Winding down the tooling process..
Winding down the tooling process..
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Its been so long. Let see where were we when we left off last time? Oh yes, Late 2010, Dart #2 was nearing completion. We’d also struck a deal with ABC Yachts to be a dealer for Darts. Now we have Yachtworld.com presence. Eww fancy!
About this time Jim Betts enters the picture again. Leif, the designer, is buddies with Chris. Chris is our local Ullman sail rep. Now Chris is buddies with Jim Betts. Colin, our new salesman from ABC Yachts, was up at Jim’s shop schmoozing. Between all of these characters it was decided that the Dart needed a stinger bow sprit. And, that I wasn’t getting around to this as fast as I should.
So Jim just starts building carbon sprit for us. The first I heard about it, was when he informed me that not only was he building me a sprit, but he’d already ordered a chute to fit it from Chris.
“Oh really?..”
Jim test fitting his carbon stinger to the bow of Dart #2.
Actually, they were right. It did need a sprit and I was busy elsewhere. The boat was completed, the sprit installed, sails delivered, deals inked. All just in time for the Seattle boat show.
Having a “pro. sales force” I was instructed to stay away from the boat show. Never let engineering talk to customers.
Back at the shop it was becoming obvious to me that it was time to move the company. Mostly we needed more room and that pushed the issue. So, while sales was doing the Seattle boat show with Dart #2, we picked up and moved shop.
Most of our stuff packed into the new building. Oh yeah, it was pouring down rain when we did this. I swear if feels like its been pouring down rain ever since..
We got a screaming deal on the rent for this place. Then there was the issue of the land lord not bothering to move his stuff out.
Finally, after weeks of fighting to get that resolved, we discover that the owners of this building complex are broke. Oh fun! I’ve moved the company to a building that’s going to be auctioned off by the bank in a couple months.
Currently there’s two different boat builders sniffing around hoping to buy the place. One has wanted this place for awhile, so I assume he’ll toss us out if he gets it. The other came by to inform me that he’s going to up my rent. As soon as he gets the building.
Lovely!
But anyway, what’s been going on in the tooling department?
We’ve been working on a production trailering package.
Rear mast chock plug. This is in the old building last year.
Making the mast cradle molds. No more plywood mast cradles for this machine!
Keel bulb cradle plug. Also in the old building.
Now here’s the beginning of the trailer story. Guy, remember Guy? He designed our first trailer. It was a quick and dirty thing just to get the boat launched.
Guy and his buddies at Shell Oil (Shhhh, don’t tell Shell) designed up a really nice welded aluminum trailer for us. This was all based on parts and dimensions from the original trailer.
Ok, now the main problem with the original trailer was that it chewed up the keel. Jim Betts had the fix for this with a nifty keel bulb cradle design. The other problem was it was tough to ramp launch with the boat riding so high. To solve this, Guy designed an I-beam extending tongue for this trailer.
At this point I gave the drawings to Jim, he’s an aluminum fabricator, and told him “build this”. He looked at them and asked; “Where’s the base for the keel?”
“You told me all about how to do those, put your design in there.”
He gave us the specs. for the keel plate and we started doing what we do. Build molds for it.
Then over the course of a month or so.. Everything changed. “You don’t want to do bunks they are too labor intensive, you really want fiberglas cradles.” Actually I did, but I didn’t want to deal with that now. Oh well, fine we can do that. Then the axles changed to fit the new keel tray. The design drifted further and further..
Trailer cradles. much bigger job that any of us imagined. Here’s the beginning laying up the initial shaped from the hull mold.
There was an huge amount of geometry that had to be accounted for in this setup. Luckily Tom has a knack for this kind of stuff. It would have melted my brain otherwise.
The raw cradles molds out of the hull mold.
Attaching the backing plate form braces.
Backing plate wood form.. Lots of geometry going on here that’s not obvious but must be perfect.
Backing plate being glassed together.
The wood form is all pulled off. We have the shape and geometry we need. Now we add 1/2” of glass & core to make up for the thickness of the foam that the boat will rest on.
The mold’s finally shaped and ready for final gelcoat. Next we pull off a part and see how it fits.
All dry stacked, ready to bag & shoot.
The part, turned out great!
Lining things up on the trailer.
After MUCH labor and a few runs back and forth to Mr Betts’ shop. The finished trailer.
Whew!
Welded aluminum trailer with extending tongue, composite cradles, composite mast chocks. Its a class act that took far more engineering and tooling that we figured on. But its done, and its slick!
And, as soon as I complete the paperwork on becoming a registered vehicle builder, it’ll be street legal.
“Ow my brain!”
Other things going on?
Washington state is feeling the squeeze for cash. So, it seems that they decided to do a lot of business audits to find those missing tax dollars. We’re in the middle of all this trailer & landlord stuff when we get the “You have been selected to be audited.” I’m like “Really? I’m spending bank on tooling, and you think maybe I’m holding back on some sales tax?”
Anyway, the last I heard from my book keeper is they were coming up with the exact amount the state owes US! Ha! that’ll show ‘em to pick on us little guys!
Stereos!
I taught my fiberglass boat building crew how to build the stereos. Now I don’t have to do it myself anymore!
Yay!
So we built 50 of them! Need a Simple Stereo? We got ‘em!
Refrigeration.
I wanted a project to learn 3D modeling with Solidworks. Also, for a long time I’d been fascinated by Peltier coolers. So, I finally designed and built one. Maybe we could use this to build refrigeration into the Darts? Donno’. But the thing works great. Within a minute it gets so cold that water dropped on it flash freezes instantly!
Racing..
Chris Winnard, remember the bow sprit deal earlier?
Well Chris & crew took Dart #2 out on the Windermere regatta and won.
Stephanie Schwenk, local racer here in town, has been borrowing Dart #1 for some beercans and local regattas.
She just ran Dart #1 in the Bellingham Women on the water regatta, pulled second. The Bellingham Herald did a photo shoot of the race and at least 1/2 the photos had Dart #1 in ‘em.
Pretty cool!
Geoff’s been taking Dart #1 out overnight cruising. Also, racing it with a crew of high school kids from the local high school. They’re having all sort of fun on the machine!
That’s about it