Our three-piece hull/deck-moulds for the Pikanto IOM (designed by Graham Bantock) are now ready. The next step is to sand the surface smooth and polish the moulds. We hope to mould a prototype hull before the new year.
The 405cx gps-watch is small and light enough to just tape to the aft-deck of an IOM. Today’s event in Tampere had 12 races but I missed a few due to electrical problems. Races 1 and 2 above, and races 7-12 below. It’s funny how google-maps and google-earth show permanent winter and ice in Tampere [...]
Some details and text on the Computational Fluid Dynamics simulations that mostly Jari has been doing lately. They are done with the open-source software package OpenFOAM, which is of course free to download and use. We run it under Ubuntu, and use fairly affordable 4-core machines with 8 Gb of RAM. You start with a [...]
Thanks to Jussi Jaakkola for these images from Saturday’s event. It’s always nice to sail with the Nr 2 rig, we only get to do that once or twice per season usually.
As a first serious test-run for our now servo-controlled cnc mill we decided to make an IOM bulb out of steel. It ends up a bit bigger in volume when made out of steel compared to lead, but the difference isn’t huge. Making it with a cnc mill allows designing almost any reasonable 3D shape [...]
Graham Elliot from the UK doesn’t have a website of his own (yet?) , but wanted to let everyone know that he is now building and selling the Widget IOM. Designed by Chris Dicks in 1995 the boat has gone through quite a few changes to everything except the hull shape. The Widget has won [...]
I wrote a short report from the Marseilles IOM-Worlds which appears in the latest issue of Pienoismalli.
Spektrum recently introduced an updated version of the DX6: the DX6i. Horizon Hobby also has an article on the new radio. This one uses ‘DSM2′ technology which is described as giving ‘full range’. Not sure what that means, but range should be better than with the first generation of 2.4 GHz radios, which at times [...]
Here’s David Potter’s GBR20 Lintel. Note how high the gooseneck is. The boat is not so fast in light weather, so this is an attempt to get the rig higher up and gain some speed in the light stuff. Home-made gooseneck with laser-cut stainless steel bearing holders at the top and bottom (note adjustable holder [...]
Here are some detail pictures from last week that I thought were interesting. Graham Bantock’s Topiko. Note quick-release bottlescrew and deck-fitting far right. Also note how the cunningham is threaded through a plate with holes around the mast. I think this gives a variable cunningham tension (tight on the beat, looser on the run?) Recessed [...]