J14, J20 and JX boats
I have received alot of emails requesting info on the building technique used on my new boat. The fuselage minus hardware goes about 60 lbs even though it is longer, stronger and faster than the J14. I have had some people interested in using this construction in their J14 and JX boats. This boat has been clocked at 87 mph with winds 12 gusting to 41 mph on snowy ice...and it is such a great boat it handled and sailed extremely well in these conditions.
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Update...
I was going through updating the J14 website and going through the email questions I have gotten. A group of us were sitting here and reminded me that the weights I have been quoting on my site and this one also include the weight of the finish (layers of epoxy and clear coat or yellow, depending on the boat) I have also started modifying the boat since it turned out to be such a great boat. I just thru it together to get it on the ice last year not knowing what to expect, but now I have found it is worth some more effort. I am not sure that mast and sail setup I have on it would make a R/C iceboat move in light winds, it's also over 10 yrs old and rotten, so that will be an important change. I used it last year because I had it laying around. ( The reason it was laying around was it was so bad I wouldn't put it on anything...but I never learn) I'm sure you've all seen the pics of how far back it lays and when I sent Art Teutsch the first sailing pics of it his first response was "Change that mast and sail...what's wrong with you? "
So we have done some updating on the site and will start tuning the now " JX 22" and then start on the skeeter size Jboat.
Jack
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/J14/
Jack
Triangle hull boat
Thru the summer I will be building another triangle hull boat, this one will be skeeter size. I am going to try to post pictures as I build it on our website (I didn't want to take up too much space here). Anyone needing and iceboat fix, feel free to drop in..
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/J14/
If you don't have a yahoo ID you can get one quick and then you can also access the other yahoo iceboating and landsailing sights out there.
We are supposed to be in Florida from when the ice melts until May, but we may bypass that to start building.
I guess we are done with the "ice reports" and are back to the "how to".
The season is always too short.
Jack
Snowboard Skates
Using some high performance snowboards we have made snowboard skates for sailing in the snow that actually worked great !!
Pictures here
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/J14/
Jack
Jack
Snowboard Skates
Hello Jack,
Have looked at all photos you have posted and this idea would have saved the season here in Colorado. What length board are you using, what was your technique for cutting the slots in the boards and how did you attach the boards to the skates? Thanks Konr
Snowboard Skates
The back of the board said 145 cm. I don't know anything about boards, but I assume this is the length.
There was an incredible difference in the quality of board from the cheap ones to the more expensive ones. My wife who has never been on a snowboard try to stand on several different boards on flat snow covered ground. She had no problem standing on any of them except the set I bought. The set I bought was hard to keep still on even flat snow. They were regularly 260.00, but because it is getting late in the season here they were on sale for $170.00 at Dunhams. The clerk also let us use his AAA discount and we saved another 20.00 on each board (bought 3 boards obviously). I have never seen any work this well. It's not hard on the boat but it is strange. You only sink into the snow about 3/8" if the snow is kind of soft. If the snow if firm you pretty much ride on top of it. It has given us a couple extra days of sailing.
The best way they saved the season was as soon as I tried them and found out how good they worked it caused all of our snow to melt!
To put the slot in the center of the board I first used a 7/16" step drill to drill a hole at the end of where each skate would be (so the boards wouldn't crack at the end of the slot) Then I used a 4" Dewalt circular saw for the slot.
If you were going to try a cheaper board I am not sure I would suggest hiking, these boards have a wood center and the tops look like they could be carbon and the bottoms are some kind of super slippery synthetic. Probably some relative to teflon. The also have hardened steel edges. So they are extremely strong.
I will post some more pictures on the J14 website so you can see how the skate attached. I used the bolt holes that were already on the board. They already had insert nuts.
Later tonight the pictures of how they are attached will be here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/J14/
I hope it works for you, it was different than iceboating, but it was alot of fun. You may also want to consider several different height holes in the skate so that you can vary the depth the skate drops thru depending on conditions.
Jack
Jack
Snow Skates
Thanks for the info. Jack. From what it sounds like you bought a kids performance board and the length is 145 cm. As far as the construction goes, the base is a sintered P-tex same as skis so if you wanted to get real particular about your snow conditions you could hot wax for snow temps. accordingly as you would riding a ski hill. Did you happen to notice the manfacturers name on the board? As I live here in Vail and the end of the season is soon upon us I could look for more of the same if you guys need more back there. Being in a resort town the shops blow everything out at extreme discounts to get rid of it before the next season. Just took a look at your picture posted at the J14 group site. It appears that you are drilling holes in the skate attaching with aluminium "L" brackets and using the existing binding location inserts to attach to the board. I sail a Nite which I believe heavier than the J14 or 20. Any thoughts as to modifications I might have to make from what you have built? Let me know if you would like me to search for more boards too. Thanks Konr
Wax
We bought some Iron on waxes for different temps and we also bought some of this stuff...
http://store.hertelskiwax.com/susa228gr1po.html
I've never tried it , but it sounded good.
We'll be back out boating tomorrow and I'll see if there is a brand name on the boards.
I'll update this after I check.
Jack
Jack
boards
The boards are "Division 23"
The 145 cm board is made for riders between 90 and 150 lbs with a shoe size of 4-9. They classify it as an adult board, but obviously a smaller adult board.
It has a poplar wood core, rockwell hardened steel edges, tri-directional fiberglass matrix, stainless steel inserts, uv high gloss finish, UHMV base material technology, epoxy resin adhesion system and microporous rubber dampening technology.
Like I said I know nothing about snowboards. I copied this from the paper that came with them.
division23.com
Jack
Jack
WAX
Thanks,I appreciate it. Konr
Photos
Pretty cool!
Here are links to the photos I could find here:
Cheers,
Geoff S.
Boat plans
Where could I find some plans for the J14, J20, or the JX boat? I sail a gambit 2 seater now and am interested in building one of these other styles.
Plans for J14 and JX
I can email them or fax them to you. (There are no available plans for the J20)
Jack
boat plans
That would be great. my e-mail address is schultz_david_99@yahoo.com
Plans
David,
You and anyone else interested should try going here
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/J14/
It is not a group for posting messages or anything yet, but I have posted a message regarding the plans, then if you click the "photos"
link and go to the J14 folder that contains the plans,(I will slowly be adding finished J14, JX and J20 pictures in another folder.)
In the folder with the plans you will find all 18 pages. The file size may be large for those on dial-up, but you can download and print one page at a time, so you can print them as you have time.
Jack
Jack
Plans
I have now added the plans to the "Files" area. Also messages and photos can also now be posted.
Jack
Jack
Plans
Jack
I can't get the plans to print off of there. Could you e-mail them to me?
David
Thanks Geoff,
I've been spending the last couple hours trying to send some plans by email and my email keeps telling me there's a virus in my plans...So I didn't get very many pictures posted while I am trying to get rid of this non-existent virus.
airplanes
Lets here the story of those airplanes hanging from the rafters.
JD US4691
JD US4691
That's one of my warmer weather hobbies..
I like to build and fly them, the ones hanging are the planes we don't fly very often so we hung them up for the winter so we could build iceboats. We are thinking about bringing them up here to the lake so when we don't have enough wind for sailing we can fly.
Jack
New hull construction
Jack,
Great looking hull.......what are you using for side panels?
Ed
Side panels
The side panels are not structural.
They are 3mm Okume.
Jack
Jack
Clear?
Jack,
Have you considered using aircraft fabric, or clear mylar for the sides?
Cheers,
Geoff S.
Sides
Yes, I had considered both,my wife also suggested very thin clear lexan or slightly tinted lexan so that you could see the structure through the covering.I have found that mylar tends to be brittle in the conditions we usually have to endure and I just like'd the look of the wood, after 59 years of sailing and building it's hard to change, also we sail thru alot of snow, sometimes pretty deep wood is durable and a little insulating against the wind. The structure is so strong that I have found that I can cut the weight down to about 50 lbs for the fuselage just by further modifying the inners structure. The ladder was built stronger than it neede to be and there doesn't need to be quite as many of them.
This boat is just in epoxy becaused I wanted to get it on the ice ASAP so it still needs sanding and clear coat to make it look nice.
This boat has been so much better than I could have even imagined I was going to build a duplicate, but after sailing it 30 days this winter I have decided to make a couple changes. The next one will be 23' long and have a couple other changes.
Geoff, you should keep an eye on the J14 group I started, you seem to have a great knowledge of iceboats and building. If you ever want to just pleasure sail without the neck strain, you may want to build one.
Don't get me wrong, I love DN's. I have Art Tuestch's old racing DN, but you have to admit for pleasure sailing they tend to be a little uncomfortable.
Jack
Jack
Yup...
I agree the Mylar would be a real pain (but it would look so cool!). I suspect it wouldn't be many outings before someone put a hand through it during setup or something similar. I have to admit I got the plane-fabric came from a friend's ancient Meade (I think) that used fabric for the deck covering.
> you should keep an eye on the J14 group I started, [...]
Absolutely! I haven't had a chance to signup, but as soon as I get a moment.
> If you ever want to just pleasure sail without the neck strain,
> you may want to build one.
> Don't get me wrong, I love DN's. [...]
Heavens, I'm no "boat snob"! ;-)
I'm actually looking forward to helping Jim Thornberry build his new J-14 (and maybe even getting a ride in it!) I look at his pile of wood on the wall of Jim Norhaus' shop at least once a week!). Around here (Madison) the Renegade is really the "big" boat (I think there are usually 15 on the line for a club race); hopefully, next year I'll have mine out on the ice (finally!). If that weren't the case, I'd probably be looking at building one of the "J" boats myself. I really like the fact that you can put a modern mast and sail on them, and not suffer with any of the various "issues" with the rigging and sailplans of most of the popular designs.
Cheers,
Geoff S.
http://iceboat.org/images/boatshops/nord/nordboats.htm
http://sobering.terracom.net/iceboating/index.html
Updated site
We have added photos of the new plank for the triangle boat, unfortunately Elk Lake hasn't even skimmed over yet...
Look in the album labeled "new Plank"
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/J14/
Jack
Plans update
We haven't had alot of time to work on the plans while building the new plank and the iceboat shop (which now has walls and roof), but we did get enough time to re-do pages 1-10 of the plans.
The new first 10 pages are now posted in the plans file.
The first 10 new pages say the same things as the old first 10 pages (just clearer typing and pictures) so you still have a complete correct set if you use the new 1-10 and the old 11-18.
I will post again when the remaining pages are finished and posted.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/J14/
Jack
Jack