Thread: Cool stuff

Another thing I find cool with this boat is the rig: http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4135/...8b0faacf_b.jpg

I think this is the most simple rig you can have. The base of the triangle will provide the vanging effect as it is under the boom, and the more you tighten the snotter the more the base of the sail will work like a vang.

Originally Posted by engblom

I am deeply shocked! That sharpie is about 600 kg (reference: top speed)! I was not expecting it to be much more than 100 kg. I guess you could get it to really fly with a little bit of changes to the foils and with more light material. It is after all not that much material that goes into it. Apparently he used 12mm plywood instead of 6mm. And from the building pictures, you can see that the mast is solid.

Now I understand how it could keep so well the speed while tacking: Tacking out of a creek - YouTube . It is tacking really well, I think at least.

It does appear to point well. What I don't understand is how you generate any lift with the centerboard and the rudder. Are they foil shaped at all? Another thing to notice is how much weight they need to hold her down in moderate wind - two up. That could make life interesting.

MIK has long touted the brilliance of the International Perfection paint product.

I was recently given a set of basket case Laser foils which were warped, full of gouges, scratches and bits missing from the trailing edges and they both had the bottom trailing corners missing. These foils were made using epoxy over foam and finished with gelcoat over glass, so I was doubtful that I could do anything with them.

However, with a new set of Laser foils costing around $1000, I thought I'd have a go at a repair,so took to them with an iron on a cotton steam setting and to my amazement I was able to get them completely straight after about an hour of gentle coaxing and tweaking! While they were still hot, I set them in the bath with cold water. Encouraged, I repaired the tips, trailing edges and patched the scratches and gouges. Finally, I finished them with 2 pack International Perfection.

All I can say is "Wow". This stuff is good, so good that it deserves a place in the Cool Stuff thread.

I should have taken a "before" pic, but totally forgot. Anyway, here you can see that I inserted a reinforcing strip of glass into a slot I'd cut into the missing corners of the blades. This was made using 3 layers of glass tape laid onto a glass surface. I then filled either side of the glass insert with a structural car body filler which is reinforced with stainless steel fibres. This makes a nice strong structurally sound tip that is arguably stronger than the original tip. A good sand and then paint. These are now better than my "race" set.

The last pic was after one coat of Perfection.

image1.jpgimage2.jpgimage3.jpgimage4.jpgimage.jpg

Sharpie's did get banned from race courses, but not for the reasons you might think. As with all antique craft that were developed for racing, the extremes where pushed and a lot of "freaks" created. These freaks where fast, scary to sail and notorious for many things, especially embarrassing the local competition. When Nat Herreshoff introduced his catamaran to the racing fleet in 1876, it's arrival promptly meant the whole fleet was obsolete or 'ol capt. Nat's boat had to get banned. The same applied to the radical sharpies of their day, they got tossed, so the whole fleet wouldn't have to go out and build new boats, just to remain competitive. Many classes have seen this selectivness by the rules committees. Safty is often sighted, such as the in the sand bagger classes, but in reality, they knew what would happen, they'd seen it before and swore for it to not happen again, finding what ever excuse they could to level the playing field.

Finally, other then the freaks, which really can't be considered, there are only two types of sharpies: the big, heavy, typically traditional ones and the new, modern variants, which are considerably lighter and usually don't carry as much beam/length exaggeration in them. Many of the "new" sharpies aren't really sharpies (except styling), but really are narrowish skiffs, which generally makes for a better boat, for the modern sailor anyway.

We still have some of the old ones here in New Haven. Sort of surprising considering how cheaply they were built. But some families down on City Point could never let go if "grandpa's boat".

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Originally Posted by paulie

We still have some of the old ones here in New Haven. Sort of surprising considering how cheaply they were built. But some families down on City Point could never let go if "grandpa's boat".

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This screams for pictures!!

PS. Yesterday I got "The Sharpie Book"

Originally Posted by engblom

This screams for pictures!!

This is the only photo I have on hand. Not a great shot of the sharpie, unfortunately. I was just taking pics of part of the fleet at my son's old school. Since it is located at City Point (the historic center of the oyster fishing industry in New Haven) and is focused on all things related to boats and fishing, it maintains a small fleet of sharpies. It even has a sharpie as the school logo.

Note the rust from the iron fittings. These things were really NOT built to last. True New England workboats -- not an extra penny spent on them. Why build well when they were likely to be lost within 10 years for one reason or another? The few old ones still around are probably more patches than original material.

Cheap usually means simple, which means it'll get used frequently, which means it'll get repaired when necessary. It's also easy to repair these simple structures, so not to difficult to understand why they survive so long really.

The Ringle 39 is stirring up the "Main and Jib" fleets with its amazing performance. OK, the Ringle 39 is not exactly cheap at $400k, so it's an expensive day sailor, but thanks to some clever design and its light weight, is carving up the fleets on Sydney Harbour.

The official site is a shocker so go here instead to check out what makes this modern classic tick.

Saw this on Anarchy this morning. It's a prototype of a new Dudley Dix design , the DS15. It’s a 4.5 meter hybrid dinghy/mini sportboat.

She’s constructed from 6mm okoume marine ply and Sitka spruce for stringers and rails, dyed with sapphire blue dye and clear coated with system three silver tip resin, deck ply will be dyed bright red, so nobody notices the the bloodshed of competition, custom sails by Jerry Latell @ US Sails Deltaville. Spars 50 year old, Sitka spruce hand carved to a tapered air foil.


220 lbs total mass.
Planing 5.6 knots.
6 ft beam .
Hull Draws 3.5″
Daggerboard Draft 4 ft


See her in person finished at the Mystic Seaport Woodenboat Show late in June.
tongue-wagging.jpg

Saw this late today. Haven't seen it before. Interesting, sort of...

Introducing mxNext - YouTube

They seem to have so many good ideas in Netherlands. Whike is among the most cool things I have seen: Whike - Whike

There is one big advantage of Antal's Thimble over Ronstan's Shock. Can you pick it?

AntalThimble.jpgshocks-red.jpg

Is it because the ronstan only allows the two ropes to run at 90 degrees to each other but the other allows them to be at zero or 90. Hard to make a neat cascade like the pic on the left with the ronstan ones.

What are they being used for Bruce?

Michael