questions and ideas for rob denney

There must be a good reason why one could not replace the complication of a top yard with a long vertical batten instead that would allow the use of the sail track up to the mast top, maybe adding some cars along the mast overlapping part of that batten for stronger attachment to the mast ?

 

Well that batten would have all of its loads carried by the sail track versus the mast diameter and stays.

 

This is a fun one, Gunter topsails on the top masts.

 

Rob. It seems for some time now your proa design builds have been going on in Scandinavia and south America and elsewhere. How soon is the nearest one to splashing? Do any of them have blogs that can be followed? I'm aware of the Tasman sea crossing of one of your older designs, but have there been any more recent long passages done in your proas? Have enjoyed following your progress reports and note you are plenty busy; with regard to boatbuilding activities, what particular solutions might you be looking for or problems you are dealing with to which we might add some fresh thinking?

 

Seek & ye shall find...
Blog 1 — Harryproa https://www.harryproa.com/blog

 

Thanks C. Dog. Very nice, all in one place.

 

Those facts and figures were helpful, rwatson. You sold your concept well. By any chance do you know the exact internal dimensions of the 20' container (both in metric and imperial) and do you think they can be counted on? On second thought, the dimensions of the door opening along with internal length are what really count.

 

google is your friend ...

 

So is Google!

 

and perplexity says
The door opening dimensions for a standard 20-foot container are:Width: 2,340 mm (7' 8 1/8")
Height: 2,292 mm (7' 6 1/4") Some key details:

• The interior dimensions of a 20-foot container are 5,900 mm (19' 4 1/4") long, 2,350 mm (7' 8 1/2") wide, and 2,393 mm (7' 10 3/16") high.
• The maximum payload for a 20-foot container is 28,130 kg (62,016 lbs).
• Open top 20-foot containers have a slightly different door opening of 2,286 mm (7' 6") wide and 2,253 mm (7' 4 11/16") high.

 

Or, if anyone actually looked at my first drawing, you get the dimensions for a 20ft Hi Top Container. I've allowed 2.31 x 2.7 for door dimensions.

 

See my previous replay for dimensions.
And, no, the door openings are not the controlling constraint, as after unpacking the smaller components, you can angle the major hull pieces toward the centre on extraction, and vice versa on packing.

 

Maybe next year. They are amateur builders, so things tend to get in the way. We intend to build a C50 here using graduates from the Sustainable Boat Building Course we set up, but not sure when this will happen.

No. Not unexpected, none of the owners bought them for that, although the new ones may be different.

I'm interested in fresh thinking on anything. Boat stuff is on hold while we get the ramp, shed and MSAF certification completed, but then we will be looking at:
Kites as an alternative to sails. Lower cost, lower handling loads and no capsizing moment so everything gets much lighter. Scroll down to See (pretty ordinary) videos The big deal with these is that we don't have the handling or power surge problems usually associated with kites. Cost us some of the other advantages (more wind up high, apparent wind flying) but we are still ahead of a conventional rig. There are a couple of bigger kites ready to test when the ramp etc are done.
Low cost/weight plastic panels and hull protection. These have come from our plastic recycling machinery which should be here when the shed is ready. The panels will be honeycomb, made from unsorted, unwashed (the expensive parts of recycling) waste plastic, with fibreglass (or hemp, bamboo, coconut husk, cotton, other woven fabric) faces. The hull protection will be UHMPWE, applied hot and shrunk fit to the hull from just above the water line to just above the water line.
Eliminating antifouling. Building a float which can be sunk/raised to keep the boats out of the water. Nothing new, but it needs to be as simple and low cost as possible.
Solar/electric outboards. I was sufficiently surprised by the performance of the ones we have to buy 21 kw of panels and some more motors. The panels will form the basis (more panels will be needed) of an e boat and e car charging station as well as powering the new shed. I'm in the throes of buying 3 BYD cars so we have something to charge. The motors will be used in outboard carcasses, but in an easier form to build than the current ones. We will also have a 3D printer and will be using this and fibreglass to produce our own electric outboard motors for smaller boats.
Bunch of other stuff happening, but that is the near future on the boats. Suggestions and 'fresh thinking' welcome.

 

Hi Rob. Back in the yellow Marshall Islands proa days you made mention of introducing bow ends rocker to help create "dynamic lift". I thought that would be beneficial also for lessening side resistance for a faster shunt along with making beaching an easier process on the smaller builds. Have you done that on any hull builds since then?

 

Rob. I have been impressed and quite taken with your degree of productivity there in Fiji, especially regarding creation of useable watercraft where there weren't adequate types or numbers. How large is this need (guestimate in number of hulls needed) in all of the Fiji islands? Also, are there other English speaking island groups you are knowledgeable about that could use the same outside initiative?