OK folks. If you have built a ship that breaks in half for easier transportation, how did you do it? How easily can the ship break apart, how quickly can it be put back together, and was it worth the effort? What parts needed to be sealed, how did you do it, and how well did it work?
Love the topic. The only logistical way for me to go to NATS is with a boat on a plane. Not that it’s happening this year.
So, for the North Texas crew, Tim will be driving separately so he can hang out with his family during the week. Brian and I will be taking my Malibu, and might have room for a spare boat, but it's unlikely. If circumstances were different, we might rent a minivan or some such. We've done it before. We've also done it where I fly up and Brian and Tim take my boat in the truck with them. Variations on the theme exist. My first and foremost recommendation is that if you want to fly to an event, pick a boat that is shipment/travel friendly. This is part of the reason why I am trying to get someone to do a 3D printed armored cruiser or similar very small boat - so that people can have a travel friendly option. If you must have a boat that splits in two, I know someone who has done it, and it's something like this - make one of the ribs in the middle, the full 3/8" thickness and split it into two 3/16 ribs that butt together. Have "attachment points" at the ribs for screws/wing nuts/whatever your preferred attachment method is. Sheet the boat in two halves, ensuring that the sheeting at the joint fits together nicely. Yeah, that's pretty much it. Anyone who's actually done it can feel free to comment or disagree.
When I did the 96 scale Hood, I made it in two parts that bolted together. At the break, I used a full former instead of just the rib outline, making essentially two hulls that were water tight. Having two hulls does create a problem for the bilge pump. There is a hole in the center bottom of the former that was joined with 1/2" pipe sealed with an o-ring to allow water to flow either direction. If that didn't work, we could have had one pump in the bow that pumped water to the stern, where it would be expelled by a standard bilge pump in the stern. One of the formers had nut inserts with plywood glued over them. This made them blind holes that had no chance for water intrusion. You can also see the hole in the former to pass through wires, CO2 hoses, etc. Both formers were supported with an excessive number of stringers to make sure the former would be solid. The top stringers were behind the armor stringer while all the rest were behind the hard area. Finished product. On the bow side you can see 3 pins that were used to align the halves together. There were 6 bolts that held the ship together. You can test hull and propulsion without putting the whole ship in the water. The hull worked fine in trials, but it was never tested extensively in combat.
The details of the passive water pass through. It was designed using tolerances from the Parker O-ring Handbook. The fit was so tight that it was hard to put together. If I did it again, I would make things a lot looser. The handbook is great, but it provides design information for high pressure systems and all I needed was a water tight seal.
OK, that's the information I'm looking for. As a side project, I am CADing a 1:72 Preussen for non-combat sailing in the bay. The idea is a fun-to-run sailer that I can pull out of my car and have it in the water within five minutes. Break in half, removable masts, etc. Since it'll probably be sailing in salt water for most of its life, and probably in rough seas, I'll need more water protection than most. That water pass-through looks ideal for securely passing servo cables from the front to the back half.
