Inflatable Technology

Clearly someone missed me.. and in case you wondered what I've been up to, in my commercial life I'm still tasked with the object of providing means of water based leisure to those young enough to avoid sitting down in silly stupid old fashioned sailing dinghy things.

However, ever the entrepreneur watchful for an angle I've had my eye on the developing 'drop stitch' technology being employed in the SUP market (Stand Up Paddleboards), basically a chord is stitched top to bottom to assist the envelope to 'remember' a given rocker so the paddle board will surf like a regular board.

Initially they were crude, but quite effective and there was a French produced dinghy video on here not so long ago, but the technology as it was then wasn't that dimensionally stable in as much as torsional rigidity wasn't that great (they twisted).

Well, there's another generation about to launch, new factory, German Technicians, China rather than Korea which has some rather impressive products I've just spent the week messing about on along with the Kitesurfing stuff I sell in order to keep me in the manner of dinghy I have become accustomed to. (Heavy 2nd Hand)

So the thought of taking the stuff to the beach and blowing it up rather than all that lifting and dragging over shingle crap I now have to put up with as I've returned from my lake idyll back to the horrors of Hythe shore dump.

They built the old generation type with a centreboard and mast foot from which to windsurf from, I'm wondering......

This new technology instead of a linear stitch pattern employs a scatter thread higher density drop stitch, think similar to Cuben Fibre style fibre pattern, plus it's two or three layer, so highly resistant to beach abuse.

I guess the issue would be turning turtle or getting back in after a capsize if it were as buoyant as these things tend to be, but it's still got me wondering, you think an RS Aero is light, what if it were hollow and pumped up with air? Then when you finish you stow it in the back of the car.

The trouble is there are substantial parts of a sailboat that must be *very* resistant to distortion and have considerable surface rigidity. But there are also parts that maybe don't need so much. I wonder about a RIB approach. Get rather expensive and complicated to build though. The trouble is a dinghy is largely a hollow structure full of air anyway. If you build say everything above the chines out of inflatable material then how much weight can you really save?
Inflated "drop stitch" side tanks and decks ought to be a lot more comfortable to sail on, but OTOH I have such bad memories of buoyancy bags...

Originally posted by JimC The trouble is there are substantial parts of a sailboat that must be *very* resistant to distortion and have considerable surface rigidity. But there are also parts that maybe don't need so much. I wonder about a RIB approach. Get rather expensive and complicated to build though. The trouble is a dinghy is largely a hollow structure full of air anyway. If you build say everything above the chines out of inflatable material then how much weight can you really save? Inflated "drop stitch" side tanks and decks ought to be a lot more comfortable to sail on, but OTOH I have such bad memories of buoyancy bags...

I did originally try to spec exactly that when asking for the V2 to be built rather than racks, but it wasn't within the gift of those guys to build. I've never visited a 'drop stitch' factory so have no idea what shaping possibilities they have other than flat board shapes and maybe the odd kayak.

The problem these big volume devices like the Cat, Ribs, and Kayaks have is the (lack of) ability to inflate to high pressure, which the combination of the stitches and new valves is bringing.

The Bombard AeroTec Inflatable has been using this tech for at least 15 years in it's floor. Mine is that old. Your thinking is floored if you think it would be a lighter dinghy construction method. You are a stitching together a skin of heavy rubberised cloth then adding the weight of the drop stitched threads. With no appreciable weigh saving. Adding heavy metal values as well as adding the requirement to strengthen specific sites to terminate spars and fittings with self supporting structures which will be heavier than conventional methods. Easy of storage is the only relevant design concept behind small inflatables, other than the inherent safety they deliver when applied to RIBS.

If you want to make a lighter boat. Build it out of single skin Pre-Preg Nomex, Autoclave it and be done with it.