Just pulled vindi's trailer out from the back of the trailer park at my yard to give her a dust and oil ready for a bit of wind. the lake had a wee drop of rain last week and is just amazing. I'm really starting to be a big fan of this global warming bizzo.
If this keeps up the lake could be permenantly beautiful.
Even better, if the climate trips over and we get an ice age I reckon I could get 2 seasons of Iceyachting in before we abandon the frozen wastes of the south or starve /freeze to death.

Here she is in all her glory. One day maybe someone will have the sense and photographic capability to take a photo when shes moving


Zoom Zoom

Yeah I saw Mini Vindi at Bill's house the other day. His handywork is absolutely outstanding!!

As Cisco asked, is Vindicator class 2 or 3 or in a class of her own?

Next time she's out of the shed can you take a picture of what it looks like in the cockpit?

DAMMIT I hate winter!!!!

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Wow that looks fast! I'd imagine there's some serious engineering inside to make everything look so clean.
Not really. Its hollow. but the shell is glass/polyester with a layer of12mm endgrain balsa inbetween. very strong

Couple of questions:
1) How does the sheeting work? a hand winder inside the bodywith positve sheeting. always under tension so the rig cannot flap,and you can use it as an aerobrake(gently).

2) Is the wing symmetrical?YUP. bill designed it to go for a record in both directions. his best effort was 11kph off and he never really got the right conditions again . this was all pre GPS

3) What mechanical arrangement allows the wing to turn (bearings, UJ, what?)
rig is wirestayed,with a simple pivot bolt at the base. rotation controlled by the winder. the original had SS wire to the wing which kept breaking when an amateur like me sailed it hard. I built a new unit which has 3mm spectra for the winding cable. much more reliable and shock resistant

4) Is the wing a one-piece, and if not, how does it fit together?.
one piece wing. It did have a flap which didnt improve the yachtinternally there is a ply and balsa frame infilled with polystyrene and a skin of Kevlar? bill may correct me on that. the white layer is shelving contact, for a clean finish. when we tried to peel off the old sponsors it lifted the skin off the foam so I have left it all on
the original wing was a frame covered in a new product called MONOFILM, and it was an improvement over the oldfashioned wingmast /sail combination, and could still be raced. (Pay attention to this bit NEB) when the film was taken off and the wing filled in for a solid surface the wing took on a new life . there was a perfomance loss at low(-100kph) speed but a massive imprvement in speed,acceleration and stabilityfrom 100kph upward. now you aint even moving under120kph. thats one hand sailing territory.


Sorry for my newbie-ishness curiosity... great questions. thanks

G'day, been out of town for a couple of days.
Just a quick note on Vindicator:
The fuselage is built of fibreglass mat / woven roving with a 3/8" end grain balsa core. The axle is mostly oregon strips with a piece of harder timber (ash I think) on the top 20mm.
The wing is as Paul has described, but the foam in it is recycled bits I scrounged from packaging of the equipment I was installing working for Telstra at the time.

The total budget I built it with (at home in my shed) was about $3000 (between 1990-91), or about 1/60 th of the budget of the record holder of the time.....

Budget didn't stretch to exotic things like Kevlar........

Might one be excused for assuming that the cobweb removal and dusting off of the LANDYACHT "Vindicator" is in preparation for an Australian PROMO tour one DAY soon.

Well , I stand corrected. The wind Gods have favoured us all and a combnation of winds have forced all that waterto the south end of the lake,leaving a huge chunk of salt to sail on.
there are various traps to hit. I managed a solid day of sailing on Sunday and hit 2 bogs and 3 big sudden puddles.
The best speed for the day was a lowly 109 kph.
The big event of the day was when I handed over VINDI to the owner of that shattered CL 5 from a few weks ago . I figured He needed to scare his fears away with a bit of speed.[}:)] Kind of make em or break em scenario.
Well he went for his first sail and after 1/2 hr got the hang of the wing controls, then proceeded to rip out a top speed of 113.2kph
Faze 5 thinks this may be due to his weighing 10kgs less than me, or he may be just getting braver and more cunning in his sailing, but it was a mighty effort from my favourite apprentice

Oooops too cold . Its hard to get photos when the yacht is an orange blob in a mirage 3-4kms away. Sorry

Coremeister said...

Here is a couple of pics of what happens when you don't get it quite right with a soild wing sail, even the best get it wrong from time to time.

Oh dear poor MI

When did this happen?