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G’day

Good news, got the week off (hooray) bad news, got to work this weekend (bugger). But trying to put the time of work to good use
and get a bit more done on the Yorkshireman.
All the electrics are fitted and working just needs to tidy up a bit of sloppy wiring and hopefully get to work on the deck. There are
six (6) electric motors in the hull.
Two main motors on a 2.5 to 1 reduction driving a left and right hand 50mm four bladed brass propellers in fixed Kort nozzles,
each motor is running on 12 volts using its own Electronize speed controller off a Y lead from the radio receiver.
One Bow Thruster running on 6 volts controlled by a single servo using the two limit switches that I spoke about on a previous
update.
One windscreen pump using 12 volts that is mounted straight through the hull on a rubber grommet, this pump is to be plumed
up as the water cannon, and I think it’s going to work extremely well, at the present time it having no trouble shooting a sold
stream of water out of a 3mm hose (I cant give an estimate of how far at this time without getting into all kinds of trouble, I think
she who thinks she is boss might spit the dummy if I shoot the water across the bathroom)
One 6 volt motor on a diaphragm pump that is to be used to clear any water that might find its way into the bilge. That goes out an
outlet just above the waterline.
Both of these pumps are controlled by a single servo, using a similar method to the Bow Thruster.
The last motor is a gear pump on 12 volts which gives the effect of cooling water coming out above the water line on three outlets,
the hardest bit of this system was trying to balance the flow out of each outlet, but using a couple of cable ties on the tubes to the
first two outlets quickly solved the problem. Also if required this pump can also be plumbed up around the two main motors for
cooling if necessary.
I’ve attached a couple of pictures of the outlets with the boat sitting in the bath (just hope she doesn’t see them) and all the other
systems work well, cant wait to get it out to the lake and see how it goes, if the bath trials are anything to go by its going to get up
and charge through the water like a Tug Boat should.
The only other problem is getting all the other jobs done before its time to go back to work, the car needs a service as well as the
brakes are due for a pad change front and back, the back garden has to be cleaned up and to top it all off I have to cook dinner
each night. She said if I get some of the work done a can go to the lake for a sail on Wednesday (that big of her to let me go out)
so I better get cracking and get stuck into it.

Cheers Steve

Another beautiful day here in paradise (any day that you don’t have to work and can go boating is that). A nice 32 degrees Celsius calm
wind, good mates and getting to try out the new build for the first time.

All went well and the hull performed better than I expected. The Bow Thruster is able to spin the boat either way with no problems. The
main motors went absolutely fantastic, but at this time I encountered my first problem, they go to good and the bow wave pushes up the
anchor wells and dropping water into the hull, but the bilge pump took care of that fairly quickly, as you can see from the pictures the
easiest way to fix it at the time was just to tape over them. Turning was good doing a full turn within 2 to 3 hull lengths. The water cannon
pump was great and went well.
So a few problems as they stand at the moment
1; Seal the tops of the anchor wells, either that or slow the boat down, but I would rather keep it throttled back and keep the extra speed
for any emergencies that might arise (like having to get out of another boats way in a hurry.
2; Fix the rubber in position, as the White metal clamps on the rudder post tops don’t have enough bite in them.
3; Find and fix the small water leak in the bottom of the hull, I think this is around the pick up for the water cannon pump, might have to
inject some silicone in there somehow.
4; Get on with the rest of the build.
One of the most pleasing things is that the hull floated just above the water line leaving enough room to ballast it down to the right mark
and I could not believe the pulling power with the twin 50mm propellers in the Kort nozzles, I did have one small problem here though
and that is that the starboard prop sucked in a bit of rubbish that was sitting on the bottom of the lake during the pull test. Have to keep
an eye out on that one as there is on easy fix to that one. Look out anyone I find throwing rubbish around the lake

Cheers Steve
Ps; its bloody good to see some result after looking at the think in the shed for the last 12 months or so and it has given me a bit of a
spur on to get the rest of it finished