Jari made these new IOM bulb-moulds over the weekend. CNC-milled in aluminium. Circular cross-section with a NACA0010-34 profile (similar to my 2005 design), length ca 360mm. Designed with a central stiffening brass rod. Check out rcyachttech.webs.com for more cnc-machined moulds and parts.
See also casting notes from 2003.
Had a chance to sail the PIKANTO in nr2 rig conditions today with pretty good results. More comments to follow later...
Note to self: ran out of Malin Stainless Steel Leader, 80 lbs, which we use for stays and shrouds. Must buy more. Are there any other fishing wires that are good for IOM stays/shrouds?
Looks like they have Malin here: http://www.tackledirect.com/malinleader.html
Got a chance to sail PIKANTO hull nr 3 today in Turku. After a bit of servo-programming to get the travel on the HiTec winch dialled in right it was on with the deck patches and onto the water. Turns out the balance is pretty darn good as we had gusty nr1 rig weather today and the boat behaved very well in both the lighter and the stronger breeze. I missed two races because of a flat boat battery - the HiTec arm-winches demand a little more attention to batteries, wires, and connectors, since they draw quite a bit of current. After two summers of sailing a Noux with a fairly narrow 85mm chord fin the Bantock-style large-area fin (120mm chord at the root, tapering to around 70mm) feels easy to sail and difficult to stall. A bit more rudder travel, some more rig tuning, and lots of sailing routine and I feel this will become a great boat to sail.
Two non-PIKANTO pictures: In the middle of racing this dude pulls up with his muscle-motor-boat and starts to load it up with diesel. ZOMG: almost 400 liters costing more than 500 euros!
Our starting sequence was played from a USB-stick, no more trouble with wobble of the player causing the CD to jump and interrupting the sequence.
Jari has added fittings, radio-installation, bulb, and foils to PIKANTO hull nr 3. Note the aluminium cnc-machined winch-drum for the HiTec winch-servo.
While we have developed a good looking cnc-machined steel finmould, ruddermoulds, a bumper mould, etc. we are still not producing hulls in any larger numbers for sale due to various reasons. Stay tuned.
M4 thumb-wheels in aluminium for the mast-ram on the model yacht.
As I mentioned earlier, the flanges around the foredeck openings were very time-consuming to laminate around, and very hard to release from the mould. Here I've ground them down with a pneumatic dremel-type grinder, and then sandpapered a bit. Next I need to fix a few dents in the gelcoat, wet-sand, and polish. Then we should be ready to mould hull nr 5 next weekend.
Jari made another red hull while I was in the USA.
The flanges around the openings in the foredeck have proven hard or very hard to release from the mould, so I've now cut them down from the deck mould. From hull nr 5 onwards (another red one I hear) there will be no built-in flanges in the foredeck. The flanges do stiffen the deck a lot, but they make the whole foredeck difficult to laminate, and hard to release - so away they went!
The third production PIKANTO hull is red.
The second PIKANTO production hull was taken out of the mould today. It's made with a clear gelcoat and will be painted later.
I've created a PIKANTO-Page which will have details about the project and future sales.
Our third PIKANTO hull, a.k.a. "Yellow Submarine" was taken out of the mould today. As expected, the yellow gelcoat doesn't cover very well which gives the boat a very "prototype" and/or "artsy" look 🙂
I used a dremel with a cutting-wheel to cut off the extra glassfiber from the deck openings, and then a sharp knife and sandpaper to finish the join between the hull halves and between the deck and the hull.
For various reasons it seems hulls nr1 and nr2 will be demo-boats, and nr3 will be the first one to sail. Weight is slightly more than before, 620 g. As predicted, by hull nr 5 or so we will have mastered at least the basics of how to produce nice looking strong and light hulls from these moulds.
