So now that I have made my dream of turning myself into an action figure come true, I should let you know about my boat progress. As it stands, the calendar is going to be the driving force, and that is a good thing. Work expands to fill the time allotted, and I don't have much time.
I pretty much need to build my first boat (for use in the Des Plaines River Marathon) by the first week in April. During that time, I have two half marathons to run, some training, a job, and a host of distractions. To sum it up, it won't be enough to finish one boat in a month.
I will also need to keep pressing forward on Fenrir. I will need to start that hull immediately after it is finalized. I am not sure what that will mean just yet, but I know it will be quick. At present, I am testing the adaptation of my current hull design into something that will be solo and pedal driven.
I have had some ideas come up as of late. First is the overall size.
Last year I overdid it. That hull could have supported three times the weight. This year, I intend to avoid that problem. So, a smaller displacement, but also, I am wondering about overall shape. Do I need to go as long and thin as I had been planning? I am not sure.
The issue is one of glide.
In a traditional set up, you would glide after each stroke. In a propellor situation, this is not the case. It that prop stops, there is no real glide. The prop becomes an anchor when it is not pushing. So, I wonder if I will suffer the same way a canoe would suffer. I think the answer is in the shape of open bow semi-v hulls I use with an outboard. Get the prop below water, and keep the wetted surface to a minimum, but don't worry about shapes that glide on their own. The counter argument is that efficiency is efficiency, so don't mess with tested physics.
We shall see.
Anyway, I am working and I am testing ideas about how to get the prop under water.
In the following pics, you will see a slight change as I move the hull from a rocker to a straight line and then begin to merge the two. Sorry if it isn't immediately clear, but I will try to get some better pics when it becomes more clear. I did solve one modeling problem by making smaller models: I can actually test them in my bathtub now, instead of a ghetto-rigged canoe.
And finally, I bought some stickers from River Relief. They got shipped to the wrong address, but I managed a bit of "magic" (cause it sounds better than "break-in") and got it back. Wasn't actually hard since that address never had good security and I opened the outer door with a thank-you card. Let me be clear: I didn't actually go into anyone's house. I just went into the common area of the building cause they just pile all the mail in there. Sure enough, there was my stuff. I didn't steal anything or do anything sinister. Trust me: if I had, I wouldn't be putting it up here.
In any case, here are the images:
So, as you can see, I am working out how to integrate the prop into the hull design. None of this is final, it is simply the first thing that came to mind (refined from last year) and I wanted to prove it.
I think there is a better solution, so we will see how it goes.
Stay tuned and remain calm.
