I took my cat down to my sailing club at the weekend and got a fair bit of interest, with a few guys inspired enough to consider having a go at building one! In the winter a number of members of the club race Tactics; a Bantock designed 2’ keel boat. As the majority of the fullsize boats sailed at the club come into the performance catogory it will be interesting to see how many convert to somthing a little quicker…
To realy tempt people someone needs to design a composite boat that will cost under ?150 ready to sail, so with a cheap 2 channel radio thats ?100 ($130 ish?) for hull and rig. hmmmmmm I love a challenge!
If you can build a carbon boat for that price I’ll take three. The carbon alone (if you purchase the good stuff as I do) will cost more than $130, not including your time, mold release, peel ply,perforated release sheets, bleeder cloth, brushes, epoxy, mixing sticks,mixing bowls, vacuum bagging supplies(if you vacuum bag) etc,etc,etc.
Matthew-
I think full carbon hulls on a 1m multi would be overkill. It you keep the weight down you could use a handfull of carbon tows in the fuse to keep things stiff. Set them between two 3oz layers of glass in epoxy. Use carbon tubes for crossbeams and have fun. Of course Dick keeps talking about the Impulse design. If I could ever pry his hands off of it long enough to build a mold we could have some nice little boats. I have seen all the pics, very nice looking boat!
Wheres the carbon from? For this boat I wasnt even considering carbon cos’ theres no way it could be built that cheaply. A polyester and csm glass hull with ply or glass bulkheads could Im sure be made stiff and strong enough. If Dick’s impulse design works as well as it looks I would be keen to get get hold of/build a set of hulls to take a mould off, with his permission of couse.
Matthew, in your experience with your multiONE do you believe a one meter multihull (without hydrofoils or movable ballast) is stable enough in stronger winds to not discourage a beginner?
Im not talking about beginners. Mayby to r/c sailing yes, but not to sailing performance sailboats. In my experience anyone who is a decent fullsize sailor can pick up an r/c set and within half an hour be battling it with the rest. And anyway a low tech budget boat is gonna be a fair bit heavyer than my cat, and therfore slower to wipeout.
Matt-
Not sure about that side of the pond, but when I took a really close look at the cost between epoxy and polyester I was surprised. Polyester is really only a little cheaper when you look at the overall costs. You are looking at maybe a dollar or two per hull. To me its not worth the godforsaken stench of polyester. Also consider the trouble in getting it to cure in a reliable fashion. Did I mention the smell?
You can get Material Data Sheets from the various makers of epoxy and most of them have a publication on safety issues. If you use common sense and the right equipment there should be no long term consequences. That means keeping your hands out of the stuff and wearing -at least-a mask when working with it.
The biggest problem associated with epoxy that I know of is “sensitization”.This can occur all of a sudden and will probably end your epoxy career: it is similar to a severe allergic reaction and has happened to people who have worked with epoxy for twenty years or to someone on their fist time.
If you have any physiological reaction whatsoever when working with epoxy stop immediately. Do NOT use acetone to clean epoxy off any part of your body(shouldn’t get there in the first place). T12, from Fiberglass Coatings, is a good cleaner for tools.
Epoxy can be some nasty stuff. Of course the MEK in polyester is not exactly user friendly either. Best bet is to wear gloves whenever you work with epoxy, even tiny amounts. Wear a respirator whenever possible. Never, EVER clean epoxy off your hands with any sort of solvent. Solvents make it easier to clean off by making it thinner, which also makes it easier to absorb. A barrier cream is a really good idea as well.
