Mountain goats hanging around on the closed for traffic Highwood pass

I had a fantastic ride yesterday! I started at 7:30 am from my house and headed west on transcanada hwy to Kananaskis. It was already starting to get a big windy, but the advantage of starting early in the morning and heading west is an escape from the inevitable headwinds that really pick up in intensity in the afternoons.

Once I turned into Highway 40, the mountains provided quite a bit of shelter from the wind. I was making great time and generally feeling good – my right achilles wasn’t at all sore, and my feet are getting numb less often now. I am finding that inserting chemical foot warmers into my shoes (even on warm days) really helps keep the blood flowing. I also found that once they start to feel a bit tingly, I can curl my toes down into the shoe to temporarily remove pressure off of the bottom of my foot until the blood flow returns. This usually only takes a minute or two and I can continue to pedal rather than coasting which is what I used to do.

The climb up the pass went well and I met up with a few big horn sheep, gangs of rowdy mountain goats, an Elk and too many white tail deer to count. No bears (that I saw). The Highwood pass is closed to traffic until June 15th to allow animal migration. It is open to bikes, and it’s the perfect time of year to cycle the pass because of the wildlife. I ran into a few other cyclists but otherwise it was pretty desolate.

At the top it got cold really fast and started snowing which turned to rain on the way down. The trip down was a blast on the M5 lowracer. I reached a top speed of 80 km / hr.

By the 200 km mark I started to get this really bad headache. It started at the top of the pass but progressively got worse and worse. This is strange because I never get headaches and I’ve certainly never gotten a headache while training. At first I thought it was because of the altitude, but the throbbing in my head didn’t go away. This made that last 100 km pretty rough – every bump on the road was killing me.

At the end of the ride aside from my pounding head, I generally felt ok. My achilles on my left foot was starting to get a bit sore, and my right knee was starting to hurt a bit. I know I will be ready for the 24 hour record attempt when I can do a 300 to 400 km ride without any of these niggling aches and pains at the end.

&&<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_2″>lt</span>;span class=”<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_3″>blsp</span>-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_3″><span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_4″>lt</span>&<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_5″>lt</span>;/span>;a &<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_6″>lt</span>;span class=”<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_7″>blsp</span>-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_4″><span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_8″>href</span>&<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_9″>lt</span>;/span>=”http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/canada/ab/calgary/235786240749″>&<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_10″>lt</span>;span class=”<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_11″>blsp</span>-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_5″><span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_12″>Highwood</span>&<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_13″>lt</span>;/span> Loop&&<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_14″>lt</span>;span class=”<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_15″>blsp</span>-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_6″><span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_16″>lt</span>&<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_17″>lt</span>;/span>;/a>&&<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_18″>lt</span>;span class=”<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_19″>blsp</span>-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_7″><span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_20″>lt</span>&<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_21″>lt</span>;/span>;&<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_22″>lt</span>;span class=”<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_23″>blsp</span>-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_8″><span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_24″>br</span>&<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_25″>lt</span>;/span>/>&&<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_26″>lt</span>;span class=”<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_27″>blsp</span>-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_9″><span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_28″>lt</span>&<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_29″>lt</span>;/span>;a &<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_30″>lt</span>;span class=”<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_31″>blsp</span>-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_10″><span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_32″>href</span>&<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_33″>lt</span>;/span>=”http://www.mapmyride.com/find-ride/canada/ab/calgary”>Find more Bike Rides in Calgary, Alberta&&<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_34″>lt</span>;span class=”<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_35″>blsp</span>-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_11″><span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_36″>lt</span>&<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_37″>lt</span>;/span>;/a>

At 7000 feet, the Highwood pass is the highest paved road in Canada. The total ascent is 9200 feet and 3000 foot climb from my house to the summit.

YEAH! Tomorrow I head out to tackle the 300 km Highwood pass loop. I’m pumped.

It’s an epic ride and should be even epic-er tomorrow because the pass is still closed to vehicles. That means wildlife galore – bears, big horn sheep, elk, moose, etc. In 2005 when Greg B and I rode the pass we ran (almost LITERALLY) into two grizzlies laying in the middle of the road. They didn’t pay us much attention and we didn’t feel like a challenge so we turned around and headed back.

The M5 is packed and ready to go

At 7000 feet, the Highwood pass is the highest paved road in Canada. (click on “show elevation” on the route map below). The total ascent is 9200 feet and 3000 foot climb from my house to the summit.

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;&amp;amp;amp;amp;<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_2″>lt</span>;span class=”<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_3″>blsp</span>-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_3″&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_4″>lt</span>&amp;amp;amp;amp;<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_5″>lt</span>;/span&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;;a &amp;amp;amp;amp;<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_6″>lt</span>;span class=”<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_7″>blsp</span>-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_4″&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_8″>href</span>&amp;amp;amp;amp;<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_9″>lt</span>;/span&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;=”http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/canada/ab/calgary/235786240749″&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_10″>lt</span>;span class=”<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_11″>blsp</span>-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_5″&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_12″>Highwood</span>&amp;amp;amp;amp;<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_13″>lt</span>;/span&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; Loop&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;&amp;amp;amp;amp;<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_14″>lt</span>;span class=”<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_15″>blsp</span>-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_6″&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_16″>lt</span>&amp;amp;amp;amp;<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_17″>lt</span>;/span&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;&amp;amp;amp;amp;<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_18″>lt</span>;span class=”<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_19″>blsp</span>-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_7″&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_20″>lt</span>&amp;amp;amp;amp;<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_21″>lt</span>;/span&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;;&amp;amp;amp;amp;<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_22″>lt</span>;span class=”<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_23″>blsp</span>-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_8″&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_24″>br</span>&amp;amp;amp;amp;<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_25″>lt</span>;/span&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;/&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;&amp;amp;amp;amp;<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_26″>lt</span>;span class=”<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_27″>blsp</span>-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_9″&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_28″>lt</span>&amp;amp;amp;amp;<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_29″>lt</span>;/span&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;;a &amp;amp;amp;amp;<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_30″>lt</span>;span class=”<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_31″>blsp</span>-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_10″&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_32″>href</span>&amp;amp;amp;amp;<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_33″>lt</span>;/span&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;=”http://www.mapmyride.com/find-ride/canada/ab/calgary”&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Find more Bike Rides in Calgary, Alberta&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;&amp;amp;amp;amp;<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_34″>lt</span>;span class=”<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_35″>blsp</span>-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_11″&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_36″>lt</span>&amp;amp;amp;amp;<span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_37″>lt</span>;/span&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

I checked my training log, and this will be the 6th time I’ve done the 300 km loop. I did it 4 times in 2005 leading up to my first attempt at the 24 hour HPV record, and once in 2006 leading up to my successful attempt at the same record. In 2005, the most epic Highwood loop ride was 370 km where I started at 4:00 am inside with a three-hour inside mag trainer ride, then packed up and headed west in the dark and cold before the sun rose. It was a very memorable day.

On the rear rack of the M5 is a pack containing food (Cliff bars, gels), cell phone, money, a camera and some additional clothes like a rain jacket and arm warmers. On top is my 3 liter water bag.

My training leading up to the 24 hour human powered boat record of last June wasn’t nearly enough and I’m not making that mistake this time around. In fact, I can’t make that mistake because Carter’s 245 km record won’t be reachable unless I am able to fully expend my available wattage.

Note the can of bear spray strapped to the front boom

Here is a comparison of the weekly long-rides from before the 2006 HPV record where I felt I was well-trained and capable of accomplishing a record, and training up to now this year.

12 weeks leading up to 2006 HPV record attempt

1. 4 hrs
2. 6 hrs
3. 8 hrs
4. 5 hrs (fast)
5. 9.5 hrs
6. 6 hrs (fast)
7. 12.5 hrs
8. 6 hrs (fast)
9. 14.5 hrs
10. 4.5 hrs (fast)
11. 1 hr
12. 24 hrs (record)

18 weeks leading up to tomorrows 12 hour ride:

1. 4 hrs
2. 4 hrs
3. 4.25 hrs
4. 5 hrs
5. 4.75 hrs
6. 6 hrs
7. 7.5 hrs
8. 1.5 hrs
9. 8 hrs
10. 8 hrs (Achilles pain)
11. 6 hrs (Achilles pain)
12. 2 hrs
13. 9.5 hrs (Achilles pain)
14. 3 (Achilles pain)
15. 3
16. 2.75
17. 8.5 (Achilles resolved)
18. 12 (tomorrows Highwood ride)

If my ride goes well tomorrow, (hopefully this Achilles issue is resolved, and no other issues suddenly appear) then I should be ready to challenge the HPB record soon. I would like to get at least 2 or 3 very fast 100 mile rides in, plus at least 3 more ultra rides – another 12 hr, a 14 hr and maybe a 16 hr. At least two of the ultra rides need to be on a lake in V11G.

I’m just not sure that hull deflection is the reason my V11 is 12% slower than Rick’s version. Marc calculated that I should be able to approximate the water pressure on the skin by placing a 2.5 ‘ long by 4″ wide board with a 13 lb weight on the hull between the bulkheads and observe the deflection.

When I took a closer look at how much the skin deflected, I realized that it doesn’t move at all on the curved part of the hull which is almost the entire hull aside from a small section of flat side walls under the water line. My water line is about 4″ below the deck, and the amount of flat wall on the hull below 4″ is only an inch or so. Even if that area was deflecting, it would represent a very small and possibly insignificant portion of the entire hull in the water.

To test, I was going to seal up the edges of the deck with fiberglass tape and epoxy, then pressurize the hull with air to stop the sides from deflecting. Easier said than done.

I had to seal the edges anyhow because they leak water when waves splash on deck, so I figured that it was a job worth doing regardless. After I had sealed up the edges, I hooked up my compressor and there are a million tiny air leaks through the flange where the deck is taped to the hull – the glas stape and epoxy didn’t seal it air-tight. They aren’t leaky enough to be concerned with much water getting in (that is good), but they do prevent me from being able to keep enough air pressure in the hull to do a water test for hull deflection. To go around and fix all the leaks would be a major pain and I just don’t want to do it.

Many of you suggested placing air bags into the hull. Now that the top deck is sealed on, I don’t want to cut it back out to place air bags in!

The other solution to deflection that has been suggested is to run some carbon reinforcement ribs longitudinally between the perpendicular bulkheads. Again, I would have to cut open the top deck to get in there, and I don’t really want to bother with the effort and additional weight if it isn’t really required.

Another idea suggested was to fill the compartments between bulkheads up with expanding foam. The reason I didn’t leave the Styrofoam plug in the hull was to save weight. Foam would add substantial weight to the hull and I do not think this option is worth the additional displacement that the increased weight would cause. The hollow shell with the deck on weighs less than 20 lbs and if possible, I would like to keep it that way. Adding ribs wouldn’t increase the overall weight that much, but I don’t want to cut the deck open to add the ribs if they end up doing nothing to increase me speed.

I do need to surface finish the hull – especially the first 6 feet or so. The surface is a bit rough and a thin application of micro with sanding would smoothen it out quite a bit. With the deflection of the side walls, I worry about being able to sand it flat.

One option that I am considering is to tip the boat on it’s side, drill a small hole in the opposite side, then pour in a small amount of expanding foam. This foam would settle against the side wall and could provide enough additional structure to stop any deflection without adding too much weight. At least it would give me a more solid hull to micro and sand smooth. I could limit this foam wall to the first compartment which is about 6 feet from the tip of the bow to the first bulkhead.

My new super-strong stainless steel u-joints arrived yesterday. Manny did some research and found me a new u-joint that didn’t have the draggy flange on it, and was rated to take the torque. I contacted Curtis Universal and it turns out that the President is a kayaker and really digs what I am doing, so he donated two of them to the project! That’s pretty cool considering they are worth $130 bucks each! Thanks Curtis!

You can see the difference between the two joints in the photo above. I doubt that the more hydrodynamic Curtis U-joint is worth the missing 12%, but it will certainly help.

The next step is to try to somehow stiffen the side walls near the bow, then apply some micro and do some sanding to get the surface finish of the bow area smooth. Rick Willoughby is in Canada on a vacation with his wife, and is swinging by Calgary on Tuesday of next week. He brought his stainless steel prop with him, and we can substitute my prop for his and run a test to see if the culprit is my prop. I took a closer look at the prop today and it is very easy to bend by hand. Perhaps a thin aluminum prop isn’t stiff enough to press back on the water as it spins at 400 rpm.

I have a sneaking hunch now that my problems could be due to the prop. Either it is too thick (Manny had to thicken it a bit to cnc machine), or it is too flexy.

I think we have a break in the case of the missing speed.

click to enlarge

I was thinking more about Cyrille’s comments (and others) about the hull skin deforming under the pressure of the water. The hull is made from 2 layers of 5.8 oz carbon and 1 layer of 6 oz carbon/Kevlar weave plus a final layer of 4 oz fiberglass. It’s pretty thin – you can cut it with scissors. To add stiffness, I added 6 bulkheads running down the length of the hull:

You can easily indent the hull between bulkheads with a bit of pressure from your fingers. I didn’t think that the water pressure could depress the skin because the pressure is distributed evenly around the hull. Imagine pressing one finger into an inflated balloon and then imagine evenly distributed pressure happening from all around the balloon.

I decided to see if I could find any evidence of deformation from the photos, and low and behold – I think I found something. It is very, very slight, but everywhere I thought I could see the water line moving away from a smooth, gradual curve was exactly between where the bulkheads are. I believe that the water is indeed depressing the skin between the bulkheads.

I have an idea how to easily confirm this. I can pressurize the hull with enough air to keep the sides from depressing in (any idea how much air pressure would be required?). First, I need to add some fiberglass tape and epoxy around the edge of the deck flange to seal off the leaks. When it is choppy, water washes over the bow and water leaks into the hull from gaps at the edges of the deck. Once this edging is on, and a few very small pin holes are filled with epoxy, the hull should be air-tight.

I would think that I could pressurize the inside of the hull with a bicycle pump, then quickly hop on for a speed test.

Wait a sec…. If the air pressure isn’t enough to stop the deformation, or if I can’t get it air-tight enough to hold pressure permanently, how will I get back under the deck to add additional reinforcement to the skin if I have already taped up the edges? I guess if I determine that air pressure would be enough to stop the skin from indenting, then I am sort of committed to that solution once I add my edge tape. Any other ideas?

I finished all my mods yesterday. What a BUSY, busy day! I can’t believe I accomplished what I was able to do in just one day. My goal was to add some additional structure to the prop strut to stop it from vibrating, add a bushing half way down the shaft to stop it from vibrating, to lower my seat down to the deck, and to make a new mount for the outriggers (my old mount used the seat frame, and this is now cut off to lower the seat). I wanted to get the work finished and get out to the lake to test it all because I am out of town for the weekend and wanted to take advantage of the good weather.

I finished all my work by 4:00 pm. We were enjoying Calgary’s first stellar spring day with high temperatures nearing 29 degrees C and no clouds in sight. But as luck would have it, by the time I got to the lake the wind started howling and the lake was covered with whitecaps. Everything I made seemed to work fine, but measuring speed and power was useless because of the waves. I was getting soaked and blown all over the place.

I hope to test these mods again next week, but even in the waves and wind, she didn’t seem appreciably faster.

This prop strut brace is a 2″ wide strip of aluminum that is fared to a taper on both sides. It wraps around the hull and is screwed to the main strut about half-way down. I also lowered the prop an additional 2″ This was enough additional support to keep the prop from vibrating while spinning in the air. I know that I am adding some drag, but for now, I am looking for a large step in speed. When I find it, then I’ll know what the culprit was and I can back-track and re-work things to refine it.

I added this nylon spherical rod end that I had. The 3/8″ shaft fit perfectly through the ball. This did a great job in stopping the shaft from vibrating. It is located just high enough that it should be above the water line, so it shouldn’t contribute to drag. However, in the wind, waves and chop from my test yesterday, it was definitely getting wet.

Note how aggressive the new seat position looks! Very low and mean. The reason for lowering the seat was to lower my center of gravity to make balancing on the center hull easier. During my brief test, the position felt really good – about the same position that I use on my M5 recumbent training bike, but I have no idea of it’s effect on staying balanced as I was getting tossed around quite a bit.

It was the perfect day – high of around 18 degrees C and dead flat calm during the morning. I finished all of my little fixes to the boat yesterday, and headed out to Glenmore Reservoir early this morning to test the boat again.

I climbed into my seat, kicked her off the dock and started to pedal when the the new U-joint that I had just welded onto the shaft snapped in two! Luckily I always ride with a paddle and was able to make it back to the dock. I drove home, picked up my old shaft with the big fat draggy U-joint on it and drove back to the lake. I installed the old shaft and headed back out.

Disappointing speeds again. Faster than Mondays test, but still not as fast as she needs to be to challenge the current 24 hour human powered distance record of 245 km.

I need to make something clear because I am getting a lot of advice (thanks – it’s always appreciated) about what to do and what not to do, etc. There is almost zilch ‘research’ on this project. I am building a COPY of Rick Willoughby’s V11 human powered boat. He has spent years doing the concepting, building, testing, and experimenting. I don’t need to do any of that. All I need to do is copy exactly what he has already built and I *should* be able to match his performance numbers.

Here is a YouTube video of Rick pedalling his V11 to 16 km / hr !!!!

Rick’s V11
100 watts = 10.4 km / hr

My V11G (on Monday)
100 watts = 8.8 km / hr

My V11G (Today)
100 watts = 9.2 km / hr

My cruising power for a 24 hour event is 150 watts which should equate to 12 km / hr and my current speed at 150 watts is 10 km / hr – 20% slower. If I were to maintain an overall average of 100 watts for 24 hours straight, I could cover about 250 km in Ricks V11, but that would equate to only 220 km in the current state of my V11G which would be 25 km short of Carter Johnson’s record.

We need to figure out why my V11 is slower than Ricks. My V11 isn’t *exactly* the same, so lets take a closer look at the differences and see if there are any clues to my missing speed:

1. My V11G is lighter than Ricks because the hull was made from Carbon. The weight of the hull with the seat and everything is 39 lbs (the 24 foot long hull alone is lighter than moat racing bikes at 19.5 pounds!). The outriggers are an additional 7 pounds for a total weight of 46 pounds. This means less displacement which should result in FASTER speeds, not slower!

2. My seat position is higher than Ricks. At 11 km / hr, the boat should balance on the center hull with the outrigger just lightly skipping on top of the water. Since I have yet to reach 11 km / hr, I can’t seem to get my hull to balance on the center hull. To compensate for my higher center of gravity with the higher seat, I extended the outrigger arms to 8 feet (from 6 feet). This made it a bit easier to balance, but I found that I was still sort of rocking from one outrigger to the next. When it was super calm and flat out, I was able to get a few rides that I felt were very light on the outriggers, but it didn’t make an appreciable difference to me speed. The reason my seat position is higher is that I have had foot numbness issues with a lower seat. When my heart is above my feet, I don’t seem to get the numbness.

3. Rick is using spring steel for his shaft and no U-joint. We designed my version of the boat to use a U-joint and stainless steel shaft because in theory it should be slightly more efficient than the spring steel. That said, I could see and feel some pretty wicked vibration in my shaft under the water. This doesn’t seem right and it seems that there would be efficiency losses through this vibration. The shaft vibrating is also shaking the prop around, and I can feel this vibration in the boat at higher speeds. It might be worth a test to place a support on the shaft at mid point to stop the vibration, and perhaps an angled fin to better support the prop.

When I spin the cranks and turn the prop when the boat is out of the water, the shaft and prop vibrate and shake wildly. Rick says this shouldn’t happen under the water because a pusher prop is self stabilizing. When spinning the air, there is not enough resistance for the prop and it doesn’t self stabilize. During my observation of the prop spinning in the water, this does not seem to be happening, as the prop and shaft are still vibrating – not nearly as much as in air, but still, something is definitely different with set up. Perhaps it is with the stainless shaft and U-joint.

Rick has a prop that doesn’t have a strut! The prop is so stable that it pushes the boat against the spring steel shaft alone!

I ave also noticed that the prop when pushing water, seems to twist a bit to push to the starboard side. It is hard to observe this because the lake water is very cloudy, and it could be an optical illusion, but it appears that as soon as I start pedalling and spinning the prop, that it starts to twist the strut and rather than thrusting directly back, it pushing slightly to the right. When I am moving in a straight line forward, it feels like the boat is tracking slightly to the right. If I let the rudder go, the boat does a slow turn to the right. If the prop was pushing slightly to the right, then it would be pushing the back of the boat to the left which would cause the bow to make a slow right hand turn.

Perhaps providing a support for the shaft will resolve this, or maybe i need to add another triangulated strut to the prop bearing tube.

4. We had Manny at Rhomec Industries here in Calgary CNC machine a custom aluminum prop for me. In theory, this prop should be more efficient than a hand made stainless version because it is almost perfect (it is a true work of art!). Maybe the aluminum is too soft and it is warping under the water. My prop was designed for my cadence of 90 rpm at 150 watts compared to Ricks prop at 80 rpm for 150 watts. This means that my prop is spinning faster. Maybe there is something unexpected happening with that higher rpm? Like some unforeseen cavitation issue or something – I don’ know. It would be worth it to exchange the prop for my old stainless hand-made prop from WiTHiN. I believe the rpms were the same – need to check that.

5. Water temperature Warren found this for me regarding the difference in drag of 30 degrees C water temperature: 0.8 KPH with a 30 degree temp spread (20.3868 KPH at 0 degree C to 21.1104 KPH at 30 degrees C). Rick’s V11 was tested in the warm Australian waters near Melborne where he lives, and the ice on Glenmore reservoir just melted. That could account for maybe 1/2 kph which is fairly substantial.

To top it all off, my Achilles tendon started to get sore after only 2 hours on the water yesterday! Ugh! It used to take 5 hours at easy effort to cause pain, and now it’s down to 2 hours. I have been really taking it easy on the Achilles over the past 10 days. I’ve been using my ultrasound and applying anti-inflam cream every day. It would seem that the reduction in activity is counter productive to recovery.

The other problem I had at the lake yesterday was repeated chain derailments! I hate those! Luckily, it’s an easy fix, but I need to add a chain guide.

I also ran aground yesterday! That is a freaky feeling. The water level in the reservoir is still low and there is a large area to the west where the river feeds into the reservoir and it can get very shallow there. I hadn’t realized how far to the west I was when my prop suddenly struck the dirt! Yikes! Luckily, I had my paddle on board and I was able to paddle east and back into deep water. I need to check my prop for damage.

Well, I’ve got some work to do. I’m planning on getting as much of these changes done today as possible and getting back out to the lake this afternoon. It’s supposed to be in the mid 20’s today, and I have to take advantage of this weather.

Stay tuned…

Manny from Rhomec made me these neat little brass busings for the rudder.
Plus, I filled and smoothened in the welds

This is the narrower, less draggy u-joint. Good in theory but it failed
immediately at the ball bearings joint

You can see a small pulley on my frame used to tension the steering cable.
It worked very well.

New 24 hour record boat lake test

Well, the good news is that it floats and generally works well. Very smooth pedaling action, very stable and quite comfortable. The less than good news is that it performed much slower than expectations which means I have more work to do.

Stefan messaged me yesterday that the ice is now melted at the reservoir and the docks are now in, so I finished up the last details of the boat and my buddy Greg B and I headed out to the Glenmore Reservoir with the boat on the roof of the Suburban.

Compared to WiTHiN, this new boat is very easy to haul around. The hull weighs only 19.5 lbs. With all the hardware, seat and frames, etc I think it weighs in at around 40 lbs.

The outrigger floats bolt onto a 1″ square aluminum arm that is U-bolted to the seat frame.

The water is VERY cold. A few days ago it was frozen, so I wasn’t going to take any chances with safety. I strapped a paddle on the deck in case my drive failed, and had two-way radio communication with Greg. The emergency phone for the patrol boat is right there at the dock, and the patrol boat was out on the water, so if something did happen and I lost my drive and the paddle wasn’t working, or went for an unplanned swim, the patrol boat wouldn’t have been far away.

At first, I found it quite difficult to balance without falling over onto one or the other outrigger. According to the design, when I reach a cruising speed of around 10 to 11 kph, I can balance on the main hull with the two outriggers lightly skimming on the water. The outrigger level is adjustable with the U-bolts and I found that if they were two high, then I would flop from one side over to the other, so I had to lower them quite far which was creating additional drag.

Low speed expectations were for a cadence of 75, wattage output of 89 watts, and resulting speed of 10 km/hr. Actual wattage at 75 rpm was 100 watts and 8.8 km/hr (and that was WITH the wind). This is FAR slower than it should be and points to excessive drag as being the problem.

Items that need to be ‘tightened-up’:

1. The outrigger positions need to be adjusted. I notice in the photos that the attitude of the floats is nose-up and they really need to be level. I also need to ensure that they are both pointed directly forward and this isn’t something that I measured previously, so they could be off.

2. Rick thinks that because my seat position is higher, I might require a wider stance for the floats to make it easier to balance on the main hull. I am going to add 2 feet of length to the outrigger arms to extend that moment arm.

3. My rudder is WAY too loose in it’s tube. The carbon tube is 7/16″ ID and the aluminum steering rod is 3/8″ diameter. Manny is making me a plastic bushing to make the fit tighter. The rudder was vibrating in the tube quite a bit and also because the fit was so loose, the rudder was flapping back and fourth a lot. I found it very difficult to hold the rudder steady with my two steering lines. This flapping back and fourth was probably creating quite a bit of drag.

4. I have not faired the rudder with micro yet. The rudder is a 1/4″ aluminum plate welded to a 3/8″ diameter aluminum tube. I grinded down the plate to form the trailing edge of a NACA0020 airfoil (photos below), but have not yet filled the weld gaps with fairing compound.

5. The U-joint that I am using on the drive shaft is the back-up U joint and I think it is creating quite a bit of drag due to the fat flange on it. I have another u-joint that is being repaired by Manny right now that I will exchange for this one. This will make a small difference.

6. To test other components to make sure they are working properly, I have a spare prop from WiTHiN that I could mount on this boat to make sure that the prop is working as designed. I think it is because the resistance I’m getting at rpm is close to design specs and point to additional drag. I also have a second SRM that I will swap out to double check that I am getting the right measurements for power.

Here are some photos of some of the details:

This is my prop strut. I had faired it with an aerofoil leading and trailing edge, but this is not right, and something that I need to fix. The lowest drag fin is a sharp taper on both sides. When I first measured the prop depth and bent the aluminum plate, I positioned it too low. To raise it up I added a couple of spacers. This will allow me to experiment with different positions. Note the FAT U-joint

I welded a 1/4″ aluminum plate to my 3/8″ aluminum rudder rod, then ground it down to approximate a NACA0020 aerofoil.

I still need to fair in the join with some micro

The rudder is controlled with two lines running to a couple of eye bolts that I welded to the a collar.