Hello Seabreezers,
I live in Sparks, Nevada, USA and have been camping out on the dry lake beds in northern Nevada for quite a while during which time I've been plotting a way to harness our ample wind. After collecting parts and searching the internet for a few years, I finally stumbled onto the Seabreeze forum. I've been chewing through a great many of the threads, and have finally been inspired to start building.
I'd like to say thank you to Landyacht and all the regular (and irregular) posters on this site for plans, ideas, inspiration, and a bit of wry wit.
Below are some pictures of the work I've got going so far on the body. I'm starting to get the hang of working with a measuring system that divides things into thousands. I must say that before I cut the rear axle parts, I didn't have a good idea of just how "mini" these boats are! I'm going to have to build a heavy duty seat to be able to strap my ample carcass to this thing.
Enough jabber, here's some pics:





First cuts were for the rear axle. I'm using 1 3/4" (44.5mm) by 1/8" (3mm) square tubing for the stubs, which nest pretty snugly into the the 2" (51mm) x 1/8" (3mm) square tubing of the central part of the rear axle. A little bigger than the plans called for, but readily available, and the whole set nested together nicely. Set into the square portion of the stub axles I've got 1 1/2" (38mm) x 1/8" (3mm) DOM tubing, then nested into that some "gapper" 1 1/4" (32mm) x 1/16" (1.5mm) tubing that I've already welded the 3/4" connector nuts for the axle bolts into. You might notice I accidentally made the two bending cuts 100mm from the center instead of 100mm from each other. Didn't catch that until I tried fitting the axles with the tires and the center part of the axle was 6" (152mm) from the floor. Recut in the proper place and that came down to 4" (101mm). Is that about normal?




In this pick are the more specialty cuts for the body. For the main tube I used 2 1/4" (57mm) x 1/8" (3mm) DOM tubing. I debated the wall thickness, and decided to go thicker. Compared to how much I weigh, even ten pounds added to the frame isn't going to be that big a deal. I cut that with my tubing notcher, but I couldn't get all the way through with such an obtuse angle (30 deg) without running into the clamping system. I finished the cut with a cut of wheel and grinder, and didn't do too bad of a job. On the left is the gooseneck that will fit into that notch which is 2" (51mm) x 1/8" (3mm) DOM. It turned out to be just a bit too snug for the polyurethane bushings (leaf spring eye bushings) I'm using, so I had to grind it out. This took MUCH longer than anticipated, but I've got them fitting fairly nicely now. If I did it again, I'd shave down the bushings. I think I saw somebody post up a clever process for doing this involving a center bolt, two guide bolts and a very sharp knife stolen from the kitchen. Will have to give that a go. The mast step is in the center and is 2 1/2" (63.5) x 3/32" (2.38mm) tubing. I managed to get a little bell shape into the top with some pounding, and the tubing notcher did a fine job on the bottom.
Let's take a break and see how this is looking.