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  • Lake test on SUNDAY!

    boat building
    3rd September 2009 - By adventuresofgreg
    I cannot believe that we will actually be ready for the very first lake trials on Sunday!

    By looking at these shots taken today, you might not believe it either, but we are much closer to finishing than it might appear. There won’t be any paint on WiTHiN, or electronics or equipment aside from the pedals, propeller, keel, seat, rudder, portlights and hatches, but she will be water worthy!

    The objective with the first initial test will be primarily to measure actual speed compared to design speed, and feel out the general stability. Rick Willoughby designed the hull of WiTHiN, and the prop for 78 rpm at the pedals which produces 150 watts of power and should create about 8 km per hour of speed on a flat calm lake on a windless day. Since I can’t install my SRM power meter onto the gear box based drive leg, I measured my heart rate at 150 watts & 80 rpm today on my trainer.

    On the lake on Sunday, I’ll want to confirm that a cadence of 80 rpm should produce about 8 km / hour of speed and result in about 105 beats per minute in the engine.

    We have tomorrow and Friday to get the cabin top on, install the propeller, fill the drive leg with oil, fit the keel bulb on, place my recumbent seat in position, and install all of the ports and hatches,

    Check out the new Follow Greg page at the new site! Our new Spidertracks satellite tracking device is now running with live updates on the map! I’ll be running it on Sunday during the lake trials, so if you can’t make it down to Glenmore reservoir, you can watch all the action live on the web site! (well.. by “live action” I mean watching a little green dot move around a digital satellite image of Glenmore Reservoir on a Google map along with the occasional Twitter update – still exciting. Kind of).

    http://www.pedaltheocean.com/follow-greg.php

    Here are some pics of today’s progress:

    The hole of the left is for the keel post – hole on the right is for the drive leg tapered plug

    This is the drive leg with the tapered plug. The plug is made of Chockfast epoxy chocking compound and was poured into the drive leg bay with the drive leg in position. This stuff is like rock when it cures – amazing

    This is a view down the drive leg bay in the torque tube. That’s me down there. The threaded end of the keel post fits through the hole on the left and it secured with a nut. Stuart designed this “torque tube” box to transfer the forces from the keel into the hull and bulkheads of the boat. You have no idea what it took to build the torque tube. I would say probably 10 to 15 man-days. The keel tube would probably bend (and it’s 1.25″ square solid stainless steel!) before anything broke in the hull. If that happened, the keel could be dropped out by simply removing the retaining nut.

    This is a view of the upside down hull showing the drive leg without the lower gear box and prop. Note the thin line around the drive leg tube. That is how tightly Ken made the drive leg plug fit into the hull bottom. After body work and paint, you probably won’t even see it. The square hole on the left is for the keel tube

    The cabin top

    Sanding blocks for body work on the hull

    Rudder tube hole

  • No Responses to “Lake test on SUNDAY!”

    • dennishahn on September 3, 2009

      Greg – Looks amazing…. Good luck with the lake trial this weekend. Sure everything won't go as planned but that is want makes the adventure…. Can't wait to read what you find out.

    • dennishahn on September 3, 2009

      Greg – Looks amazing…. Good luck with the lake trial this weekend. Sure everything won't go as planned but that is want makes the adventure…. Can't wait to read what you find out.

    • Anonymous on September 4, 2009

      You has made one incredibly good job!
      good luck with the test,,, take values,
      Speed in function of weight and power.
      Speed in slow turns…in moving sea, all time the pilot make corrections.
      Estimation of lateral and directional stability.
      and photos

      Is my dream to do an expedition like the one you prepare.
      best regards.
      Leonel

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