there's an awesome video circulating of my boat sinking. View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=22&v=_Tbp9KR7i2o What is it with Derfflingers and go-pro cameras? Anywho, just cut 0.75" off of the shaft stuffing tubes. checked the fit, and I can roll with 1.5" props, and increase the area of my experimental rudder by at least a square inch.
the modded rudder looks nice, along with the shortened shafts and the new struts. planning to glass the struts in place today. While I was working on the rudder, I realized I have way too little travel to take advantage of it, so after getting some tips from @Beaver , checking out a few of Kevin and Steve's posts, and zooming around amazon for a bit, I've got the components on order for a belt drive on the way. With a full travel range, I should be able to at least make @Panzer 's job of killing my boat harder next spring. the extra surface area allowed by the retracted props means I can divert like 70% of the boat's thrust cone now. The area's only 4.03 square inches, but that's as large as I can go--that extra half square inch just doesn't have anywhere to go.
it's flush to the hull along 100% of it's length now. nowhere to go. and going down would make it deeper than the keel.
yeah, well I'm using 1" and 1.25" props.... so there's not even thrust down there to divert. it'd add no performance advantage. especially since I'd have to rip apart my brand new rudder to do it, which has exactly zero chance of happening. juice<squeeze.
funny thing is, with those props, my rudder is comically out of scale. makes the KEVIII look like it suffers from small rudder syndrome, when my boat suffers from "performs better with scale props" syndrome
Looks good, those changes should help rein in those outriggers. In the future I recommend planning to use up however much rudder area is allowed. Most boats have running gear that extends beyond the keel depth, it's good if it doesn't but doesn't work on most hulls with our oversized propulsion trains. Thrust spreads out pretty quickly, especially with the distance between those props and rudder, a good deal goes a lot lower than you might expect. One thing I've done in the past on various boats is to hold the boat stationary in the water, throttle up, and move the rudder side to side, and feel underwater where the thrust is getting by, its a good practice if you want to test your assumptions about how well your props/rudder are aligned/configured
Oh good, so I wasn't crazy when I did that stationary thrust feel test. the question with a form like the texas, is where to put all of that extra rudder. If I were to do the boat again, I'd have the props about right where that rudder ends. so that's as far forward as it'd go. I've got it tapped out on the aft end too. Vertically, it's... and I just measured it, 1 mm from flush with the keel. I will *NEVER* put that rudder further vertically(experience gained, it was awful to repair, don't even bother mentioning this as an option) and it's flush with the underside of the hull. there's nowhere for the .47 square inches to go on this boat.
so. ton of system replacements are on order. here's a few photos of the year's damage, courtesy of the transluscent patches. the skin's basically gone from the starboard bow. so little is left of the balsa that the remnants would crack open when hit, generating amusingly large holes and, had I not known the contrary, I would have figured it ram damage. getting that forward sidemount on target has been costly. I'll have to be careful in future use of it.
I was doing nothing of the sort. those stern guns just happened to pop out of nowhere when @Panzer realized I was about to sidemount him and abruptly turned 90 degrees. Mark's Graf Spee was also being a Hellacious wingman for him too.
Its all falsehoods!!!! My Baden was minding her own business making a phone call to her sister Bayern from a public phone booth when this Shmexy looking Texas saunters on up to her and Pulls a Knife!!!! I swear by the gods in the water below that phone booth that it was a clear case of self-defense. I mean what would you do with a knife wielding Texas??? I kicked him out of my phone booth and tried to finish my phone call!!! Looking forward to next years battles,Brian, Maybe we can get a Beaver to show up for a battle as well!
No matter which direction I approached, I always found myself staring down a pair of sterns. Anywho, I'm doing some more extensive work on the hull right now. The center deckplate under the superstructure has warped beyond recovery. So I am going to replace it. There is no source of 1/8 plywood in town. and due to that warping, I am thinking of using a not-wood material. Will 1/8 Lexan work? I will be extensively modding the current design (removing the superstructure float and replacing it with a solid superstructure built into the deck plate), so if you're thinking it'll be too flimsy or floppy, that's not really a concern, as it'll have the plywood permanently affixed. The 1/4" Lexan that Mike Gave me is pretty sturdy stuff. Any Alternate Materials? I know somebody was using some kind of fiberglass or plastic sheeting.
