are much cheaper.
Even with only AA cells, the Footy is becoming lighter, this will not stop. Micro gear has halved the r/c weight and pushed the price up. Brett has found a 1 gm RX, that’s a saving of 27 gms over the standard RX, but who’s complaining about that?
Using AAA cells would make every Footy 55 gms lighter, for only £1.99 more than AA cells. Every boat becomes faster and more fun to sail.
Muscle Footys can add 55 gm to the ballast for more muscle and less fat…
All racing classes move towards the lightest boats possible, which will be designed and built by the most skilled. The average guy will always build an average boat. Skill is developed through education and practice, this used to be considered worthwhile. The Footy was intended to be educational - a cheep class where you can develop skills.
For me, light means simple and cheep. My first Footy was 600gms, the one I am building now, is 300 gms. Carved out of polystyrene foam, it is easier and cheaper to build than the heavy one and much faster.
Sadly the radio boat will cost more due to the micro radio gear and the disposable AA cells needed for racing.
For practice, tuning and fun I will be using my AAA cells and a 15 gm corrector weight. This will save my money and the environment.
Forgive me for isolating this point but we should be careful to compare ‘apples with apples’ as they say.
If we, the racers, can use AA Lithium cells then we will use AAA Lithium cells so let’s compare those costs if cost is an issue. Looking at Radioshack for simplicity and high street availability…
Lithium AA (non re-chargeable) wt. of 4x cells… 58g, capacity 3000mAh
cost @14.99
With less than half the capacity at least (smaller physical size generally means higher internal resistance) does this not make the cells more than twice the cost?
To put the real cost of Lithium AA into my perspective though, I bought a set of 4 while in England to sail the Slithy Tove event. The wind was brutal and must have taken more than the average regatta out of those cells. I then sailed with the South Daytona guys for a casual mornings racing. Then off to Raleigh for a full day regatta. Finally home in Wisconsin with the water freezing I put those same cells in my digital camera which I use quite regularly. They finally gave in at our Christmas Party on the 25th. Not bad value really
Similarly comparing Duracell Coppertop Alkalines their data sheets suggest that AAA have approximately 1/3 the capacity of AA at typically the same price… so 3x more expensive in reality.
I know none of this is big money and I don’t think any of us are pleading poverty because of sailing this class but every little bit does add up.
http://members.optusnet.com.au./~bgrcyachts/M%20History.html
This link shows some of the history of the M class,readers may see trends here that you can see in the footy class as it gets going and the likely place the class may end up.
The good thing about the Footy though is that differences in boats will most likely show up less,sailing and tuning skill I think can overcome a lot more in this class than some others.
Although as the boats get more sophisticated this may change somewhat.
Attached also is a better pic of my 250g “lash up”
I don’t know if they are static, or working.
Fluked on to the page, and now have been inspired.
I was looking at using one of my catamaran sponsons, but the disp was too light…131gm.
Might concoct something on freeship tonight.
yea its hard to tell they look very detailed im thinking there probly free sailing version of the larger one but im hoping they are rc but the displacement loks very low and look to have q fare bit of balest still.i quite like the shape of the rear of the hull and ive been thinking of trying to make mine a litle more like it ie wider and flater rather than geting norower the hole way down.
They appear to be 1/3 scale models of an IOM
dipl should be approx 148g
keel/ballast should be 93grams.
R/c would be possible with the Falcon breeze block and a small Lipo
Lets just suppose all restrictions on electronics in the Footy class were removed.
It would be possible then to build as light as 100g or even less all up with very respectable ballast ratios.
How light is too light??? where is the point(weight wise) where the boat will not cope with wind and wave conditions???
Interested in others thoughts
All restrictions removed? i read that to mean that the footy rule would simply revolve around the “box” as long as it fit into to 305/152 box its legal? what about things that want to over hang the box, rudders for instance?
i think what would happen is you would start to see some rather extreme designs… for instance, if angus was able to power Moonshadow by a super-lightweight lipo, or your new boat brett, it could get even lighter, narrower, etc with a micro set of lipos. then too you might see the “muscle footy” guys trying out moveable ballast, and personally, i would like to see a footy on foils… however, i think there would come a point, (actually, i think it would happen twice, once at the beginning, and once about a year later) when there would be a generation of these “super” footys that desintegrated - not unlike some of the Open 60s are doing now in the southern ocean - where the boats are taken too far, built too light, for the rather minor forces being put on them…
long story short, if all restrictions were removed from the footy class the obvious would happen, general mayhem would erupt… it might be really bad for the class, but, it would be really fun for the designers… :devil3:
so why not have efectivly two clases racing in the same class eather with seperate winers or just do it on a hadicap or something that way you still have a chance if you have only basic skills or funds yet it will push the class forward for the people that do have the skils aswell as giving the basic bilde something to aspire to.
like “line honors” i like it! looks around thoughtfully… perhaps i ought to spend some time with old freeship! i wonder, should we petition angus to let us go hog wild with our designs for his symposium?:devil3: (sorry Angus, i just had to ask:D;) )
i recon somthing like ulimited footey class same major box rule but can have mutiple ruders alowed any baterery radio setup maybe even more that two chanel,would be nice to somehow alow mutihuls and foilers but might screw things up a bit mutch without it geting too far away from the origanl footy thing.
basiclay the way i see it is that these boats are great for experimenting as there so small and it seams sill to stop progresion.
sory got to cut this mesage shore got to get on a plane.
Nigel,
I wasn’t putting forward any motion or anything…merely musing if there is a point where a foot long yacht will be to light to perform well.
ie will a 300g footy beat a 100g footy if both are built equally well.
search your history for that French site could ya???
