Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Synergy


There seems to be a blossoming interaction on the tech side beginning with Bill's paper on the full scale tank results. Markla in this post relates Bill's numbers to a "slender body resistance package" and Kirk, in his "Mothematics" blog references the Findlay/Turnock VPP. I'm knowledgeable enough to know that these discussions are out of my league. I read the papers, understand some of the equations, but still am at a loss to realize how to apply results to my sailing. Yep, for me it's still the "hope to duplicate what others have done" method of sailing.

Kudos to all the designers and builders. I'm glad I'm part of the home-build crowd. And by-the-way, who is coming to the gorge with a non-production boat? The poll suggests that there'll be at least four.... any idea who?

Enjoy Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker



"2 and 15/16ths"

You`re like iodine chasing all the storms away
You`re like a black-ops licorice masquerade
You`re like a buzz that`s looking for a bee
You`re like a tack in a paper-clip factory to me

You`re like a trance for looking at a better way
You`re like a test maze keeping all the me`s at bay
You`re like a play that`s like a pen
You`re like m.c. escher but a ten

You`re like iodine chasing all the storms away
You`re like a black-ops licorice masquerade
You`re like a buzz that`s looking for a bee
You`re like a tack in a paper-clip factory to me

You`re like a diatribe calling on a quest for me
You`re like the ideal rainy day activity
You`re like a sine, emphasis in green
You`re like lady bugs turning into jelly beans

You`re like iodine chasing all the storms away
You`re like a black-ops licorice masquerade
You`re like a buzz that`s looking for a bee
You`re like a tack in a paper-clip factory to me

4 comments:

Doug Culnane said...

Joe,

I am am afraid I spent all my money on Carbon and beer so I can not afford to come to the Gorge. So I will not be part of the home build fleet.

There are always a few surprise home builds that turn up at a Worlds, but I am not sure what you define home build any more. Do you have to build the foils too? If so then I am not a home builder.

I would say you build your own hull, but do you have to design it too? What category are you if you finish off a shell?

What about the pros that end up finishing off or building bits themselves? Is Adam May's boat a home build? AMAC? John Illet? Mike Cooke? Simon Payne? Rohan Veal?

I think you should make your definition of a home build and then try to guess the number.

All the best,

Doug

Joe Bousquet said...

Doug:

Your comment last summer hit home to me: If you're buying a sail off the shelf, so to speak, why wouldn't you buy a foil kit as well? My foils worked but I'm sure that a Ilett mainfoil will work a whole lot better.

I would call a "home-build" to be any hull/rack that's not a production item. I know I got sticky with epoxy laying up carbon and nomex in Bill's mold. I know I cut Van Dusen's tubes and made mast stub, the rack joints and the boom. I fabricated the gantry and the tiller mechanism. So yes, mine is a "home-built" hull. The foils I made but I'm buying a new production set. Sorta like a sail up-grade.

I also expect most everybody cutomizes their "kit." I doubt at the Weymouth worlds there was such a beast as a "stock" Bladerider. From runniing rigging to paddles to gearing, most everybody tweaks.

But those folks are different than you and me...if for no other reason than spending more out of pocket...

Thanks for reading,
Joe

n4rkla said...

Will there be a time when you can buy all the components from different manufacturers and plug them together? Just like with bikes, standard component interfaces for easy replacement/exchange of parts. That will be the future of mothing and the industry that supports it.

Joe Bousquet said...

Bikes, yeah I understand. But remember it was decades of inches vs centimeters, French vs English vs Italian threaded bottom brackets, rims and tires in dozens of incompatible sizes, head tubes in at least two different diameters, etc, etc, etc.

Only with the high quality, relatively cheap, massed produced Shimano component line has "standardization" even remotely become a standard, of sorts.

Will we ever get to that level? Due to low quantity, I seriously doubt it. Plug-n-play will in reality be buy and hack together. My future Ilett board will mate to the Hungry Beaver trunk only because Bill thought enough ahead to call for a very oversized trunk that can accommodate a cassette to allow different foil shapes and AoA.

Would a Ilett board fit into a Bladerider with little effort? I doubt it. Do you really think that new production builders (say AMAC and the M2) really think about making their boats backward compatible to existing foils?