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| Life on board is much too hard! |
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| Full pilot house in the front, dodger version in the back |
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| View from starboard quarter |
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| Centerboards down |
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| Meanwhile, down below |
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| Centerboard pivot |
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| Starboard water tank |
Tuesday, February 9, 2016
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They look so fantastic! What a brilliant project :-)
ReplyDeleteShe's pretty cavernous inside! Lot's of grab rails along the ceiling would be a good idea I think. Good job on the SketchUp work.
ReplyDeleteI know people like to mount grab rails on the cabintop, but a much better place for them is at shoulder-height. The nice thing about fabricating the parts on an NC mill is that adding little slots that allow people to grab edges of partial bulkheads and partitions is just a matter of drawing them. I'll be sure to add plenty of those. The general rule with handholds is that at no point should it be necessary to let go of one without first grabbing another.
DeleteNow I want black sails. Do they flip out in opposite directions for 'wing on wing'? That would look awesome.
ReplyDeleteA good material for junk sails is Sunbrella fabric, and black is the most UV-resistant kind. It also doesn't show mold spots. It does show guano spots very well, though. But it's not too visible on the horizon. Burgundy Sunbrella is a good color and a good compromise. Crimson works too, but it's a bit showy. White is definitely boring and not very practical from many perspectives,
DeleteWing-and-wing is how QUIDNONs will go downwind in light air. In heavy air it will be just the foresail, reefed.
Love it!
ReplyDeleteThe port & starboard stabilizers, how are they sealed against water intrusion?
ReplyDeleteMy question as well (re stabilizers and water). Very exciting project. If you need help with Sketch-up or Revit close to home let me know. Cheers.
ReplyDeleteOh, I think I get it; the centerboard pivot is in a watertight housing?... You have it labeled as a tank?
DeleteThe centerboard trunks (one on each side) each share a wall with the water tank. The other side and bottom of the tank are the hull itself; fore and aft walls are bulkheads. The only dedicated pieces of the tanks are their lid. Each piece does several jobs; that's what makes QUIDNON cheap and fast to build.
DeleteOh I see. The Centerboard Pivot illustration is through the Port hull. well that works :). Would love to see these arrayed on the Little Mystic River, say, or Dorchester Bay -that would be a wonderful pilot development! Indeed the marketing part of this will be just as fascinating. Image whole colonies!.... (I'm sure you have). Again, I'm in Boston -in the architectural/design/RE development field with some waterfront planning experience. If you need any local assistance (I doubt you do, but I love this) let me know. Happy to help. Good luck!...
DeleteThank you for your offer of help, Michael. Boston is likely going to be a fabrication site for the parts. As far as assembly, some place warm and unhurried would probably work better.
DeleteDmitry, what are those bumper like feature above the dagger boards? What purpose do they serve? Looks awesome!
ReplyDeleteThe centerboards are only really useful in deep water. Once they start bouncing up, they move lateral resistance too far aft of the center of effort, generating huge amounts of lee helm and making the boat unsteerable on the wind. So they have to be lifted all the way up when sailing upwind over shallows. But then what is to provide lateral resistance to avoid excessive leeway when sailing upwind over shallows? The answer is these lips that extend out from the chines, called CHINE RUNNERS. They dig into the water, especially with a little heel, and counteract leeway. They are not as effective as the centerboards, and so tacking is through 90ยบ instead of the usual 60, but it still gets you over the sandbanks and the coral heads and out into deep water. Off the wind in open water, chine runners are all that the boat really needs to steer well. In heavy swell, the chine runners offer a lot of resistance to water as it tries to flow across the chines, and this slows down rocking and makes QUIDNON much more comfortable.
DeleteRather than two wind turbines, how about one wind turbine and a water turbine in the engine well. Would the engine well be large enough to hold both an outboard engine & a water turbine? The other mast could be topped with a line-of-sight directional gain wifi antenna or VHF marine whip. Marine Wifi based ad-hoc networks have become pretty much the state of the art, but might be truly useless in a post-industrial world. A VHF marine radio would be very useful, for a very long time, however; and the line-of-sight to a mast-top antenna would be in excess of 10 miles on a clear day.
ReplyDeleteThe wind generators atop the masts would be OK in sheltered waters and for short coastal passages, but it's too much weight up top for open water. Unfortunately, there isn't any convenient spot to mount a wind generator where it wouldn't snag the sheets.
DeleteThe run-of-the-river generator in place of the inboard is a good idea, and I suspect at some point someone will try it. It can probably be put together using a bottom unit from a dead outboard, with a gear reduction and an alternator at the top and a much bigger, low-pitch prop at the bottom.
A direct drive electric trolling motor might work ok as well to generate dc without the mechanical losses in a geared unit.
ReplyDeleteCheap and easy enough to try.
Probably would have to be hacked a bit. Either the leads to the electromagnet on the armature would have to be isolated & controlled independently, or (if it has a permanent magnet type, which is unlikely) then it will need a special made voltage regulator. Either way, some custom electronics will be required, but not terribly expensive or difficult to make. Also, a different kind of prop might prove to be more efficient in this context.
DeleteI assume the inner bulkhead that defines the two aft berths is structurally necessary; but do the two couches in the center and the fore captain's couch serve more essential purposes than storage? I ask, because I think that I'd favor a different layout in the hold. I am a fan of the Brazilian & Mayan style hammocks; the Mayan is better for a mid-day nap in the heat, because it's open & airy, and lets the breeze flow around you on deck; while the Brazilian is pretty much a fine way to sleep generally, particularly while it's cool & down in the hold. Hammocks also have excellent stowage ratios & many alternative uses themselves; such as a hanging net storage for small items that want to roll away, such as fruit. So while I'm likely to keep the Captain's couch, I'd prefer to keep the middle of the hold closest to the hold access open. With two rows of weight bearing rings attached to the underside of the deck, about 12' apart, a lot of options for hammock positions and/or hanging bulk stowage open up. However, a hammock in the hold will hang pretty close to the sole, and those two center couches shown are likely to interfere in many of the positions' ability to safely swing. Additionally, it's possible to line up quite a few people in hammocks quite close to one another, without risk, in an otherwise open & empty hold; as they tend to swing in unison; but this would also be improved by tying short sections of rope (with minimal slack) between the hammocks & a bungee cord or two on each end hammock to limit the swinging. By looking at the pictures, I'd guess that I could get at least three, likely four, hammocks lined up between the masts if ropes were used to make sure that they could not swing into the masts. Five if they were hung at a an angle, so that the buttocks of the two people sleeping in the end hammocks could swing past the masts on one side or the other.
ReplyDeleteThe boat will be designed as shown. Of course, you can do anything you want with hammocks and cargo nets. I don't think your solution will be popular.
DeleteHey, wait a minute... Hammocks were mentioned by yourself in your almost 10 year old article, "The New Age of Sail". Do you no longer agree with the perspective you presented in your article? Or is Quidnon intended to be more of a compromise between that extreme future perspective and current expectations?
DeleteI don't see your point. As I said, you can do anything you want with hammocks.
DeleteIt's that you seemed a bit dismissive of the idea, but I suppose that could have just been my own interpretation.
DeleteLooks fantastic! I could see myself living on a Quidnon for sure. I think there's a lot of room for alternate layouts with the fore dining/living areas. If I build one, I will probably make some modifications there. Perhaps a workshop, and bicycle/motor scooter storage.
ReplyDeleteCould the forward boom support be eliminated and replaced with a small "shelf" coming forward off the rear mast? Seems to me like that would reduce windage, improve visibility, cut weight and IMO improve the overall appearance. Perhaps I'm missing something here related to the junk rig controls...
Can't wait to see how the upcoming model sails.