Welcome Jim Lee

[admin]

Howdy, Jim, thanks for joining us. Feel free to advert anything you think would be a good fit for the i550. I like those foot rests a lot! http://www.leftcoast.biz/iWeb/Left_Coast/Footrest.html

Loved seeing the LCDs come together and really admire the quality of the builds you've done!

ANd you don't need to BUY AN AD!

--TF/admin

[jim lee]

Yikes! I can't sneak in anywhere huh? And a SPAMMING license to boot! How cool is that?

Being an avid reader of all things build log I figured there'd be a lot of material in here to look at.

Thanks for the welcome!

-jim lee

[micah202]

...welcome JL,,
,,not sure how useful that would be on an i550,,
,,,,the 10 1/2'' width seems to point towards it being designed for the centre of a narrower cockpit,no?
......and I'm not sure what to make of it's 30'' length

.......just saying

[Chad]

...leaves room for lots of adjustment lines to pass through!

Looks like an i550 would need at least 4 of em. For a builder, it's one of the easier things to add built-in footrests/bensons while building the cockpit floor. If Geoff leaves them out of his grp boats, these could be a nice add on.

I am rethinking my stereo choice, and thinking the LC stereo would work heaps better.

[Tim Ford]

Hmmm...Couch, your boat must be different than mine.

They'd fit my build pretty nicely and look a lot better. I think the 10 inches refers to the footprint.

I like the fact that they are open and would drain water efficiently. Plus, I would LOVE to have my vang cleated way aft, back by the tranny.

[micah202]

.

...the beauty of 550's is personal choice!

[Justwannagofast]

Welcome Jim,

I've been following the dart from the beginning. PM me some info regarding the foot rests and the stereo.

Cheers
Geoff.

[jim lee]

No need to PM, Here's the link.

Products : http://www.leftcoast.biz/iWeb/Left_Coast/Products.html

We're on such parallel paths, I'd think most of the stuff we developed would work well on i550s. The Stereo is light weight and power efficient. As are the Touch lights. Then you have the AC Deck plate that allows you to have a removable Shore power system. Rig locks, Solar vent (Swaps out with the AC Deck plate) and of course the footrests. Would our rudders fit? Donno'.. Might be too big. B25 folks like those a lot.

-jim lee

[Justwannagofast]

Keel strut and rudder plugs for moulds are already underway. Pretty good in that department.

[micah202]

No need to PM, Here's the link.

Products : http://www.leftcoast.biz/iWeb/Left_Coast/Products.html

We're on such parallel paths, I'd think most of the stuff we developed would work well on i550s. The Stereo is light weight and power efficient. As are the Touch lights. Then you have the AC Deck plate that allows you to have a removable Shore power system. Rig locks, Solar vent (Swaps out with the AC Deck plate) and of course the footrests. Would our rudders fit? Donno'.. Might be too big. B25 folks like those a lot.

-jim lee

...what's the length above,below the 'notch' on leading edge,,,and the weight?

[jim lee]

From the point of the notch to the top of the rudder head : 19.90"
From the point of the notch to the tip of the rudder blade bottom : 48.89"

Basically 20 & 50 inches. They come in around 25lbs.

The rudder in question


Will they work?

-jim lee

[micah202]

From the point of the notch to the top of the rudder head : 19.90"
From the point of the notch to the tip of the rudder blade bottom : 48.89"

Basically 20 & 50 inches. They come in around 25lbs.
Will they work?

-jim lee

...on an earlier thread,,,3 of us found we liked a 46'' depth--I'm sure that extra 4'' isn't a dealbreaker,,
,,and that 20'' above WL sounds about right as well

......now yer ju$t gotta convince the$e homebuilder$ that 'we$tcoa$t' rudder$ are th'way to go!

[jim lee]

Convince?! That would mean I'd have to be a salesman. Convincing homebuilders to buy something they could make themselves? Super salesman! I'm not even a mediocre salesman.

I'll give it a go, lets see..

If I were a home builder.. What would my hot points be? (I'm guessing here so if you have more accurate hot points, feel free to wade in.)

• Building fins isn't as much fun as building hulls.
• Worry about getting the engineering "right" on a rudder. Under engineered can be catastrophic.
• Tight tolerances. Small faring errors can cause weird handling issues.
• Metalworking. How are you going to attach the tiller to this anyway?
• Shaping the core? How to get it "right"?
• All that resin work, bleck!

So you can avoid all this by just buying one of our tested and ready to go rudders. And, we also offer mounting hardware kits for tillers..

Oh and we've sold a bunch of these. We've even had people buy two 'cause they like the first one so much they bought one for their second boat. Granted these were for B25s and they are the hot ticket for these machines.

As for price? Good luck getting a better value.

How's that?

-jim lee

[jray]

And you said you wasn't a salesman.

Looks very nice! Hope you get orders to build more then just a few.

[Chad]

I suspect the 20" transom portion may be the tough part to work around, since an i550's transom is about 12" high.

I've been collecting rudder profiles from boats as their designs get posted in various sites, here's a sampler with Jim's included:

[Justwannagofast]

I've got a rudder mould for my FARR 37. Maybe that will work as well.
Think I will stick to what's designed for the boat.

[Justwannagofast]

Since we are working on the layup for the i550 rudder mould.
And we are talking value, especially with our USA customers since your dollar goes further.
Check this out.

The i550 ruddr is an open design for the builder to look at, so we will take your design and mill cores to suit. We have access to a 3 and 5 axis milling machinine. We offer a standard moulded rudder or we can do yours.

Standard moulded rudder vacumed bagged, made of carbon and cored and finished in high gloss white ready for your hardware placement. $ 695.00.

Optional wet sand, ready for racing. $ 100.00

Contact us for for shipping and hardware costs.

Remember, these prices are in Canadian dollars. That's true value my friends.

Geoff@veloctyboatworks.com

We are also working on the rudder cassette and keel strut.

[jim lee]

Well see, there you go! Nothing like a little competition to keep us all honest. Just Wanna has offered to sell you rudders WAY cheaper than we can. Now you have even more options.

-jim lee

[12to6]

Here's a plug for the left coast simple stereo:

On #129, we were removing as many pounds as we could for the Everglades Challenge. On paper, the simple stereo seemed like it would save about ten pounds from the off-the-shelf marine stereo and we could still use the cockpit installed. In practice, it extended battery power to where running the stereo was not even considerable, saved considerable space (space? On an i550?), and worked great. It was a big hit on the beach in Fort DeSoto, too.

Best part: when I screwed up the grounding, Jim and his Left Coast crew shipped it back to their shop, bench tested it, sorted out the issue - which was on my installation end and not theirs - and shipped it back to me within about a week. That included them taking the time to call me when it was on their bench and talk through what was going on. If only every - or any - other supplier provided that level of service, progress in my shop would move at a whole different pace.

Product is excellent, service is unsurpassed. Any chance you have to do business with Jim and his Left Coast crew comes highly recommended from me.

[jim lee]

I've not checked this forum in a while.
Thanks for the Kudos! Posted on my birthday too!

-jim lee

[admin]

Happy belated 29th birthday, Jim. And please don't be a stranger. Anyone who builds a boat as lovingly as you do, with the Darts, can teach us a lot.

BTW, the Dart would be in my top 2 list as a boat to move up to after the i550.