i550class.org

It floats, it sails.



After what, some 6 - 7 years? Hull #87

Congratulations. It looks great

Phil

Thats awesome, Tim,,,, Congrats.

What is holding the keel in the up position?

Congratulation Tim! Looks like you had a good day to splash and enjoy a sail.

Jon C

Well done Tim! Now you get to enjoy all the hours spent building her.

Hah, yeah, figured someone would ask.

We got the keel down but it was a bear trying to get it back up. Once we did we were reluctant to let it down again without going back to the drawing board with a new and improved lifting system. What we found works best is using the boom for a lever (rather than as a hanging platform for a 4:1 block and tackle). So the plan now is to construct a bipod and use that as a fulcrum with some sort of lifting arm (lever) that still needs to figgured out!

here is us messing with the reluctant keel....

Congrats Tim.

I am also going for my first sail this coming weekend since February.
My boat has been on dry land for the last 5 months....
Applying anti-fouling, outboard servicing, and mast repair (mending splintered luff groove, implementing bolt-thrus for shroud tangs, reattaching spreader brackets).

Cheers,

Best of luck getting back out on the water, Loh! I have a feeling the Laundry List for my boat is going to be growing once I do things like hoist the assym in some decent breeze. We really shouldn't have strayed too far from the dock on Sunday, but there was a wind-line outside the creek and we said, what the heck, let's go for it....not sure that was wise considering how unprepared the boat was.

The 55 lb. thrust trolling motor seems a little inadequate...the thought was to sail until close to the trailer ramp and then maneuver with the mota. Say one thing though: ramp launching was a piece of cake (except for my trailer-driving skills, which are minimal at best)

Thanks for the congrats, fellers, but seems like a lot to be done still....

Looks great Tim! Congrats!

Congrats on your recent launch. How did you insert the keel into the boat. I am to the point where I will be installing the keel Any suggestions will be appreciated.
noemar

Hi Noemar, we got the yard owner to pick the boat up off the trailer with a TravelLift. Then three of us lifted the keel/foil up on to the spot on the trailer where it lives. The TravelLift then lowered the boat down, slowly, and we got under the boat to guide it down on to the keel foil. There was a little friction but we wiggled it back and forth and used a bit of McLube to help it slide in. Felt good!

Add one more green dot to the map, had an awesome sail yesterday, surprisingly there were no surprises and everything worked liked it should (my articulating pole even worked under load).

As far as fitting the keel, I used scaffolding and a 2x8 beam, it worked really well and you can get the scaffold at nearly any rental center.

Congratulations on the launch. The boat and the graphics look great.

Proof of life photo, from last nights race....

Sweet!