Its rediculous to start building now you should be ashamed of yourselves this forum is only for finger tapping not getting kids wet.
regards

Sorry for being quiet for a week. I was launching my boat after more than six years of work. It floats. It motored well. The sails were hoisted, checked and sent for small adjustments. Sailing trials soon.

The wind energy X height graph is very instructive. It evidences that air-water friction reduces wind speed at the sea level. I guess we all knew that intuitively but never rationalized that perception.

In view of that, it seems reasonable to cap both the mast length and luff length. I suggest we leave about 800 mm difference (slightly under 2'8") between them. Each designer can decide how much the increase of energy availability justifies increasing heeling moment and weigth within those 800mm.

Agreed?

Congratulations! Is that the tri? Please post some photos when you get a chance.

"In view of that, it seems reasonable to cap both the mast length and luff length. I suggest we leave about 800 mm difference (slightly under 2'8") between them. Each designer can decide how much the increase of energy availability justifies increasing heeling moment and weigth within those 800mm."

Why?...There has been talk all through this process of possibly using a windsurfing rig...others want to use a land yacht rig, others want a conventional stayed rig...setting some arbitrary limits might close the door on a viable option. Set the sail size in Sq/meters and let the designer/builder work out what is best the way to utilize that sail area.

Regards,
Bob

Sorry for the absence, but I have been working my tail off on other stuff.
Wouter, don't disagree with your wind v. height stuff and I probably didn't explain myself clearly when I said I liked mini sweepers. I also misunderstood the flap idea, and I agree that is not a good solution. However, what does work is a mini sweeper, and not because it produces more power, but because it reduces the drag by straightening the flow at the base of the mast, the swept up head also does much the same. There are some comparison pic's of a quickie VLM model I did at http://www.catsailor.com/forums/showflat...true#Post124769
that shows a simplified approximation of what I was talking about.

To whoever asked the question about sinewave stiffeners, its just a panel stiffening method, basically you hotglue a bunch of cans to the panel in an arrangement that produces a sinewave shape once you lace a small amount of carbon uni around them, saves on having to build foam bulkheads or wooden ones for that matter...which save both weight and the amount of work required.
As for the luff length restriction, Im very much against that...period.

As for boat building, I have delivered plans for 5 boats so far, the other 4 will be delivered this weekend, and I have talked to people that are considering building, that total another 19 boats, whether they all get on board is anyones guess, but it does show that the class has promise when so many people are interested.

Cheers
RG

This is outstanding RG. I'm curious whether there are any general patterns in the kind of people who are buying in. Are they experienced cat sailors with young kids, mono sailors with kids, people involved in clubs, people who have built boats before or not, new to sailing people, people whose kids already sail...etc. Any general observations would be of interest.

Mark,
they are pretty much all over the range, but most have had some multihull experience at some stage. Probably the dominant theme is that the kids are not interested in sailing opti's, splash's or lasers. Most are involved in clubs and about 50% of them have some experience either in building or rebuilding boats at sometime in the past. The other theme that has emerged is that probably about 80% are being done as Father/Son/Daughter projects where they build it together.

Cheers
RG

Because 2 people have now asked, if your in the USA and don't want to build your own F12 and just buy one, John and Ian Lindahl will he happy to do it for you.
I can't recommend these guys enough, they built the last LR2's 15lb under weight, strong, and finished like a piece of furniture and for $5k-6k under what you could buy a new factory built boat for.
This is not just for my design, they'll build any design you want to provide.
You can contact John at jlindal_lcd at yahoo dot com.
Cheers
RG

Yes, thanks!
I've been too busy working to take photos, but a friend took some. I'm also eager to see them.

Are you selling identical plans or modifying as requested by each customer?

Luiz,
they are all identical
Cheers
RG

As some of you didn't understand what I posted on the stiffeners, here are the pic's that go on the disk with the boat to show how to do it.
Pic One...the hull side panel

Pic 2 each outline that you print on mylar for cutting out the panels comes with these points marked on it so you can locate the cans

Pic 3 As a lot of cans are 70mm diameter, this is what is drawn, hotglue the cans to the marks on panel (after its in the jig and tabbed to the other panels)

Pic 4 should look like this when your finished

Pic 5 Now lace the carbon uni around the cans as shown and wet out with resin. Just before it gets totally hard, run around the intersection of the cans and the uni with a boxcutter and then remove the cans

Pic 6 you should be left with a panel that looks like this, you can add bulkheads and local reinforcing after this.

Cheers
RG

RG,

it was I who originally asked about sinewave stiffeneres. Thank you for explaining thoroughly and sharing! Very interesting concept and I love the way it is done.