Recent content by portacruise

Thanks for the link, those were not available many years ago when I made mine. Amazon has a 15hp petrol for under $600, Ebay about 50% less. Long tails generally don't have a reverse and don't steer well for more than a few feet when run in reverse. I also like to shoot rapids that are safe for...

Submersible motors usually don't play well with shallow water hitting bottom or rock collisions (got stranded once). Also, if there is possible weed or fishing line entanglement, it might be necessary to jump out and go underneath to clear the prop. There usually isn't time to manually pull up...

One consideration when connecting 2 canoes to make a pontoon, is that the forces will usually not be the identical of the 2 hulls. One hull might experience a force upward with wind or waves, through a lever arm ending @ the connector, while the other might have a force downward. So that causes...

The lowest weight canoes I'm aware of are inflatable- pack-in 2 man kayak/canoes. They could be strapped together as you have done with some challenging improvisation. Generally the best shape resembles what you already have, long and pointed at both ends. If it has to be solid, carbon fiber CF...

A flexible trailing shaft motor might be used to power up or down shallow and riffles if there is 3-4" of water to work with, where paddles/oars/push poles/dragging won't work. Motor works so long as the bottom surface is sandy or small movable pebbles, but it won't work if there is medium or...

What are the goals you are trying to achieve using rocker for this boat? Efficiency? speed? maneuverability? occupant space? etc. For some applications using rocker might take you further away from at least some of those goals.

Is this design completely autonomous or remote control from a distance, by a remote operator using AI assist?

If you ran the toon numbers, what were they in comparison @3.25, as you indicated previously toon did well? All of these designs numbers would be KISS designs, with very small tweek differences? The power of the riders might be way more significant? I thought you might be looking for some out of...

Is that payload considering the weight and space of the medical professional and equipment to be sent out? Would it mean fewer injured to be transported? If the medical assistant is also a pilot (or not) - might it have a response time advantage over autonomous by being directly on transport and...

If it is large open water where the aircraft will be operating, locating the injured people may be a bigger issue than the design of any aircraft. Even if they have a signalling device available, they would need it to be on their body at all times, be checked regularly for operation, and avoid...

Skip, what's wrong with paddling and pedaling at the same time? The paddling would be minimal and just enough to keep the boat upright. Maybe shorter specialized paddles or small hand side rudders could be used to decrease the drag factor? I got some off the wall ideas, but don't know how well...

Rick W. seemed to like pontoons or tri designs in some of his fast boats. Check out this page on the flex shaft drive systems and some pics/ vids. Flex Should help with "a wide often debris laden river" as the prop will quickly crawl over most debis or just below surface rocks and self adjusts...

Yes, I get your drift and generally agree. https://www.cargill.com/2024/first-wind-powered-ocean-vessel-maiden-voyage Above is a link with some numbers, for one that is still in operation. Not much savings, if any, unless they convert it to robotic without a crew? Converting Fossil fuel to...

Thought this might be interesting, for those that haven't seen it already, https://www.cnn.com/climate/vela-wind-cargo-ship-spc-c2e There's also a lot of information available about robotic ships using AI to reduce or even eliminate all on board human labor, at least for some Marine Niche uses..

How fast does it have to go, at just above drifting speed and able to tiny motor steer to take advantage of currents, a ship might be considerably more economic than equivalent load truck container transport, at least at large scale... Truck transport assumes zero cost for the road, whereas a...