David Henshall's article

Originally posted by winging it I know nothing, but will 3D printing have an effect?

Nessa, I know of several boats which have had foils moulded in 3d printed moulds and several people I know have fittings for wing tubes on 14s and Cherubs that they have printed. The fascination with 3d printing does however often miss the point that simple geometries are often cheaper and quicker to produce conventionally. If someone creative got their mind around the ability to produce parts from the inside out rather than outside in, then we might see some interesting components being printed.

One final piece of info, the mast foot for the C-class Invictus mk 2 & 3 wings were grown on an EOS DMLS machine from Ti 64. The part cost was probably in the order of £250 +20mhrs, so not stupid money. Unfortunately not many dinghy builders would want to fork out the £500k for the machine!

Peaky: Patience ever patience and joy shall be thy share! Wait for Christmas and Part deux!

D

The Merlin does strike me as a slightly closed shop, difficult to break in to from the outside with difficult to interpret rules.

Development classes should be as fast as possible within its rules, but a one design should be as nice to sail as possible, not simply as fast as possible. Of course, it is hard to think of metrics for 'nice', so it is hard to quantify what a successful one design is. Taking weight out makes a design faster but tenderer. I have been trying to figure if there is an optimum initial stability for niceness, based upon metacentric height. A bigger meta centric height implies a beamier waterline or higher hull weight. Cherubs and Moths have very low (negative?) metacentres, wayfarers very high. Somewhere in between is a compromise of speed and initial stability. Merlin's probably have this about right as they don't seem to have a reputation for being twitchy but are still slim enough to go well.

True!

The 'it' you didn't get, was the meaning of the word radical, let me offer one such explanation..
"thoroughgoing or extreme, especially as regards change from accepted or traditional forms:"

So given the traditional nature of a clinker built hull what 60 years old? Then references to Fireflies, seriously I read it, looking for something even vaguely radical...

I'm still waiting.

No mention of International canoes, they're a bit radical don't you think?

Or sticky up flying insect boats like that lad down at Aardvark makes in sometimes revolting colours, they look quite 'rad' to me.

No, we content ourselves with a love affair with the drunkards boat of choice, the bandit to beat all bandits, the cockleshell heroes...

Sorry as misstated an article as ever there was however good a read it might be and I spotted and read it at 2.38 as it first appeared, I had difficulty getting my eyes to refocus from where they'd rolled into the top of my head by 2.45..

But hey it's entertainment.

Edited by iGRF - 19 Dec 14 at 8:12pm