Team Seacats

I’m finally feeling like I’ve caught my breath after the Tybee 500….that race really saps it out of you! I’m really proud of the job our entire team did during that week.  It makes it so much easier when you have people, like Bonnie, Tim, and Daryl, that know what needs to be done and take care of it selflessly and without issue.  Bonnie did an exceptional job with the website too – don’t you think!? 

I’ve been piddling with several small projects with the one meter. I hope to have a machined lead bulb mold sometime next week so I can start working on the foil for that (the way I’ve envisioned the construction of the bulb / fin requires me to have the bulb first). In the meantime and to establish a small sense of accomplishment, I decided to make some mast fittings. I built a mandrel by ripping a 1/16″ slot in a piece of carbon tubing (the same section as used in the current mast) and I inserted a piece of stainless steel in the slot and filled the tubing with resin to permanently attach the stainless plate. Once that was done, a few coats of PVA, 5 layers of 5.7oz carbon, vacuum bagging for the afternoon, and some work to extract the piece (it proved to be tricky…I have a plan to make that easier) and I have a long piece from which to make some amazingly precise mast fittings. I’m still giggly over how well this part fits the mast.  Initially I perceived this part being glued to the mast, but it fits so perfectly and rotates with such ease that I’m inclined to use it as the horizontal boom pivot.  I realize this may not be ideal since most of the high-end r/c yachts offset the horizontal pivot to yield a fuller sail when it’s eased for downwind sailing…but this is SOOOOO light and simple.  I’ll try it at least for the prototype anyway.  This small piece will end life as a boom attachment fitting.