build status

[micah202]

The rudder is very responsive: I have a full section 4-feet rudder, no tapering. Cheers,

Loh,
Is you rudder the plan set rudder?, if so let me know how you like it. I have mine built but not sure I should have done more research.

....yeah!...congrats!!!

...don't worry 'bout the rudders,,an easy adjustment if you care to next winter.....the 4' is below the hull?

[slowpoke]

I'm in the process of sanding again, also. I sprayed both coats of pro-line two part, with wet sanding in between. It seems as though the orange peel is worse after the second coat. I'm sanding it back down again, this time i plan on rolling it. Any suggestions?

[Mist]

Rocky,

I recommend reviewing Russell Brown's "Rolling Perfection" instructions. It's a $3.50 pdf available on his webite. I believe he owns Port Townsend Boatworks and has great results. A few things his method does is thin the paint 15% although Interlux only recommends a maximum reduction of 10%. Another technique he uses is to pour the paint on a flat pallet to wet the roller. I'm attempting his method with a few modifications; instead of using the flat pallet, I'm using a roller pan to wet the roller then rolling the roller in a cookie sheet to even out the paint within the roller. Lastly, I apply to paint to the boat with his technique. Though his instructions are for Interlux Perfection paint, I'm certain you'll get good ideas and technique for your paint, which is similar. One thing I learned in the first attempt is that you need to put the paint on as thin as possible to get level coverage. Also, between coats wait longer than the minimum re-coat time. My next go around I'm going to wait to near the end of the recoat window before I apply the second coat.

On my first attempt the first coat went on so smooth, it appeared as I sprayed it. I 'm going to keep fiddling with technique until I achieve similar results with full coverage.

[slowpoke]

Thanks Tim, I'll give it a try. It was pretty frustrating seeing another $100 get sanded off the boat! What kind of roller were you using?

[Mist]

Rocky,

I use the 9" wide 1/8" TIZ yellow foam roller by Wooster. I bought them from thepaintstore.com. Oh, and another thing, use a new foam roller for each side of the boat. I noticed that by the time I finished one side of the boat the foam roller became over saturated with paint. Therefore, it was putting too much paint on the boat and not flowing out as well as it could have.

BTY, I don't know what happened with the west system yellow rollers but they recently changed and don't seam to work as well as they used to.

[slowpoke]

Thanks, I'll give it a go!

[lohwaikin]

Michael,

I built the rudder as per drawing, all 54" of it.
My rudder cassette is 14" tall.
Also about an inch of the rudder top taken by a stopper.
So I should have 39" under the hull.

I have been out sailing it at least once per weekend since launching it in Nov'14.
It's quite a handful to sail this boat solo.
5.8 knots is my best speed (from mobile phone GPS Apps) close reaching (or maybe broad reaching? I can't tell);
I run out of guts before the boat runs out of speed...
I usually ease off the main-sheet, or point the tiller, or both, to get the boat upright and ease off the pressure on my bum...
More crew should make the boat go faster I supposed.

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Cheers,

[slowpoke]

Loh, any chance you could show me how to make a main? And are you going to make your own spinnaker? Are you using any of the free sail design software online? 5.8 is pretty good for one up!

[lohwaikin]

Rocky,

Sure. I will gladly contribute after learning so much from this forum.
Give me some time to pull out my receipts and photos, to get organised a bit.
I will start a new topic.

BTW I use Sailcut CAD 1.3.5.

Cheers,

[slowpoke]

Great, thanks! I've been looking into making my own sails, but I'm not sure how to cut the panels.

[Tim Ford]

Rudder hung and eleKtric motor and mount on. Is the motor close to the rudder? Heck yes. Is that going to be an issue? Probably not. With the motor tilted up one notch, the rudder swings clear of the prop almost to full tiller-to-port arc.

and rudder unships easily for quick conversion to power. Motor mount is the quick pin-pull lift-off that Eric built for some of the class. SO that's a cinch.

DO I wish I had seated it farther to starboard? Maybe....time will tell.

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[Tim Ford]

(as seen on FB) Left the backyard and living comfortably at a boatyard. I miss it.

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Green dot soon.

[Chad]

Woot!

[Marino]

The snow has melted away, and it's time to contiune work on i550-307.

[Tim Ford]

Got the keel in yesterday. I went pretty well, we ended up lifting the thing up into the slot rather than lowering the boat down on to the foil. I got sort of hung up with about 18 inches into the slot, but we wiggled it a little and went pretty heavily with the McLube and then it slid in easily.

Plan is to launch as early as this coming weekend, but I still have the vang purchase to run and the jib track/leads to install.

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[slowpoke]

Looks great !

[ryderp]

Congratulations, and good luck with your maiden voyage.

Phil

[i550sailor@aol.com]

Looking great Tim, can't wait to see some photos on the water.

[Warren Nethercote]

The first steps .......

My Soling "goin' down the road" behind the new owner's truck. Not only does its departure give me space in my workshop, but it finances the early part of the build.

Tomorrow I am off to judge at the Radial Youth Worlds in Kingston, and on the way back I will stop off at Fast Composites (aka Phil's Foils) in Ottawa to talk about what they can do in way of composite spars. With the Canadian dollar at $0.76 US a Canadian-built spar has certain attractions. If there is anything useful to report I will start a new string upon my return.

[admin]

I hope that when you took that photo, you were saying to youself, "Non, je ne regrette rien."

[i550sailor@aol.com]

Get your boat going Warren. We think we got 2 bullets in tonights race, and saw 10 knots on the the speed puck several times, working on little bugs but all in all, the boat rocks!

[micah202]

Noice!!.....congrats man!.

[admin]

Had the 2nd sail and the first real "shakedown" cruise yesterday. I wrote it up here: http://nbayracing.com/i550Build.htm

but what I did not add was:

I'm a terrible trailer backer-upper and it takes way too long to get the boat ready to head out in our time of dwindling sunlight and ramped up work schedule. So I'm gonna put it in a slip for a few months. Just in time to hit the zenith of tropical storm season in these parts (no worries, the trailer is a mere 40 yards away). A least the barnacles are growing more slowly.

Couple of observations:

- the 2:1 jib sheet arrangement is super nice
- amazed at how light the helm is even wih the big kite up on a shy reach
- amazed at how stable the boat is, despite being so lightly ballasted. I had the feet in the straps and hiked out trying to put the boat on its ear in 8 kn (jib reaching) and didn't even get close to rail in the water.

who the hell designed this thing?

Tom-i550-shake-down.jpg

and yes, the jib sheet on the port side is missing a turning block into the cleat, aft of the car/track...it's "in the mail."

[jray]

Without crew 10's will put her rail in the water. A little more and you might loose rudder control. Drop the main and she'll come back down. Good fun!

[i550sailor@aol.com]

Had the 2nd sail and the first real "shakedown" cruise yesterday. I wrote it up here: http://nbayracing.com/i550Build.htm

but what I did not add was:

I'm a terrible trailer backer-upper and it takes way too long to get the boat ready to head out in our time of dwindling sunlight and ramped up work schedule. So I'm gonna put it in a slip for a few months. Just in time to hit the zenith of tropical storm season in these parts (no worries, the trailer is a mere 40 yards away). A least the barnacles are growing more slowly.

Couple of observations:

- the 2:1 jib sheet arrangement is super nice
- amazed at how light the helm is even wih the big kite up on a shy reach
- amazed at how stable the boat is, despite being so lightly ballasted. I had the feet in the straps and hiked out trying to put the boat on its ear in 8 kn (jib reaching) and didn't even get close to rail in the water.

who the hell designed this thing?

Tom-i550-shake-down.jpg

and yes, the jib sheet on the port side is missing a turning block into the cleat, aft of the car/track...it's "in the mail."

Good to see you out there Tim, I added the 2:1 jib and made the attachment point, my attachment point to crane launch, works great.
- My helm is maybe a little too light, I think the mast needs to go back a little to help with pointing.
- the boat does seem stable ( I almost wished I didn't go to class maximum on keel weight).
- it's a work in progress,,,,, sail it and have fun! (we hit 11.8 Wednesday)