Boat Builder Central - Builder Forums

After a little delay in the start due to the cold, I made a begin with our FL26 a few weeks ago. The jig is ready, all the molds for the hull are sawn including the mold for the transom. The bottom parts are glued together and shaped with the jigsaw and the same with the sidepanels. I've also ordered a 10Kw electro engine; this is our try to see if elektro boating can be enough satisfying. The plans so far are great, easy to read and understand. Its my first boat with this method, but I did (and do)quite a lot of furniture making and have years of experience with fiberglass.
On monday we leave for a short holiday to Valencia. Our neighbours have a house there, he is a member of the Oracle Americas Cup team. See if we can do some sailing there and enjoy the spanish seafood and wine. If I can make some interesting pictures there, i'll post them here.

Here are the first pictureshttp://gallery.bateau2.com/index.php?cat=18965
cu, jaap

Im horribly excited to see one of these exist. This is a beautiful boat!

To use an American expression, that shop is going to be tighter than a frog's ass when the boat becomes assembled.

E

I'm really excited to watch this one come together, too! My wife and I are discussing our needs in our next boat and this one tops the list.

Good luck and enjoy!

Huck

Daniel Huckleberry wrote:I'm really excited to watch this one come together, too! My wife and I are discussing our needs in our next boat and this one tops the list.

Good luck and enjoy!

Huck

Now we are talking about fairing. I would love to see the great job you would do with that great boat.

You could even cross to the Bimini in that one with the right conditions.

Mmmm, there's a certain Kiwi in SW France that I'm sure will be watching this build with interest!

And me!

Enjoy it!

Tim.

Made some progress the last few weeks, Valencia was great but back to our daily life and boatbuilding. When setting up the stations on the jig everything looked pretty good. Then I putted the stringers on and said oops. As you can see on the pictures, the camber is on the wrong side. But luckily I work very consistent; the other stringer had the same flaw. My solution was quick and dirty, just saw the ends off and glue them back on 180 degrees turned.
Then the second mystery showed up. Did I made a miscalculation with the stations, the bottom panel, something wrong with the drawings?? I placed station A at the end of the stringer, where I thought it was mented to be, but after half a day of looking and checking everything twice I had the bright idea to check it with the lenght of the veebirth, which is placed between station A and C. There was a missing 21 cm and after going through all the drawings, I found one with the correct station spacing! The only correction nessecary was to move station A 21 cm forward and everything fitted beautiful! Hereby my apoligies to Jacques that it came a moment in my mind that there was such a big mistake in the drawings.

Will it fit through those doors?

Thanks for helping us watch an FL26 come together.

Jaap, if the plans are confusing, let me know.
I can show the dimensions differently.

I may go to the Hiswa this year. It's close and I may ask to visit you.

Hello Jacques (and everybody else of course),

You're very welcome! We have a guesthouse and I make good pasta or noodles. The Hiswa was in februari and I think you mean the Mets? The plans are not confusing, it is more a matter of concentration. The last few days, I have put all the hull parts together, and already sanded one side after glueing. All parts fit together quite fine. Very helpfull to get a good fairing of the slits in the flairing of the bow are strips of plywood screwed on the slits every 40 cm. I filled the spaces between the slits with glue and it looks that I need a minimum of filler to get it in shape! The tip came from my neighbour Thijs de Jong, an experienced boatbuilder and a good friend.
People around here (it is one of finest watersport area's) love the lines and looks of the boat.
@KS8, it's a double door, no problem!

best regards,

jaap

Jaap, thats beautiful plywood, my compliments to your supplier.

So I am going to be flying to Croatia in September, can we have a bowl of pasta at your place on the way?



E

Hi Eric,

Flying to Croatia?? What is wrong with Nina, or has it something to do with swmbo? You're also very welcome and everybody else too. It's a pleasure to meet other builders and talk about our wrestling with wood, resin etc. I am not sure the FL26 is ready then, but we still have a launch (which is for sale) see the picture. It is a beautiful boat but we bought it!

Beautiful, classic launch! What is the power?

You'd better have a few good helpers to finish the FL26 by September!

Maybe you'll be ready to fair by then and you can put Eric to work!

There you go, a working vacation!

I just found out last night we aren't flying through Schiphol this time, but London (I think). I sure wish we could see that launch though, thats a beautiful boat, and has a strong Thames wherry influence. I always loved wineglass transoms.

E

Spokaloo wrote:I always loved wineglass transoms.

I love the wineglass

I'm off to have diner

tony

Jaap..I'm an immigrant from Germany to the U.S.A. I built the OD16 and was wondering what kind of permitting is necessary in the Netherlands for a boat like yours.

That would be permits to build it, to register it, and what kind of licensing are you looking at for actually using it?

Good luck and I'm really looking forward to some more pictures. Jacques is an inspiration to folks like myself.

Best,
Stefan.

There is some progress here since my last posting. All the panels were made in place and needed a little sanding in the bow and in the mid where the side panels came a few mm over the bottom panels. With the small strokes to fair the slits it looked quite good and I glassed 2 layers of biax on all the seams. It is good to prepare the corners carefully and round them to avoid air bubbles, it is thick glass. After sanding the seams, a raw skeg was made (pictures later) and I glassed the bottom with 2 layers of biax fabric. Room temperature was above 22 C (72 F) and since I work alone, that was really a race but the result looks good. To avoid too big problems I glassed the bottom 2 phases, left and right.
After the bottom, I did some fairing on the overlaps on the sidepanels. This to avoid that with the fairing the glass of the side panels is sanded away. Yesterday evening I glassed one sidepanel. Due to a weather change the temperature is now 18 C in the workshop, which gave me much more time to do a good job.
One Murphy’s law moment: I bought a part of the epoxy resin in 20kg barrels (4 gallon) and used them to stand on, to reach the middle of the bottom. Last week I was in a hurry (off course) stepped on one, too much to the side and it was the one with the unsecured open lid…….. I got the resin away with a lot of sawdust!!

Fairing the slits with small strokes

The bow with a layer of biax on the slits.

After a little fairing a layer of biax fabric on the sidepanel

The next generation boatbuilders?

Jaap wrote:There is some progress here since my last posting.

Now that is an understatement! Nice job, it's looking great.

Looking great Jaap. One thing though, I would try to keep the fairing underneath the biaxial to a minimum. You want the epoxy and biaxial up against wood wherever possible. The fairing compounds have very little strength of its own and should reserved for the final fairing and finishing process.

If it's a real concern, Jacques should chime in. The slits look like they are working out very well. Keep the pictures coming!

Nice pic's of the bow of youre boat.
That boat really dose have nice lines.

Keep the pic's coming

Wow! Sure does fill the garage, doesn't it?!

Kept on wrestling with long fairingboards, sandpaper 60, filler and a lot of self motivation. I used some filler from Hempel and that is really light stuff and sands good after 24 hours. The guy on the boat is Herman, he is a frequent guest on a small camping near our village. Whenever possible he helps with moral support. Great guy, had 3 heart attacks this year, but keeps coming, smiling and joking. Thanks Herman!!
You like the two-tone fairing? The skeg is still a bit rough and needs at least 3 more layers biax, so it will look good after that.

After a lot, a lot of sanding and fooling around with filler putty, I reached a point where I couldn't resist anylonger to wipe on the first coat of primer. It is a high build primer of Hempel and it beautiful filled little scratches etc. There is still some work to do but overall it looks quit fair, no big nacks or bumps in the bow and were the panels are glued.
One of the very few changes to the plans is the transom. From the original plan I used 6 mm ply instead of 10. That one is covered with 2 layers biax and now I want to glue a 6 mm through and through mahogany plywood panel with a clear epoxy coating on the slightly thinner transom. The mahogany panel is much heavier then the okoumee plywood I used for the hull. This should give a real classic look to our boat.
With a little luck I hope to flip the hull within a week!

regards

jaap

Very stylish Jaap I like that (sjiek de friemel Jaap ) That's what I want to try with my CS 25 make some parts in dark hardwood.

Hallo Peter, it looks quit dark on the picture. I have stained the mahogany with some coloured lacquer to avoid the yellowing in the sun. It is a tip from friends who are in painting an building yachts for a long time. After that I putted a first epoxy coating on, but that didn't spread as good as lacquer does. It is the effect of some silicon of the surface (which isn't!!). I think the effect will dissapear after a few coats and some sanding. After a few coats it probably lightens too, when the surface is more equal.

jaap

After a lot of sanding, we coated the hull with 2 layers of primer and the underwaterpart with 3 coats of some hempel underwater primer, a sticky in-between-coating and 1 layer with antifouling. I did some work on the rubrails, but could not finished that before flippingday. And that was today on saturdaymorning. We started at 08:30 and the whole things was done at 10:00, thanks to the very good help of my father in law, our neighbours Liekele en Grietsen, the always advisor Herman and the-best-help-one-can-get Thijs with his truck. The turning went very easy in the strops and everything is back in the shop now! It was a lot easier then expected.

jaap

Oh WOW, that boat is simply gorgeous. Lovely sleek hull.

Well done.

Tim.

PS, is that a canal I see on the left in the first picture?

Wow Jaap looking good and very very big

Peter

Very Well Done!! That is some superb craftsmanship. I agree with the others on the sleek lines of the hull. I wish that I had almost that access to water.

Keep oin Buildin'

Robbie

Fantastic, can't wait to see it with guts and a cabin.

Love it....

E

Outstanding.........transom looks great

Various nice Jaap, job well done. On to the next step!

Tom

Great!!!

Beautiful! both the boat and the craftsmanship! Upside down, the hull looked kind of sharp and slabsided, but rightside up I agree with the others, very sleek and attractive! And HUGE! Glad you had some help and heavy equipment for the flip.

After the flipping it was time to cleanup the shop a bit and we went for holiday with our launch and a tent. Very good time with the family.
But now back to work and boatbuilding. I removed all the molds and cleaned up here and there, but to my surprise the bottom is by far not flat.
I think, that the jig is too small and too much weight is on the outside, which causes the middle raising at least an inch. The bottom is off course not a composite yet and after some discussions with friends we think that the solution in picture 2 will do. I was glad to discover this before glassing the inside. I did not want to build the first fl26 with a small tunnel hull
Most of the designs here have more or less a V-bottum, but nevertheless, keep on measuring and checking.

jaap

After carefully set the bottem panels flat, I started glassing the inside. Outside was easier then inside, which I didn't expect. The bottem panels are difficult to reach; they need 2 layers biax and working wet in wet is not possible for me. Even doing it in smaller part, I crawled around in wet fabric now and then; keep in mind that I do everything on my own with only 2 hands. There was just enough wide fabric and I had to use almost all the left overs, which gives it some kind of mosaic look. Not my favorite but it is more then strong enough due to the wide overlaps. Maybe spended a little to much on the skeg.
After a touch up with the sander I put the stringers and bulkheads in the hull. A great moment for me after the fight with fabric, resin and the clock.
A few small corrections were needed with the jigsaw but it all fits quite well and looks fantastic (to me!). Standing in the boat and having a good impression of dimensions, took my fantasy on a walk. We were already sailing. Back to reality, everything is spot glued and it is time to clean up the shop a little.

jaap

Jaap wrote:After carefully set the bottem panels flat, I started glassing the inside. Outside was easier then inside, which I didn't expect. The bottem panels are difficult to reach; they need 2 layers biax and working wet in wet is not possible for me. Even doing it in smaller part, I crawled around in wet fabric now and then]

Jaap,

Just an idea
Although I'm not at that stage I've been thinking about that, and I was thinking of wearing these things

I think the little holes those things make will fill up again, just like the concrete floors, were those "shoes" are intentionally made for.

Btw I think your work is looking good

Peter

The inside lamination of large hulls is done either with a hanging scaffolding or one side at a time.
For an amateur, it will be one side or one length at a time.

@peter-curacao, kinky shoes!! Would you use them on a teak-deck as well? Just read on the internet newspaper about small tornado's in Curacao. Is there any damage in your neighbourhood??

@Jacques; I did the sides in 2 pieces, but that is just one layer. To use as less resin possible, the bottem panels were a little more difficult.
When you cut a large piece of biax fabric, say 3 by 12 ft, it gets very easy very out of shape, due to weigth and were you hold it.

Do you still have plans to visit the Hiswa??

jaap

This thread slipped by me. Nice work Jaap! The cabin lines are looking good as it just begins to suggest itself.

Jaap wrote:@peter-curacao, kinky shoes!! Would you use them on a teak-deck as well? Just read on the internet newspaper about small tornado's in Curacao. Is there any damage in your neighbourhood??
jaap

No jaap I won't recommend them on a teak deck
No damage here but in the neighborhood they were it's a ravage. cars and roofs were blown away Thank's for asking

Peter

Jaap, would you be so kind as to drop in a little plywood where the sole would be and have someone take some photos of you for scale?

I want to see how much depth there is to the cockpit, how high the cabin top ends up on you, etc etc.

It would be greatly appreciated!

E

peter-curacao wrote:...in the neighborhood they were it's a ravage. cars and roofs were blown away

I suppose shoes like those are very handy in wind like that!

Yes, as Eric requests please, even if you only stand the stringers, that would be good, but a board across them sounds like a good idea.

... then, could you stand at the helm station on the BMW/Oracle/ Hobie Extreme AC90... just for scale...

seriously, a picture in front of the cabin station would be nice, with a reminder of your height, to keep a perspective.

ks8 wrote:

peter-curacao wrote:...in the neighborhood they were it's a ravage. cars and roofs were blown away

I suppose shoes like those are very handy in wind like that!

change out the spikes for hooks and you'll stick like velcro.

-Mike

Dear fellow boatbuilders, as requested a few pictures. I am 190 cm tall, which is around 6 ft and 4 inches, more or less. I was just cutting the sole, only 1 piece to go. When I look at the pictures now, the boot looks smaller then it feels when your in it. Must have something to do with wide angle lenses etc. Due to the flashlight (I think) the boat and the glassing looks in the shop much better then on the pictures. If I can be of any further help, please ask and enjoy your building.

jaap

That was a tremendous help. Thanks!

Back to work.

Wow, that's a big boat. I can't imagine sanding all that boat. Yes I can You're a big guy, too. Good thing, hope you got a lot of sanding left in you

She looks great

What kind of beer are you drinking in Friesland?

Looks like a Heiney to me.

Thanks so much for taking those. It looks exactly as I figured with my stick men, but wanted to see it in the flesh. Im 6'3", so we are basically the same size.

I especially like this one:



Allowing for a good idea of the headroom in the "paperwork" area of the boat. Plenty of room for contemplation it appears!

Boy those stringers are TALL!!

E

Looks like a Grolsch to me.

Eric, I was thinking about those super-tall stringers, too. I wonder why Jacques drew them so tall? Room for tanks? Needed for bottom stiffness? Room for flotation? Desire to get the sole above the loaded waterline?

I'm not planning to build an FL26, so this is kind of idle speculation, but it would seem that CG could be lowered and usable cockpit depth increased if the stringers were strengthened and shortened. Or maybe, double the number of stringers at half the height. Ultimately, Jacques knows why they are so deep, and I'm sure it makes sense.

(After a little thought, I'm guessing it's "to make the sole higher than the waterline.")

Maybe for all the reasons you sited Rick, or more. Including possibly stowage to keep the CG low?

Self bailing I know 100%. They also provide the depth for the footwell that Jaap's feet are in when he is sitting. In the study plan it states the sole is the keel panel, so bunk height and footwell depth might be considerations as well.

One could consider lowering the sole on ONE condition:

BIG REDUNDANT BILGE PUMPS

Thats a monster open cockpit to slop a wave into in a seaway. She would need to be able to move some serious water quickly if you didn't have self-bailing capabilities. Probably 2400gph or so would be my comfort level, and at least two of them in a small sump.

E

Eric, I would just not want to depend bilge pumps on a boat that size. Electrical failure is the major problem in boats sinking and bilge pumps failing. There is a reason work boats depend on scuppers, have for hundreds of years and continue to do so and are not about to change. Two 2400 pumps will run down a battery pretty fast if they have to run very long(10 hrs est.). Jaap won't have that problem of course but others would.

Tom

The FL26 has a nice curve in the bottom from the bow to the transom. In the cabin the height of the stringers is just over 33 cm and at the transom there remains only just 10 cm. The cockpit is self bailing and the room under the sole is used for 75 gallons fuel and drink and blackwatertank. In the cabin you stand on the bottompanels.
To get more height in the sidepanels (to keep the kids in), we call that freeboard, we install gunwhales. There are some nice planks mahogany in the shop for that and it look a better option then lowering the sole. The whole construction with the stringers etc gives everthing a massive solid feeling!!
Nort is right about the beer, it is Grolsch, but there is a lot availble here, from heineken to indian kingfisher belgium, german, actually to much choice,theere is a frisian brewer as well and he makes good whiskey too!!

As written in another tread, the propulsion is electric with a 48 volt 10 Kw S1 graded a-sync industrial motor. I place 16 100 amp agm batteries under the floor, total weight 496 kg. The engine is 65 kg and about 75 cm long. It looks very durable, the shaft is 42 mm thick. Our youngest boatbuilder is sitting on the engine, he is 2 but within 6 weeks 3 and a big boy for his age!

jaap

Very cool in every respect

Yesterday evening, we got the propshaft and the batteries. The batteries are dynasty's 100 Amp AGM made in the USA.
The shaft is completely Dutch, 6 ft long with 3 water lubricated bearings. The shaft comes with a stagnation bearing and a homokinetic coupler, so the motor is free of forces from the propellor or out-of-line vibration. All the flanges are aluminium and blue anodized. Looks very nice, maybe a small plexy window and some fancy led lighting for the fun?
But now it is almost time for starting with the tech-part to install!


jaap

Thank you for all the very interesting iformation Jaap. Great photos too. I count 15 batteries. How do you plan to connect them, three banks of four plus a house battery i.e.?

This is fascinating to me. I think some kind of lighting in the engine compartment would be nice. With no more maintenance than the electric motor will need, you will mostly be opening the cover to show off the drive train. It might as well look cool for that.

Lucky_Louis wrote:Thank you for all the very interesting iformation Jaap. Great photos too. I count 15 batteries. How do you plan to connect them, three banks of four plus a house battery i.e.?

he posted earlier he'd use 16 batts, 4 banks of 4 for 48 volts and 400 Amp Hours. If max draw on the 48 volt motor is 200 amps this would give him just 1 hour at max draw to reach the 50% discharge on the battery banks. Most likely he'll run under max amperage and extend his cruising to 2-3 hrs. Well we hope anyways! Good luck Jaap! Looking good!

@lucky_louis, it is like knotty says, thanks for that! There are 16 batteries, but I putted already 1 in the boat; that is good for my fantasy and thoughts

Here some details how the propshafttube is connected to the skeg. The tube is ss steel round 40mm. There is a nylon spacer with 2 O-rings and 2 tiny holes. You can press with some medical injector the glue in one hole and stop when it pops out of the other. Then the nylon spacer is glued into the skeg. When laminating the skeg, I made a mould out of pvc drainige pipe and luckily that went well, the spacer fits very nice with a light push in the skeg. I just glued the spacer to the shafttube and tomorrow the rest to the skeg. You need all to do this to avoid as much as possible contact sound from the shaft, prop etc to the hull. The engine runs so quit, that you hear and feel all the other sounds and vibrations.

Jaap

great project,Jaap!!!

And only 200 km away! Where are you living in Friesland. My dad lives in Sneek.
Perhaps i can watch your project "live" sometime.

gr.Patrick

Hello Patrick,

We live in Terkaple, 10 minutes away from Sneek, between Joure and Terherne (kameleondorp). You're very welcome.

jaap

Hi Jaap,

Great progess you are making. I am going to build Nina (LB22), would like to see how you are doing. My parents do live in Friesland as well. Maybe possible to visit you?

Hans

http://dutchiesnina.blogspot.com/

Hi Hans, fantastic, another builder in the Netherlands. You're always very welcome, will mail the adress on your blog (huh another ninablogger ).
Initially I wanted to build the nina, since the plans for the fl26 were not ready. On the day the postman delivered the drawings, Jacques posted on the forum that the fl26 was there!!
But I still dream away of the story that Atkins and his wife took their ninigrette out on beautiful evenings, so maybe in the future a nina for us.

good luck with the building and see you,

jaap

Jaap, got it. Thanks. I will give you a ring when I am going to Friesland!

Hello Jaap,

Just wondering how the progress of your FL26 is coming along?

If you have any new photographs to post, they would be much appreciated also.

Good luck and thank you.

Randy

Hi Randy, stopped the fl26 project for a while. Had to finish some things in the house like the kitchen and some furniture. Within a few weeks I'll continue the story. Meanwhile I use the time to think about some technical things, wiring, piping, water and black water tanks, the rudder etc. Vetus has a standard stainless steel rudder that fits the fl26 good. It's complete with shaft etc, but,.... it is not homebuild. Next week we do a test with a vacuum bag and foam core for another project. When that is succesfull, maybe I switch to foam for the cabin and some interior work. I saw some very handy PP (polypropylene) core material as well at the Mets in Amsterdam. A lot to think about for an amateurbuilder!

jaap

Glad to hear that the Mets Show worked out for you by getting some new ideas for your FL26.

Going by all the very nice work you've done on your FL26 from your photos, I bet your new kitchen and furniture turned out great too

Thank you for explaining where you're at on your FL26.

Good luck on your projects Jaap.

Randy

Hi fellow boatbuilders. Picked up de building business at last to finish our fl26. Here some pictures how the propshaft bearing is mounted and the engine base glued to the bottom panel and the stringers. Really enjoyed building on the boat again.

jaap

Long time Jaap Looking good as always lets hope the weather in Holland stays as it was today so you can use your days BB

Congratulations Jaap on your continued FL26 project. The photos are great. Good Luck

Thanks for the nice comments, they are in their way a very good suppport!
Installed the cleats in the front, coated everything with a thickened resin and installed the bedbottom.
Next very good thing was the coating of the engine mount, installing the engine supports and put the engine on. Thanks to Klaas, one of our best neighbours, who helped lifting the engine. A little fiddling with the bolts and everything looks nice in line, at least enough make the homokinetik coupling work. The engine has to be a few degrees off line, otherwise the homokinetik coupling doesnt' proparly grease itself. To me it looks great and it is a little milestone

jaap

A small update. Removed the engine to paint the engine compartment and those for the batteries with an white epoxy coating. Finished the front of the cabin with primer and one coat of paint and the same with the front part of the deck. Glued the deck parts in place, so it starts looking more and more like the boat on the drawings. Builded a console after receiving the engine controller and hope that all fits properly. The yellow wood is Guariuba, which gave good results as an replacement for teak. The console will be painted, but I sawed quite a bundlle of strips to cover the seats in the open space to give it a teak look.
As you see, the new crew is very curious and already inspecting their new weekend bedroom!
Currently working on sawing all the deck and cabin pieces and then the U coach in the aft. Also working on the electric installation, to prepare everything for the battery installation. Plan is to connect everything next week and to install the software in the engine controller. Keep you posted.

jaap

Found a nice pice of bubinga for the dashboard, wide enough so the grain direction is with the boat. On the table the 2 cabinsides glued together.

jaap

Lookin very nice!

E

Looking great Jaap, your doing a fine job. Who is the manufacturer of the elect engine and where did you get it. If you don't mind me asking .Thanks
The first mates look like they approve.

Brian

Thanks Brian! I bought all the electric stuff at bellmann in Holland, www.bellmann.nu. We have the 10 kw silentprop version. The controller is made in the US by Curtis and can push a 375 A at 48 volt. In that case we have a battery life of less then 30 min. We live in the middle of the lake area in Friesland, the north of Netherlands, and speed is restricted to 6 or 9 km/h. As you can imagine, can hardly wait to her in the water to see how the boat behaves and how the electric propulsion will do!! Keep you posted.

jaap

Below a picture with the deck panels and one cabin side fitted with clamps and tape.

Thanks for the info Jaap. I have always been very interested in elect marine power. I would love to build a hybrid 24' to 26' boat, with a small diesel and elect power. I would use it for night fishing for tarpon. Where I fish in Boca Grande pass FL for them on the outgoing tide the tarpon go in search of food out in the shallower waters from the pass. When you are in the stealth mode you can get a bite with little effort. When going to and from the pass ( about 1-1/2 miles ) and going back up for a new drift, you would run under diesel power. The FL26 would work if it is wide enough to put two fighting chairs side by side at the transom with a couple ft in between. Good luck with your build Jaap.

Brian

Prepared the watertanks and glued one closed. I made to tanks of 60 l on each side of the stringers. We start to use only one, but in case... we have a spare. Both the tanks are connected with a hose. First finished the one with the filling hose and the water out to the pump.

jaap

Could you throw in a picture with you standing by the helm, for scale, and tell us how tall you are? She's looking very nice!

Hi ks8, most answers on your request are on page 5 of fl26 build in friesland. If you have more, please ask.

jaap

The rudder we ordered came today. A nice piece of bronze ordered from a wholesaler (http://www.allpa.nl) but manufactured in china. It is a little bit strange to drill a big (54 mm) in your hull, but is was quickly done. A piece of 12 mm ply and to pieces of30 mm oak where needed for enough mass for the big nut to fasten it. The rudder'spipe (in dutch, hennegatskoker) is a bit longer than the one jacques put on the drawings, so the hydraulic cylinder is on top of the floorpanel instead of under it. It will all under the rear seat and easier to service.

jaap

Wow are you doing this for a living or what!

Today the owner of the company who sold us the engine and controller, came over to install the cablework between the batteries, controller and engine. I bought everything at http://www.bellmann.nu in Holland and they deliver very professional stuff. When you interested in electric propulsion they are marketleaders in Europe.
Yesterday I glued a framework of small cleats to keep the batteries in place. The cleats were glued with polymere kit and a dot of kit is under every battery to keep it in place. It was quite a job but with the help of my neighbour (electrician) we got everything done in 4 hours and after a upload for the software in the controller it worked instantly!! With the current settings the engine runs 1400 rpm max and we think a 15 by 12 prop with 4 blades will work ok. The max rpm can easily be modified to 2 or 3000, depending on the behavier of the boat. This is a little milestone for us. Now up to the last part and finishing the building and then ...painting.

@peter curacao, this is the first boat I build, but the fever catched me, so i hope not the last!

jaap

Jaap wrote: This is a little milestone for us. Now up to the last part and finishing the building and then ...painting.

You call that a small milestone? man I don't even want to see what is a big milestone for you Congrats on this

Very impressive

@Peter, you're right and very quick with your reaction!! Still sitting here with the laptop and a big smile. Amazing how smooth that engine runs, can't wait to see how this performs.

jaap

Congratulations Jaap! Looking good.

Great work, Jaap!!! I can only imagine you boat silently running on the Dutch channels... the only sound, a whisper

We sure have come a long way. At one time, boating meant pulling on a rope and praying that the engine would fire up. All you have to do now is press the green button, no noise, no smoke, no water pump.

gk108 wrote:We sure have come a long way. At one time, boating meant pulling on a rope and praying that the engine would fire up. All you have to do now is press the green button, no noise, no smoke, no water pump.

Amazing isn't it? very very cool

Some might even call it the next Nederlands meesterwerk.

gk108 wrote:Some might even call it the next Nederlands meesterwerk.

Perfect Dutch gk to complete it, it's: Het volgende Nederlandse meesterwerk, just went trough Jaaps photoalbum not only his boat looks amazing but he has some boat pics and designs in there that are really frigging amazing, I already told him one time how the hell are you finding these things? really cool

Jaap,

Can you give me an idea of budget for engine and batteries.

Cheers

Tony

After the engine installation, I continued with the rest, like the battery chargers, connecting the watertanks, pump etc. Think to close the floor tomorrow and laminate it. Next thing is the cabin and the deck parts. Cabin sides went well, but I bolted a strip of wood on it to keep it in shape. The front part of the cabin felt very sturdy (use okoume ply) and it looked almost impossible to get it in place. With a little help of the strips on the sides and a block of scrap oak to keep the sides in the right angle, it bended easy in shape and needed just one screw to close a gap and to keep in secured in place. Actually I was amazed that it fitted so good, chapeau for the designer. A strip on top of the cabin stations, shows that the one in the middle is only 2 mm too low!

@ Tony "kiwi" Look at http://www.bellmann.nu. We have the Silentprop 10Kw listed for Euro 7155,00 including Motor mounting bracket, motorcontroller, High-Tech Display, High-Tech Joystick, power cable set, Quick release connectors Battery power, Mainswitch and Main fuse and fuseholder. On top of that we use to 30 Amp chargers each 520 euro and 16 100 Amp AGM batteries 180 euro each. It is not cheap, but it is a choice, to be a little green, the comfort etc.


jaap

Looking very nice! You have some "creative" clamping there!

Jaap wrote: http://www.bellmann.nu. We have the Silentprop 10Kw listed for Euro 7155,00 including Motor mounting bracket, motorcontroller, High-Tech Display, High-Tech Joystick, power cable set, Quick release connectors Battery power, Mainswitch and Main fuse and fuseholder. On top of that we use to 30 Amp chargers each 520 euro and 16 100 Amp AGM batteries 180 euro each. It is not cheap, but it is a choice, to be a little green, the comfort etc.

Very cool. I will be watching with much interest when you do some performance testing. What do you think about the 9.8Kw pod version on the FL26? Will it fit behind the keel? I like the idea of doing away with the rudder and drive shaft.

I will have to do some calculation to see if solar panels charging all week (in the sun of southern France) will be enough to top the batteries up for using the boat on the weekend. A portable Honda generator will be on board as backup.

Cheers

Tony

There is one "big" construction part yet to do. It is the seat in the aft. It is gonna be a little longer then on the drafts, 2 m, so we can sleep on it or use it as a "sundeck". To get nice round corners I thought to make it from bendable ply and bend it around a mold of pvc tubes. The 3th try is on the pictures and one is glued. After the glue has set I glue another layer on it, i little higher to give it a kind of a plint. It was not easy to get a good compromise of seat heigth, feet space etc. Hope this will do.

jaap

Still working on the bench. The framing went well with 2 layers of bendable ply. Needed a lot of support to keep it with clear lines. After that the cleats and the upper part. Tomorrow trim everyting with the router and cut the hole fore hatch in the back. Seat heigt 34 cm, lenght 208 cm.

jaap

Those seats are going to look really nice!

Jaap, really nice bends on those lovely seats...

Went on with the seats and glued the roof on the cabin. Right part first and when that cured the left part and taped the seam with one layer biax. Put a layer of plastic sheet and a stroke 6 mm ply to get the 2 halves as smooth as possible together. And then a little milestone, the windscreen; reached the highest point of the build!!

jaap

Congrats on the *highest point*. Very nice.

Every bit as gorgeous as I had hoped.

Sure wishing you could get this thing done before that cold, cold winter sets in.

E

Hey Jaap,

You're doing a great job! It's looking very good man. Those bunks are very nice with the bended parts and the windscreen gives it a very racey look!

Wiep

Thanks a lot guys for the nice postings. Finished the deck all around, glassing it and of course the fairing. The fairing on these flat parts with 280 gr fibre is not a big issue (or do we get used to it??). Everything was primered sanded and ik gave the cabin/deck part one coat of high gloss paint. Still enough little things to look after, but no big flaws or bumps. Started to cut the mahogany planks for the sides of the cockpit, almost 4 m long. The Festool plunge saw with 2 long rails connected is a great tool for this job. My shop is just wide enough to them through the planer.
On the other pictures you see the wooden frame for the escape hatch in the cabin.
Yesterday I found a nice steering wheel on our local ebay, brand new, very thick and quite big, but it looks fantastic!!

jaap

This is going to be a gold-plater....

E

Spokaloo wrote:This is going to be a gold-plater....

E

I agree

Nice! Very beautiful work Jaap

Visited a prop specialist in the neighbourhood (fa. bakker in IJlst) 2 weeks ago and her run a few figures through his software and advised a 4 blade 15x13 prop. Problem is the power and torque of the electric engine. The engine controller can deliver 375 amp at 48 volt which is around 17 Kw. Some websites claim to have a kind of a conversion between gas hp and electric kw!! In my case it would be close to 40 hp. We have a few specialists here like Tom, and my question is "What do you think??" Since you are more familiar with Bateau designs.

jaap

"Gold Plater" indeed!

Jaap first thing we need to clarify is the conversion from Kilowatts to HP. A HP is equal to 746 Watts, so according to your numbers you are actually only getting about 23HP not 40 from your electric engine. 17000/746=22.7882 I know these are correct as the conversion I am using works out the same as for the HP to KW that Jacque shows on the study plans. And the same conversion I've been using since high school oh that many years ago!

I'll get back on props in a few minutes. My wife wants the computer.

Now we need to look a little more at transmission and bearing losses. A modern deisel engine will have more torque at the prop shaft so if you have a transmission and some shaft bearings we need to take that into account in figuring your actual HP at the prop. So let's drop another 3 HP and call it 20 HP for this pupose with the electric motor.

Now we can look at the boat and some prop numbers, some of these are guesses on my part and you will need to correct me if I'm wrong. Using the study plans a displacement weight of 3000 + 400 lbs for your added battery weight vs. deisel fuel. A waterline length of 24'. The 20 HP engine rating. I don't know what your transmission speed will be but I used max rpm's of 3400 per a deisel vs 5500/6000 of a gas engine. Gearbox reduction ratio of 2.0. I really need accurate numbers for everything in italics to figure a proper size prop. It will be a good bit smaller than the 15x 13 do to the mis-calculation in HP.

Tom

@Tom, off course I know the direct conversion from kw to hp. But in the case of electric propulsion the manufactureres claim a conversion rate 10 Kw electric to 25 or some say 28 hp gas, due to no transmission loss and the ability of an electric engine to give huge torque at low revs. Recently my engine supplier replaced 65hp perkins with a 10 kw electric, similar as the one in our FL26. So you can understand there is some confusion and I can hardly wait see the FL26 taking water! In the software of the controller the max rev is set to 1400 and there is no transmission; engine shaft is with a homokinetic clutch connected to the prop shaft.

Here two pictures of the Tjet Rixt and old Frisian yacht build in solid oak in 1843!





And here is a picture of the Westra Tjotter, 7,7 meters and 2800 kg. It is availble with 20, 30 or 40 hp diesel, or with a 4,3 Kw electric engine which is more then enough due to the builder!!



So, is it magic or electricity ?? Maybe we launch her in a couple of weeks and can experience it ourselves!

jaap

An electric motor is not 100% efficient, so with the 17KW input that the controller will produce, the motor output will be less than 17KW. In this case, there is very little friction in the drive train because there is no transmission, but the big loss comes from something called Counter Electro-Motive Force (CEMF) that the motor itself creates while rotating. Somewhere in the specifications for your electric motor, there should be an efficiency rating expressed in percent, typically 85% to 90% for a brushless DC motor.

Example at 85% efficiency:
17,000/746=22.7HP consumed by motor.
17,000/746X.85=19.3HP produced by motor.

Also, while we are on the subject, the 10-15% power loss is mostly converted into heat. Your motor is designed to run at a specific temperature, usually 40°C above ambient temperature. Be sure to include adequate outside air circulation for the engine room so the motor won't overheat. In the extreme, it is possible to have a runaway overheating problem. Overheated motors are much less efficient, requiring more power, which creates more heat, which requires more power, which eventually ends in burnt insulation and shorted motor windings.

Jaap yes the electric engine does have a high amount of torque at the beginning and this is good in getting the boat moving, but once moving it is only a minor factor as no one runs at full throttle, you would eat your batteries alive. In fact the calculator I'm using for this case shows the torque of your electric motor to be about 4 times that of a gas engine of the same HP. Promotional material can make wonderful claims and part of it can be the whole truth but maybe not all the truth.

Would you varify the following so we can get as good as number as possible for your prop:

Estimated total weight I used 3400lbs(1542Kgs) The DWL on the study plans show 3000 lbs.
Number of bearings between motor and propeller. I used 4.
Waterline length I estimated 24'(731.5 cm) from study plans
What speed are you looking for as cruising speed. I used 14.
What is maximum diameter of prop that we can fit on the FL, can't have it hitting the hull!

With the info I have now it shows a 17 x 11 4 blade propellor. With your prop since we are not going through a gearbox we have to be especially careful and not over prop or we will overheat that unprotected(no gearbox) motor or we will have it blowing circuit breakers just when you don't want it to.

Tom

Tom, thanks a lot!! Very good info and it is nice to read that you do understand what's about the right propellor size.
Sorry for not responding earlier, but we lended a boat of friend and were 3 days on our beautiful lakes.
Planning is to launch the fl26 within 5 or 6 weeks, and then we know. Keep you posted.

jaap

Jaap,
Waiting patiently for your FL26 to get her feet wet. As soon as you are satisfied with the finished product, I will probably start on a FL26 this winter.
Duane,
Grafton, IL, USA

gk108 wrote:An electric motor is not 100% efficient,

Name me a motor gas,diesel,electric etc that is ?

A little bit off topic but I was a bit skeptical at first about electrics (and posted such a while back). So I come today to eat crow. I bought a brushless motor kit for an old bicycle and was amazed at what is possible with brushless motors and some good batteries. Running only an hour or so at a time and using a small diesel or gas generator to keep recharging or even some solar cells is a very cool idea. Boy that crow tasted good! Learn something new every project! With 3 12 ah SLA 12 v batteries I top out at 21 mph and can ride about 17 miles on a charge. If I pedal and use the motor sparingly to start and maintain top end a little I can go over 40 miles. A five second burst gives me just enough rest to make the long steady ride seem easy. With lithium I can cut the weight down by about ten lbs. and have 10 times the cycles in battery life. If I use 48 volt the thing will hold a steady 27 or 28 mph! But with SLA's you risk hurting the batteries with that kind of work. A 48 volt lithium set up seems like the way to go. Must use it sparingly for the first 1/3 of the charge. Lithium seem to put out higher voltages for their first third of a cycle.

Good to hear you're pleased with your e-bike, Jim. It is a big saleshit here in Holland, 20% is yet electric and they are not cheap, up to 2500 euro!!
@Duane, you already bought the plans? It is very worthwhile to study those and to see where to put your own creativity
Didn't work much on the boat lately, we went to Austria for a holiday, nothing to do with boats, but everything with mountains. From our hotel garden we looked up to the Steinplatte. It is a dry reef 250 mln years old at 1860 meters above sealevel. Who is talking about climate change and sealevel stuff today?? Build a boat and enjoy life .
The other thing is that with 3 friends we started a small company in composite parts. Still have plans to launch the FL26 within a couple of weeks .

jaap

Note to self: never miss the space between the two words "sales hit". Looks real bad. Ampedbikes.com in the US sells real nice kits for a little over $300 us.

ok, it's been more than a couple weeks. Don't tell us you've been out there enjoying the boat and not posting pictures for all of us.

Did this thread move to another location?
I was really hoping to view the finished project.

Sorry guys for the delay response. Been very busy with our little startup in composite parts and (nice) family things. Other big news is that my wife's company offered her a job in Bangkok, so we move to Thailand somewhere in de summer 2010!! Will finish the fl26 before, and probably take it with us. It is for 3 years (regurarly). Currently working in the shop on some christmas gifts.
Did a few small things on the boat since the last posting. Let me make a few pictures for an update.

jaap

Jaap wrote:Other big news is that my wife's company offered her a job in Bangkok, so we move to Thailand somewhere in de summer 2010!!
jaap

Now that's great news! I think both congratulations on that !

I can't begin to imagine the boating possibilities for the FL26 in Thailand, especially if you're anywhere near the coast. Congratulations!

Back in boatbuilding and back on this fantastic forum. Did only some reading for the last months. Its been very busy in our small business and it was very cold in my workshop, so the fl26 has waited a looong time before we went on. As I posted before, we move to Thailand, we think the second half of july. For some time I thought to take the fl26 with me and finish it in asia, but have you ever seen boating in Bangkok? It is all about speed over there, and we would suffer dramatically, draining our 16 battaries in 60 minutes. So we lend the boat for the next 3 years to our neighbours, because a boat has to float and not collecting dust in the workshop.
My neighbour is my new assistant, so we started it all up again last week!

jaap

Very exciting to see what you will finish up before the move. Do you think there may be some sea trials before you leave?

Have I mentioned how much I envy europeans for their lack of personal property inhibitions.

Looks nice, needs to be done!

E

Guys,

Do we know if jaap got this baby launched before the move to Thailand? If so he has got one lucky neighbor!

Rob

A long break, but back again! Actually I am now only the reporter, did not finish the boat because of all the hack around our moving. The boat is still in Friesland and my neighbour and the guy who lives now in our house really picked up were I ended. Thijs is the one living in our house with his wife, and they are both fantastic boatbuilders and finishers! I'll post some pictures one time of their work, like a totally restored (and partly rebuild) 6m class sailing yacht. But here on our FL26, a setup to see how a canvas tent would look, a footrail installed, a lot of sanding and little things, correcting all my rough work and mistakes and a picture of the "brother in arms", having a good time! We are very happy to see the project finished and launched beginning of the season next year.

No boat yet in Thailand. I've been talking to a wharf in Pattaya and he made us an rough enquiry for a lb26. It was not very cheap, but he has build Bateau designs before! A Gulfstream 28 would also a fantastic boat for day trips. Still dreaming !

jaap

Wonderful to see the project continuing I can't wait to see the launch pictures

George

Jaap,

I'm sure you are busy doing what you are doing,but please tell me this;I plan to visit my daugher this fall in Groningen,do you think your FL26 will be available to see?

The FL26 is my dream boat at this point.I would like to see the only one that exists!

thanks,

Rob

Hi Rob, you most welcome. We live in Bangkok since august 2010, but the boat will probably be finished by then. The boat is still in Friesland!! Send me a pb with your mailadress.

jaap

Got a mail today with one picture. Our FL26 is out of the shed and on its way to another location, to finish the painting. But we really don't know yet how it look inside etc . But this looks very, very promising .

jaap

She looks GREAT Jaap. You've got to be excited when you see it out in it's full glory. Can't wait to see the paint job.

Will

wegcagle wrote:She looks GREAT Jaap.

Will

I agree fully, and huge also!

echo

Wow,

I can't imagine how wonderful it will be to splash the first FL26 to ever exist.I hope the stars line up for me to build one of these!

Thanks for keeping us informed.

Rob

My wife was a few days in the Netherlands for work and of course went to see our friends living in our house in Friesland.
The do very well and the house looks perfect!! The boat did not have top priority so far, it is out of the workshop at home and brought to our friends own workshop, for painting the outside and finish the inside. Still enough work to do, but here are some pics, they are a bit crappy, sorry for that.
On the outside, she looks clean and gracious (at least to me ).

jaap

Beautiful Jaap - i have been following very closely, she looks great mate!

Rob Eades wrote:Jaap,

I'm sure you are busy doing what you are doing,but please tell me this;I plan to visit my daugher this fall in Groningen,do you think your FL26 will be available to see?

The FL26 is my dream boat at this point.I would like to see the only one that exists!

thanks,

Rob

Hi Rob, you're welcome of course, but I just notice that this board has no pm system and no emailadress in the profile.
My website is http://www.woodworking.nl and my mailadress is jaap at woodworking dot nl. please send a mail if you want to see the boat. If you go to Groningen, it takes you about a 20 minutes drive extra to see the boat.

Thank you all for the nice postings, it is a bit strange to live in this beautiful country and to have a unfinished boat at home. My friend wants to launch it unpainted (not the last finish) to see if everything is ok and to mark the waterline. I'll keep you posted with info and pictures.

jaap

A little update. My friends finished the outside of the hull, deck and cockpit! It came as a little surprise, my wife is few days in the Netherlands and visited our house and to our surprise they just finished the outside. The hull is quartzgrey, a grey coming from brown as Thijs (the finisher) told us and deck and cockpit are white (lightly creamy). The hull looks fantastic, my wife said, absolutely flawless finish. Unfortunately the iphone photo's are not super, better will follow soon. It is now winter in Europe, but the boat will be definitely in the water next spring. Not completely finished on the inside but ready to use, with a canvas cover, cushions etc.

jaap

Great to see she is still progressing. They are doing a magnificent job on her. It looks awesome

Will

nm

One can shave looking at her...

Amazing paint job

Now that's a paint job Awesome!

Very nice Beautiful boat

trc

Has there been a 2012 update opportunity?

E

Ditto that question!

sorry a double post.

Thanks for all the nice comments and sorry no 2012 update, but here the 2013 update. Since last sunday we're back in the Netherlands, our Thai adventure has come to an end. We had a great time there and in the beginning I have talked to an Italian in Pattaya about an LB26, but we never came to order one. But now we're back an today I went to see the FL26 and to my surprise our friends order a tent and it looks very nice and practical, at least, that is what we think. Sad thing is that the batteries probably died, without ever using them. I will take a closer look at it later. The contractor is doing a very necessary upgrade of our house, which will take another 2 months at least. So the boat has to wait till winter, but we launch her next year spring for sure!

cheers,

jaap

Absolutely beautiful Jaap

Will

I second Will, that is beautiful.

I'm speechless that's a very beautiful boat, price winner all the way

Can not wait to see this boat on the water. What an awesome job on the build

My god - she's beautiful Jaap! Poetry my friend, poetry.

I love the tent - will do similar (in my case, harsh Australian sun).
Having had a good look at her bum, i am seriously rethinking my painted transom.

Regardless - welcome home and thanks for the inspiration.

(I just wanted to add - i have printed out your photos, large scale (The Red Cross has good toys) and i am taking them down to my boat shed this week and will tack them on the wall as inspiration)

Jaap wrote:Made some progress the last few weeks, Valencia was great but back to our daily life and boatbuilding. When setting up the stations on the jig everything looked pretty good. Then I putted the stringers on and said oops. As you can see on the pictures, the camber is on the wrong side. But luckily I work very consistent; the other stringer had the same flaw. My solution was quick and dirty, just saw the ends off and glue them back on 180 degrees turned.
Then the second mystery showed up. Did I made a miscalculation with the stations, the bottom panel, something wrong with the drawings?? I placed station A at the end of the stringer, where I thought it was mented to be, but after half a day of looking and checking everything twice I had the bright idea to check it with the lenght of the veebirth, which is placed between station A and C. There was a missing 21 cm and after going through all the drawings, I found one with the correct station spacing! The only correction nessecary was to move station A 21 cm forward and everything fitted beautiful! Hereby my apoligies to Jacques that it came a moment in my mind that there was such a big mistake in the drawings.

I have the same problem with camber on stringers.
Its seems that they are on the wrong side or something wrong with me?...
I couldn't see any comment on this matter from Jacques.
Could you please guide me?

I think that stringers are mislabeled on one of the drawings. It was corrected but you may have a print from before the correction.

So, is camber at wrong side or notches?

Jaap,

Please tell us about the performance of your FL26!

thanks!

Rob

Your boat is amazing! The style, finish, colors - wow!

Jaap wrote:So the boat has to wait till winter, but we launch her next year spring for sure!

Guess we've got a few more months waiting before learing how this beauty performs.

That is a nice looking setup! What is the standing headroom under your enclosure?

Dear fellow builders, it has been a while. We came back home after 3 years in Bangkok and had to do a complete upgrade of our old farmhouse. That work is almost finished and today we retrieved our FL26 from storage and put it behind the house where my workshop is. Plan is to finish it in the coming weeks and get her in the water!
I have visit this forum only a couple of times and saw some great progress and launches and hereby my apologies for my lack of contribution to all that put so much hard labor in their boats.
I post some more pictures this week, the interior is unfinished yet and my batteries had a hard time for the last 5 years being not charged. I was able to rescue one and it worked fine for some weeks in our car, but I bought a bunch of LiFeP04 batteries already to replace the old ones (that had never been used).

cheers

Jaap

Welcome back

Jaap,

Any news, or even better, pics of the launch of the FL26

We want to hear from you!

Rob

Sorry to say, but I started the summer full of energy and was looking forward to launch the FL26. Besides that I did some work on a small 10 ft wooden boat (50 years old) also with electric propulsion. But I had a very stupid accident with my mtb bike and broke a vertebra with several cracks. But I am back walking now, left the korset behind 2 weeks ago, the muscles in my back are still very weak, but it will be ok within a few months ( I hoop sooner actually).
Did some work on the boat again, we prepared and installed the new battery pack with the LiFePo4 batteries, got the bms working. It looks still a bit messy. Today I fixed the hydraulic for the steering and painted the seats. Weather overhere was ok today, after a awesome nice weekend, but the next coming days look bad with a lot of rain and stormy wind. But I promised to launch her this summer, at least this year, so if we get everything ready that will happen this thursday or friday!
I keep you posted and have some pictures too.
I had to lay flat on my back for some time, so no computer, mail, forum etc. I apologize for that.

cheers,

jaap

That sucks jaap, hope you get better sooner rather than later mate.

Sorry to hear about your accident. Glad you are back on your feet and back to finishing that awesome boat! Looking forward to seeing it on the water!

Same here. We would love to see that boat in the water and hear about the performance with an electric motor.

Too bad weather today and yesterday to make it a fun splash. Next week monday and tuesday is looking better. I keep you posted.

jaap

Glad to hear you are healing. Looking forward to launch pictures, whether this year or next. Enjoy it!

Can you detail the LiFe cells and any system for balance charging the cells? How did you decide between sulfate and phosphate?

Hope you feel well soon. I've lived through the motorcycle accident recovery life about 30 year's ago also. Long recovery, about 10 years and I'm still not perfect. Don't do anything you even think might set you back and listen to your family.

That's still one of the best looking boat build's that have come through here.

Get Well Soon, Bill

wildbill wrote:
That's still one of the best looking boat build's that have come through here.

X2

She floats!! Later more, but wanted to share a small video first.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsFGd3a ... e=youtu.be

jaap

Very well done Jaap. I hope she gives you many years of enjoyment.

Cheers!

Very nice, good to see the boat in the water. It looks like she floats in her lines, maybe a little high but that's OK, you will load her with gear.
It's maybe too late in the season to use her much this year but even a few weeks are better than waiting.

Congratulations! Thank you for posting the video.

A bit hectic day today, but we arrived with the boat on the trailer at around 14:00 hours in the harbour and the launching went smooth and easy and we made our first short trip. Up to the lake (Terkaplester Poelen and Sneeker meer) and from there to our home. Weather looks very good on friday and saturday so we take our chance.
The boat is surprisingly good, more stable then expected, but the bow is a little to high. We have no diesel engine, but an electric 48 V brushless 10 kW motor with a 16 180 Ah LifePo4 cells of 3.2 V. The motor controller is Curtiss. So under full throttle the battery pack has to deliver around 200 Amps but surprisingly the motor takes only up to 127 Amp and makes no more rpm then 850. It should do more so something to sort out this week (I hope). The other thing we need to adjust is the rudder. I think we have to make it deeper, almost as deep as the keel and maybe a little longer. My hydraulic steering pump has to make to many rotations from left to right. On speed (speed?? above 6 km/u (4 mph)) it works fine, but on low speed, which we do her quite often, because of all the small harbors and bridges, she gets out of control. A bow thruster would be nice, but at this moment the bow is too high.
I never had a bow thruster in our other boats, so maybe this one is not necessary too.
Stability is really good, it is still a narrow boat and it runs on the lake very very nice.
Topspeed today was 12,4 km/h on my gps, which takes just over 6 kW power. So we miss a 3,5 kW of power.
Our regular allowed speed is 6 km/h and then the motor takes around 1,6 kW. Is this an eye opener for all this big engine guys .
We do some more boating later this week and I really hope to make a better movie, this one comes straight from an Iphone 5s.
Will be continued....

jaap











https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayilmbC ... HdK8OZ2Btg

The boat looks amazing, you have done an excellent job.

The rudder seems way to high. on that picture with the prop, it seems very obvious that it will not meet the propulsion thus the rudder will not be responsive.

Below pic may better explain what I am trying to say.. the rudder is covering all the water that is thrown at it by the propeller thus more trust on the rudder to be more responsive...

And this is your propeller to rudder interaction.
The shaft angle seems too much, much as in a displacement.
Your boat looks as more flat bottom to me.
I tried to show with red lines where the propulsion is sent thus seems lost..

I hope I am mistaken by the picture, my 2 cents..

Unfortunately, Icelikkilinc is correct.
As designed, if you draw a line representing the shaft, it goes through the middle of the rudder blade.
Here, it looks like Jaap used a larger diameter prop. This was probably required for optimum efficiency of the electric motor but that required to change the shaft angle and apparently, a deeper skeg. All that is fine but in that case, we also need a deeper rudder blade.
Jaap, maybe your supplier will accept to trade it or somebody may be able to modify the blade.
Look at the plans: the lower tip of the rudder blade is lined up with the lower tip of the prop. That is what you need.
No need to make it deeper than the skeg.
It is not catastrophic, it's fine tuning and part of experimenting with electric propulsion.
Everything else looks absolutely great.

One more thing. Now that we see more pictures, it looks like your boat is still very light. Once you load her with cruising gear, she will be more stable, track better and be less sensitive to the wind.
She will also be faster and run better through a chop once the tip of the bow is immersed.
In the design, I counted on 2 persons plus gear plus ground tackle in the bow. You will get there quickly.
It's better to have too light than too heavy.

If you were to add a skeg and increase the size of the rudder(that's my setup and very pleased with the rudder response) , you will be adding weight back of the cg. Your bow is already high so just remember to calculate that as well

Thanks for the nice words, we think that boat will serve us very well for weekend trips around the lakes here. The engine weights some 60 kg and the battery pack 120 kg. That is much less then the calculated diesel and fuel. So I have to bring quite some weight to the front, like a watertank, 12 v batteries for the board system, and maybe move the battery pack to the front as well. If we boat, all the passenger weight is in the back.
Thanks also Jacques and icelikkilinc (the fastest builder of this website ) for the advice. It has been a few years since I builded the keel etc. but I think I builded it according the drawings. The prop is a 15 x 13 to start with. You can set the motorcontroller for max rev etc but I do not have the software (yet!). It is not unfortunately that icelikkilinc is correct , we expected the rudder behavior to be as you described, thanks for the drawings too icelikkilinc; we will use the advice for redesign the rudder, which is a standard Vetus one. I thought (try to remember ) that its measurement are not much smaller then on the drawings.
It was a nice project to do and I am surrounded by friends who spend their whole life in boating. The guy in the browns vest is Dirk de Ridder, our neighbor and winner of the Volvo Ocean and Americas Cup. He was involved in developing of the latest AC boat as well and what is better then have endless discussions about how it would perform etc. We decided to leave it as I build it and go out for a test and improve/fin tune from there on. Dirk was also surprised how wel everything behaved on our first trip. He wants a bow thruster in it, because he installed one himself. I like to leave it out and use the torque of the prop. If Dirk with his 110 plus kg stays on the front tip we still don't have enough weight there. Friday and saturday we have nice weather again and use her a bit and next week back on the trailer and to the winter storage. But so far we are very happy with the stability etc. We got some very nice comments from people who saw us, about the boat. Jacques makes awesome designs for just a few bucks, thanks for that and this very helpful forum!!

jaap

You have done an excellent job and from here onward it is just fine tuning with the different engine you have and weights etc.
I altered the design and I had to move weights, play with the rudder etc.. It is all part of the DIY.
With your skills and friends, you will get there in no time..

Beautiful work

Yes, the designed prop is 15" diameter. Your prop and skeg are probably to plans.
Here is a pic from the plans with some dimensions added:

The rudder max. height in inches = 17.4" = 442 mm.
See the line I added from the bottom of the rudder blade to the lower tip of the prop: they are flush.
But they are not in your boat
It could be that you shaft angle is different. You may have changed it to fit the electric motor.

Anyway, it's done now and the best way to improve performance is with a longer rudder.
That means more blade area. In order to preserve performance at top speed, try to get a rudder blade with about the same area than the designed one but longer. that means a thinner blade (shorter chord).

I looked at your pictures again and see much more blade tip clearance (from top of prop to boat bottom), that means it must be the shaft angle.

Thanks Jacques for posting the drawing and the comment. I won't buy another rudder, but make this one a little lighter by removing a part of the bronze and then rebuild it with foam, glass and epoxy. Save some weight too, a nice winterjob in a heated workshop .

jaap

That sounds like a good plan. Your current rudder fits the bearing and you can build a strong new blade with glass and epoxy using the existing metal.