Perhaps unsurprisingly, this is what extremely thin mono-hulls want to do if left to their own devices. Vowed I'd never be back here stood in the anaerobic sludge that comprises the nearest pond, but here we are. The exercise prompts a number of questions, of which the most pressing has to be, Why am I wasting my life like this?
I have to add a couple of sizeable battery-packs that each weigh around 2.50 kilos, just to set the mono-ski at an angle of around forty-five degrees... hopeless. Issue as much as anything is the timber content of the ski, which produces some 0.75kg of buoyancy and at a considerable remove, which gives it greater leverage.
What we would need to do is sub it with PVC strip of around 2mm by 100m section, which can be sourced in Burnley for around £11 per 2400mm, although the point is that in prototyping you have to choose your battles. The density of spruce is of the order of 0.50 that of water, that of PVC nearer 1.50g per cubic centimetre.
For the fact is, the dis-benefits of mono-skis are positive benefits when it comes to catamarans, which relish the idea of lighter and more buoyant skis for example and for whom floating upright comes with the territory. There is a literal tipping point if close-coupled pontoons are involved as we intend, but this will be addressed by the wings that are extended to either side.
Well done me though, and well done the waders!
