Big Sunday workday 6/23

After church, Rob and I got to work. After another sanding of the bottom of the hull, I flipped it and started resetting up the drives in their locations. I unwrapped the drive shafts and the connection to the couplings turned out well. I connected them to the gearboxes to confirm their location and clearance to the hull. After I was satisfied with the placement, Rob and I got all of the brackets Rick W. premade for me with the drives I recieved from him. I set in place with a locating screw. I then made the brackets for the lever arm that comes back from the drive mast to the pedestal. While I was working that out, Rob was filing a bevel on the edges of the brackets. After some great New York style pizza from Big Slice, we finished up the filing and the rudder mount placement. Once all of the locating screws were placed, I removed the drives and started setting up fiberglass for the bracket placement. We started fiberglass on the rudder placement. The process on all of these is simple: 1. Each has a countersink hole for the locating screw they also have 1-3 other holes to assist in bonding. 2. Wet out the area with epoxy. 3. lay one layer of  fiberglass down. 4. Locate the bracket with the screw. Ensure placement is correct. 5. Lay another piece of epoxy over the top. 

We then moved down and completed the front pedal station, pedestal lever arm mount; then worked on the middle station.

Seat braces are next and some armrest welding by Al tomorrow. After that, we are moving to plan B for the seat cover and should be set in a few days for its first voyage. 

Long overdue update 6/22

This is the last push. The race is just over two weeks away. It is coming together. If everything runs smooth, we may be on our maiden voyage by the weekend. This is a quick set over the last week. 

Wing to pedestal

Wing to stabilizer

Brackets on the wing. Note the multiple hole locations for height adjustment.

Pedestals and drives in their locations (not centered)

Seat frame held for welding. 

Pedestal fiberglassed.

First water test with wing and stabs. Thanks to my neighbor's 32' pool. 

Wing is coming along 6/14

We had a good workday today. Betsy came by and knocked out a thin layer of epoxy on the stabilizer, installed grommets, and filed brackets. 

I was able to set up the brackets, their locations, and drilled all the holes necessary for mounting. 

At the end of the night, Rob and I were able to get all of the brackets glassed on the wing. They are curing overnight. 

More progress tomorrow.

Work has started again

After a great family vacation to DC, Gettysburg and Hershey, PA, Morgantown, WV, and St. Louis, we have made some progress on the V16-9m. 

Before the trip, we were able to get the wing built and glassed. While we were on vacation, Tim and Rob added a coat of epoxy and sanded the hull. 

Jerico came down today and joined us  for a productive work day. Tim sanded the hull more. I assembled the connection points to the gear box for the second pedal drive. We glassed another layer to the leading edge of the hull. While Tim and I plotted and started bending the seat frame, Jerico added a t-bar option on the Honda pilot. 

After plotting the pedal arm that connects  the drive to the pedestal and seat, we finished the seat frames. Jerico was able to get some seat covers set up for us. 

It was a big day. More to come.

Memorial Day Weekend

It has been a week since my successful finish of my first 50mile ultra. It has been a few since I updated the blog. Details will be sacrificed for a quick post. 

I have received the two belt drives and custom folding props that Rick has developed. I can't remember ever receiving something from Australia since the track and field trip to Sydney they send to almost EVERY high school runner (please enclose $10,000). 

Anyway, I was able to connect one of the drives to the gear box. It pedals smooth. Going with Rick on this was for convenience and knowing that I was going to have it quickly. The folding props are pretty amazing. They are folded back to keep the drag down when not pedaling, but the force of pedaling draws them to their perpendicular position to drive forward. 

Ok, now to our progress. While I was racing, Tim came over and sanded some of the main hull. After recovering a bit from the race, I was able to work through plotting, cutting, setup, and gluing the two pedestals; the rudder, and part of the wing. The pedestals and rudder will get some attention from the sander tomorrow as well as gluing the top to the wing. This should set us up to glass all three before I am forced to take a bit more time off next week. 

Meanwhile in middle Missouri, Jerico is setting up and welding the seat frames. 

More to come soon.