building a new design C-Skeeter for the 21st Century
Have you ever thought of building an ice boat from scratch, including the design? Well here it is, three years in the making and finally on the work bench. What started out to be a light weight one seat Nite, evolved into a new design, ultra light, C-Skeeter. Many thanks go out to Bob Gray for his countless hours of designing and meticulous planning, and to Skip Stauber and Jack Jacobs for there knowledge and input.
Hopefully everything will go as planned and the as yet un-named GX-1 will have its maiden voyage at the North Westerns in early December, or locally if we have early ice in the Traverse City (MI) area.
We would like to have at least four GX’s in the GTIYC fleet by the 2007 sailing season, which needless to say is dependent on the outcome of my #1 boat.
Visit the following link on the gtiyc web site for a complete pictoral documentation of the construction process at:
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Comments
21st. century iceboat
Your idea for a 21st. century iceboat is allready old hat..The new boats will have adjustable fixed "wings" instead of standed sails.Imagine a "enlarged" skimbat kitewing mounted on top of your skeeter instead of a sail..at least 60+ sq. ft. It will be a much safer sail with much less tendoncy to roll with a big gust..The wing will lift and pull you rather than push an flatten you. I'm building one for my DN this summer..See ya this winter..rjd04@hotmail.com
fixed wings
fixed wings sound great and have had success in the world of catamarans and I believe the world land sailing speed record is held by a land yacht with a multisegmented wing. Unfortunately it will probably be approaching the 22nd century before the rules would allow them for racing. There are however problemsaccociated with fixed wings for sailing vessels. A single one piece airfoil ,if you could get it to work at all, wouldn't work well. Air foils are a compromise, they aree either high lift and slow or low lift and fast. In light airs and starting you need a high lift foil. At speed you want a low drag highspped foil. In a single foil you can't have both. The solution is a multi segmented wing that would act like an aircraft with flaps and or slats extended at low speed and flatten out a high speed. The problem here is you have to be able to to control at least two of the segments seperately while sailing. I have enough trouble with steering and one sheet line while racing. The other solution, and my choice is a conventional sail which is a high lift high drag foil when partially sheeted in and a flat high speed low drag foil when sheeted all the way in. Choices, thats what it's all about. Incidently,I think the GX-1 guys hopes were to build a low cost, light weight fast C-skeeter that most guys could build and help expand the class which is the most important thing we can do for the future in the 21st century.
Wings, wings, wings!
You want wings? These guys got 'em!
Landsailer and Iceboat Design and Construction Group on MSN.
Cheers,
Geoff S.