Some moth activity this weekend even if I did not get sailing.

Eric has committed to buying Chainsaw. He had a test sail late last season but has had a busy winter, he finally decided he needed a moth for the summer. He will sail out of Balmoral in Sydney.

I spent a few hours yesterday afternoon with Tiger on a Chain checking foil angles and wand settings. Luka was there to assist with knowledge gained from Garda and helped me make a few adjustments which should improve take off and height control.

We improved the fit in the case and restored the angle of attack back to a few degrees positive. I also found some slipage in the wand pushrod and reglued one loose joint. This will mean the wand flap response will be much more positive and more reliable.

Looking forward to a sail of the boat on the weekend after next, as next week will be the last weekend away from sailing for the next 8 months, and a rare chance to do something different away from the water.

TOC AUS 9343

The Tiger is of course a more dignified lady.
It eventuated that I had been buying various Thorpe moth components for my various boats, over the years that Mark dominated the (at least) Sydney moth scene. After a frustrating 04/05 season I shouted myself the biggest part of the Hungry Tiger, a new Hull, which pretty well completed the whole set.
It was probably a year or two too late as the foilers were already dominant, but it was something a moth fanatic had to do. Sailing the Tiger with conventional fin and rudder, and doing it reasonably well in moderate to strong winds, will remain one of my most rewarding and proudest sailing achievements. Racing other moths and bigger boats around the course at amazing speeds and on the edge of control was fantastic.
But I knew that era was over so Mark built the hull with the extra hard points needed for foil, wand and gantry. This was built concurrently to RTFM/Revelations #9344 so it can be argued that either boat is the last Hungry Tiger built.
The spars are genuine Thorpe and the wings were the Prepreg tubes made with Snubby for Chainsaw. All nice and light.
The foils were made as wet layup in a new mold as Fastacraft clones. Andrew had designed the tilting rudder box now employed by Bladerider so TOC was the second boat to employ it after his #9323. I initially used a big 900mm span rudder foil in an effort to lift my 85kg but this year I bought some BR prototypes and used one on each boat. A box Gantry was fitted earlier so now the configuration is almost standard.
My 5 year old Truflo sail is getting tired and is too full for fast foiling so late last season I bought a P&B sail from John Ilett. It is a reasonable KA clone but since it has the fashionable huge luff round the old faithful STIFF Thorpe mast does not work. I tried it but the sail just would not flatten. So now I have recylced a sailboard mast which more closely matches the requied bend and stiffness.
Now to learn a few lesons about foil angle of attack and wand settings from the Garda experience of others and the boat should be up and flying again for the new season.

Unless someone decides to buy it of course.

More on Chainsaw

Some history:

Chainsaw has had a few lives.

The first version was a ply hull with balsa/carbon laminate chines which I sailes at the 03 Milang nationals with alloy wings and again at the penultimate 04 Cootharabah nationals with carbon wings. At that regatta the laminate chines split from the transom and the hull was roughly patched up to compete on the last day.

After the regatta it was used as an experimental base for some early hydrdofoil experiments, including a bow rudder, trailing edge wands, flap less main foils, dihedral and a few others I forget to save embarrasment.

That first hull was written off at the end of that season cut up and dumped, and in the winter of 04 I built the second Chainsaw hull which became the basis of the 04 version of my moth.asn.au biuld a ply moth series articles. This is the best hull shape of the series, most like a modern Hungry Tiger/Prowler/Bladerider shape.

But based on the earlier foil experiments I put the mast and wings much further forward in an effort to separate the foils without going to a gantry. It also had low freeboard, flatter wings and an elevated trampoline in an effort to reduce wndage. Foil development however progressed very little, with carved timber foils and poor upwind performance coupled with poor downwind height control. Not huge sucess as a foiler. This is the boat I sailed baddly and slow at the 05 Black Rock worlds.

The season ended with me sailing the boat with conventional centreboard and rudder, winning a heat of the NSW chaps in light winds and giving some confidence in the hull shape.

The boat was stripped down and left without decks for a year to dry out, while I sailed my new (Hungry) Tiger on a Chain which reused the carbon wings, plus Thorpe mast and boom.

Chainsaw was resurrected in the winter of 06 while I was concurrently building my new Development IC. Both have unstayed masts and so mast and sail development exchanged ideas between the boats.

The 06 Chainsaw involved stripping out the hull, relocating the fincase and installing the new tube mast step a bit further aft. It has struts to elevate the alloy wings which are further aft and cantelevered out of some glass tubes bonded to the struts. The lot is a relatively cheap experiment in configuration and structure, but is remarkably stiff and strong, and surprisingly light. Mytermis minimised. I simply eliminatd as many moth components as I could.

06 Chainsaw benefits from the foil mold I built after the 05 Worlds with generous advice from John Ilett. Both TOC and Chainsaw have home made copies of John's early model foils and this has at least assured reliable if not competitive foiling. At least we stopped breaking things and losing them in the bay.

So Chainsaw now is a viable foiling moth which is availabel at a reasonable price because not very much of it actually cost me very much, mostly being left over bits from other boats.

It has encouraged me sufficiently to build furter on the theme and I will be building a new improved, lighter, simpler, faster and even more minimalised version when I have the shed space available.

This a pic of my other moth.
A collection of components arranged in a somewhat different configuration than what has become moth normal.
All who have sailed Chainsaw think it is a good idea and well worth pursuing in my next moth.
Consequently I am selling off both Chainsaw and Tiger on a Chain so I can get stuck into a new lightweight and maybe even more radical version of this experiment.
Ads for both boats are on the Aust website For Sale page.

Just Starting

Since everyone is doing it I thought I would have a go too.
This BLOG will report on my Moth activities and ideas.
I like to think I can help the moth class continue to be the hive of inovation and development it has been for over 75 years.