Going Postal

Here two ways in which Royal Mail, recently flogged off to a foreigner like all else in the UK and the Royal Family surely likely to follow... Our Dominions eat Dominos.

But the historic post-box, each of which bear the initials of whichever monarch was reigning at the time, has been given a makeover with a camera, solar panel and wifi with which to allow for the electronic dispatch of physical letters... which Denmark has given up on entirely.

Ironically the only people who post letters are older than I am and lacking means to read the instructions along with the time, I like them bought a stamp and used the conventional type sunk into a brick wall further along the road.

What we should really do is maintain systems that would continue to operate in the event of a war, as they did in the two previous. When it comes to aerial navigation, ask yourself why the US decided not to scrap ground-based aids which run whether the internet does or not*.

Rather more successfully altogether the Royal Mail recently trialed Beta's electric aircraft around the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, requiring a fraction of the fuel and maintenance of the fossil-fuelled version.

* VHF Omnirange. I've booked a hotel in order that the family can enjoy a visit and picnic at beacon 'BHD' on the south coast. During my Instrument Rating I organised a visit to the non-directional beacon we'd used all week, though sadly I was the only one to turn up on the day.

The Seventh Seal... ed Laminate.

Always give the Boat Design database in the US first dibs when it comes to dropping the latest issue, and here the revised pattern for construction of the catamaran. The monoski still gets the bulk of the views, but it's early days and my commitment to a cat instead is unwavering in view of its practicality in transporting men or materials. Or women, LGBTQ+ community and Uncle Tom Cobley though not all at same time.

You know the reasons why, so you can just keep quiet. It does though mean that in view of the nice weather it'll be waders on and back to the pond for a sneak peek.

The weather in the UK and specially the northwest is worryingly how meteorologists predicted... in the UK we don't dismiss climate change as fake news or shoot politicians who say so, the reason why so many people from the US are swarming all over the Cotswolds like locusts.

What it has meant is that like the binary weather of the prairies we suffer a winter of non-stop rain that turns on a dime into shorts weather. What it means for boat-building therefore is a winter of groundworks intent upon stopping the garage floor from flooding, and instead diverting water into a much-anticipated static test-tank.

The post title refers to the fact the foam-sheet is now sliced like seven eggy soldiers albeit the last is split further into two narrower slices for displacement strips.

It is also the title of a film by Ingmar Bergman about the pet seals he kept at home in Sweden, and their eventual encounter with a Grim Reaper.

Tele Drone

The London Marathon is though the world's most valuable one-day charity event and likely so because from the start it has ~ like the Parkrun ~ been organised by volunteers largely without government involvement, which would kill it stone dead.

And if you don't believe that, France effectively banned the staging of park runs on health and safety grounds, and because it prevented Europeans from getting obese.

This man though has run five marathons dressed as a phone-box in aid of a brother with muscular dystrophy.

I have put in for the free ballot and ensuing draw, more in hope than expectation. I did so last year too, and escaped only narrowly when a further draw was made at a local running club for someone who'd made the cut but couldn't make the race.

It cut the odds to nearer Russian roulette ~ 'Oh dear' I said upon missing out again.

St Oswalds, Winwick

What do you see that I do? What should scream at you is the fact the spire's a later addition: restored in 1869 while the rest of the church dates back a thousand years.

In fact it is England in a nutshell, appearing in the Domesday Book of 1086; lodging Cromwell's troops during the civil war of 1648; altered by architect Pugin when not working on Parliament; hosting the Titanic's captain marriage in 1887 and where I drove by in 2026.

Ed. The fine for use of a mobile phone whilst driving is £1000, tho' this was taken with a flat-cap-mounted hands-free device that live-streams the author's life 24/7.

Wed-ded to Excellence

In recognition of the man behind waterproof pre-laminated foam panels, join me now if you would in today's first hymn, accompanied today by organist Fatboy Slim:

We've come a long long way together

Through the hard times and the good

We have to celebrate you, baby

We have to praise you, like we should.

Marathon Man-ish

Hold onto your hats here because Sebastian Sawe just ran a 1:59:30 marathon in London, which itself is set to break the world record for the number of finishers.

Less heralded was Honor's world-record breaking efforts earlier this month in the Beijing half-marathon, and here's the thing: it finished in 50 minutes whilst just a year previous the fastest robot did so in 160 minutes.

Honor researches and manufactures phones, whose components are responsible as much as any for the robot's success. And here is one reason the world is advancing at a dizzying pace, for innovation stands on the shoulders of prior product. Thus it was that computing was developed from components incorporated in telephony and television, stemming in turn from telegraphy.

The difference with smartphones was that (a) the world's population already ran to billions and (b) everyone wanted one, for they represent the epitome of the human need to communicate... which itself made us the primate of all primates.

What is significant here is that we expect artificial intelligence to rein supreme in a digital world, but we're not quite ready for it to do so in a physical world ~ the joke always being that should Daleks invade the planet then all we'd have to do is climb the stairs.

In fact when Honor achieved this remarkable feat (assuming it is not AI generated like all else nowadays) with a gait that in itself was reminiscent of the great Michael Johnson... few people were cognisant of it; tho' when Roger Bannister broke a four-minute mile the nation celebrated.

In fact I posted Honor's achievement to a running group where it got zero feedback, whilst anyone achieving practically anything that improves on a prior performance is liked to within an inch of their life.

Why is this? I think it's for the same reason that people are applauded for achieving great age: a recognition that someone not unlike you achieved something against all odds, as it's not so much a wonderful life as a fairly shit one much of the time.

Robots don't wake up one day to hear their days are numbered by cancer. They do not have bills they cannot pay. They don't have Keir Starmer as prime minister. They don't have a partner who gets the house.

But reflect here if you would on that team of individuals ~ and those who preceded them in human entrepreneurial endeavour ~ to consider how they made a world-beating robot, whilst being not that different to you or I.

Ed. Someone in the background is not watching a once-in-a-lifetime event so much as holding up the phone to do so... whilst the robot can't hold the trophy, as it has no hands.

Backer Board of Inquiry

Been a gnawing pain these past weeks and during a visit to the doctors, as he's old school he inquires into my background and whether I design maritime drones.

'And like James Dyson goes on about 100% suction 100% of the time, don't you like to use 100% of the material 100% of the time?' he queries.

And fact is he was quite right and recommended I apply 160g of laminated foam to each ski as per his prescription!

For don't you remember how we used a half-dozen strips from the original backing board, and lay aside the remainder?

Well in view of yesterday's flotation test I think we can alter the pattern to provide eight strips of foam instead of six, and I know exactly where to fix the extra pair.

So make yourself comfortable and we'll begin, but no talking please!

First off we'll remove one of the laths attaching the ski to the fuselage, and see how easy it is now we can stand the boat on each side:

Next up we need to flip the craft over and fix the same lath to the other side:

Turn it once more and see we've formed a picture-frame to apply adhesive to:

To pop the surplus foam into for an extra kilo of extra buoyancy on either ski:

Add a bead of adhesive or silicone along the foot of the foam to hold the ski straight along its length, using a knife to create a filet as with your bathroom furniture. Next a brush of undercoat to seal the upper edge, prior to spraying it in 'naval' grey.

And remember how we'd want to pop the pontoons off for storage or replacement? Well ideally this requires a form of shear-web to keep things square in the absence of the box-structure, and we've got that right here in this stretch of foam!

Amazing what you can do off the back of a cream tea.