For some reason Richard keeps posting wonderful pictures of his KHSD 63 cat Profligate. And I will keep posting them. Some excitement this month as the Mexican IRS impounded 338 US boats visiting.
All posts by kurt
OLED – Organic LEDs
I read in Automotive Design magazine about new organic LED lights by OSRAM, osram.com that are as thin as 1.4mm. They will allow tiny cars to have more trunk space as the tail lights will simply be a film attached to the car. They can be programmable also for a variety of lighting schemes. I see a big future for these in multihulls also. I’m sure my multis in the future will have many.
Ziplock Space Bagging
I had kind of a minor breakthrough yesterday vacuum bagging a first part (of 45) for the lander’s top dome. Typically when vacuum bagging, you put the part into the bag and run the vacuum for 6 to 10 hours, depending on temperature.
I have seen the Ziplock Spacebags keeping a quilt vacuumed for what, 6 months? I wondered if it couldn’t be also used to vacuum boat or spaceship parts. Yes, it worked. My concerns that it could not stand my high vacuum pressure, or that the shutoff was tricky, were unfounded. I did create a kind of plastic airlock around the bags shut-off valve so that I could keep my high vacuum longer. I ran the high vacuum pressure 8mm hose through the airlock bag and into the jaws of the shut-off valvve. Next I started the compressor and got my 25 inches of mercury vacuum from my Venturi and compressor. Finally, and in one flash move, I pulled the hose out of the valve jaws and closed them. The next morning it had held the vacuum all night.
My parts are small for this job (2’ on a side) and the bags are also small (3’ x 4’) but with proof of concept, I can start to replicate on bigger parts in the future. Also this means that I can vacuum bag several parts at once as they only need to suck for a couple of minutes. www.spacebagbrand.com
More Capricorn Cat
Hulls in China
Wind Load
I see the wind load calculator is back again. Was down for a while. http://www.sailingcourse.com/keelboat/report_wind_load.htm
Container Cat
New Design Books
Have I really been doing the Design Books for 30 years now? First one was suggested by notorious seadog Chris Ancliffe.
I have just gotten several orders for the Design Books: and I have run out. Of the 2012/2013 books. I will be doing a new printing of an updated 2014 book, but I have to get to anxious design customer’s work done first. I expect to start sending about New Year. I expect Amazon is in the future, but don’t have time to set that up yet.
Another Nick’s 42
Holiday Discount
I see it’s time again for the annual holiday plans set discount. Matthew has had a lot on his plate, as they say, but I understand it will hit on or about December 15th. The discount will be built right into the plans price at the shopping cart.
There will also be changes to the study plans. As noted before, it seems that all I can accomplish anymore is email and special situations that happen to study plans orders. Study plans will now be $100 plus shipping. An option for PDF study plans will be added, for $50 and no shipping cost. They also include appropriate spreadsheets and word files.