One Meter Update
by Jake on Jul.30, 2008, under One Meter
As I get some time here and there, I’ve begun construction on a couple of US1M hulls. I’m still perfecting my vacuum bagging technique but have settled on a laminate schedule. This hull had a layer of 3.5oz S-glass (the strong fiberglass) and one layer of 5.7oz carbon fiber cloth. Concerned about the oil-canning tendency of the large flat bow, I placed two strips of balsa triangle stock in the bow section for stiffness – they work well, but I’m not completely certain they’re necessary. Certainly both aren’t and only one will be required. The good news is that I’m right at the weight target for the hull and I think I can still get a little lighter with using a 2oz fiberglass cloth on the exterior. This hull half weighed in a 5.39oz (.34 lb) but hadn’t had any of the flashing or PVA washed off yet. I’m trying to get an assembled and reinforced hull and deck down to around 2/3 lb. This includes the primary bulkhead and radio tray. I did still have some void issues in with the vacuum bag but I used a stretchy vacuum film called “Stretchelon” for the second hull half and suffered NO void issues. Good stuff!
The second hull half that I laminated came in at 4.8oz (0.3 lb)after the flashing was removed – that’s right on target! I laminated up a 16″ x 18″ piece of 1/8″ balsa with carbon on both sides to fashion three pairs of bulkheads and radio trays that came in at 5oz ….some rough calcs for cut-away waste and the material for the bulkhead and radio tray should come in at 1.25 oz (.07lb). That puts me at .695lb with the 3.5oz glass…so a switch to 2oz glass on the exterior may just knock it do .66lb and I think that’s as light as I can go and have it be reasonably durable.
July 30th, 2008 on 1:59 PM
Jake:
Nice to see you are getting your fleet started. You have spent a lot of time putting this together and nice enough to share it with all of us, thanks.
Our Yacht Club is up to 93 boats. Those are the Nirvana II. We sail every Friday evening with 5 to 23 boats on the line. I think that you need to have a fast boat, which it looks like you do, but you also need to find a way to practice racing these kinds of boats. Maybe you could convince a lot of people to get $200 boats so you can sail in big fleets. That way you will be ready when you get to the “Big Show”.
Later,
Dan
July 31st, 2008 on 9:28 AM
I’m planning on it. We have a large retirement community within walking distance of the pond I have at work. Once we get enough boats to have a small demonstration, we’ll make some presentations and try to generate some interest over there. Currently, in our “group”, we have 1 Nirvana, 1 Victoria, and 1 US1M and a couple more interested people. Once we get enough momentum, we hope to support/promote three classes of r/c boats; the Nirvana, the Soling1M, and the US1M as entry, intermediate, and advanced levels respectively.
My problem is finding enough time to build the boats right now.
July 31st, 2008 on 11:21 PM
Looking GREAT!! Let us know when you are ready for Chris and I to help, but remember I don’t do math, or estimate, only glue, cut, etc. Also, from my business, I have a contact at Rolling Greens that might be able to get a note in a report to the residents there.
call me and we will talk about it.