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Thread: Getting Ready for SHTP 2021

  1. #51
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    So for this attempt, everything is going to be made out of that scrap redwood that I've been using for practically everything. Why? It's free. I wonder if I can make this whole windvane getup for < $30. I bet I can. If it works, I'll make a sexier version out of aluminum and fiberglass poles.

    Anyway, here's the pendulum oar, glue'd up with PL Premium. It's 6 feet long and got a 5-inch chord. It's an inch thick. That will be a pretty chubby foil shape, but that's OK.

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    I happen to have two dinghy pintles for 1-inch thick rudders, so I'll use them to hang the oar off the oar carrier, which you can see glue'd up and clamped, to the left of the oar.
    1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
    1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
    Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"

  2. #52
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    The RHM pendulum oar system mounts to a "hinge" which is affixed to the top of the outboard rudder. The hinge supports the pendulum oar carrier. Here you can see the wood piece that I'm going to bolt to the top of the rudder, and the part that hinges with it, which will be attached to the pendulum oar carrier.

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    I actually have a couple of fairly substantial pieces of aluminum plate in my garage, and I'm tempted to make the part that bolts to the top of the rudder from that stuff. It would be a good excuse to buy a MAPP torch and some Muggyweld rods and try silver-soldering the aluminum.

    If this all works, and I build the "upgrade" I will actually keep the Wind Vane part, and I will keep the pendulum oar. It's the oar carrier and the hingey-bits that would get rebuilt.
    Last edited by AlanH; 03-28-2020 at 05:29 PM.
    1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
    1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
    Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"

  3. #53
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    Many years ago I built a windvane based on a bunch of Walt Murrays designs. Walt passed away in 2005 I believe but the Mister Vee website maintains a large proportion of Walt's design work, which is wonderful. That windvane never worked. The VANE worked, it was the pendulum oar that didn't. I remember motoring out of Coyote Point on my Santana 3030-with the framework temporary bolted/lashed to the back of the boat and the pendulum oar swung out to one side. It didn't work at all and I gave up on it.

    I've been thinking about that, and it occurred to me that the oar itself was buoyant. I mean, I made it out of 1x pine. that means that once it's pulled even a little bit out of completely vertical, the buoyancy is going to force it to the surface. That's the exact opposite of what you want, so I'm going to be adding some lead to the bottom of this pendulum oar, to try to pull it back down to vertical, and even things out.

    I've realized that $6 of thick, but not crazy-thick aluminum angle, some JB Weld and four machine bolts combined with a piece of aluminum I already have, will make a MASSIVELY stronger base for this whole contraption than the piece of wood I've got in that photograph above. I think I'll go by Alan Steel today or tomorrow.
    Last edited by AlanH; 04-01-2020 at 10:28 AM.
    1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
    1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
    Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"

  4. #54
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    My friend Lee built a servo pendulum from a design by Bill Belcher. It works really well and has steered his boat all over the Pacific

  5. #55
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    Quote Originally Posted by WBChristie View Post
    My friend Lee built a servo pendulum from a design by Bill Belcher. It works really well and has steered his boat all over the Pacific
    There are several DIY windvane designs out there. I have Bill Belchers book, too.

    The Hebridean is about as low-tech as it gets. It's essentially all wood.

    This woman..."girl in a gale"...scoped out an Auto-Helm and built her own knockoff, back in 2011. The windvane part is pretty good, but the auxiliary rudder and trim tab is as crude as you can imagine....but it worked!

    http://www.girlinagale.com/2010/11/c...-steering.html

    The Holland windvane kit...
    http://www.hollandwindvane.com/self-steering/

    I could build a trim tab for the Wildcats primary rudder, and go that route but I hate to mess with the rudder that I spent so much time building. Since the Wildcat has a transom-mounted rudder, having the whole pendulum oar assembly NOT sticking out too much further behind the rudder is nice, thus the RHM concept. However, if it doesn't work, it's not terribly difficult to cut some more parts and build a simple servo-pendulum, driven by the wind vane I'll be building anyway. Honestly, one of the nice things about the RHM concept is that you drill fewer holes in the boat!
    1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
    1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
    Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"

  6. #56
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    Today I cut out and glued up the air blade. I followed Walt Murrays dimensions, just that I didn't happen to have any 1/4 inch plywood. I had my last piece of doorskin....so I improvised. Here's a graphic from Walt's page, now hosted by the Mister Vee website, with a note added by me.

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    Here it is, doorskins, clamps and Elmers wood glue, on the tonneau cover of my truck.

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    I might add a little strip of unidirectional carbon fiber down the middle, length-wise, we'll see. That will get sanded and then a coat of epoxy on each side.
    1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
    1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
    Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"

  7. #57
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    So far I haven't spent a nickel on this project. Everything is just stuff I had lying around, or left over from other projects, like the emergency rudder. That will end soon, though. I'm going to need some s.s. nuts and bolts and wood screws, as well as two little pieces of 1 1/2 inch long, medium aluminum L-angle stock. I might spend ten bucks...
    1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
    1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
    Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"

  8. #58
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    I just blew up my budget at the metal warehouse and hardware store, on aluminum stock and s.s. nuts, bolts and screws. $14 for the stock, $54 for the s.s. bits and bobs. OUCH! ...but kind of had to do it.
    1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
    1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
    Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"

  9. #59
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    OK, today I spent most of the day on the windvane. I did the following...

    1. cut the angles at the top of the wind blade and got a piece of 4-inch glass tape in epoxy folded over the bottom of it.
    2. painted a layer of epoxy on the wind blade, and laid on a 1-inch wide strip of unidirectional carbon fiber on each side for stiffening.
    3. discovered that I had another, longer piece of the lime green fiberglass pole stuff, that I'm using for the mast. Nice...
    4. drilled, cut, glue'd and assembled the main wind blade carrier.
    5. laid out some funky duct tape on the garage floor in the appropriate angle, sort of put everything into alignment, and checked to make sure it will all fit....it will!

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    Wind Blade Carrier....still life with tools and laundry basket...

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    ....and 6. wrapped the lime green pole stuff in a couple layers of wax paper, and used some leftover lightweight fiberglass cloth to wrap around it, for the moveable part that the wind blade carrier will ride on. Once I got all the cloth on there (3 layers) I wrapped it again in wax paper, and then wound duct tape around the whole thing, really tightly. We'll see how this comes out.
    Last edited by AlanH; 04-05-2020 at 09:03 PM.
    1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
    1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
    Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"

  10. #60
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    Except for a nice 45-minute walk with Joan when the rain let up, I worked on the vane all day, today. Most of this work is cutting out or drilling or gluing little fiddly-bits. Joan mentioned that whatever I was making sure had a lot of parts, and she is right.

    So today I took off the fiberglass tube that I made around the green fiberglass pipe that will be the windvane mast. I laid it up yesterday and let it kick off all night. This tube is what the wind vane carrier assembly will be attached to. It needs to fit pretty snugly to the vane mast. Well, the epoxy soaked through the wax paper a little bit, so sadly I had to split the tube to get it off. No big deal, I was going to wrap it with more glass anyway. I was shocked at how well it came out, actually. Anyway, I got it off, cleaned up the mast tube, and wrapped the mast tube with a double layer of cling-wrap...household plastic wrap. That should seal it! Three wraps of wax paper went over that and then I slipped the fiberglass tube I made over that. It got multiple wraps of light fiberglass....scraps I had left over, in epoxy and the top got several wraps of my last bit of 4-inch glass tape. That is where the clamp that holds the windvane carrier will go.


    That got wrapped up with 3 wraps of wax paper around the outside and then I used tightly wound duct tape to keep everything compressed. It was pretty cool today, down in the 50's for most of the day so I warmed the rod with the heat gun a few times to help with getting the epoxy to set.. This is what it looks like...truly an exciting photograph!

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    I made a couple more parts...warmed the wind blade a few times with a heat gun to get the epoxy to kick off, and assembled everything on the garage floor. Before I cut the 3/8 aluminum rod that is the axis of rotation of the wind blade, and which the carrier spins on I wanted to make dropdead sure that everything lined up. Jan Alkema and Walt Murray recommend 30 deg. incline with the USD vane. Two other guys who have made them suggest less, more like 15 degrees. Other vanes (not USD) vary from no incline at a;; to almost 40 degrees. I decided on 25 degrees. 90 - 25 = 65. So with the rod that is the axis of rotation of the blade at 65 degrees from the mast, does everything fit together?

    I clamped everything to a piece of wood, used a paint can for a counterbalance, and set it all up. Son of a gun!

    Damn, I'm good!

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    Last edited by AlanH; 04-05-2020 at 09:46 PM.
    1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
    1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
    Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"

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