| peterunwin |
11-21-2013 10:34 AM |
6 Attachment(s)
Sorry for not posting sooner we have been having way too much fun down here:D Over powerboat week in Key West i had a couple of constructive meetings with Mike and Paul from Outerlimits who are going to address my remaining issues which i am very happy with:)
Once we got the boat down to Key West i fitted a high pressure relief valve in the steering pump, as previously once the prop started to surface i only had power assistance to the right against the rotation it reverted to manual i.e. blowing the relief valve in the pump, at the same time i custom fitted a vent tube to suit the rake of the prop.
First test: Vent tube was drawing way too much air so had to tape up most of the diameter just leaving a small bleed hole, i can now get the boat to plane in any sea condition. When i get back to England i will manufacture a vent tube with a hinged cap so when you trim in it opens and when at the normal running trim it will be closed this will be automatic and adjustable.
High pressure steering valve works a treat i now have power assistance in both directions.
As this boat is going to be used for development of my fly-by-wire steering system i have been collecting valuable data with instrumentation i brought from England, part of the reason for choosing Key West is after the race week has finished there is basically no-one around so i can do my testing without letting too much information into the wrong hands... up to around 75mph the steering is now pretty good, beyond that the pulsing caused by the surfacing prop unseats the check valves in the helm unit so the steering creeps to the right which you constantly have to counter to the left, when you come of the throttle you have to steer to the right to counter the reverse torque something you have to do smoothly if you don't want to swap ends, this will be cured by fitting a specially calibrated dual counter balnce valve between the helm and the steering cylinders, this totally eliminates any play in the system. I will also fit a much larger capacity helm unit as currently it is 3.8 turns lock to lock and it needs to be about 2.4 turns. I will be bringing all these parts with me for our next visit. This is so that i will be able to offer improved hydraulic steering as well as full fly-by-wire with steering wheel mounted throttle paddles.
Since the end of powerboat week we have logged over 200 test miles in all sorts of sea conditions it has never been smooth enough for us to be able to run more than 95mph engine is only turning 5500rpm so still got 1100rpm to go. We have also encountered several days with waves in the 5-6 foot region and we have been running from Key West to Stock island with quartering seas back and forth just for fun, we spent 4 hours one day doing this never once put the bow in or got spray in the cockpit... This little boat feels extremely solid with no shudders throught the hull with this sort of treatment, it bats way above it's size in rough weather capability. The few other boats that were out at the same time and there weren't many... were crashing through the waves at semi displacement speeds getting extremely wet rides.
We fly back to England next friday as soon as i am over the jet lag i will be in the factory making the new parts ready for our next adventure:cool-smiley-011:
Peter
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