Well the wind and rain came a bit late for the tide, but I did get the seat fitted. Just have to weld off the connections and I'll be sailing.

Got plenty of beach... but still no wind.




The Mk3 mini is ready to sail. I ended up using two ski thickness on each side for the axles. Mounted the stub axles in front of the ends of the skis to reduce the toe-in action. It seems to have a nice heeling action which is what I was after, but until I sail it who knows it could be a dog. Tides are getting later each day but may get a chance late tomorrow afternoon to get it out on the beach. Stay tuned.

Hi Clem
Looks great I hope you have some wind soon . I cant wait to here how the ski legs work. Is your mast a carbon/glass windsurf mast? If yes are there any rules of Minis using carbon mast and not aluminum? Good luck hope its a glorius success.

Clemco said...



The Mk3 mini is ready to sail. I ended up using two ski thickness on each side for the axles.

Just wondering Clem, as you have bolted two skis on each side, have you allowed for different flex between the upper and lower skis (spring leaves) by having slotted bolt holes in one of the skis??

Clemco,
If you decide to change the springing about I would suggest you made the upper spring short of the Axle mount and rather than drilling the lower spring, I would be inclined to leave the upper free to slide and attach a couple of guides which would keep travel to axis of the spring. Similar to the way they do with the secondary springs in a set of Leaf Springs and also have a Plastic Wear Strip between them.
With your current system you will find that the Springs will always be fighting each other and also their Ties, possibly weakening the drill holes.

Your unit looks "Mighty Fine" though.. Niiiice, very niiice
Ron

Well I finally got some wind to try out the Mini. We headed up the east coast on Sunday to Waihi Beach to get the best wind direction. There was plenty all right! Blowing 25 knots most of the time 45 degrees to the beach. Perfect for high speed downwind runs. Unfortunately the storm had kicked up the surf so there was not much beach to play with. Headed upwind for first run. Ski axles are still too soft. Mast heeling over about 20 degrees but wheels seemed to track ok. Down wind was scary with the beach so narrow. It was very hard to keep it in a straight line. Clocked 66km/h on first run. Second run downwind something must have bent out of alignment as it was weaving and the leeward wheel was shuddering quite badly. I through it into a spin to slow down, did two 360s and a cartwheel and was thrown out of the yacht into the soft sand. These little yachts can be f***ing dangerous in high winds! Now the mast has a permanent 5 degree lean to port. The front forks are also pointing in that direction, and both rear wheels have a 10 degree negative camber. So that was the sad end for the ski mini for the day. Luckily I had also brought along my trusty YOTT Class5. Rigged that up with a 4m sail and did 99.2km/h on the first run. I must admit it felt much safer than the mini in those winds. Best speed for the day was clocked by Roger Gosbee at 107km/h in his C5 YOTT. It was a good day out fore all. I haven't given up on the mini yet. She will be rebuilt. I wouldn't recommend the the 1.6 wall exhaust tube for the main spine. I may also reduce the Y angle to 20 degrees to shorten the ski legs. Might even go for a T frame.

so many experiments , so little time, thank the wind gods we are sharing our results

I will start organizing the tribe. do you want an officila event or are we just going sailing/camping

Test pilot 1 said...

Or maybe you could just go swimming
We are having a slight amount of precipitation at present
5.4mm and it is still pissing down

As opposed to up?!?[}:)]

Finally got it all together. Just showing off my handy work before it gets dirty. Might make it to the beach tomorrow if the road is open. It's been hosing down here the last 24 hours. There has been some flooding. Anyone want some water? We got plenty here at the moment.

interested to see how it does. good luck and hope you have good wind.

Well done Clem you deserve a good result after all the effort
It looks great

Not to worry Paul. I have built in plenty of adjustment for length and foot peddle(and mast rake) just in case I have to drag it over the ditch one year. Not looking very possible this year unfortunately, so I'm hoping 2012 is going to be a dry one. What are your long range weather predictions for Lefroy this spring? We have had the highest rainfall so far this year since records started in the 70's.