Messages

1

Gear Talk / Inflatable SUP

« on: March 24, 2024, 11:49:40 PM »

Well I finally bit the bullet and bought an inflatable. To paddle more than 300m offshore in France you need a board over 3m long or a double chambered inflatable. The second hand market is crazy here.
 So a Redwood 14 ft board came up. Expo model that had been used at a boat show. Sold by the company with normal guarantee still.
 It has the second chamber on the bow so adds volume. It also has a rounded bottom at the front. They say V, it's more rounded. The nose also stays out of the water. Just under 10kgs.
 It is for my wife mainly. We have done 1 paddle so far. It slips along nicely and she found it much easier to paddle than a heavy glass board. Easy to get on and off the car. Doesn't matter if you bump it around. So I would say a winner for her.
 I took it for a quick paddle and was pleasantly surprised. Cruising along is fine. Once you put some power into the strokes you can feel the flex. Has a very low top speed and even paddling harder it doesn't really go faster. Will do a long paddle soon.
 For the price and ease of use it's good.

2

Random / Re: Vision Pro

« on: March 02, 2024, 12:38:30 AM »

There was a report on the news in France about solar panels and the huge increase in them recently. As Pono said they are producing a lot more than demand at the moment. The problem is a lot of them are very poor quality and end up in the rubbish pretty quickly. What's going to happen to these fields of solar panels that are popping up everywhere in 10 years time?
 I am doing some work on our house soon and have found a French company that makes solar panels that heat water as well. The heat absorbed to heat the water makes the panels a lot more efficient.

3

Random / Re: GPT 5, Sam Altman, What's coming

« on: February 22, 2024, 10:09:28 PM »

He said one guy was super excited and raving about how amazing it was and what it could do. Until he realised he was describing his job. And it had just done his job in 2 minutes for a project that would have taken at least a week.
 As an experiment they set up a fully running small company in 2 hours. Name,logo online advertising,bank accounts etc. They had enquiries in the first day.
 The vision pro is going to be a big deal and version 2 will be much better. With 3D scanning being possible from an iPhone the possiblities are amazing.
 There is obviously a very scarry side to all of this

4

Random / Re: GPT 5, Sam Altman, What's coming

« on: February 20, 2024, 11:16:26 PM »

My brother has just started a business in Australia doing VR training and using AI for simulations etc. I don't really understand it to be honest. He has done some presentations to pretty big companies. They quite often just look at him with a blank look at the end of it. " Is that actually possible"? Half of the people in the room then realise they just became redundant and fight pretty hard against it.
 It's definitely here and developing at a rate no one expected. Because it's AI!

5

The Shape Shack / Re: Ultralight Board II – SUP Foil Bumblebee

« on: September 13, 2023, 11:14:20 PM »

I cleaned out my work shop ages ago and threw a lot away. This is armacell recycled foam with cork, glued with PU. I did a few different lay ups with flax, innegra and glass in the middle. None gave any real stiffness but the innegra and flax would never catastrophically fail. The fibers would hold together. Very impact resistant and easy to repair.

6

The Shape Shack / Re: Ultralight Board II – SUP Foil Bumblebee

« on: September 13, 2023, 10:55:13 PM »

I did a load of laminate test patches with PU glue and various fibres. Couldn't get any real strength. I eventually made a paddle blade but it had Paulownia veneer that gave it the strength.
 You can get other brands of PU glue, not just Gorilla glue and some are slower at going off.
 I did some flax and recycled PVC tests with PU. Very impact resistant but no real strength.
 If you vac bag the PU you can get most of the bubbles out and end up with a pretty smooth plastic like finish.

7

The Shape Shack / Re: Ultralight Board II – SUP Foil Bumblebee

« on: September 07, 2023, 02:38:39 PM »

https://www.easycomposites.co.uk/learning/choosing-composite-reinforcements-for-impact-strength

8

Prone Foiling, Surf foiling, Pump Foiling / Re: Swim Missiles

« on: July 06, 2023, 08:29:20 AM »

One of the new Gong foils should help you get up!
 Looks like you're going to need a bigger printer!

9

The Shape Shack / Re: Infinity Tails

« on: April 21, 2023, 12:21:34 PM »

Also the hybrid laminar flow is interesting and what can potentially be done. Looking at different finish on the top and bottom of the foil. Very easy with 3D printing. Then moving further into being able to control the foil shape.

10

The Shape Shack / Re: Infinity Tails

« on: April 21, 2023, 11:41:11 AM »

As they say they have been studying it for three decades. The whole NASA, Lockheed, Boeing limitless budget died years ago. The amount of money being spent in the AC boats far exceeds their R&D these days. Obviously Boeing is involved now and since F1 budgets got capped a lot of people left F1 and followed the money and went to AC teams.
 

11

The Shape Shack / Re: Infinity Tails

« on: April 20, 2023, 09:16:02 PM »

Awesome effort. Well done. Don't know if you have seen these but some interesting ideas from Horue.

https://youtu.be/IiCAeBHArL8

12

The Shape Shack / Re: Progress, revelations and musings

« on: April 02, 2023, 01:22:28 PM »

For some reason 3D printing foils comes up all the time now?? Anyhow there is a guy in Australia printing and testing different fins for windsurfers. He found the rougher printed fins had better grip?
 So if you print a foil change the texture on one side to the other. Create a bigger pressure difference?
 This has been tried but dosen't mean it cant work.

13

The Shape Shack / Re: Progress, revelations and musings

« on: April 01, 2023, 11:04:47 AM »

It will be amazing to see how it all works out.
 So much easier to send wires down a mast directly to the foil . Then be able to put RC units in the foil

14

SUP General / Re: New Starboard Sprint Airline Inflatables

« on: March 26, 2023, 11:22:43 AM »

Yes amazing. I managed to see some of the pics you posted a while back.

15

The Shape Shack / Re: Maximum Displacement Hull Speed

« on: March 22, 2023, 01:07:50 PM »

Unless you are foiling.