Camp Howdy

In keepin with recent threads:

"Jesus, that's one fast flyin boat!!! A Yankee must be at the tiller!"

That's pretty kewl vid, Dave.

Varnishin n riggin . . . you'll be sailin soon, methinks.

Post another pic of yer new home, will ya? :grin:
 

First I gotta get me one of them new fangled, fancy pants, digitalis camera's. Figure that Open 70's doin' 26, maybe 28 knots! 10 years ago that woulda been impossible for a monohull. In the last leg, one of the boats set the new 24 hour record at 563 miles. 22.3 knot average. Pretty amazing. The problem with these things is they get down in the Southern Ocean, where they're headed now, and hit 50 knot winds, and 30 foot seas, and they're so light(made from carbon fibre) that they start fallin' apart. They all have canting keels, (they can swing them out to 60 degrees) and the mechanism that holds the 20,000 lb. bulb starts to collapse when they come bouncin' down a 30 foot wave at 25 knots. The last quote I read was..
"These things are incredible! You can't eat, you can't sleep, you can't go to the loo! It's the most fun I've had in my entire life"
 

Not an Open 70, but check out the pics of the hydraulic rams that cant the keel. The same technology.

http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/05/wildoats1211/
 

Chanting eels.
Heavy tulips (20,000 bulbs)
No eating
Not sleeping
Can't pee

The pix of the underbelly are kewl.
One good PitaRita fart n it's all over.
Tight.

As usual, I have no clue as to the meat of yer meal, but, man, I DO admire and respect anyone, into anything, as you are.

Like many others from Howdy, you got it goin, hoss. :smile:

Honest, what's a canting keel? I'm outside the boat, I'm lookin at a piece of thingie that goes in the water, that's called a rudder on other crafts . . . keel, canting.

Instupifying mind wanna know.

-Klewless In Valley
 

It's really pretty amazing. The keel, which is the big chunk of lead that keeps the boat upright and works against the force of the sails,( it's the fin, or the long thing in the water on a sailboat) in any normal boat, is stationary. On these things, it can be shifted from side to side via hydraulics, up to 60 degrees. Which means it cants out to one side or the other. A substitute for 'rail meat'..... The people who usually sit on the windward side of the boat to add more ballast to the high side. Imagine a pendulum that swings from side to side, 15 feet down in the water. It keeps the boat level. It also adds stability. The problem is......yer swingin' yer ballast(20,000 lbs.) to one side or the other. The hull of the boat don't like that! But it's FAST! So, instead of safe and steady, these things are fast and outa control. If the keel is swung out, and you bounce down a wave, it wants to keep going. Not good. It's all about pushin' the envelope. They compare them to Formula One race cars. Only F-1 cars don't sink a thousand miles from land in freezing water and 30 foot waves. Thes guys have, shall we say, big cajones!
 

Wow, great descrip! Thanks. Wow. Çanted keels. Yeah, I can see the stress on a hull with that. It really is breathtaking to watch on that video, and to see them innards.