The ideal flat bottomed boat

[roger]

[quote="PeterV"]Ed what are you on? It still looks horrible![/quote

from a man who likes hard chineboats I have to agree with Peter.

[alan williams]

Agree but still better looking a than an Oppie.
Cheers Al

[Ed]

Yes, the Firebird is a much prettier boat and a much better use of 8ft of flat-bottomed ply.

But of course Jim you are right, it is the shear 'orribleness' of the PDRacer which is the attraction. It can only be pretty horrible to sail to....but still if you had a few of them it would be a right giggle to build and race.

Mind you one has to factor in the polytarp sails for the full extent of the horribleness.

he he, very tempting.

eib

[alan williams]

Hi
They all look the same to me. Try looking at the Italian 10ft class that is interesting cats, tri's. skiffs and scows only rules are sail area 8sqm and it must fit in a box 10ft by 10ft. Why the Italians choose 10ft in a metric country I do n't know but they look to be fun.
Cheers Al

[Rupert]

I think you could lengthen many of the ideas behind these designs, rather than scaling them up, but the ugliness factor does need addressing - if a boat looks right, and all that...

Phil Bolger's Brick design is interesting, as is his was of fixing 2 of them together, lengthways, with a plywood insert which fills in the gap between bow and stern. Yhe plywood insert ended up being called Grout, apparantly.

Found the below on the interweb, but can't find anything about the joining piece - I have it in a book called Common Sense Designs.

https://sites.google.com/site/molepages/brick

[Rupert]

Hi
They all look the same to me. Try looking at the italian 10ft class that is interesting cats, tri's. skiffs and scows only riles are sail area and must fit in a box 10ft by 10ft. Why the Italians choose 10ft in a metric country I do n't know but they look to be fun.
Cheers Al

It was a British invention originally - there were a couple down in Falmouth in the early 90's. But like the Mini Transat, others picked up on it and did it better.

[Ed]

Details of Grout here:

http://www.pdracer.com/hull-config/brick-grout/

Agreed that this is somehow both very sensible....and very silly all at the same time.

Alan, can you send link to Italian 10x10 class

cheers

eib

[Rupert]

Thank Ed!

http://www.diecipiedi.it/ns/main/index.html

Could be a language problem!

or

http://smalltrimarans.com/blog/?p=6820

Looking at the pics, the rigs have gone a bit hi-tec.

[Ed]

Ah.....so many boats to build


so little time


eib

[Obscured by clouds]

Ed what are you on? It still looks horrible!

I could'nt agree more. For the amount of work you have to do to make it look half way acceptable, you could find a much better looking design.

[phil58490]

I always liked the idea of a scow type moth, in some ways it was a shame that moths went so narrow, high tech and expensive. There was a number of interesting designs in the early seventies I wonder if there are any plans still about.

I would be up for building something similar now for the fun of building it and to end up with something useable on strong wind days but I don't think I would build something so quirky/ugly that it rarely got used.

[Ed]

PeterV wrote:
Ed what are you on? It still looks horrible!

I could'nt agree more. For the amount of work you have to do to make it look half way acceptable, you could find a much better looking design.

Well I am sure I could find better looking designs....and which sail better for that matter....

but somehow that just seems to miss the point of these boats entirely.

eib

[alan williams]

Ed's point being quick build time, cheap materials and a bit of a laugh?
Rupert I think the Zipper could be a lot of fun especially if built light with epoxt fillet joints and light weight ply. You could dump the wood spars, make a wingmast or use carbon or ali for spars. Fit wooden foils instead of metal add a trapeze or sliding seat with spinnaker and you would have a singlehander for my weight which would be a Flyer.
Cheers Al

[Mungo]

Y Flyer, looks like 7 pieces of plywood, rather stoutly built http://www.moesmarineservice.com/?p=815.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder....

[roger]

Oooh I quite like that. Not sure about the bridle though