A couple of Swell pics. My 8th IOM design and build. Quite an experiment in some respects, expect more photo's of this baby!

A good 25-30mph blow

A Saturday with no Football matches equals a Fly instead

Swell is finished bar the bow bumper. Nicely under weight for a Cedar hull which I'm pleased about. Now I have to get her out on the lake to see if all that thinking time was worth it!! I have endeavoured to keep as much weight as possible as close to the CoG. Hence the rudder servo, battery and RX are all in front of the mainsheet post and fixed into the bottom of a standard pot which itself if directly glued to the hull to lower the CoB. This was also part of the reasoning to do away with a raised foredeck. The other advantage of the low foredeck was to keep the windage to a minimum but I'm not too sure about the added turbulence of the bow and jib strut.

Swell so far!

A little bit of Cedar fettling

After my foamies failed in a mid air the big guns came out!...Continue Reading

Hunts, South Gower with Harry, Mefisto and Phoenix 2000

2016 IOM sailing in pic'...Continue Reading

Great Christmas Holiday, good weather with super South Gower soaring

After months of racing I have come to the conclusion that Joio is just not up to speed. She was my latest and narrowest design to date but after a lot of scrutinising I can only conclude that her beam and transom are just too narrow at 163 and 73mm respectively.
So until I complete a replacement, VMG which was my second D&B back in 2011 has had a little makeover and is now back on the water and at the sharp end of the fleet. I have learnt so much since I first started sailing VMG so it will be interesting to see what she is capable of. Although, I have to come to terms with using a rather slow Graupner Regatta winch as the RMG fitted just in front of the mast would have had an adverse effect on the boats trim.

Just muckin round

Mi & Li (1 min 32 sec)

The 15mph SW wind was full of sea mist which rolled up the headland in thick tracks. At times you could see half a mile and within a few secs the visibility was down to a few metres. However, the conditions just suited the Dream Flite Libelle perfectly and I had one of best half hour soaring sessions ever. Low, close and full of varying manoeuvers.
The Libelle is just less cumbersome than either of my Traceur or Vagabond 3D soarers. It's a very refined, special glider.

Recently I put the Edge under the saw to hopefully reduce the foredeck windage and occasional drag caused by the former foredeck shape.
This experiment will help in the planning of my next design!

OK this aint RC but between sloping and sailing this weekend I managed to build my first Cigar Box Guitar from scratch using scrap.
Cost £9 for the pickup, cost to families health

Saturday Night Soaring Spot. The forecasters didn't predict SW winds today so this afternoon I popped over to Hunts and this evening I strolled over to the 8th Tee. I'm now a very happy soarer.

Sat Night out on the Slope (1 min 55 sec)

Super afternoon on the slope. Smooth generous lift to start then gradually decreasing to a gentle drifting breeze. There were also quite a few designs being flown from a 44yr old Dynaflite Ranger 99" , A Fatbox with an original Skyleader servo, Cobra, Zagi, Easy Star, Multiplex 300MM Fox, Vagabond, Mefisto and Libelle.

Following a major incident last season my 2.4m Blejzk Hammer has had a makeover. Retro WWII markings including D Day invasion stripes. In my opinion she goes as good as she looks!

Great racing today in very good 'B' rig conditions. Even managed to win an Easter Egg

Last Sunday Joio had her first race. The conditions weren't brilliant with a light NW wind wafting over the lake leading to big holes and 180 degree shifts. Overall we finished in a fairly disappointing third position but I'm pretty confident that a few tweaks will see us performing a lot better. This evening I have re programmed the RMG winch end points to my new HiTec Flash7 transmitter having upgraded from a Futaba 6EX. There is now adequate travel for the sails to sheet right out. I have also started to alter the fin rake further aft. In the future I might resort back to the Dave Creed rudder but for the moment I'm going to stick with a higher aspect ratio rudder which should favour stronger winds.
The forecast for next Sundays race is looking a lot better so given these tweaks and a little more mast rake I hope Joio will be a little more assertive and be up on the pace.