One Day...

... my boat will come in.

Off Piste

The author of the phenomenally successful 'Life, the Universe and Everything' was, said his agent, decidedly incapable of capitalising on the success without being goaded and forever in search of 'displacement activities' in an effort to avoid writing... or in my case wiring.

Accordingly I try out much the same framework in support of a mono ski instead of a catamaran. The two-metre chassis weighs 6.50 pounds, or around half, whilst suited to a single motor so long as a rudder is added to compensate for the torque effect. I could of course add a contra-rotating propeller, but that is altogether the heavier and more expensive of the alternatives.

Interestingly the outline dates back to a patent I originally filed back in 2011, and goes to show how technology often catches up with ideas. Thus as the internal combustion engine caught up with our ongoing efforts to fly, the electrification of transport opens up opportunities that at one time looked rather less practical.

All things come to he who waits... though that's true of death too.

Buddy Board

In all fairness to our friends at Lancs Powerboat Racing Club, they were concerned as to how the prototype might be controlled during speed week at Coniston. Especially as with the course a mile long, it'd be out of sight (if not range) as it crossed the line. To my mind this could only add to its entertainment value, though suitably chastened here's my solution for safely testing the wiring whilst ideally wearing a hi-vis tabbard.

I've called it a 'buddy board' and although this is a name I just made up, we shall run with it. In fact made with care it could prove to be a friend for life, with the advantage it won't turn up on your doorstep or need giving a passing thought to.

Representing the flat-cat power-train from left to right are therefore (a) 22v battery-pack (b) speed controller (c) electric motor, whilst centrally located are (d) 6v power supply for (e) RC receiver.

It'll be rigged for differential thrust so that no rudders are required, with the pusher propellers running anti-clockwise and clockwise as viewed from the rear.

The timber was free from the yard around the corner, which wholly suits our budget.

Carr Mill Dam... ned

It's a masterclass in how practically any country is better for start-ups associated with locomotion than the one that invented the locomotive. My advice to anyone trying to do anything new here remains: to succeed in the UK, go to the US.

The earliest canals were built in China, though as precursor to an industrial revolution that began largely in Lancashire they enjoyed most commercial success hereabouts.

They don't go up hills though, and locks that allow boats to step up or down gradients require the re-supply of water... Carr Mill Dam was one such source.

Only tidal stretches of water are freely navigable in the UK, the Canal and River trust largely accountable for delegating use of inland waters. Key to access however is the ownership, and the land around Carr Mill appears to be owned by a company that is in process of liquidation and whose liquidators fail to return queries.

As indeed does the Lancashire Powerboat Racing Club, who along with the sailing club to which the Canal and Riverboat Trust refer me ~ beside the St Helens Angling assoc ~ appear to have remit to use the water, beside the land and buildings nearby.

The danger is in all of this is that instead of spending your time building boats, you're involved in an internecine struggle that Kafka would himself struggle to do justice to.

See? Sled!

Albert Hickman was widely acknowledged to be a pain in the ass, though he also set the pattern for most of what is necessary to move boats as quickly as possible across water. The above outline dates from 1914, though remains the state of the art whether you want to move ferries at the fastest possible speed, or anything else on water with the aid of a multi-hull.

Once there was sufficient power for boats to plane, although it changed everything it also changed nothing in many ways, in the way that for a number of years the car was literally a horseless carriage. Hickman effectively prioritised form over displacement in order to make running on water as fast and efficient as possible.

One hundred and ten years on, and with much of what moves over water being shifted toward drones as in air, there is less need for displacement again. Thus it is that flat-packed catamarans powered by propellers driving air (which is also more efficient) are set to change the paradigm.

Hickman was considered 'an eccentric and an annoyance whom most wished would quietly go away' and on that note, I've emailed the Lancashire Powerboat Racing Club.

Again.

The turbine was pioneered in boats much the same way, replacing most other means once introduced by Charles Parsons. Needless to say the Royal Navy did all they could to prevent its appearance at their review in 1897.