Suction please.
by Jake on Feb.19, 2006, under Composite Works
I reinforced the other rudder today and choose to vacuum bag this rudder instead of using the electrical tape trick hoping for a cleaner finish. Previously, I had only used vacuum bagging to construct completely new parts but hadn’t yet used it to reinforce or repair existing parts. It was most certainly cleaner and not only yielded another strong repair but required less work after the repair was completed. In the picture below you can see the rudder head while it’s under vacuum pressure. I use a Vaccon vacuum generator that uses air from my air compressor to pull a vacuum (venturi). It’s really economical and effective…but probably requires a little more energy than a mechanical vacuum pump. There’s more detail about the layup process at Flikr (where the images are hosted).
I also ground out the crack on the back of the daggerboard well on the hull and found that the crack penetrated about 2/3 the way through the hull. I was surprised that it didn’t go all the way through – but it still needed to be repaired because it would only get worse. I’ve ordered ports to install into the decks so I can reinforce the well from the inside too…I’ll post pictures of that when I really get into that repair later. I’m either going to have to wait for another warm spell to do the composite work or build some sort of hull-fitting heat box with my infrared heat light to keep the repair warm while it cools. Unlike these rudder repairs, the hull repair will have to be done with polyester resin because I intend to gelcoat the hull after all the fairing and repairing are complete and Gelcoat will not adhere as well to epoxy.
Originally uploaded by Team Seacats.
February 19th, 2006 on 9:28 PM
Did the rudders fail at one point due to cracking in the past? I saw on the previous repair that it certainly could with how far into the glass it seemed to go. It just seems like one could find small hairline cracks in a LOT of areas on a cat (esp a well used cat)
February 19th, 2006 on 9:37 PM
As you pointed out, the other rudder had more than hairline cracks and most certainly needed reinforcement. This area on these style rudders is a common area for failure and although I never heard of a failure, most Nacra 20 distance racers reinforced their rudders in this area to keep them from cracking. I’m doing all this work on the rudders and chances are that we’ll probably end up running the newer style Nacra rudders from my Nacra F18 (but these needed work anyway). One blowout in this race can cost multiple positions overall and we’re aiming for no failures (something I’ve yet to experience in this race). My current F18 rudders are class legal for the Nacra 20 class. It’s wild when you think about distance racing and the fact that the last two Tybee 500′s have been settled by less than 1.5 minutes. On any one of the six legs (say 6 hours of sailing), a 1/100th speed advantage can be a 4.2 minute advantage for the day.
February 21st, 2006 on 9:30 PM
That is amazing, after that many miles! I can see why you would try to minimize any possibility of failure. But then again- its the parts that you don’t expect to go that do go. I admire your perseverance. How much money, do you figure, it costs to run the Tybee? I am new to the game and have only raced 4 times (one of which was the RTI) and I can’t imagine running 5 RTIs in a row. We were lazy when we ran the RTI- but this was more likely because we, at that point, wanted to be able to say we had done it. We really had no thought of winning it. Sounds like you guys are certainly trying to make sure you have your sh– together.
Thanks for the updates.
February 21st, 2006 on 10:06 PM
It’s actually 6 straight days – some days as short as 50 miles, most around 80, and one (last year) was 110 miles. It’s much different that Round the Island in that you can almost depend on having a decent breeze at some point during the day. We’ve finished legs in 4.5 hours but some can drag out past 12 hours (like RTI). During my first Tybee (the second running) it was pretty windy and I remember thinking after the third day that I couldn’t believe as many people finish this race like they do (let alone the Worrell 1000). 5 of the 16 teams did drop out though. You get a second wind on day 4 and things become increasingly easier mentally. Perhaps it’s that you’ve crossed half way and that your on the down hill now, or maybe its that the pain in your hands stopped getting worse that day, or maybe it’s the fact that you feel like you’ve finally broken everything you could possibly break already! Perhaps it’s all three. After the finish of the 2004 running I gained a new appreciation for those that have competed in previous Worrell 1000s and felt like it might be something I might actually fail at doing. After the 2005 running of the Tybee 500 however, I wanted to keep going (but I would have to find a solution to the swelling I was experiencing in my hands daily). The experience is addicting and the time it takes after finishing to go from “thankfull that it’s over” to “can’t wait for next year” gets shorter and shorter. It’s down to about an hour now. I could go on about the attraction of the race, the wildlife, the challenge, the constantly changing weather, the sailors, the sites (Canaveral, the desolation south of Tybee, etc.), the people you meet along the way, getting to sign your first autograph, that feeling you get on the drive home realizing that it took you 14 hours to get to the start of the race and only 5 to drive back home…
Budgets vary for the race and we’ve been fortunate to have some support from people like SailMax.biz. Usually, however, you’ll find that the support that’s most easily is found, is of the equipment variety. To find a company support your team financially is difficult to find. Boat maintenance, equipment, and entry fee aside, you can squeak by with a $2000 budget for the running of the race – taking care of the ground crew along the way. $2500 is more reasonable – some teams have gone in with excess of $8000 toward the running of the race.