Latest "Invention"

[Simon Sexton]

Hey Everyone,

Good morning! Last year, my brother at age 15 purchased his first sailboat for $40. It is called a "Super Snark"; the construction is the same as a normal Snark, the hull being plastic with a styrofoam inside for buoyancy, but shaped almost like a thin Sunfish. I always called it the "Sunfish Lite". Anyway, yesterday we took her off her shelf in the backyard and ran a checklist to see that she is in good enough shape to be used (we do this every month with all our craft). Sadly, the small and cheaply made nylon sail was torn to shreds on the tack and clew; my suspicion is the moths got to it, as we have a loft in the garage where we stow all our sails and rigging. Zander was disappointed to see the sail in such sad condition, but I came up with an idea to make it up to him.

A few months ago, an anonymous person donated a used Sunfish sail to our ship. We had no use for it, so I kindly offered to take it home as my own, thinking I'd use it as a backup rig for my Sunfish. Well, seeing as my Sunfish is under construction, and that I probably wouldn't be using the backup sail anytime soon, I decided to rig the large sail on the eighty-pound, styrofoam-surf-board-snark-thing. Yes, I will be making a longer daggerboard. Yes, I am insane. Yes, I was bored (I'm a college student). I sail it tomorrow.

God Bless,
S.S.​

 

[kappykaplan]

Good luck, Simon. Sounds like you'll have a blast!

 

[Parsons]

Nice - I always admire the simple sailing of a dingy. Not as comfortable or complex as a big cruiser, but pure.

 

[kloudie1]

Fanny Dunker on steroids! Sounds like a hoot!

 

[shemandr]

What can go wrong? You'll have some fun and learn something. There's not a thing wrong with young folks going out on a small boat and getting wet. We had a pram growing up and it spent as much time upright as swamped. We were a bunch of water rats and loved getting wet, and having swimming races that even the family dog joined in. Little parental supervision. Great times! I hope that exists for youngsters of today. Didn't know what a PFD was - but we could all swim thanks to my Mom. She taught us to body surf in the ocean and there isn't enough praise I can give her for that.

 

[Will Gilmore]

Everybody loves a hybred.
Good luck Simon. May you sail with just the right wind to let you know this could work. I hope you installed a hiking strap.

Didn't know what a PFD was

You know, Clark Mills had kids who grew up, as you would expect, sailing and swimming. One day, the marine patrol officer came into Clark's shop.
"Mr. Mills, I just caught your boy out there fishing by the buoy without his life jacket."
Clark paused in his work and replied, "That boy! I just don't know what I'm gonna do about that boy. You know, sometimes he goes out there and he don't even have a boat."

-Will (Dragonfly)

 

[glaufman]

One word of caution.. bad luck will befall those who sail that thing and don't post backbhere tellin us stories of how it went!

 

[jssailem]

@glaufman would that be the frightening Curse of the Silent Inventor?

 

[Simon Sexton]

It was an...interesting...experience. Winds were gusting 15 kts, it climbed up on a plane almost too easily! Daggerboard is still too short, so I need to make another one that's a little longer to improve upwind performance.

 

[jssailem]

Sounds like a great start.
On plane easy.

 

[glaufman]

@glaufman would that be the frightening Curse of the Silent Inventor?

Precisely!

Sounds like fun... Next step... Add a foil?

 

[agprice22]

Reminds me of how roughly we used my laser growing up in Boca Raton. We surfed that thing often, and right onto the beach in 6 ft waves a few times. We took it out in any weather. I used to love dragging myself behind it when I got hot on calmer days. The surest way to get used to heeling is to capsize a small boat a hundred times!

I think an experimental foil is called for here!

 

[jssailem]

I had the same idea. A home made foil. Some how light weight yet strong enough to handle the forces. Maybe in the concept of a Moth boat. That may be a successful model that could give this inventor the idea.

 

[glaufman]

Perfect!

 

[agprice22]

Exactly; rudder and dagger foils. The controls arr tricky.

 

[chuckwayne]

Simon, go for it! When I was growing up my next door neighbor (supposedly and adult) made a huge sail for his sailfish, added a larger daggerboard and rudder, and a sliding hiking board that you kicked over to windward when you tacked. scary but loads of fun! got me ready for trapeze boats when I was a little older....

 

[Jackdaw]

It was an...interesting...experience. Winds were gusting 15 kts, it climbed up on a plane almost too easily! Daggerboard is still too short, so I need to make another one that's a little longer to improve upwind performance.

Be careful. Often layman-designed enhancements go bad. Adding to the boats stability, righting the moment or it’s ability to resist heal adds extra stress on the rig. Most boats are designed as a holistic system and beefing up one part of without looking at the effects caused often leads to a failure somewhere.

 

[Simon Sexton]

extra stress on the rig

The rig is a Sunfish rig, so it is designed to work with the balance of a Sunfish-sized rudder and daggerboard. The rudder and daggerboard that are currently being used on the super snark are smaller by about four inches, and are lighter material. To provide proper balance between the rig and negative force from the blades, I figured I've got to upsize them. I'll let you know how it works out!

 

[Simon Sexton]

Add a foil?

Oh, believe me, if I had the money, I TOTALLY would!

 

[agprice22]

often leads to a failure somewhere.

It really would not be any fun if he does not risk breaking it!