Meeting at Thorpe 20th January 2019
After members had helped organise furniture and had a coffee break the meeting began with a short slide show by Fred Ball who had recently been to the Science Museum and spotted a model of an oil tanker with a bulb bow which was meant to illustrate the benefits of mathematical design. Michael Ellison reminded us that during the war some frigates were fitted with sonar domes at the bow and incidentally discovered a marked increase in maximum speed! Which came first the chicken or the egg?
Later a talk was given by Tim Glover about repairing cracked thermoplastic materials using a soldering iron and scraps of compatible plastic material. A clean bit and some practice to get the heat right and cracks could be successfully repaired.
Tim Glover then showed us his extended winch handle which gave increased leverage to help those off us getting older and weaker (its a real phenomenon don’t laugh). He also was able to show us bore cameras which could be plugged into a mobile smart phone becoming a useful endoscope costing £6-10; during the lunch break he left it set up so we could try it. He also showed us a USB plug that had a hinge built in to the normal plug so that on bending it became a mini USB plug.
Roger Callum then described how he had repaired a Topper sailing dinghy where the mast foot had chewed through the socket; although he had described the damage the official repair depot and they thought the could repair it; on inspection they declined however; with a bit of persuasion they provided a suitable chunk from a reject moulding for a repair to be made; he used a rather special instant heat type of soldering iron where the carbon block heating element was, by trigger action moved to contact the bit giving almost instant control of heat.
Fred Ball then raised the matter of the future of AYRS and the topic was introduced by asking the age demographics of those present 1 under 50, 2 50-60, 5 60-70, 5 70-80, 5 over 80, 0 over 90
The importance of ensuring that the membership realised we are a co-operative organisation and rely on the members generating ideas, discussion and experimental results so that we had a regular supply of publishable material. It was also emphasised that the management was by volunteers and we had arrived at the situation where Simon Fishwick was essentially doing all the work.
Ways of increasing membership were discussed; membership forms handed out to be given to potential members, or even used to gift membership. It was also suggested that members trying out their ideas should have to hand, an information slip giving details of what the experiment was and contact details including those of the AYRS
Michael Ellison talked about his duties as an observer for the WSSR and how as he is now over 80 local rules about retiring before 80 were circumvented, and also although wind forecasts were extremely good it was difficult to get competitors motivated to be ready for the ideal condition slot for a record run. He also described how on one occasion a competitor wanted to set a record not included in the event he coaxed that competitor to go on course at that moment and that competitor was rewarded with THE world record.
Kim Fisher had been given a film of Speedweek 1972 which he had had digitised and we were able to show. The most noticeable thing was the huge variety of hull and sail configurations that were being used There was a clip of Crossbow in action; long thin hulls and large sail area, also clips of several foiling boats including Icarus a foiling version of a Tornado.
Fred Ball reminded us that Speedweek is on; October 5th to 11th this year, while predominately featuring sailboards and kiteboards the organisers are anxious to encourage boat entries and while production boats often take the fastest boat of the day prize less spectacular ones sometimes win and there are prizes for innovation. Also the AYRS evening meeting at the Weymouth Sailing Club is always extremely interesting. Wednesday 9th October this year, 7.00 pm for 7.30
Charles Magnan spoke about his thoughts on an improved hull design for the Challenger trimaran used by disabled people with a view to improving its speed potential without loosing the convenience of the present design which can be sailed and recovered from a shelving beach or slipway with the minimum of help and avoiding the use of hoists to transfer the sailor from a wheelchair. He was able to show some preliminary drawings from a proprietary CAD program.
Roger Glencross then made a short presentation about his thoughts on the Haggadorn form of sailing, where a kite carries a man above the water constrained by a paravane avoiding the drag from the hulls of a conventional boat. In view of his increasing age he now feels that some form of ekranoplane should replace the kite keeping him warm and dry and avoiding the athletic activities of kite boarders. The model he displayed had anhedral and some concern was expressed about its stability when flying however he hopes that by remaining close to the water he will retain ground effect and stability.
Some ekranoplanes do appear to have marked anhedral and I understand that their pilots need to learn new skills to avoid catastrophe.
He was also planning on using a diamond shaped wing to get adequate area using short spars to generate enough lift at the low flying speed he feels is prudent.
John Perry then made a presentation about the new Americas Cup rules and how they were being developed, the boats sound as though they will be fast and exciting and certainly the small experimental ones which have been built appear to be extremely fast. However John went on to describe the complexities of the rules (and the rules that say which teams can choose the rules) make some interesting logistics about whether the actual race boats will ready in time for the planned preliminary events.
John then talked about an idea he had for measuring pressure at various points on a sail in working conditions by implanting a disc with cuts in it and measuring electrically and data logging the stress reactions as the disc distorted; the lack of bulk would have little effect on the sail shape unlike a manometer or aneroid systems
He next gave us a quick review of his summer holiday sailing along the Croatian coast in his own designed and built dinghy. The harbours and towns visited were very interesting but much of the actual coast was rocky and covered in dense vegetation so exploring the country side was rather restricted.
During the late lunch break a slide show of 1998 Speed week was shown; and delegates were able to browse some displays and a selection of old publication given to the Society by a member who was downsizing, these were on offer in exchange for a donation.
After lunch we formally went round members displays starting with Chris Watson (see Catalyst 54) who had a very neat half model of his boat stuck to a mirror which produced an unusual but effective visualisation of the concept. Chris went on to say how a bigger version was being developed with Kim Fisher’s help.
Thorpe meeting Second attempt Part 1
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Thorpe meeting Second attempt Part 1
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