Circular Logic

Pursuing what my uni mate used to call 'the path of least resistance', I wonder if the boat could be tested under power but without a rudder.

In doing so I come across a pastime dating back practically a century... now pursued solely by old men in waders.

As I'm signed up to the fraternity on both counts, I look a little closer and it involves running hydroplanes ~ some powered by airscrews ~ around a pole on a tether at up to 100 m.p.h.

On the same day whilst doing what I like to call 'research' on YouTube I discover that the Russians have switched to communicating with drones along lengths of what is effectively fishing twine, in order to avoid jamming... and who knew they had reggae parties anyway?

The above video was taken at Verulam lake in St Albans, a place I knew well when I had money. Needless to say it's been banned there since, as it is a trifle noisy (while middle-class dog-shit isn't).

Accordingly it is now pursued only in Essex or at a lake in the East Midlands. I make a note of the dates and contact details, if only to find out how to fix a pole in the water.

I take my son to things like dog-racing and demolition derbies, simply because going forward the earnest desire of our nation is to be left at peace to watch TV. One of the few pastimes that has yet to be banned, it is also in tune with Labour's ongoing effort to pay people to do nothing.

Eureka!

I visit the static flotation lab ~ which some people insist on calling the bathroom ~ to see how my technicians (Ed. he hasn't got any) are progressing with tests designed to raise the motor clear of the waterline at rest.

Key findings include:

    (a)    We need a new plug because the water-level has dropped overnight

    

    (b)    We need a deeper bath because the rig is occasionally grounding out

    (c)    It appears the strategic distribution of foam does meet requirements

Altogether that's what I wanted to hear from the team, and like Elon Musk I fist-bump them all before departing the lab.

My only concern is that this rig is ballasted by a drill-bit along the bottom edge that you can see in the picture, whilst dead weight is something I want to avoid entirely in the proof-of-concept.

The what-goes-where of foam, ballast and payload however awaits testing of the boat itself and to this end I've bought a new set of waders from Decathlon.

Whether testing takes place under the watchful eyes of doggers and fishermen on the local pond remains to be seen... there are locals who hire their indoor pool for kids' parties and I'm wondering whether that's the better option?

All in all a good end to the week, so I skip the yoga class and eat a doughnut instead.

Re: Boot

If you're German, you'd get that (Ed. 'boot' is German for 'boat').

Did though mock up something like this but stabilised by outriggers, but it was to use a technical term: shite. I thus figured it was not necessary and that the mono could be adapted to suit.

And what appeals about it over the cat is the fact it needs only one motor and given my experience with T-motor's great-kit-no-backup business model, anything that reduces my reliance on electronic speed controllers is good in my book.

(It will though need a rudder, but servos are old hat and I've used them in the past.)

The previous mono having been broken up for parts, this I knocked up in a half-day using leftovers from around the workshop. It's six feet long, two wide and one deep.

As it's half boat and half plane, however, I'm having to design for both contingencies and as you will know, most aircraft have motors (and the C of G) pitched forward for stability. Thus the motor will appear as previously advertised: out front of the deck.

As it stands, the C of G sits around a foot to the rear of the centre-post, where you can see I've balanced the craft on a length of dowel. After fitment of the motor that is likely to be around six inches aft of that leading edge, which is ideal for those times when it breaches the surface like a wooden whale.

We have seen from previous flotation tests that these things sit nose heavy at rest in the water, though I think I've a solution for that which we shall investigate sooner in place of later ~ in fact I've not let the water out of the bath so as to test the notion.

The battery meanwhile represents useable ballast that can be located to adjust the C of G to best suit operation at rest and on the plane, with the benefit that unlike fuel tanks their weight and centre of mass do not alter as energy is expended.

As seen here it weighs 2.90 kilos or 6.40 pounds... one pound for each foot of length, which is not bad comparing to other monohull watercraft.

Try Maran?

Renowned for building luxury yachts, the UK's manufacturers are still ploughing a furrow with monohulls whose outline has not changed in the course of a century: like oligarchs' palaces, but rounded off.

This one though is an all-European affair and collaboration between a French designer ~ who says conventional boats need to 'grow a pair' that we hope refers to pontoons (ed. no we don't) ~ Latvian builders, and a company run by a German with a woodwork background and a Dutch with an engineering.

Its designer claims the 180-foot yacht is between 40% and 50% more efficient than a monohull at speeds up to 28 knots. I have to ask myself why, as indeed you do.

I think it is down to that slender hull, which absent the outriggers would likely topple over given a broadside (of which I'm told there are many at sea).

Famous for maritime navigation long before Europeans, the peoples of the Pacific are renowned for outrigged canoes that suit the available materials and the calmer seas.

Such people arrived among islands of the Indian and Pacific oceans over five thousand years ago as often as not in rudimentary trimarans... so we may be coming full circle.

Dead Cat Bounced

Some years ago this project attracted inordinate interest in the UK, where the carbon-fibre wonder was constructed to power Pete Goss on a round-the-world race. It broke in what was described as a 'freak' Atlantic storm, freak being used to describe nature when it's not being fair: as in freak snow, freak leaves, freak flood, freak iceberg or the freak Moon you just missed.

It was abandoned when cracks started to form in the cabin that were eventually put down to computer programming errors in the design of the craft. Which goes to show that neither CAD/CAM nor carbon-fibre guarantee success either on water or in air.

Using wood along with expanded sheets or extruded sections of foam in a garage does show you ~ as it has me ~ where the principal stresses lie however. Waves being the freaks that they are, operate independently on either pontoon and especially so here where the length, width and height of the craft exceeded conventional limitations.

As you can imagine therefore, pushing the prow of one pontoon up and another down is likely to twist the centre-section... that in fact to which the cabin is attached, even prior to the eventual separation of one of those prows.

Beside BT, who have always had more money than sense, Philips also sponsored the build and what I found more interesting was the fact that the latter started out with the sals of light bulbs during the nineteenth century.

What I hadn't known was that since then, competition in the electronic consumables market from the Far East has seen them pivot into healthcare and not least electric toothbrushes.

A fate that may yet do the same to European auto-makers: 'Sheer Brushing Pleasure', as BMW might put it.

Can we consider alternative builds to the catamaran? Yes Bob, we can.

New RC Model Army

My attention was drawn yesterday to a newspaper article on how the UK is gearing up its inventory of drones in the face of multiple global threats, although that featured is in fact an uncrewed helicopter developed by Leonardo. For those wondering who they are, they represent the rump of the British helicopter industry long since flogged off along with the rest of the family silver... in this case to Agusta in Italy, where much of the £60 million provided by you and I will come to rest.

Looking at their website it appears they also offer an uncrewed surface vessel, though a badged product from an outfit in Cyprus which includes a single-page (free) website and a PO box. Cyprus is famous for its gambling, oligarchs and corporate addresses to include only a random postal address amongst its side-streets. I know, for I've worked for airlines whose head office comprised a letter-box that we gave up looking for, choosing instead lunch in a Lebanese restaurant.

As a part of Sir Keir's ongoing pursuit of value for money, I've asked how much one costs; as again you and I are likely to foot the bill. I suggested the machine-gun option was not required, although it could make for hours of fun on Norfolk's Broads.

p.s. my details are redacted in order that weirdos like you don't try to get in touch

p.p.s. Cromwell's New Model Army was formed during the English Civil War. Hilarious.

Bermuda Short

Many people ask me what applications I can envisage for the remotely-driven maritime patrol drones featured amongst these posts (Ed. They don't).

Tuning in momentarily to daytime TV however, as one can be forgiven for doing over a corned beef sandwich, I discover how both the coastguards and police force in Bermuda use expensive and environmentally damaging jet-skis to patrol their shores?

In a world where I have to drive semi-trailers around Liverpool docks it seems unfair that others get to spend time being paid for cruising tropical islands checking fishing permits are in order.

I say to them: "Get off your jet-skis and onto a monitor in a windowless room like the rest of us!".

What Bermuda's public services clearly need is Elon wielding his chain-saw.