Hi!

Thanks again to everyone who helped with suggestions about tacking several days ago. I went sailing in the San Juans yesterday. Much easier tacking. I think most of the problem was the severely bent rudder arm, which I corrected before going out.

Man, what a difference between sailing in the islands versus Lake Whatcom! Went about 10 miles upwind so I would get back faster than going out. Wind died right at the furthest point away, so I'm really glad I didn't get stuck downwind.

I had enough fun on this first trip to convince me to buy some tubing for building wings. I'm getting round 6061 T6 aluminum, 1/4" thick 1.75" dia. Plan on bolting them together. See the 'wings construction' thread from earlier. I can get some cheap, but the longest is 48". That should be okay for everything except the 2 rails that make up the long part. So I'm would splice 2 sections together by using a 1.25" dia by .25" thick sleeve to go inside at the junction. The way I have it figured, 1.75" is the OD, and with .25" thickness, I'd have 1.25" ID. So I need 1.25" OD sleeves to go inside, right? Plan on making the sleeves 12" long.

What do you think about these materials? I'm mainly concerned about the rail strength. Total span would be ~7', ~12" apart. I could stagger the splices, one at 3 ft, the other at 4.

Without getting really involved, I can't say if your material choice will certainly hold you but it sounds very reasonable (if not a little too strong). The sleeve material should be OK but you need to look at if you are getting "pipe" or "tubing". There is a difference in that in pipe the internal diameter is held very consistantly whereas "tubing" is usually the outer diameter that's held consistently. I suggest checking the details of the tubing you are buying...or test fit a piece...to make sure the sleeve will work.

Good idea, Jake. I'm planning on talking with the distributor to be sure.

Ciao!

Just talked with the Al guy. He said the tolerances between the OD of the sleeve and the ID of the rail might cause some interference. He suggested getting 1 1/8" OD for the sleeve. That would give me 1/16" wiggle room all around.

The other option would be to get the 1.75" tubes long enough for a single section, 7' long. This ain't in their closeout bin and would cost $180 for the 4 rails. That compares to $110 for the built-up spliced ones.

Hmm...

Well how are you going to keep the built up ones together? It sounds like for the extra money you could 1. avoid seaming problems, 2.reduce your labor, and 3. have a single piece and aesthetically more pleasing construction. It's really not that much more $.

Yeah, I'm leaning towards getting them one-piece. The other way, I'd prolly bolt through and through a couple times on each side of the splice.

Next question: How do I make the connections between the braces? I can see I might have trouble doing that in the plane parallel to the tramp. My diagram here has 3 members of the brace in the top view. The front view shows the rails resting ontop of the seat brace.