Billing Boats Smit Nederland

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hi George,

My spare bedroom which was my office back in the bad old days of working for a living, but now 2 years on it’s becoming my third boat and aeroplane storage facility !!! 🙂

Still room for more wall brackets 🙂

Regards Ray

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

A lot of dusting needed Ray. Only my Revell QM2 lives on a shelf, the rest are in boxes and QM2 does collect dust!

Colin

[geconParticipant @gecon]

At least I don’t have much of a dusting problem. There’s no space left in the store room for dust.😄

I have however managed to squeeze in a new tool in the toolbox. It’s s bit tragic though that I have spent years fiddling with tiny pliers and tweezers etc without sourcing a tool for the job of servo-cable production!

5 minutes of google-ing was the remedy.  Of the ca.15 hobbyshops in Norway, only one had these in stock. (Price of procuring fom UK was prohibitive).

Meet “jaws” who arrived yesterday.

 

 

[geconParticipant @gecon]

After a bit of mind-focusing, I managed to programme the ESC’s. A lot of tiny flashing lights to watch while doing this.

One motor ran slowly and quietly. Hopefully, a slow charge will solve this.The wiring is a bit of a mess. May have to shorten some lengths a bit later. On track for an Easter launch I think.

[geconParticipant @gecon]

Charging the port motor batteries now. Interesting info’? Not really.

Meanwhile I’ve started cutting Sullivan Gold-n-Rods for rudder control. Had them lying around for ages. Probably from ‘large sailplane’ days.

Hope the twin setup works without binding. Wanted to have the arms of the rudder horns pointing inbord but afraid they might bind on the tiebar if I need to use the outer holes for more movement.

George

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

Nice neat and tidy installation George.

You can also extend the servo horn of course to give you more movement if you need it.  It is usually better if you can arrange for the servo arm/tie rods/tiller arm arrangement to be perpendicular when centred to ensure that you get the same amount of movement port and starboard but, with twin rudder set up you should find any slight imbalance on one rudder will be counteracted by a similar but opposite imbalance on the other one, especially with two counter rotating propellers.  Almost certainly you won’t notice anything when used so it will just be a case of make adjustments after trials.

[geconParticipant @gecon]

Thanks for the info Richard,

The servo horn is so close to the motor mounts that there’s no room for extension. I think it might load the servo too much anyway. I don’t know how much movement is needed with these Becker rudders but I’ll know by the time my Easter egg gets bashed;-))

The rest of the set-up will be squared up when I have set up the ‘snakes’ and adjusted the rudder horns. At the moment the port rudder moves 5* to starbord when I tighten the collet bolt onto the rudder stock. I think the flat that I filed on the stock is not square (perpendicular!) to the centreline which causes the horn to slide off-centre when I tighten the bolt. Got a bit disheartened by all the adjustments today so took a break and watched the wife knitting while I made a plan for tomorrows build sequence:-))

George

 

[Stephen GarradParticipant @stephengarrad28964]

Could you rotate the rudder servo 180 degrees in its mounting which would put the horn further away from the motor mounts?

Stephen

[geconParticipant @gecon]

Yes I could indeed Stephen, could then have used a larger servo horn. In addition, the servo cable would emerge aft which would have been a better solution. The original plan was for the receiver to be much further  forward  in the hull. Cable exit  foreward was a good idea at the time! It was at a rather late stage that I decided to mount th Rx aft to starbord.  Did not think of turning the servo. The extra distance from the rudder horns produces a slightly straighter run for the ‘snakes’ however. But a larger horn would probably compensate for that too.

As it happens, todays testing shows the rudders move about 45* to each side, and the Becker ‘flaps’ are then about 90* . I expect that will suffice. If not, then your suggestion will be implimented pdq.

Thank you for taking the time to think of a solution.😀

George

[geconParticipant @gecon]

The outer ‘snake’ tubes have been spot-epoxied to the underside of the cross tray.

Should probably make another support nearer the servo. The push-pull in both directions makes it almost unecessary though. Don’t actually need to secure the outer tubes at all. Though may get more acurate centering with it.

Started to seal the deck join with the clingfilm/silcone method but scraped the plan half way into the job. I will seal the join with the the zipper wax I used on my flight /survival suit. Used it on all the deck hatches on the Colin Archer and it keeps the water out.

These will probably be the last hull-interior shots of the Smit-Netherland that I post. Will send a few shots before and after longitudinal balancing. I expect to need ballast in the stern. If stays afloat long enough I’ll post some shots under way too!🤞

George

 

[geconParticipant @gecon]

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

45 deg main rudder and 90 deg tail flap is just what you want anyway.  I suspect it will work as well as you need it to.

[geconParticipant @gecon]

Thanks Richard, should not be too long before I find out.

Started sealing the deck join with above mentioned zipper wax. Removable deck section sits a little proud due to excess wax. Also the it’s curvature is a tiny bit different from the fixed section, producing about 1mm raised at one end with oposite end flush.

Will fiddle with these things for a few days to achieve a best compromise. Switches etc below decks are covered with thin plastic to protect from any drips (rivers?) of water.

George.

[geconParticipant @gecon]

The zipper-wax sealing method doesn’t work to my liking. It’s being removed and will be replaced by a thin layer of either Lipsil or Vaselin -or a mix of both. It’ll result in ‘waterprof fingers’ while boating. When making the ledge for the deck to rest on I should have allowed a bit for sealant thickness. I believe that I did think about this during construction, but did not DO anything about it.

Proves yet again, what you think or say is not what counts the most, it’s what you DO that matters. That must be the equivalent to ‘actions speak louder than words’.

I’m waffling philosophical now, a good weekend to all,

George

 

 

[geconParticipant @gecon]

My lips are sealed….-ish…with Lypsyl.

I know I’m hogging a lot of cybertime these days. But I’ll soon be much quieter, having nothing else to build.

It is however time to prepare the rest of the navy for the spring sail. I have a feeling that I will have try to sell at least one of the fleet sometime. Possibly the Comtesse yacht will have some appeal being easy to operate and reasonably inexpensive.

Waffle….waffle…. cheers,

George

[geconParticipant @gecon]

I was lakeside today and launched Smit Nederland. Floated a bit high in spite of adding the 1.3kg of ballast I had with me. Sailed well in flat calm. Large bow and stern wake at 3/4 power. Did not try full power today. Turns on itself using fwd/astern motors and full rudder. Off to church tomorrow to find more lead ballast. Will need a long ladder to reach it.

Film crew were not with me today. Took photos and video on the mobile while testing  but  did not manage to load up to this thread from my mobile. The text and photo just ‘disappeared’ during upload. Anyway, the beastie works!  Fixing the ballast in due course. Displacement will then be about 8kg. I guess.

George

[geconParticipant @gecon]

More ballast added and redistributed. There is now 1kg of fine steel shot in the bows. Previously there was 353gm.

The stern has 600gm. Beneath the shafts 300gm. Between the motors 240gm.

Total 2140gm.  The four drive batteries are 1732gm. Forgot to weigh the Rx batt  and its so well placed that I don’t want to remove it just now. It’s 4.8v 3300mAhr so I guess it’s about 250gm. It can be seen in the stern sitting longditudinaIlly and upright.  2 photos below for reference.

Total ballast -lncl batts- would then be about 4122gm.

The batteries are all out for charging so will publish total displacement tomorrow.

George

PS. Photos won’t upload. They are Jpeg as before and well below 8MB limlt. Will try again later.

 

 

[geconParticipant @gecon]

[geconParticipant @gecon]

Test….Lotus Esprit interior comes up OK. But that doesn’t help much with tug ballast info.

[geconParticipant @gecon]

[geconParticipant @gecon]

[geconParticipant @gecon]

Took 2 new photos and these uploded as usual.

George

[geconParticipant @gecon]

Sunday morning, batteries recharged and re-installed. Ready for a new floatation/balance check soon.

I know that very few if any need info on this particular tug. Never-the-less I offer the info to help reduce the agro of any future self-hurters who have a go at a Smit Ned’.

Photos (I hope) show the complete interior detail. Displacement is now 8400g which I expect is about right for this tug. Hope it’s not bow heavy a fter adding 650g extra there. This is easy to adjust as the iron shot can be poured out of the container.

My home made Colin Archer launcher (photo) will be tested on the tug next time out.

Soon finished the waffle show. Will report though if anything spesial occurs which deserves a mention.

George

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hello George,

The Smit is stunning, as your builds always are 🙂  You will have to find some new storage space for your next build ??? lovely and sunny here today I was yacht racing at my club this morning but bitterly cold Easterly wind blowing the yachts didn’t mind but we did !! 🙂

Regards  Ray

[geconParticipant @gecon]

Hello Ray,

Nice wx here today too 12* slight breeze.

There will not be any more additions to the fleet even if I sell one or two of them.

New balance/flotation test today. Slightly nose down now, especially with 50% power applied. The tug has a good turn of speed and ‘digs’ a wopping hole in the water! Looks great at scale speed and turns on it’s own axis if required.

Will remove 200g so displacement will be 8.2kg.

Launching ropes worked perfectly.

Kind regards,

George

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