A discussion about the Microtransat race for autonomous boats, heading west to east or east to west. Discussion includes the best routes, the race rules, the current entries, and the challenges of the race
By Dermot Tynan • March 23, 2013
Today, March 23rd, 2013, Team Joker are planning to launch their ninth boat, Snoopy Sloop. This has been an educational (and obviously fun!) experience for Robin Lovelock and his fleet of robotic warrior boats. Here in Beoga Beag land, we wish them well.
By Dermot Tynan • April 1, 2013
On Henry's advice, the round hull of earlier designs has been discarded in favour of a hard-chined hull. We were originally planning a fibreglass hull from a round mould. The complexities of first producing a "plug" and preparing a mould from the plug, not to mention having to then fibreglass the hull itself, are quite involved. Henry suggested hard chines an 6mm marine ply for the construction, and a light bulb lit up.
By Dermot Tynan • April 14, 2013
A slight change from the version of the hull from The hull starts to take shape.; the hull height from the base of the hull to the deck (not including the keel) was 180mm. As I started to look at cutting bulkheads and the transom, it struck me that the hull is quite shallow. It looks fine from DelftSHIP but that's a low freeboard.
The beam of the boat is around 360mm, which is twice that depth. The original intent was to create a hull which wasn't too "beam-y" but that's a 2:1 aspect ratio. I decided to increase the hull height by 50%. Luckily, DelftSHIP will scale your drawing in any or all of the three vertices. So, five minutes later, and we have a new hull with a 270mm depth.
By Dermot Tynan • April 20, 2013
After much sanding and polishing of the keelson, and the frames for the hatches and top deck, the hull is starting to take shape.
The bulkheads are cut from 6mm exterior grade plywood. The wood which resembles a picture frame is pine, and it is used to hold the bulkheads and transom into a square position, and to provide additional strength to the hull. Eventually those frames will be covered over by 6mm ply on the deck.
By Dermot Tynan • May 3, 2013
After applying 3/32" balsa wood to the bulkheads and transom, the hull is starting to look like a real boat!
You can clearly see the deck support frames now. They are 6mm below the sheer line, to allow for 6mm exterior (or marine) ply deck pieces. But first, the balsa needs to be sanded and patched a bit. Also, the 3 or 4 layers of chopped strand matt need to be applied. When it is finished, the balsa wood will be completely enclosed in fibreglass. This is a standard "sandwich" construction. The balsa adds a layer of strength (believe it or not!) to the two layers of glass either side. It is similar to the central section of an I-beam or girder in that it separates the two outer layers and means that the bend radius is increased. Or at least, that's my understanding of it...