Sanibel Bridge

Team B&B reached Sanibel Bridge tonight. Here is an update.....
http://sandybottomkayaker.blogspot.com/2012/03/sanibel-bridge.html

Also, Steve Earley posted an update ...

http://logofspartina.blogspot.com/2012/03/mosquito-update.html

On your mark... Get set... Build!

News from the starting line of the WaterTribe 2012 Everglades Challenge and Ultimate Florida Challenge: Team B&B Make Strategic Moves

posted by DancesWithSandyBottom

WaterTribe adventure races such as the Everglades Challenge (EC) have two parts: (1) make it to the starting line, (2) sail and paddle from here to there.. Part 1 is often a race/adventure in and of itself. For example, many challengers aim to bring a new boat to the party. Just making it to the starting line typically feels like a huge accomplishment.

Friday Morning at Ft. DeSoto Campground

Saturday morning at the Starting Line: the tallest mast is "Mosquito" of Team B&B

On Saturday at 7:00 when Chief said "Go!" dozens of sailors and kayakers sprinted off Ft. DeSoto beach into Tampa Bay and its headwind that grew to 20 kts. Some were still packing or repairing, some decided not to start, and some launched out only to return minutes later with broken parts or changes to make.

SandyBottom and SOS (Son of Sandy) continued their new-boat preparations/construction as the starting gun (er uh, bag pipes) sounded and challengers rushed away --or came limping back. For example, the 17.5' Norseboat returned with bailer problems. Danito returned with a bent rudder. "Oh look" I said to SB and SOS, "You've caught up with Danito. Good job."

We are all astounded and impressed with how quicking SOS built (and designed) the "Mosquito". Would having another week to work on it have been ideal? No problem; SOS knows he could "fix it", whatever it is, while racing toward check point 1. I believe he could. The phrase "extremely capable" comes to mind. He's a can-do guy. Really brilliant that way. But SandyBottom was having none of that. Already feeling challenged by the new non-kayak trimaran experience, and not wanting to die while going 20 kts this weekend, she rightly insisted on taking a day or so to get it right.

Weather turned out to be an additional reason that SB and SOS are both happy they waited to launch: The fleet that launched was beaten up all day long fighting a 12-20 kt headwind. WaterTribe events are all about making smart decisions regarding safety and strategy; indeed, there is no rule that says the challenger must launch when Chief says "Go!" and Chief is fond of telling how he and Verlan Kruger waited on the beach at the starting line for two days during one of the early Everglades Challenges that featured horrible weather.

Chief explains it all at the captains' meeting Friday

SOS posted to following on the WaterTribe Forum Sunday Morning ....

"We are still here in the campground at the start. Why havent we left yet?.....

After a test sail from the campground to the beach we had some issues. My mom (and crew) was not encouraged by her first trip out in 15-18knot headwinds and it was not the way I wanted to introduce her to the boat. On top of that the rudder downhaul was not worked out well, the jib sheeting was not good, roller reefing the jib was difficult and the waterstays slackeded under load and became too long to lash properly. All this meant that we had a hard time on our first time out in very tough chopy conditions. Oh and the boat leaked badly through the waterstay holes that I haden't checked for leaks and didn't show themselves in our 30 min test sail in Vandemere.

We decided that this was not acceptable or safe sooo. we didn't start at the start. And instead called a weather hold for ourselves. This decision may have been our best yet seeing that many of the challengers (many elders) have already dropped from the race or had breakdowns battling the 20 knot headwinds on Saturday. Today (sunday) there was a massive front that came trough at 5am and collapsed our tent in the campground. I suddently realized that I had not staked down the boat on the beach and was sure that that was then end of our mast and ositive that the front had blown the boat over on the beach. We rushed to the beach and found her sitting just as we had left her. Another triber who had returned to the beach in a Kruger canoe had left his boat next to ours had his boat spun 180 degrees in the sand by the wind.

Bullet dodged.

Today the wind is NNW and 25 to gale force with very big seas so we are not going today either. Rather we will leave early tomorrow morning in very cold (47) temps but with managable and favorable winds such that we will make gasparilla pass (the entrance to CP1) after sun up. It is really tough to sit on the beach knowing the race has already started but with only challengers at CP1 so far and gale force winds for most of the day today we have little doubt that it is still anyones race and that we are making good decisions.

We used yesterday (Saturday) to work on the boat and needed ALL of it. Today we will spend pushing the boat in the water to test for leaks and to practice dropping the mast on the water (while anchored to the beach) and then to go for a short test sail in Tampa bay sometime this afternoon. We have had to be careful not to receive any help from our shore contact (my dad) DWSB who is here with us and is no longer allowed to help us with the boat in any way.

Changes made to the boat:
-sealed all waterstays and forestay chainplate (NO MORE LEAKS!)
-Improved the rudder downhaul system.
-Returned to classic and reliable 2:1 jib sheeting.
-upgraded to a 2:1 jib furling system (much better)
-improved the mast rotation controls
-shortened the waterstay splices to propperly tension the rig"

And Then....

That's the latest news from SandyBottom and SOS. Those final rigging tasks are expected to be complete by mid-day. The gale-force wind should be dying down to a loud roar around midnight. SOS suggested launching this afternoon with the strategy of crossing Tampa Bay using their tinyest sail (the bare mast itself which has a wing-shaped cross-section) to handle the gale-force wind. Somehow that idea didn't fly well with the crew ...

Will Team B&B ever make it off the beach ?

Late breaking news: At 1:20pm SOS reported that Danito has relaunched from the starting line in his Kruger Sea Wind. This means Danito has retaken his lead on SandyBottom and SOS.

--posted by DWSB

Thanks to Calvert Sails

This post is a big thank you to Dave Calvert and everyone at Calvert Sails in St. Petersburg Florida.

Dave Calvert has been building and designing sails in Florida since 1976 and has a history of success racing windsurfers and designing race winning sails for multihulls. Calvert Sails was an obvious choice for a set of custom sails for my Trimaran and Dave was enthusiastic about the project from the start.

We were on the same page throughout the consultation process and it was a pleasure to exchange dimensioned drawings and ideas with Dave which he used to create the final sail plan. In no time the new sails were on order at a price that I was more than happy with knowing what I would soon receive. Just 2 months and 10 days after my first email to Calvert, the sails arrived.

The Mosquito trimaran has a Triradial cut pentex mainsail, dacron jib, and large Code Zero headsail for a combined sail area of 240 square feet.

UFC 2012 Sponsor Murray's.com

A big thanks to Steve Murray of Murrays.com in California. Be sure to check out their online store for all of your sailing gear, hardware or line needs.

Steve has been a long time supporter of Team Velocity sailing and when I asked him for help with outfitting us for the Ultimate Florida Challenge he was more than willing. All of our new lines and a lot of our gear, hardware, and specialty multi-hull parts came from Murray's and they stock many of the hard to find or replacement factory parts for your Beach Catamaran be it a hobie 16,17,18 or Nacra models. If you own a catamaran or small trimaran, they are THE one stop shop.

We are big fans of Murray's Barz optics goggles and sun glasses for keeping the water and sun out. They have a great selection of Robline Cordage with high performance blended sheet lines that float and don't absorb water and small dyneema lines for lashings and stays. In addition to gear for Kiteboarding, windsurfing, SUP boarding, and sailing, they have lots of cool toys from solar chargers to hero cams. Here is a shot of our loot from Murray's.com check it out.

More Pictures

Some more pictures from the build.

Dagger trunks are now installed. You can see now my finished foils CNC machined on the Shopbot. I went for a simple 0012 and the trunk is glass. The foils will ride on strips of hard felt inside the trunk.

Also visible is the forestay chainplate integrated into an angled forward bulkhead tied into the hull and glued in under the bow deck. Below is the finished main cockpit coaming. The coaming was fist shaped in 5lb Airex foam (did I mention there is a lot of scrap around here). Then carbon was applied with 3m spray adhesive before wetting out and vacuum bagging.

Mosquito...it Lives!!!!

In case everyone figured I was just goofing off for the last few weeks here is the latest. My mom has been down here almost every weekend for the last 2 months and she has been a great help. It has also helped to start familiarizing herself with the boat. This weekend my dad came down and offered his assistance cutting out parts and gluing them in. It's amazing how much more you can do with 2 people.

We have finished up the cabin sole or sleeping shelf of whatever you want to call it. I prefer "great cabin" and this weekend we installed the main deck with it's hatch opening. The deck is made of a strip building product called duracore. It is 3/8" end grain balsa sandwiched between 1/16" strips of western red to give it some longitudinal stiffness while planking. We laid up a 25" wide cambered panel of it on a curved mold (bent plywood) all in one shot in a vacuum bag last weekend. The panel was 9lbs before fiberglass which is a little more than 4mm plywood (0.4lbs/sqft versus 0.6lb/sqft) but the advantages are that the inside of the "cabin" has a smooth roof for sleeping comfort while still giving the deck adequate stiffness for tromping around and raising/lowering the mast. The deck could have been a foam core layup but this stuff was laying around and about to become firewood.

The daggerboard tunk halves are laid up and ready to be joined and then installed in the amas. The daggers are ready for a final fairing and last coat of epoxy.

The Amas will get some 2lb expanding foam and then the decks will be going on as soon as the trunks are complete.

The next big milestone will be the first float and test paddle sometime in early december. I will be going out of the country over the christmas holiday so work will be on hold until I get back to finish all the rigging and get her sailing sometime in February with the race the first week of March. Yikes.


Current weight breakdown (I know your curious): drum rollllll....

Main hull: 105lbs plus bow deck, hardware, more epoxy (looking like it will end around 125)

Amas: 45lbs each plus some expanding foam, decks and trunks. (looking like around 65lbs a piece) Daggers: 12 lbs each

Rig: recently purchased a carbon stick that was on a Bimare Javeline 18HT catamaran. maybe 30lbs

Add sails and rudder, rigging, lines and some more epoxy and she is closing in on 350 at an alarming rate. I am doing my utmost to keep this in check. I'm still emotionally ok with the her weight. We will see. Whatever it comes out at you'll wish it was lighter but thats just the way it goes.

She has also earned her name. 'Mosquito'

Aside from the many mosquitoes that have met their end by flying into my wet epoxy and become part of the hull (and those that I have swatted), she will be a fast racing machine in all wood and so a nod is given to the de Havilland Mosquito which was a wonder in it's own time. Once the fastest plane in the world at 400mph and constructed of all wood. Pretty Amazing. I often feel like I am building a fuselage as much as a sailboat. Mosquito video link

UFC Tri Update

Time seems to be flying by and I have been working night after night. My mom has been driving out to help on weekends and this has been a great help. I'll bring you up to speed on what has been done and what is left to do.

All three hulls are now in existence. 2 amas at equal stage of constuction. The second ama went together more smoothly and is very fair and tight and I believe a bit lighter. All hulls have a coat of epoxy on them. The daggerboards have been built, machined and sanded and await epoxy coating. The main hull bulkheads are complete. The waterstay connection points are complete in the main hull. The transom has been installed and the "cabin" floor is going in in the next few days. The aft and bow decks are cut out and coated and will go in within the next couple of weeks pending the fiberglass aka tubes being installed. I have layed up a cockpit seat and the bow cockpit size and location was finalized and cut out this weekend.

Among the remaining tasks are the daggerboard trunks, Ama decks, aka-ama connection structure, aka-vaka connection structure (fiberglass tubes). installing deck support structure, installing decks, making hatch covers, making another seat, installing seats, making main hull aft cockpit. Make structural bow cockpit hatch. Sand everything and apply second coat of epoxy. make a rudder, tiller and cheeks. Those are the big ticket items at least.

Oh yeah, I also need to aquire a mast and sails, trampolines, trailer, rigging and hardware. No problem right? EEsh.

Ama part 2

Today, the inwales were fitted and slid in from the stern and the inside of the ama was coated. With the inwales in the temporary gunwales used to pull the sides in could be removed. I weighed the side panels and bulkheads pre-torturing at just under 30lbs. I expect that with epoxy coating, bottom paint, crossbeam structure, dagger trunk and a deck it will easily finish up around 40 which would be ok with me. 45 would be less ok but whatever it comes out at, "i'll own it" as they say.

This time I glued in the bulkheads near the keel pre-torture and that caused the hull to be a little less fair than I would have liked but its rock hard now so no going back. I don't plan to make changes for the port ama. Its not that bad.

You can see that I went for the inverted bow, wave piercer ama shape with influences from the Nacra Infusion, and Seacart 26 tri.

Apologies for the quality of the pictures. the shop is dimly lit at night.

Ama: tortured but alive

You know why they call it Tortured Plywood right?... Because sometimes it dies.

Fortunately the starboard Ama (on which I am now working) underwent severe torture today but the plywood told me what I wanted to know so I let it live. All in all a very satisfying shape achieved (more pics tomorrow). Below is the challenge. Turn flat panels into the wave piercing round bottomed form of a fast ama 1/2 shape at left. After determining what 2d shape I wanted to start with (part, geometry, part "maybe this will work") I joined the panels with a finger joint and stitched them together.

A pictoral journey of the events that followed can be seen below. I knew there would be some compromise in my desired hulls shape something I learned on the main hull but I wanted to really push the tortured shape to the limit of what I thought was possible and I don't think I could have gotten any more out of it. Then again, it didn't crack so who knows.

It was obvious to me that my desired bow shape was going to be a problem so I cut two splits in the bow section 40" long following an isoline from the tip of the bow and curving up along a line of max curvature. By re-stitching these, I could set them at an angle and help the curvature process. It also let me lock in the shape in that area so I don't end up with too fine a bottom near the bow. I have never seen this method used with torturing so I guess I'll call it "split-tortured plywood". The rest of the keel was glassed together over a generous fillet of 3.75" diameter with 20 degrees of deadrise. This angle is crucial to making it work. The smaller the deadrise you set at the get go the more compound curvature your asking for. Unlike the main hull, the ama is made of just two panels.

While the seams were curing I whacked out the bulkheads of 4mm ply on the shopbot. Sooo much faster than hand fitting. This worked great as you can see in the pics. The discrepancy between the bulkhead and the hull in the 1 photo where it is obvious occurs on the way to the bow where the deadrise angle must increase. Eventually at the bow, the angle is 90 degrees so there has to be some compromise there. The rest of the bulkheads fit like a glove.

At the start of initial torturing 2 cracks alerted me to a problem which was recognized at the finger joints. One of the fingers opened up on the outside as tension was placed on it. Work was put on hold until the joints were glassed in the area of maximum curvature. This is the joints weakest bending axis. They are strongest in axial loading such as overall compression or tension of the entire ama structure. This problem was not seen in the main hull presumably because the whole bottom panel was glassed before bending.

Once the patches were kicked, the torture continued. In the end, I was able to get all of the bulkeads glued and filleted and the stem joined tonight, just 3 and a half days after cutting the panels.

Tomorrow, I plan to turn the ama upside down and apply boiling water soaked towels to the outside of the skin in hopes of relieving some of the stress that is built up in the sheet before epoxy encapsulating.

Weighing in

It's been just about a month and a half since I cut the first wood for the boat. I spent the better part of 9 months designing in Rhino 3D and I am up to saved version 103. I have 12 ama iterations and about 6 of the main hull. All that and I'm still making major changes to the boat. Such is boat building.

A few days ago I removed the temporary frame that held the sheer line in place while I was installing stations. I've been anxious for that because it meant I could weight the hull. Drum roll.....62lbs as it sits. That is minus a couple of bulkheads, stringers, cabin sole, seats, cockpits, hatches and of course epoxy coating. It's heavier than I had hoped but not a death sentence. She is still on track to be significantly lighter than any production multihull of this size and power.

Below are the visible epoxy marks of a bulkhead that didn't make the cut. It's not that I put it in the wrong place, its just that I moved it after it had already been installed. Oops.

I'm closing in on the last few bulkheads. Once they are all in, I will be able to install the stringers for good, epoxy coat the inside and start closing it up. There isn't really that much in this hull.

One down side so far has been the artform that is tortured ply in a 1 off scenario, there was no way I could predict the exact section shapes and no one has built this hull before. Sometimes you have to let the wood do what it wants to do. All of the bulkheads in the main hull have been painstakingly patterned and hand fit. This just won't do for the amas. I need to speed up construction so I'm working on a more precise way to predict the ply shape so that I can CNC cut the bulkheads and have two identical amas. This will hopefully speed up construction. Stay tuned. Amas are on the horizon.