Newbie from Ottawa

[Sea Hoss]

Nice work on the model! Two hobbies in one, how could that be topped! I'll be watching your posts, welcome...

[Zbip57]

I should also have mentioned, it wouldn't be difficult to abandon altogether the extra sail modifications.  It's all reversible and can easily be returned to the original 3-sail configuration, which worked great.

 

Another minor hiccup became apparent after I decided not to drill the extra holes through the deck.  Rather than passing the control sheets straight down through the deck, I needed to add some cleats to the bottom of the masts to instead tie off those lines.  That was simple enough.

 

However, of the two sheets leading to the foot of the fisherman's staysail, the loose side would sometimes drape under that new cleat causing the winch servo to bind whenever the sheet was next pulled tight. 

 

I solved that by fashioning a little rail alongside the cleat, so that now the sheet rides up and over rather than snagging under the cleat.

[Zbip57]

Eureka!  It works!

 

I've been itching to get Kamanik back in the water to test out my new sail configuration, but first  had to wait for the ice to melt off the lake.  Then I couldn't do it because of the high water levels and strong currents from the spring melt runoff.  When that finally settled down, I still couldn't go sailing because the black flies were horrendous and would have eaten me alive.

 

We finally had a really nice day yesterday, so I worked up the nerve to give her a test.  With all the additional new sail area and increased height of the topmasts, there was a very real possibility of the thing simply capsizing and sinking to the bottom of the lake the first time it encountered a strong gust of wind.   So I've been rather hesitant and reluctant to rush things until the water has warmed up at least enough that an emergency rescue jump into the lake to retrieve a sinking boat might be possible.

 

Turns out, she sails beautifully! Phew.  Huge relief.

 

This video was actually three separate quick trips, with brief landings for minor tweaks to the rigging and to reposition the camera.  It'll require a more comprehensive test day to better figure out what effects can be achieved with all the various trim adjustments.   But overall I'm already thrilled with how well this turned out!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7ai9jwqLGU

Edited June 14, 2019 by Zbip57

[Katoom]

An impressive effort! It is also very cool that you gambled on the configuration and won so handsomely. Thanks for taking the time to document your success with the video,  there were moments that were really beautiful and graceful.

[Zbip57]

42 minutes ago, Katoom said:

Thanks for taking the time to document your success with the video,  there were moments that were really beautiful and graceful.

Thank you!  There were also a few moments that were less than beautiful or graceful...  But with the benefit of hindsight in video editing, I deleted those.

 

Who would have guessed that it's surprisingly difficult to coordinate the operation of two control sticks on a transmitter while simultaneously trying to shoot handheld video using a cellphone? 

 

I stupidly ran the boat aground on the rocks in front of my neighbour's dock, on the opposite side of the waterfall from our dock. I had to go fetch my canoe in order to retrieve the sailboat. D'oh!

[Zbip57]

I put Kamanik through some challenging conditions this week.  There was a thunderstorm on the way, with strong gusty winds kicking up a few waves. 

 

This first image shows (red arrow) how high the GoPro camera sat mounted amidship on the gunwale railing.

 

This series of shots from the GoPro show the boat heeling hard over to starboard under a sudden strong gust of wind.  Check out how there's already water flowing past the high side of the deck house.

Then we got slammed by another wave.

I quickly let out the sheets, but the boat still rolled to starboard far enough to submerge the GoPro camera!  That was exciting.

 

 

 

Amazingly there was only a tiny bit of water in the bilges after that adventure.  It probably came in through the mast boots.

 

Love this boat!  😍

[Mirabell61]

Hi Zbip,

Welcome to MSW, enjoy your stay, also thanks for sharing that fantastic Video, made with a camera on a pole stick, from outboard with 360° function, wow !  

It is a mazing that the camera, stick and certain things can be made invisible, never heard that before

 

Nils

[Zbip57]

Hallo Nils.  Grüße von Ottawa.

 

The 360° camera is an Insta360 ONE.  See here:  https://www.insta360.com/

 

I made another couple of short video tests with it the other day for comparison.  Both allow you to rotate the view to any desired angle.  I should have first re-calibrated the camera though.  The image was not stitched properly between the two fish-eye lenses, one facing forward the other rearward.

This first video is automatically gyro-stabilized, so the view remains level and fixed at a point on the horizon until you rotate it to a different angle.  That view looks like the camera is floating alongside while the boat dips and bobs and turns underneath it.  You need to drag and rotate the view if you want to follow the boat whenever it turns onto a different tack.

 

 

The second video is not stabilized.  In this one the view tilts and dips along with the boat.  You can still rotate the view to any chosen angle, and it will then stay at that same angle relative to the boat.

 

Which view do you guys prefer, stabilized or non-stabilized?

Edited July 16, 2019 by Zbip57

[Zbip57]

Here's the video from my wet & wild day of stormy sailing.

 

I ran into a small problem with the way the jib boom is hinged.  The wire loops are too big, allowing the boom to roll over upside down.  That way the boom gets jammed up and no longer swings from one side to the other.

 

I fixed that by filling the hoop on the bowsprit with epoxy, leaving a much smaller hole for the eye on the end of the boom to rotate in.  That works.

 

 

[Zbip57]

It was never a problem with the original full length jib boom because its travel was limited by the length of the jib sheet, even when fully spooled out. But with the shorter half-length jib boom required to make room for the extra flying jibs, and still the same original sheet travel, there's now enough slack that the shorter boom could flip over onto the wrong side of the retaining hoop on the bowsprit.

Filling the bowsprit hoop with epoxy, and leaving just a small hole for the jib boom to pivot within. fixed the problem. But of course I couldn't resist touching it before the epoxy had fully set, so I made a bit of mess of that. I cleaned it up some by filing the epoxy smoother and painting it black. It's far from good, but good enough from far.

Making the bowsprit hoop "fatter", and ensuring the inside diameter of the loop on the tip of the jib boom is small enough, it's now impossible for the boom to ride up and over to the wrong side of the bowsprit hoop.

[Zbip57]

Another fine day of sailing. 

 

 

[Zbip57]

Went for a 5-night cruise on a real windjammer schooner out of Camden, Maine.  Highly recommended if you ever get a chance to do this!

 

 

[Matt H]

Wow, I'm impressed. Like many others my first impression was that your first image was a real ship. I especially liked the full 360 degree camera, I didn't know such a thing existed. I may have to venture down this path someday. I have recently started flying drones a bit and I have previously built and driven RC rock crawlers, never have thought of a boat before. Very impressive work.

[Zbip57]

12 hours ago, mjh410 said:

I may have to venture down this path someday. [...] never have thought of a boat before.

Thanks Matt.  I had a look at your build logs.  Wow!  If you can do such a beautiful job working on those tiny pieces you'll have no problem whatsoever in tackling any of the Bearospace designs.

Gary sells plans for his three boat designs, Irene, Emma, and Annie individually at just USD$15, or $35 if you buy all three together.  The 1/8" plywood construction is waaaaay simpler than the planked hulls you've been building.  His plans include a comprehensive list of required materials, with pretty much everything available from Home Depot or your local hobby shop.

I had never built a model boat before, but managed to complete mine over one winter.  Then I went crazy over the following winter and added topmasts and topsails.  As much as I enjoyed building the boat, for me the real enjoyment is in actually sailing it.  And it's big enough to easily carry several onboard video cameras!  See all my sailing videos at http://tinyurl.com/Kamanik

There is a discussion forum thread devoted specifically to this Irene design on RcGroups with many helpful tips.

Gary posted a fun video showing how far and wide his designs have already spread around the world and how people have added customization to their own boats.

 

 

[Matt H]

7 minutes ago, Zbip57 said:

Thanks Matt.  I had a look at your build logs.  Wow!  If you can do such a beautiful job working on those tiny pieces you'll have no problem whatsoever in tackling any of the Bearospace designs.

Thank you for the kind words. For my day job I am a 2nd year high school teacher, teaching CAD drafting and wood shop. I have access to all sorts of machines and I have quite a large supply of 1/8" baltic birch plywood that hardly gets used by the students. I may just buy the plans you listed and try my hand at this, my students would like to see the progress on something like this as well. Thanks you for sharing.

[Zbip57]

6 hours ago, mjh410 said:

I have access to all sorts of machines and I have quite a large supply of 1/8" baltic birch plywood that hardly gets used [...]

You're all set then.

Funny story...  We had just moved house.  My wife made me throw out the 40 years worth of treasures (i.e. scraps and junk) that I had accumulated in the belief they might come in handy someday.  "We're not paying the movers to ship that junk.  Throw it all out!" 

So, in Gary's plans, he has little tidbits like, "Just use a small chunk of scrap hardwood for this piece or that piece..."  Ya but, but, I just finished throwing out all those scraps, eh.

For example, the mast hoops to which the sails are sewn are just sanded smooth slices out of a 3/4" PVC pipe.  I think the plans call for a total length of about 4 inches of plastic pipe.  I'd thrown all my scrap pieces out and, guess what?  Home Depot only sells that pipe in 10-foot lengths!!

I knew I couldn't fit that into my car so I had them cut the pipe in half for me.  Then I had to argue with the cashier who tried to charge me double.  It's just ONE piece of 10' pipe, cut into two 5' lengths.  Sheesh.

[Zbip57]

On 7/16/2019 at 1:03 PM, Mirabell61 said:

[...] thanks for sharing that fantastic video, made with a camera on a pole stick, from outboard with 360° function, wow !  

It is amazing that the camera, stick and certain things can be made invisible, never heard that before.

Nils

 

On 9/15/2019 at 12:44 AM, Matt H said:

[..] I especially liked the full 360 degree camera, I didn't know such a thing existed.

 

This is a little off-topic, as it involves neither modelling nor sailing, but I created another video this week using my Insta360 ONE camera.  It was dead calm, with no wind for sailing, so instead I mounted the 360 on a pole clamped to the thwart of my canoe.  Here's a 10-minute canoe tour of our lake showing the sorts of cool editing effects possible using this camera.

 

 

[Mirabell61]

Hi Zbib,

a beautiful place in nature you`re living in, and thanks for your demonstrator video, very nice and relaxing....

 

Nils

[Zbip57]

Here's a recent video update for y'all..

 

 

[DougTx]

Wow, that is a beautiful working model and those videos are a joy to watch.  Has a very calming effect given all the current events taking place in the world. 

[Zbip57]

I haven't posted in a while.  My sailboat is still going strong.  I had it out recently on another stormy day.