Konrad in Lincoln

I originally had a 52lb thrust electric for my Vacationer, and I felt that it was woefully underpowered. It didn't have the authority to maneuver the boat during docking situations, if there was lateral windage. I eventually bought a Murcury 2.5 hp outboard, and it's the cat's ass. WAY stronger than that 52 lb electric could have ever hoped to be. And it rotates 360 degrees for some deft boat control. Just my never-to-be-humble opinion.

Ok, well here's how it was... I'm out at my folks house over Thanksgiving to watch football. (Everyone in the Midwest knows that college football is king). We're in the house, watching Nebraska vs. Colorado on dad's big screen, and I got up to get another beer or someting. I look out the picture window out into the back yard (which opens up to about 40 acres of wood/farm land.) And here comes my parents dog. An Irish Setter. Absolutely the dumbest dog on planet earth. I mean, when this dog was a fetus, it didn't get a brain in it's skull. It got a tomato. Fritz is trotting out of the trees, about 200 yards from the house carrying something in his mouth. A large something, and he looks like he owns the store, if you know what I mean. And about 50 yards behind him comes our closest neighbor in the next section, old man Talley, bounding out of the trees and weeds. And Ben Talley has his gun and his hunting vest on, and he's after the dog. "Well this ought to be something", I says to my dad as we watch out the window. "What's that idiot up to now?", says my dad. (Anyone who knows our dog, knows that my dad was refering to Fritz as the idiot, not old man Talley). Fritz comes towards the house at a lazy trot, and eventually we see that he's carrying a DEER HEAD in his mouth. And mind you, this was a respectable buck, a 4x4. Not some crap-ass first year buck. Ben Talley is trailing behind, waiving that gun around and shouting at the dog to give up the head. Well, at this point, I can't take it anymore, and I just start to laugh and laugh, until I thought I was going to fall over. My dad looks up at the ceiling and thinks to himself "Why me?" and heads out the back door. I picked myself up off the floor and watched out the window. (the game was coming back on, and it was a good one). Next thing I see out the window is both my dad and Ben Talley running around in the yard, trying to get that deer head from that stupid dog. And Fritz, he's just as proud as can be that he can trot circles around both those grown men. Eventally, my dad gets Fritz to give up the head, and old man Talley sort of grudgingly swiped it out of my dad's hands and stalked off, back into the weeds, carrying that head under his left arm, his shotgun under his right. (we usually don't use rifles on deer around here). My dad came back in the house and cleaned himself off. "You see what that stupid dog had?" he asks me, kind of huffing and puffing. "The game is back on, don't stand in front of the TV dad..." And that, my friends, is our Thanksgiving story for 2003.

MORE BATTLES! LESS TALKING!! ARRrrr.....

Ah, you noticed my work table, Frank! I'm so proud! That extrusion was extra material left over from the four story office structure we built in '99-'00. I saw that laying around, and as site superintendent, own first-rights to scavenging. It makes for a dead-ass flat work surface. This is supposed to be a "Class E" iceboat. Honestly, I'm not really sure how they classify them, but I think it's a function of sail area. Here is the web site where I found them: http://www.svensons.com/boat/?p=Novelty/Whizz (Lots of free boat plans there, check them out) And the sort of wierd, parallel-universe type thing is the remarkably close name to the Stevensons. Anyway, the landsailing record is held by the Iron Duck, at 108 mph. http://www.nalsa.org/speed%20record.htm The iceboating record is the gaff rig you're thinking of, somewhere around 140 mph I think. My own humble goal is to break 50 mph. I've been to 42 mph (gps reading) on the Isabella, but that's pretty much the limit of that rig. Once you pass 40 mph, your brain leaves "FAST AS I CAN GO" mode, and enters "JUST GET BACK ALIVE" mode. :shock: You have to realize, that on the Isabella you're only about 12 inches off the ice, so you feel like you're going 200 mph. Sure is fun.

I seem to have trouble attaching photo files on this bulletin board, but here's an attempt to show the layout of the bulkheads for my iceboat. (Assuming it shows up), the solid bulkhead (number 4) is the front of the cockpit, where the soles of your feet go. Behind that is where the backrest will occur. [attachment over 4 years old deleted by admin]

By the way, check this out. A 17 foot long rocket made of carbon fiber. It went 30,000 ft. :shock: Jeebus-jones. http://www.aurorarocket.com/aurora/

Well, my plan is to use baling wire and wire a pair of rockets to my CR 500 at the number plates. Then it will be MUCH easier to get up the stairs in the winter.

I'm going to a rocket-flight this coming Saturday. I did model rockets one summer as a kid, and they were pretty fun then. Sounds like these guys get serious, with rockets upwards of 10 feet tall! I know there's a handfull of R/C airplane enthusiasts on the board (including the Stevensons I think, and yours truly) Anyone do rockets?

Tires.... Oh, my beloved Hayabusa... The fastest mass production machine available to man on planet earth. No other license plate carrying *anything* can do what this bike does. 156 horsepower, 9.8 sec 1/4 mile, 180+ mph. All on pump gas, stock tires, and less than $10,000.00. It is a pinnacle of engineering. There is no assembly line anywhere, producing anything, that makes a machine that is faster than this. It's a mathematical fact. http://www.suzuki-bikes.com/hayabusa1300.php OH WAIT! Wrong board, sorry dudes. :oops: (But I must say, with the little squid around, 'tis FAR BETTER that daddy does not own the Hayabusa any longer.) 8) Now, where were we?... Oh yes! The submarine. Can I have my shot of N2O now?

Thanks a LOT, Ray. You spoil-sport. You know, when we leave Nebraska and go to Denver, I never FEEL an hour younger when I cross the time zone. What a rip. :? What about tires? Yes, tires. Think of all of the hundreds of millions of rubber tires on planet earth. They have tread that wears out, and goes away. Some tread are 1/2" deep or more. Where does all the tread go?? It sure isn't on the street. Does it go to heaven? I would like to think there's a heaven for tires. Particularly the Dunlops that I consume on the back wheel of my dirt bike. You just cannot beat the Dunlop 756. I think that tire was designed by Jesus himself, no blasphemy intended.

Ok, I was thinking... When a submarine is at equilibrium, it's weightless. It's totally stationary underwater, with no change in elevation. So why, then, will a wrench that's dropped inside the sub go to the floor? :? Just messin' with you guys. 8)

Ok then, a few questions: 1. If this alleged super-long plywood does exist, anyone have some contacts? 2. I am only familiar with scarfing rubrails and toerails on my Vacationer. How do you make a 12:1 scarf with 1/2" plywood? That sounds a bit involved. 3. I also was planning on doing the sandbag weight thing. (or old concrete blocks, potted plants, the 4 month old child...) Thanks for the input.

Hey guys, I'm starting an iceboat project, and am mulling over the plywood side decking for the fuselage. The prints are circa 1950's, and they call for a 14'-0" long, 1/2" thick sheet of plywood. (Yeah right, like THAT exists. :shock: ) I can laminate 2 layers of 1/4" ply sheets to obtain the required thickness and length, (staggering joints in the plywood sheets 4 ft on center) and my structural engineer says the strength will be very good. So that's not my question. My question is what glue would you use to do this? Terry did this a hundred years ago when he built his Weekender, and used contact cement, but later stated that he'd have used a different method if he had it to do over again. Epoxy is pretty danged pricey, so I'm thinking about our ubiquitous urea formaldehyde glue. Any other suggestions are appreciated. Hey Bruce, you wanna build one of these?? Oh wait, you're in FLORIDA. HAHAHAHAhahaha.....

Personally, I'd just use emtpy milk jugs (if they'll fit). They're basically free, and I like free.

As most of you know, the lakes are pretty well dried up around here, so we've been dirt biking most of the year. Well, one of my riding buddies (Tom) broke a bone in his foot last weekend at Milford, KS. (He fell over and the engine case pinned his foot against a rock, not very dramatic). But anyway, that's not the story. He's in this cast, see, and also has crutches. I have crutches from a land sailing accident about five years ago, and so I got out an ace bandage, and wrapped up my knee and got out my crutches. We went into the Super Saver grocery store, and because we looked all busted up, they gave us each keys to their little electric shopping carst that all the fat women who can't walk anymore ride around on. Hah! We proceeded to drag race down the produce aisle (there weren't too many customers). It was a close race, but Tom won in the end, down by the apples. I think his batteries were charged up a bit more. Then we played "Shopping Cart Football" with a few cans of beans (Bush's baked beans, not those whimpy Van Kampen suck-ass beans). Just as we were setting up to "Joust" each other at opposite ends of the snack/chips aisle with our crutches, the store manager busted us, and said we could either leave, or he was calling the cops. So we bugged out. But it was a hell of a lot of fun for about 12 minutes! Dammit, I wasn't able to get *ANY* of the things my wife told me to get, either. I told her we got kicked out, and she'd have to go get the food herself.

Boom jaws would be neat, and probably no more or less work than the gooseneck. (I did the gooseneck). Jaws would be more traditional, I suppose. On the Vacationer, I did the boom as per the prints, but honestly it could probably be scaled down a little. I think it's a little on the heavy side, and you'd be surprised that it really doesn't take much load. At least not in my catamaran-filtered eyes, it's not a big load. You should see the cool 7:1 mainsheet blocks that go on a Nacra 7.0. Neato, but spendy.

This wheelie photo was taken way back last March at the Council Bluffs ORV Area, when it was cold out. Third gear wheelies at 40 mph... That's a good way to break off rear fenders. I should know, I've done it twice since then! :shock: Egads, I see I've attached it twice. My brain is tired... [attachment over 4 years old deleted by admin]

Hah! That danged photo keeps turning up now and then. (the Hobie one, not Harold) That photo was taken in '99 on the south beach of Branched Oak Lake, early on in the spring when you still needed a spary suit. "Mellowed out" ?!?!?! Please. I'm going to try this photo thing one more time, with a really small photo. This is me on the CR500 at the Crete riding area, taken several weeks ago. THIS is what I do when the lakes turn to dirt... [attachment over 4 years old deleted by admin]

Yeah, I'm still here. We go no water in any lakes, so there's no sailing to be done, but I'm still around. I've been riding the CR 500 most of the summer instead. It's a little bit faster than the Vacationer. Collin is sleeping through the whole night, about 80% of the time. (He did wake up last night at 3:30 though) :x But man, he is SO Awesome... He's old enough that he's very alert, and looks all over, and smiles at you in the morning when you go to the crib, but he's still too small to roll over, or crawl or anything. So he's perfect just as he is. It sure doesn't seem fair that we have to grow up and grow old. :cry: If someone would explain to my pea-brain how to insert an image on this board, I'd put one up, but I've never been able to get it to work.

http://buggyde.dynu.com/swf/funny/LittleRedMonkee.swf

Egads, it's a quartet of quarter horses. :shock: I like it! We have a horse just like the one on the left...

Between doing weekind bombing runs on the dirt bike, and my whiff having the squid 5 weeks ago, I must say I haven't had the Vacationer out yet this year - until today. Winds were terrible, my gps said I maxed out at 3.1 mph. Woah, hold me back, this is too much excitement. Anyway, after a few hours of that I loaded the boat up and pulled up the ramp. But (and this is a big Butt) I forgot to secure the friggin' rudder. And then I decided to put it in reverse, WITH THE RUDDER STILL DOWN. Doh. So I blew up the rudder and the rudder box. What a B-U-M-M-E-R! :x But wait, there's more: It's been 13 months since I've had the boat out, but the last time I had it out I DID THE SAME STUPID THING THAT TIME TOO. :evil: :x :evil: Hence, I'm dumb and dumber. But now for the "smarter". The way my boat sits on the trailer, if the rudder were just 2 inches shorter, it would clear the ground even when I forget to raise it. Fully deployed down, it still won't catch the pavement, so I can back up to my unwitting heart's content. SO... New rudder box and new rudder on the way, with 2 inches chopped off the bottom. (Shaddap, Bruce, you didn't even FINISH yours... )

My thoughts on this: "What Frank said." To go a little further: A year ago, for the fun of it, we loaded down my Vacationer with a lot of adults, just to see what would happen. Let me see... Mike, Arlen, Nancy, me, Tony (I think) and two other adults. That's seven adults. Plus all the coolers of ice and food and beer. Plus a gasoline outboard. We were well over 1,400 pounds that the boat was carrying, I guarantee it. The boat was fine. The 3 hp outboard was fine. It sailed nicely in light winds that evening. Personally, I love the Bahama Mama, and really think you should consider it. However, with that many kids on hand at the moment, you may find that many of them are out of high school before your launch day. Seriously.

Baby log, week 4... ~ After the "poop incident" in week two, I am happy to report that this has not recurred since. 8) There is a timed sequence and strategy to diaper changing. ~ He likes to be walked around a lot. If you stick him in the baby chair holder thingy he'll wail away. But if you hold him and walk around the house, he'll shut up within 20 seconds. I'm working on some sort of Stevenson-esque automated plywood robot to walk the 427 miles he requires each and every day. ~ We took professional photos of him over the weekend with us, they turned out great. Maybe I'll put one up here once we get them back. ~ He sleeps quite a ways through the night, considering he's only 24 days old. He'll sleep straight from 10 pm to 3 am. Then his day starts. (for my wife) ~ I cheat. I sleep in the spare bedroom, with earplugs in, and never wake up. I wholly endorse this. 8) ~ I LOVE the attention we get when I carry him around in public places, like church, the mall, etc. Nothing wrong with talking to all those other moms. ~ Lisa has forbidden me to play my "Korn" disks in the car when he's in the car seat. I tell her that someday he'll be listening to stuff that even EYE hate, so she should just get used to it now. Never the less, Korn has been replaced by Mike Stern. (check him out, great stuff) ~ Loving every minute of this. That's all for now. Going diving in the sand pits this coming weekend. Look out, bass, here I come...

He's got a million-dollar yawn. http://www.messing-about.com/photopost/data/500/62DCP_7539-med.JPG We call him the little burrito when we wrap him up. http://www.messing-about.com/photopost/data/500/62DCP_7550.JPG Not bad for 13 days old, woohoo!