One down, 29 to go!
The noses will be laminated together out of three 12 mm pieces like this. With 10 noses that means 30 pieces total. The first one was the hardest, it took around 2 hours to finish after careful measurements and some afterthoughts. I will use this one as a model for cutting the rest of the pieces, then screw and glue three of them together with epoxy. Finally they will be cut in two in the front section, to facilitate getting them around the mast. The noses will have to be “threaded” on the mast approx. 2 meters above deck level (where the mast is thin enough), because I didn’t want the joint closer to where there is sideways stress in the noses.
I would like to do the rest of the pieces outside, instead of in my kitchen, but it’s still below freezing outside and it probably won’t get much better within a few weeks so I’ll just have to live with sawdust in my apartment for now.
More updates later!
Edit: Day one is done! Four nosepieces cut out. Edges still need to be sanded but after that the first nose can be laminated. Exciting!
4/30 of the nose pieces ready
Congratulations!
Do you use this first part as a template for a router or do you use the jigsaw for all 30 pieces?
If you reef or lower the sail, these noses will build up to a stack. How high will this stack of 10 noses be if the sail is totally lowered?
I wish you a good succsess!
regards
Sönke
Thanks! Yeah, I’m using the jigsaw to cut out the rest of the noses, using the first one as a template. 2/30 done so far. 🙂 Gonna do two more and then use those three new ones to create the first nose, before cutting out the rest of the pieces. Just in case there’s something I’ve missed or feels wrong about the design.
Regarding height, the aluminium battens will be slightly higher than the noses. With 45 mm round aluminium plus some canvas per batten, and if I had to throw in a wild guess, I’d say something in the ballpark of 50-60 cm (~20-24 inches) for the lot. In this post you can see David Tyler’s sail bundle, which is more or less how it will look like:
http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/boat-design/design-soft-wing-sails-cruising-49425-11.html#post695681
Feels very good to finally be doing something instead of just planning and I’m looking very much forward to the first trials in a few months!
Yeah, doing is better than planning 😉
I am waiting too for better temperatures to do epoxiworks…
My old Hai710 is standing outside no shelter no heating ….
all the best!