Hiko snt me this lovely PM which made my day/week.things were kinda equal after all
Hi Paul
Clem and I had a session on Ohope beach today with the two minis Clem with his new clemco and I with the LLF mini The beach was flat and hard and the wind was a light but steady sea breeze about 45 degrees to the beach about 8 to 10 knots I guess
Clems yacht was the faster upwind I guess for a number of reasons
his sail higher aspect shorter boom lighter and far more experienced pilot and less drag ?
Downwind though was a different story my mini more often than not was the faster
heavier pilot with more sail area more momentum ? Clem was a little surprised at the lefroys performance I think and has a little more respect for the fallshaws too
I found the yacht with the bigger sail on was well balanced my steering is quite loose
but I was able to take my feet off on any point of sail and it would track straight
Clem took my yacht for a sail and being lighter he was able to two wheel it up and down the beach in front of me for long distances and I am sure his eyebrows were a little higher when he came back! The yacht is a cracker Paul you have done a great job with the design and fills its intended purpose very well All the talk a while back about shifting the mast step etc I have had various size sails on now and it has always behaved great

Um no I wouldnt say equal While its true my mini went well down wind its the upwind legs that win races and Clems yacht was definitely the faster there but
yes I was happy with the bigger sail in those conditions I definitely needed the
extra area
I note that the blokarts have pilot weight classes so there must be a performance difference there does anyone know how much ? [This is a fatty talking] All knowledge is good especially if you can put figures on it
Clem lent me his jig and gave me a set of wheels so there may be another project coming up? Trying to think of some new ideas though and finding it hard as they all
seem to have been tried ! All the economical ones anyway

I wouldn't get too excited about the performance of Hiko's mini. Sure we both had the same maximum speed down wind due to his larger sail compensating for the heaver weight. As Hiko said it was a totally different story upwind. The return trip from the Ohope spit to where we had launched was 5 km. I was at least 1km ahead at the finish. (please correct me Hiko if you disagree with that margin).
That's 20% better upwind!!!!
It was an easy beat upwind so I would not expect pilot skill to play much part in that. So maybe the wheels. I was not that happy with the sail I had on and will be making improvements accordingly. Also as mentioned before I felt the frame was a bit stiff for my liking so may be looking to improve on that in the future.

Yep 15-20% sounds about right for the larger wheels, on a med/ firm surface but it will be more on tarmac.
Thats what we found many years ago and this is why the old class 6 rules took this into account by measuring the overall length of the yacht rather than just the wheel base.

If you want to know a little more on rolling resistance...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_resistance

can you get a photo and plan into the landyacht register hills might need to unlock it first( please)

Found a mast rig for the mini !

Hey Clemco,

I still can't figure out how you can get away with such low mechanical advantage on the steering... but it obviously works so I'll eat my hat.

What's it like to sail? Is it a bit on the heavy side, ie do you have to really push hard on it to make the wheel turn? I'm really keen to hear how it feels.

New light frame for the Mini Mk2. We moved the mast forward 50mm. This one will be springy!

The rear tubes are fibreglass. They are from a kayak paddle I cut in half. I'm looking for another one for the front. Man this one is going to be springy! I just need to fit the seat. Hope to get that done this weekend.

Must have been cold that day.

Clemco
Looking good there! Yeah she does look springy, should make for a good light unit.
Any idea on the unrigged weight?
Brett

i will be really fascinated to see how it performs in a blow

brand new fallshaw wheel fitted with sealed high speed bearings (and the plastic knock-in type bearing adaptors), and the original issue knobbly fallshaw 4 ply 4.8-4.00 x 8 tyre weighs 6 3/4 pounds.

a new(ish) fallshaw wheel fitted with same adaptors and bearings, but with a brand new ribbed 4 ply 4.8-4.00 x 8 tyre ("KINGS TYRE" brand from mullins wheels) weighs 5 pounds.

sorry I had to use real measurements instead of metric stuff- the only scales I have that work are my trigger pressure gauge, which is imperial only (but very accurate)

My fiberglass 20" wheels come in at 3lbs including tyre Clem
Cheers
Vic

Clemco said...

I use my wife's kitchen scales all the time.

you are a very brave man........