Motivated to get sailing

I took a break from moving flat and spent the weekend in the workshop, in an attempt to progress the Flashheart to victory in the great build race. I am now working on hull details like gantry mounts, wand mount and the mast post. The next jobs are wing bars.

I think I have made a mistake with the wing bars. I am going to do Bladerider type sweepback of the front bars to save a bit of tube. This may be cool but it makes the build of the bars much harder. I should have run them straight like a prowler and saved time but I ordered the bars and they are too short to run straight.



Flasheart is looking like the right machinery. She is developing a very aggressive functional look. When I saw the hull rendering from Adam the first time I thought that looked mad. Now with the flat deck, low foredeck and sunken wing sleeves she has a deck layout to match the hull. I should throw lots of filler at her and sand down the mountings etc… into beautiful sculptured details but that is time and weight. So I will try to find a reasonable compromise or not bother at all and save that for next winter.

I made my own wand system for fitting to Tomahawk and got it wrong to start with. However my experiments mean I have a better understanding of the system now. The new boat is also going to be a bit experimental but I think it should work OK. I am playing with the phase of the control system to give me what could be better flap movement behavior. However normally copying is better than trying to develop but this is stuff that can be modified later and playing around is fun (if it works).



Niki called me to report on a great sail he had. He tested his shortened foils and said that it flew well and he had no problems with the water depth. This is great news because although the water level on the big shallow lake is high at the moment it makes it realistic to think we can sail more often there. It also means I have to build a shorten-able system which is an extra complication however he thinks that the extra margin for error is worth the effort.

So Niki had a sunny 10 knots sail and complained that he needed a training partner. This, Adam latest on-board videos, my new wetsuit and the build race and I am seriously contemplating not brothering to paint Flashhert. I am definitely motivated to get sailing.



There is also an interesting debate that I hope will develop here.

So now it is back to a week of work and flat sorting out. Next job is to sort out the electric shocks I get from the sink and fix the washing machine!!? The shock I got moving a wall socket was probably related to some bad earth leaking current stuff that I do not understand and it hurts so I have to get someone to look at it. The washing machine I got given from a mate did not survive the transportation and flooded the bathroom… However everything else is working out and I got the official papers that prove (I think but they are in German) that I am now a house owner. This make me feel very grown up, I just wish I was not afraid of my kitchen sink.