Anybody see Mythbusters late night?
 

They built a wire frame sail boat out of duct tape. Including the
sail, rudder and keel.

Damn thing actually sailed pretty good. :)

It's looked like the old Town Class racing series boat.

Looked like it sailed pretty well too.

Anybody see Mythbusters late night?
 

On Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:53:50 -0400, Tom Francis - SWSports
wrote:

They built a wire frame sail boat out of duct tape. Including the
sail, rudder and keel.

Damn thing actually sailed pretty good. :)

It's looked like the old Town Class racing series boat.

Looked like it sailed pretty well too.

That keel really looked flaky.
I watched their attempt to use duct tape to patch a hole from under
water with some interest.
Half-assed worked.
A special adhesive formulation that sticks better - to put in the
emergency kit - would probably sell to boaters.

--Vic

Anybody see Mythbusters late night?
 

On Thu, 15 Oct 2009 10:07:34 -0500, Vic Smith
wrote:

On Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:53:50 -0400, Tom Francis - SWSports
wrote:

They built a wire frame sail boat out of duct tape. Including the
sail, rudder and keel.

Damn thing actually sailed pretty good. :)

It's looked like the old Town Class racing series boat.

Looked like it sailed pretty well too.

That keel really looked flaky.

Yeah - that looked a little funky, but it seemed to work. And it was
sailing in fairly choppy water.

I watched their attempt to use duct tape to patch a hole from under
water with some interest.
Half-assed worked.
A special adhesive formulation that sticks better - to put in the
emergency kit - would probably sell to boaters.

They went about it wrong - a patch isn't going to work.

Whipping up a ball and/or plug would have been perfect.

Anybody see Mythbusters late night?
 

On Oct 15, 10:13*am, Tom Francis - SWSports
wrote:
On Thu, 15 Oct 2009 10:07:34 -0500, Vic Smith

wrote:
On Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:53:50 -0400, Tom Francis - SWSports
wrote:

They built a wire frame sail boat out of duct tape. *Including the
sail, rudder and keel.

Damn thing actually sailed pretty good. *:)

It's looked like the old Town Class racing series boat.

Looked like it sailed pretty well too.

That keel really looked flaky.

Yeah - that looked a little funky, but it seemed to work. *And it was
sailing in fairly choppy water.

I watched their attempt to use duct tape to patch a hole from under
water with some interest.
Half-assed worked.
A special adhesive formulation that sticks better - to put in the
emergency kit - would probably sell to boaters.

They went about it wrong - a patch isn't going to work.

Whipping up a ball and/or plug would have been perfect.

The last episode I watched was when they made an outboard boat out of
frozen paper machet.

that didn't work very well either.

Anybody see Mythbusters late night?
 

In article 8aab6103-90ad-4b25-aa35-
, says...

On Oct 15, 10:13*am, Tom Francis - SWSports
wrote:
On Thu, 15 Oct 2009 10:07:34 -0500, Vic Smith

wrote:
On Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:53:50 -0400, Tom Francis - SWSports
wrote:

They built a wire frame sail boat out of duct tape. *Including the
sail, rudder and keel.

Damn thing actually sailed pretty good. *:)

It's looked like the old Town Class racing series boat.

Looked like it sailed pretty well too.

That keel really looked flaky.

Yeah - that looked a little funky, but it seemed to work. *And it was
sailing in fairly choppy water.

I watched their attempt to use duct tape to patch a hole from under
water with some interest.
Half-assed worked.
A special adhesive formulation that sticks better - to put in the
emergency kit - would probably sell to boaters.

They went about it wrong - a patch isn't going to work.

Whipping up a ball and/or plug would have been perfect.

The last episode I watched was when they made an outboard boat out of
frozen paper machet.

that didn't work very well either.

Worked fine till it melted.. They even got it up on plane iirc...

Anybody see Mythbusters late night?
 

On Oct 15, 11:21*am, Tosk wrote:
In article 8aab6103-90ad-4b25-aa35-
, says...





On Oct 15, 10:13*am, Tom Francis - SWSports
wrote:
On Thu, 15 Oct 2009 10:07:34 -0500, Vic Smith

wrote:
On Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:53:50 -0400, Tom Francis - SWSports
wrote:

They built a wire frame sail boat out of duct tape. *Including the
sail, rudder and keel.

Damn thing actually sailed pretty good. *:)

It's looked like the old Town Class racing series boat.

Looked like it sailed pretty well too.

That keel really looked flaky.

Yeah - that looked a little funky, but it seemed to work. *And it was
sailing in fairly choppy water.

I watched their attempt to use duct tape to patch a hole from under
water with some interest.
Half-assed worked.
A special adhesive formulation that sticks better - to put in the
emergency kit - would probably sell to boaters.

They went about it wrong - a patch isn't going to work.

Whipping up a ball and/or plug would have been perfect.

The last episode I watched was when they made an outboard boat out of
frozen paper machet.

that didn't work very well either.

Worked fine till it melted.. They even got it up on plane iirc...

Yeah, they tried to re-freeze the hull with a fire extinguisher.

Anybody see Mythbusters late night?
 

On Oct 15, 8:53*am, Tom Francis - SWSports
wrote:
They built a wire frame sail boat out of duct tape. *Including the
sail, rudder and keel.

Damn thing actually sailed pretty good. *:)

It's looked like the old Town Class racing series boat.

Looked like it sailed pretty well too.

Most likely better than FAGGOT SCOTTY INGERSOLL **** creations (oh
yeah...they're someone ELSES plans)

Anybody see Mythbusters late night?
 

On Oct 15, 8:55*pm, wrote:
On Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:53:50 -0400, Tom Francis - SWSports

wrote:
They built a wire frame sail boat out of duct tape. *Including the
sail, rudder and keel.

Damn thing actually sailed pretty good. *:)

It's looked like the old Town Class racing series boat.

Looked like it sailed pretty well too.

I was more impressed by the duct tape cannon.
I made a 8x16 raft for the Wash DC raft race floating on visqueen and
garbage bags.
8 people partied all day, then got towed in at a pretty good clip.

Every year, Vincennes University the engineering students, have a
build-you-boat contest, in which you are given so much cardboard, so
much tape so much of whatever, and you have to build a craft to float
or actually race paddle race on the Wabash river. It's interesting to
see some of the stuff they create that actually works. Alot of it
doesn't though.

Anybody see Mythbusters late night?
 

On Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:20:34 -0700, Tim wrote:


Every year, Vincennes University the engineering students, have a
build-you-boat contest, in which you are given so much cardboard, so
much tape so much of whatever, and you have to build a craft to float
or actually race paddle race on the Wabash river. It's interesting to
see some of the stuff they create that actually works. Alot of it
doesn't though.

Reminds me of some of the stuff the Cubans were floating over on back in
the '90s. I remember one raft made out of rebar. The whole thing was
wrapped in a blue poly tarp, and used a couple of chunks of Styrofoam for
floatation. Frankly, I wouldn't have crossed a small pond in it, let
alone 90 miles of ocean. Guts, desperation, or both.

Anybody see Mythbusters late night?
 

thunder wrote:
On Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:20:34 -0700, Tim wrote:


Every year, Vincennes University the engineering students, have a
build-you-boat contest, in which you are given so much cardboard, so
much tape so much of whatever, and you have to build a craft to float
or actually race paddle race on the Wabash river. It's interesting to
see some of the stuff they create that actually works. Alot of it
doesn't though.

Reminds me of some of the stuff the Cubans were floating over on back in
the '90s. I remember one raft made out of rebar. The whole thing was
wrapped in a blue poly tarp, and used a couple of chunks of Styrofoam for
floatation. Frankly, I wouldn't have crossed a small pond in it, let
alone 90 miles of ocean. Guts, desperation, or both.

In Key West I saw an innertube with a door strapped to it. Supposedly it
was used to make the 90 mile crossing from Cigarland.

Anybody see Mythbusters late night?
 

On Fri, 16 Oct 2009 07:45:14 -0400, Jim wrote:


Reminds me of some of the stuff the Cubans were floating over on back
in the '90s. I remember one raft made out of rebar. The whole thing
was wrapped in a blue poly tarp, and used a couple of chunks of
Styrofoam for floatation. Frankly, I wouldn't have crossed a small
pond in it, let alone 90 miles of ocean. Guts, desperation, or both.

In Key West I saw an innertube with a door strapped to it. Supposedly it
was used to make the 90 mile crossing from Cigarland.

In the early '90s, there was a Cuban restaurant in Miami, that had a
collection of rafts that had made the journey. Most all of them were
damn scary. Now, apparently, they are a thing of the past.

http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/exile/vanishing.htm

Anybody see Mythbusters late night?
 

On Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:13:21 -0400, Tom Francis - SWSports
wrote:

On Thu, 15 Oct 2009 10:07:34 -0500, Vic Smith
wrote:

On Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:53:50 -0400, Tom Francis - SWSports
wrote:


I watched their attempt to use duct tape to patch a hole from under
water with some interest.
Half-assed worked.
A special adhesive formulation that sticks better - to put in the
emergency kit - would probably sell to boaters.

They went about it wrong - a patch isn't going to work.

Whipping up a ball and/or plug would have been perfect.

Just like their drill made perfectly round hole.
I suspect most holings in glass are jagged and take odd shapes.
And there's probably no time to whittle.
My 2 leading ideas for emergency patching holes in glass caused by
hitting debris, both applied from the outside by diving overboard,

2. A glue attached patch that could be unfolded and slapped over the
hole. Something like visqueen. Maybe with a backing that is pulled
off to activate/expose the glue. Couple feet square should do, but
could be various sizes.
Trouble is I haven't seen a suitable underwater glue.
Some talk about developing them by copying barnacle secretions, etc.,
but nothing I've seen on the market that is fast and sticky
underwater.
Seems the best thing might actually be a tube of roofing patch tar,
applying a wide bead with a caulk gun around the hole, then slapping
the sheet of visqueen on it. Just an idea, and I don't know if it
would work. But I'd love to try it if I lived by real water instead
of just rain. Damn it, I've seen about 2 hours of sun since I got
back from Florida a couple weeks ago.

So, number 1 choice is.......

1. A PFD-like bag, suitably sized, that can jammed in the hole, and
inflated by pulling a CO2 lanyard.
Pleating to accommodate hole jaggedness, flexibility/ toughness of
material, and inflation pressure are the main engineering issues.
Not exactly rocket science, but still....

These are quick and dirty measures to stop most inflow and give the
boater a chance to dewater by pumping/bailing, and make a more
permanent patch if possible.
Not as a replacement for normal damage control plugs, which are fine
for a broken thruhull for example.
Big ships carry timbers to shore a mattress against a hole in the hull
and all kinds of other crap.
Wouldn't be prudent to carry such on a 20' Carolina Skiff.
Now I have to go.
Time to study life rafts, and maybe a device/tool/kit to assist in
righting a capsized boat.
So many problems to solve, so little time.

--Vic

Anybody see Mythbusters late night?
 

On Oct 16, 12:49*pm, Vic Smith
wrote:
On Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:13:21 -0400, Tom Francis - SWSports



wrote:
On Thu, 15 Oct 2009 10:07:34 -0500, Vic Smith
wrote:

On Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:53:50 -0400, Tom Francis - SWSports
wrote:

I watched their attempt to use duct tape to patch a hole from under
water with some interest.
Half-assed worked.
A special adhesive formulation that sticks better - to put in the
emergency kit - would probably sell to boaters.

They went about it wrong - a patch isn't going to work.

Whipping up a ball and/or plug would have been perfect.

Just like their drill made perfectly round hole.
I suspect most holings in glass are jagged and take odd shapes.
And there's probably no time to whittle.
My 2 leading ideas for emergency patching holes in glass caused by
hitting debris, both applied from the outside by diving overboard,

2. *A glue attached patch that could be unfolded and slapped over the
hole. *Something like visqueen. *Maybe with a backing that is pulled
off to activate/expose the glue. *Couple feet square should do, but
could be various sizes.
Trouble is I haven't seen a suitable underwater glue.
Some talk about developing them by copying barnacle secretions, etc.,
but nothing I've seen on the market that is fast and sticky
underwater.
Seems the best thing might actually be a tube of roofing patch tar,
applying a wide bead with a caulk gun around the hole, then slapping
the sheet of visqueen on it. *Just an idea, and I don't know if it
would work. *But I'd love to try it if I lived by real water instead
of just rain. *Damn it, I've seen about 2 hours of sun since I got
back from Florida a couple weeks ago.

So, number 1 choice is.......

1. A PFD-like bag, suitably sized, that can jammed in the hole, and
inflated by pulling a CO2 lanyard.
Pleating to accommodate hole jaggedness, flexibility/ toughness of
material, and inflation pressure are the main engineering issues.
Not exactly rocket science, but still....

These are quick and dirty measures to stop most inflow and give the
boater a chance to dewater by pumping/bailing, and make a more
permanent patch if possible.
Not as a replacement for normal damage control plugs, which are fine
for a broken thruhull for example.
Big ships carry timbers to shore a mattress against a hole in the hull
and all kinds of other crap.
Wouldn't be prudent to carry such on a 20' Carolina Skiff.
Now I have to go.
Time to study life rafts, and maybe a device/tool/kit to assist in
righting a capsized boat.
So many problems to solve, so little time.

--Vic

The fishermen in the sound using plywood skiffs used to carry pieces
of plywood and roofing tar for quick fixes to get home...

Anybody see Mythbusters late night?
 

On Fri, 16 Oct 2009 11:49:26 -0500, Vic Smith
wrote:

I suspect most holings in glass are jagged and take odd shapes.
And there's probably no time to whittle.

That's all true but the vast majority of boat sinkings, large and
small, are caused by other things.

http://www.boattest.com/Resources/vi...spx?NewsID=609

On larger boats raw water hoses and hose clamps are a common problem.
Other than good preventive maintenance, the best defenses are high
water alarms and large bilge pumps.

Anybody see Mythbusters late night?
 

On Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:14:09 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Fri, 16 Oct 2009 11:49:26 -0500, Vic Smith
wrote:

I suspect most holings in glass are jagged and take odd shapes.
And there's probably no time to whittle.

That's all true but the vast majority of boat sinkings, large and
small, are caused by other things.

http://www.boattest.com/Resources/vi...spx?NewsID=609

On larger boats raw water hoses and hose clamps are a common problem.
Other than good preventive maintenance, the best defenses are high
water alarms and large bilge pumps.

Yeah, think I posted that before. Low-hanging fruit.
I'm looking to patch holes in glass from the outside.
Are all your thruhulls and cooling system hoses easily accessed?
I'll probably end up with a bare hull boat with no thruhulls.
Ala Carolina Skiff.
But I get the impression that many thruhulls and other failure points
aren't easily accessed on some boats.
And sometimes lots of concealment of the actual source by various
accoutrements.
That's reason enough right there for a bilge alarm.
BTW, a buddy with a Wauquiez Hood 38, a supposedly high quality
ocean-goer, found that the thruhulls had no backing plates - just
heavily glassed in.
Came from the factory that way during that time-period.
He fixed that right quick.
Anyway, I like the idea of going over the side with a patch kit.
When it is the only solution, of course.
My motto: Be Prepared to Be a Hero Should the Chance Present Itself.
Backup Motto: Sometimes You Can Just Run Like Hell.

--Vic

Anybody see Mythbusters late night?
 

On Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:39:30 -0500, Vic Smith
wrote:

Anyway, I like the idea of going over the side with a patch kit.
When it is the only solution, of course.

Going into the water to make a repair is highly problematic. There's
a lot of risk and it's difficult to maintain your position and grip
while you're working. I carry a regulated dive compressor, wet suit,
weight belt, etc., and have used it a few times to clear lines from
the props. Even anchored in relatively calm water it is difficult
and moderately dangerous to be working under the boat.

Anybody see Mythbusters late night?
 

On Fri, 16 Oct 2009 22:20:41 -0400, wrote:

If you just want to limp home at hull speed I bet you could just drift
over a submerged poly tarp and pull it up to the gunnels all around
then bail the boat out. If you had a huge hole, pull a PFD cushion (or
something similar) up under the hole first to support the tarp.
It would be easier if you could actually get in the water to align
things but that assumes you are somewhere warm.
That won't help the guys with straight inboards, tho you still might
be able to keep the boat from sinking, even if you can't use your
engine to go. That is when it is handy to have that skiff on the
davits to tow you home. or just a kicker on a bracket.

Only once have I seen a boat with a large hole threatening to sink.
We were at Cuttyhunk Island south of Cape Cod 4 years ago when the
coast guard and SeaTow brought in a 40+ motor yacht that had banged a
rock and put a shaft strut up through the bottom. They had three
very high capacity pumps onboard keeping it afloat. I believe SeaTow
had a diver who was eventually able to slow things down but don't know
what they used.

Anybody see Mythbusters late night?
 

On Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:39:30 -0500, Vic Smith
wrote:

Are all your thruhulls and cooling system hoses easily accessed?

Most but not all.

I'll probably end up with a bare hull boat with no thruhulls.
Ala Carolina Skiff.

The biggest risk to open boats is swamping and capsize. That can
happen right at the dock in storm conditions.

Anybody see Mythbusters late night?
 

On 10/17/09 9:00 AM, Wayne.B wrote:
On Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:39:30 -0500, Vic Smith
wrote:

Are all your thruhulls and cooling system hoses easily accessed?

Most but not all.

I'll probably end up with a bare hull boat with no thruhulls.
Ala Carolina Skiff.

The biggest risk to open boats is swamping and capsize. That can
happen right at the dock in storm conditions.


Typically, the occupants of an open boat sunk at the dock in storm
conditions don't have far to swim. Occupants of a aging 49' barge
sinking 50 miles offshore...shark bait.


--
http://tinyurl.com/ykaa4k7

Anybody see Mythbusters late night?
 

On Sat, 17 Oct 2009 09:00:24 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:39:30 -0500, Vic Smith
wrote:

Are all your thruhulls and cooling system hoses easily accessed?

Most but not all.

I'll probably end up with a bare hull boat with no thruhulls.
Ala Carolina Skiff.

The biggest risk to open boats is swamping and capsize. That can
happen right at the dock in storm conditions.

I think I'll give up on the patch kit idea for a while.
No real interest, since the chance of needing it is slight.
Now, anti-capsize. That's interesting.
Time to start talking about inflatable amas deploying from
the gunnels in swamp/capsize situations.
And manual bailing methods when batteries are wet.

--Vic

Anybody see Mythbusters late night?
 

On Sat, 17 Oct 2009 13:49:23 -0500, Vic Smith
wrote:

The biggest risk to open boats is swamping and capsize. That can
happen right at the dock in storm conditions.

I think I'll give up on the patch kit idea for a while.
No real interest, since the chance of needing it is slight.
Now, anti-capsize. That's interesting.

Time to start talking about inflatable amas deploying from
the gunnels in swamp/capsize situations.
And manual bailing methods when batteries are wet.

Manual bailing is easy. One gallon plastic jugs with the bottom cut
out work very well.

Automatically deployable amas may take a little more engineering.
:-)

One thing I've sometimes seen on Whalers and Carolina Skiffs is to
ring the boat with fair sized inflatable fenders. This is usually
done on boats that are being used as tenders or for sailing
instruction but it might provide a useful increase in flotation and
capsize resistance for any boat.

Anybody see Mythbusters late night?
 

On Sat, 17 Oct 2009 18:06:27 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Sat, 17 Oct 2009 13:49:23 -0500, Vic Smith
wrote:

The biggest risk to open boats is swamping and capsize. That can
happen right at the dock in storm conditions.

I think I'll give up on the patch kit idea for a while.
No real interest, since the chance of needing it is slight.
Now, anti-capsize. That's interesting.

Time to start talking about inflatable amas deploying from
the gunnels in swamp/capsize situations.
And manual bailing methods when batteries are wet.

Manual bailing is easy. One gallon plastic jugs with the bottom cut
out work very well.

Automatically deployable amas may take a little more engineering.
:-)

One thing I've sometimes seen on Whalers and Carolina Skiffs is to
ring the boat with fair sized inflatable fenders. This is usually
done on boats that are being used as tenders or for sailing
instruction but it might provide a useful increase in flotation and
capsize resistance for any boat.

There you go. Might just tie inner tubes to the sides my skiff.
Just have to careful with the fishing hooks and gaff.

--Vic

Anybody see Mythbusters late night?
 

On 10/17/09 6:42 PM, Vic Smith wrote:
On Sat, 17 Oct 2009 18:06:27 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Sat, 17 Oct 2009 13:49:23 -0500, Vic Smith
wrote:

The biggest risk to open boats is swamping and capsize. That can
happen right at the dock in storm conditions.

I think I'll give up on the patch kit idea for a while.
No real interest, since the chance of needing it is slight.
Now, anti-capsize. That's interesting.

Time to start talking about inflatable amas deploying from
the gunnels in swamp/capsize situations.
And manual bailing methods when batteries are wet.

Manual bailing is easy. One gallon plastic jugs with the bottom cut
out work very well.

Automatically deployable amas may take a little more engineering.
:-)

One thing I've sometimes seen on Whalers and Carolina Skiffs is to
ring the boat with fair sized inflatable fenders. This is usually
done on boats that are being used as tenders or for sailing
instruction but it might provide a useful increase in flotation and
capsize resistance for any boat.

There you go. Might just tie inner tubes to the sides my skiff.
Just have to careful with the fishing hooks and gaff.

--Vic



Contact the surf rescue guys at the St. Johns, Florida rescue
department...the ones who yank idiots out of the inlets. They have or
had a Carolina skiff with large openings cut in the sides to pull aboard
fatigued swimmers. I don't recall that boat ever swamping or turning
turtle. Might be the fire department that has jurisdiction...

--
http://tinyurl.com/ykaa4k7

Anybody see Mythbusters late night?
 

On Sat, 17 Oct 2009 18:47:44 -0400, H the K
wrote:


Contact the surf rescue guys at the St. Johns, Florida rescue
department...the ones who yank idiots out of the inlets. They have or
had a Carolina skiff with large openings cut in the sides to pull aboard
fatigued swimmers. I don't recall that boat ever swamping or turning
turtle. Might be the fire department that has jurisdiction...

Those DLX models are wide beam and very stable. Probably less prone
to capsize than v-hulls.

--Vic

Anybody see Mythbusters late night?
 

"Vic Smith" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 17 Oct 2009 18:06:27 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Sat, 17 Oct 2009 13:49:23 -0500, Vic Smith
wrote:

The biggest risk to open boats is swamping and capsize. That can
happen right at the dock in storm conditions.

I think I'll give up on the patch kit idea for a while.
No real interest, since the chance of needing it is slight.
Now, anti-capsize. That's interesting.

Time to start talking about inflatable amas deploying from
the gunnels in swamp/capsize situations.
And manual bailing methods when batteries are wet.

Manual bailing is easy. One gallon plastic jugs with the bottom cut
out work very well.

Automatically deployable amas may take a little more engineering.
:-)

One thing I've sometimes seen on Whalers and Carolina Skiffs is to
ring the boat with fair sized inflatable fenders. This is usually
done on boats that are being used as tenders or for sailing
instruction but it might provide a useful increase in flotation and
capsize resistance for any boat.

There you go. Might just tie inner tubes to the sides my skiff.
Just have to careful with the fishing hooks and gaff.

--Vic

Have you sen the Walker Bay boat option?
http://www.walkerbay.com/products/ri...ghy/index.html
At first I think the inflatable portion was added to the stock boats... but
it may be different now.

Anybody see Mythbusters late night?
 

On Sat, 17 Oct 2009 20:25:06 -0300, "Don White"
wrote:




Have you sen the Walker Bay boat option?
http://www.walkerbay.com/products/ri...ghy/index.html
At first I think the inflatable portion was added to the stock boats... but
it may be different now.

Don't know much about dinghies, but those look good.

--Vic

Anybody see Mythbusters late night?
 

In article ,
says...

On Sat, 17 Oct 2009 20:25:06 -0300, "Don White"
wrote:




Have you sen the Walker Bay boat option?
http://www.walkerbay.com/products/ri...ghy/index.html
At first I think the inflatable portion was added to the stock boats... but
it may be different now.

Don't know much about dinghies, but those look good.

--Vic

Yeah, but the inflatable ring only serves to take space. The boat would
be just as stable with a hard ring not inflated... The distance from
center is what counts, not what it's filled or not filled with...

Anybody see Mythbusters late night?
 

On Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:55:46 -0400, wrote:

On Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:53:50 -0400, Tom Francis - SWSports
wrote:

They built a wire frame sail boat out of duct tape. Including the
sail, rudder and keel.

Damn thing actually sailed pretty good. :)

It's looked like the old Town Class racing series boat.

Looked like it sailed pretty well too.


I was more impressed by the duct tape cannon.
I made a 8x16 raft for the Wash DC raft race floating on visqueen and
garbage bags.
8 people partied all day, then got towed in at a pretty good clip.

When is that held? I've never heard of it, in all the years I've been
in and out of here. 'Course, they coulda stopped it.

Anybody see Mythbusters late night?
 

On Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:42:57 -0400, wrote:

On Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:27:50 -0400, John H.
wrote:

On Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:55:46 -0400, wrote:

On Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:53:50 -0400, Tom Francis - SWSports
wrote:

They built a wire frame sail boat out of duct tape. Including the
sail, rudder and keel.

Damn thing actually sailed pretty good. :)

It's looked like the old Town Class racing series boat.

Looked like it sailed pretty well too.


I was more impressed by the duct tape cannon.
I made a 8x16 raft for the Wash DC raft race floating on visqueen and
garbage bags.
8 people partied all day, then got towed in at a pretty good clip.

When is that held? I've never heard of it, in all the years I've been
in and out of here. 'Course, they coulda stopped it.


I was at the 1980 and the 1981 WPGC (radio) Rambling Raft Race.
This is some pix from the 81 outing.

We did the final assembly on a side street near the venue
http://gfretwell.com/ftp/loading%20bags%20in%20raft.jpg

After we got the bags stacked in the frame we covered it with VisQueen
stapled well all around. The Marines flipped it over and tossed it in
the river.

This is our raft and a smaller one in the background with similar
construction being loaded

http://gfretwell.com/ftp/on%20the%20raft.jpg

Of course we needed food on the raft
http://gfretwell.com/ftp/Becky%20Grilling.jpg

I didn't make the 82 race because I was out of town on business and by
83 I was on my way to Florida so I don't know what happened to the
raft race after that .

Well, I was doing some heavy travelling during that time, but I've not
heard anything lately. I tried to call WPGC to see if they still
sponsored it, but all I could get were taped messages.

I didn't see any food!

Great pictures.