Narfi's Life after EU: Chapter Five - CH750-SD 3 Place Aircraft

https://www.go-cl.se/clinf.html

 

Well.... I hope it never has to float :P

I have built things that do float, both from plans and my own design, so I figure I can hopefully make something that will slide on the ice :P

My design criteria was,

• quick and simple to build,
• none of the endless hours of beautification I have spent on my other boats,
• reuse the mast and boom I built for the trimaran last summer and the sail for it
• and carry at least 2 people.

The problem is that my sail is 85ft2 and most of the popular ice boats use sails roughly 50ft2 windsurfing sails, DN class has 50ft2 and Skeeter has 75ft2 but they are getting pretty fancy and high performance.

So to compromise with all those criteria, it is heavy built from 2x6s in hopes of both simplicity, and that it won't go too fast with the sail area I have. The hull is 2x 2x6s 16ft long, and the forward runner springboard will extend ~5ft forward of that for a 21ft boat and the main runner plank is laminated from 2x 1x6s 12ft long and a single 2x6 8ft long, so the boat will be 21ft long with a 12ft beam, a bit wider than most, but I hope that will help be more stable and docile. The inside dimensions of the cockpit where the seat is roughly 40 inches so can easily accommodate 2 full-grown men in winter gear esp. since their shoulders are not constrained within that area.

If we love it and the experience, I may at a future date build a much more optimized design, likely a fiberglass composite with thin plywood cores.

 

If you look at the first picture in the post you quoted above it is the springboard for the forward runner, and then post #111 shows the runners and rear runner plank.

 

Got the mast up and rigged and all the finishing touches done (I hope) this weekend.
Last couple hours yesterday Landon was hovering behind my every move wearing his helmet ready to go. By the time I was happy with it the sun had set and dusk was turning to dark so to both of our disappointment I decided it would be wiser and safer to wait and do it in the light..... Hopefully we get some wind and I'll leave work early, we will see



Didn't realize how much extra stick we have sticking up there, I think we had the boom higher on the trimaran.... Lots of room to grow a bigger sail if we build a longer main hull for the trimaran next summer

 

The stars finally alligned!!!!

After months of too much snow or not enough wind or too much wind and most of Feb out for vacation, we finally got out Monday night.

Was pretty easy to control speed, but had plenty of power.
We had about a 2 mile run across the lake before turning around just before a big heaved up pressure crack.
We were on our fourth lap so about 14 miles in when we started skidding skipping sideways, straightening out of a jibe and broke off one of the main runners.

Tons of fun and we were still gaining confidence and speed each 'lap' no measurements but felt like we were going 30+ not scary yet but definitely focusing on the turns..... Will hopefully get some repairs done and go again soon. Need to up the ratio on the sheets as well, took some strength to hold, probably more than Landon can do yet.

Friend saw us out so messaged my wife a picture,



Ride was super smooth, the springs are probably too soft at least the front one, it twists quite a bit as well so probably need to reinforce it somehow. Blasting through drifts was super smooth just slows you down a little bit no feeling of going up and down at all.