For some reason I have a soft spot for achievements and projects that very possibly have no immediate practical utility. These are my "just because we can" projects.
Today's, for me, comes from the Solar Impulse guys. You can go on for hours about the pointlessness of this thing, but when you watch it take off and land, bearing in mind it's entirely solar powered, I think that it's just great.
I especially like the combination of super high tech and two blokes on bikes pedalling furiously to stop it falling over at the end.
Take off and landing videos are here. Shame about the noisy helicopter - apparently it's almost silent, which for me adds to the magic somehow. I'd love to see it.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=UD_en1spjXs
www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9XEjaMqWQQ
Do you have anything that falls into this category in any field? (I reckon Concorde was a candidate, but then so was climbing Everest for the first time.)
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Loads of personal projects, if that's what you mean. I'm a hobby folly-builder.
Clock tower, chinese-style tree house, diverted stream with bridges, ponds, cascade, etc.
In any DIY repair, construction or decorating I always incorporate some completely unecessary features just for the fun of it.
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That sounds like good fun Cliff, especially the clock tower - you got any photos?
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>> tinyurl.com/pojzxyr
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That's a very clever way of getting the Chinese style upturn on the hip, using corrugated sheeting.
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The slightly upturned yellow "tiles" are plastic guttering, softened with a blowlamp.
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I like the clock tower very much Cliff. Gone into garden visualise mode. Mrs C would like that. Hmm.
Hope you don't mind - walked through the others. You have a very eclectic collection there. Are you restoring/did you restore the boat ? (Not the Cutty Sark).
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>> Hope you don't mind - walked through the others. You have a very eclectic collection
>> there. Are you restoring/did you restore the boat ? (Not the Cutty Sark).
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Not at all. I'd been going to point to the boat pictures in response to Fenlander's post about sailing. I restored the boat very slowly over about 25 years, having originally sailed it for a few years on the Broads until 1984. (It took so long because of other projects, you understand :) ) Built in 1880, modified in 1913.
Now based near Milford Haven, but still in winter storage this season because of, you guessed it, more projects. Despite the eager children gathered round on re-launching day, they haven't taken to the water in the way I did as a child, which is a disappointment.
The other pictures are just random items put there for linking on forums over the years.
The "shell case" was a recent C4P item, and I think the old French photo of burning tyres was too. I can't remember whether the one of the inventor of the crash helmet hurling himself at a wall in about 1924 is there or not.
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>> I like the clock tower very much Cliff. Gone into garden visualise mode. Mrs C
>> would like that. Hmm.
The lower section is built of stone, with a spiral staircase (inspiration after visiting Pembroke Castle - had to have one). The upper bit is plywood panels on a solid frame, the roof sheets from an old caravan with a loo ballcock on top.
It starts at ground level through an archway from the scullary, emerges into a storeroom at mezzanine level because the ground slopes, then half a turn to a flat roof with balustrade, and a final turn through a trap door to the clock chamber, which is at about eaves height.
The clock is a small domestic electric model, with hands cut from aluminium sheet, carefully balanced so that the tiny motor can turn them.
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>>> incorporate some completely unnecessary features just for the fun of it.
Less scope at our current easy to manage house/garden compared with previous 20yrs in the fen with space/materials to undertake any project however...
I like a bit of interest too and when I built our pergola here the finishing touch was a set of restored Avery steelyard balance scales on a hook from which hangs an old galvanised bucket 3/4 full of water and initially balanced with the scale arm horizontal.
It's my weather predictor as evaporation in dry warm weather causes the balance arm to drop and rain fills the bucket causing it to rise. Final step will be to paint up a scale on a board with similar weather comments to a barometer such as dry, fair etc.
Of course daughters claim it isn't a predictor at all but an indicator of current state... spoilers the both of them.
Steelyard scales... gateway.ntpl.org.uk/hppa-zooms/00000000478/cms_sno04265.bro
Last edited by: Fenlander on Wed 4 Jun 14 at 11:15
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Sailed loads as a kid/teen and a bit beyond but not done so for many years. We were buzzing about the coast with outboard power last weekend surrounded by sailing craft... sail is a very satisfying, efficient and elegant way to travel.
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Very ingeniuos, yet simple, Fenlander. that's just the sort of thing I love, especially the finishing touch with the scale and wording.
There's a large shallow puddle on a section of flat road near us, on the top of a slight plateau.
On my return home from work I can always estimate what the weather has been like at home that day because
a) when it rains the puddle spreads
b) when it has stopped raining it slowly drains, and evaporates.
So I can measure, in feet and inches if I bothered stopping to measure,
How much rain
When it stopped raining
How hot the day has been.
So I don't need to enquire "Had a good day?" I can say "Nice here after the rain stopped late morning. Did you get the mowing done?"
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Cranks, I'm with you in saluting Solar Impulse but I don't agree that it's a pointless achievement. Think of the Wright brothers: their achievement wasn't heavier-than-air flight - that had been understood for decades - but to combine it with a viable, lightweight power source. The machine they built wasn't of any practical use, but look at what they started.
Now that we're looking to a future beyond the internal combustion engine, a viable flying machine that doesn't rely on it is a significant step forward. The first of any new type is bound to look hokey and unconvincing, but pointless? In this case I don't think so.
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I agree WDB. I didn't mean I'd go on about the pointlessness, just that others will (and do - loads of internet comments from people whinging).
I'd like to see some cargo ships fitted out with sails again. The old tea clippers were perhaps the peak of sailing prowess in terms of speed/cargo delivery, and it was effectively free power. It always seems to me that there must be at least SOME cargo being shipped about today that doesn't have actually to be there in two nano-seconds or the world will end, and we could go back to using some sort of sails, even if it only supplements other power sources.
Whilst we're playing, why not put at least SOME cargo back on the canals?
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>> Whilst we're playing, why not put at least SOME cargo back on the canals?
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Absolutely, I've been saying this for years. Non-perishables could easily be moved around by canal. Direct routes to and from city/town centres, what's not to like?
Brilliant call on the sails, CC, if you don't mind my saying. Excellent idea.
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Well, just shows that whatever idea you have, someone has always done it first.
Happening now, in a high tech way. Good on them - even if it doesn't work, others might follow with modifications.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Beluga_Skysails
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I like the sail-cargo idea as well, but unfortunately due to the "modern" world we've created I doubt that there is the caliber of Man to fill the boots of the long-gone sailor of old. Also the usual bug-bear rises it's head again - Money! It would cost too much in man-hour wages to take 5 days to move something from here to say, Spain, with 20 men instead of 4, and also the insurance companies wouldn't like the risk of the extended time of goods at sea.
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>> I like the sail-cargo idea as well, but unfortunately due to the "modern" world we've
>> created I doubt that there is the caliber of Man to fill the boots of
>> the long-gone sailor of old.
What absolute garbage. The feats of sailors, both male and female, become ever more extreme and impressive as time goes on. We push and overcome the boundaries of previous generations with every new generation, in all fields of human endeavour. Except maybe space exploration at the moment, and that's got nothing to do with there being no "real men" around.
Tut tut.
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"...there must be at least SOME cargo being shipped about today that doesn't have actually to be there in two nano-seconds..."
It seems there's lots of it, in fact - so-called "slow steaming" where bulk freighters run slower to burn less fuel has become commonplace in the shipping industry.
Some bright spark copped on that much shipping traffic brings a steady supply of oil/goods/cheaply made tat from A to B. So long as the required amount arrives at its destination each day, how long it takes to get there doesn't really matter.
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I was intrigued, after my throwaway comment about clippers, to see this in the wikipedia entry (I know I know):
The last China clippers were acknowledged as the fastest sail vessels. When fully rigged and riding a tradewind, they had peak average speeds over 16 knots (30 km/h). The Great Tea Race of 1866 showcased their speed. China clippers are also the fastest commercial sailing vessels ever made. Their speeds have been exceeded many times by modern yachts, but never by a commercial sail vessel. Only the fastest windjammers could attain similar speeds.
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>> Only the fastest windjammers could attain similar speeds.
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The Cutty Sark's fastest recorded speed was 17.5 knots, but I think was estimated to have touched 21 at times. Given the apparatus of the day, it was probably difficult to measure instantaneous speed. Did they still drop a log over the stern and count the knots as the line ran out, or were impeller logs in use then?
It was said that the Cutty Sark was the fastest in a strong wind, but the Thermopylae was unbeatable at ghosting in a light wind.
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>> Did they still drop a log over the stern and count
>> the knots as the line ran out, or were impeller logs in use then?
You horror. I didn't know, and a quick Google leads me to
"The patent log was invented in 1688 by the English instrument maker Humphry Cole."
And now my evening will be gone poking about that little bit of history. Ta!
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>>> Did they still drop a log over the stern
Still the done thing with some charter fishing boats where the facilities are jealously guarded by the captain/owner!
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"Did they still drop a log over the stern"
Different meaning entirely in my world :-)
I'm quite jealous of you handyman types. I wouldn't have the time/skills/space/initiative for such projects so my tinkering is mainly simple stuff which can't easily go wrong, but I sometimes wish I could do more.
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I love CP's boat, and am impressed by the single-minded energy it takes to complete such a project and sail about in it. I am quite good at that sort of thing but wouldn't dare at my age undertake anything so open-ended. There isn't usually much design involved and most of the work goes into making sure the thing is structurally sound and well-finished. The latter can go on for ever...
I sometimes dream of getting a Thames rowing tub, one of those things you used to be able to hire at Richmond, rigging it for sculls or offset proper oars with sliding seats and fitting it with a small quiet steam engine for the smallish river here. What better way to laze a couple of miles upstream to the waterside pub on a summer evening. But I can't afford it, and would have to negotiate with neighbours for handy river access.
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>> There isn't usually
>> much design involved and most of the work goes into making sure the thing is
>> structurally sound and well-finished. The latter can go on for ever...
It certainly goes on for ever. I spend much more time doing maintenance and tinkering than I do actual sailing. And of course quite a lot of time goes just lazing about on the river watching the world go by, drink in hand.
There was actually a lot of design involved, or at least redesign. It had never really had a very satisfactory rig, and the earlier alterations were a bit ill-conceived. So I stripped the entire deck and cabin off and rebuilt it, moved the mast back about a foot, and reconstructed what I imagined the original counter stern to have looked like, it having been sawn off in 1913.
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>> reconstructed what I imagined the original counter stern to have looked like, it having been sawn off in 1913.
Heh heh... looks all right though. If it isn't a delicate question, how does it sail?
I'm not a sailor but get the general idea in some detail. However 'a tendency to gripe with the wind on the quarter' won't tell me much.
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>> Heh heh... looks all right though. If it isn't a delicate question, how does it
>> sail?
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OK, now, but it's taken years of fiddling about with different sizes of sail, different trim fore and aft, different lengths of bowsprit, weight and distribution of ballast.
I'm sure you appreciate that it's mostly a question of the balance between the pivot point in the water (Centre of Lateral Resistance) and the sort of centre of gravity of the wind pressure on the sales (Centre of Effort).
The CoE should ideally be a short distance aft of the CLR, but of course that all changes when the boat heals, and three dimensions come into play.
All trial and error really, at least for a self-taught amateur like me.
Basically it's a heavy boat for its size, and not very manoevrable with its long straight keel, but it holds a course well and rides or cuts through waves confidently.
I was struck by the contrastingly different principles of stability that apply compared with a trailer on the road, hence the discussion with Number-Cruncher in an earlier thread.
Last edited by: Cliff Pope on Thu 5 Jun 14 at 08:27
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Cliff you should be proud of that work, my boating "DIY" has been restricted to scrape, paint and varnish etc. Much lower level stuff.
Thinking about logs I remember as recently as the 70s we used a trailed spinner log over the stern.... a Knotmaster I think. How stuff has moved on as now even smallcraft boating I carry a mobile phone sized Garmin with real time positional charted mapping.
I must admit we do the "what if" about a 20-24ft wooden sailing craft every time we motor out down the trots... it's not the cost but the commitment and possibly now a main issue is living in a modern place where we've lost the land/buildings to have one and all the associated clutter about the place.
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>> I must admit we do the "what if" about a 20-24ft wooden sailing craft every
>> time we motor out down the trots... it's not the cost but the commitment and
>> possibly now a main issue is living in a modern place where we've lost the
>> land/buildings to have one and all the associated clutter about the place.
>>
Doesn't stop the folk in the modern house opposite mine. They just use the front lawn. They do manage to get it all in the garage come night time of course.
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I know what you mean about the non sailing aspects.
I built a boat once. I say built. It was a wooden 14 foot day boat, and came as a sort of kit, although in fact it was a collection of ply and timbers and so on in rough shape, all of which had to be fettled to fit the plans.
It was one of these in fact, I see they still sell the plans.
www.duckworksbbs.com/plans/sf/dinghies/gp/kingfisher/index.htm
Not a patch on your work, Cliff, but satisfying. Took a year or two to get it done. Then discovered that there isn't any water anywhere near me I could sail it on. It went out twice, then was left, and of course, eventually it rotted and went into a skip.
But the fun was the "building".
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>>>But the fun was the "building".
I once bought a wooden kit for a 16ft Canadian style canoe from a local company. Having unboxed it I decided there was only so much fun I could cope with so packed it up and sold on... then bought a ready built example I'd seen for sale on a lawn in the next village.
I did customise that a bit though by cutting off the canoe stern and fitting a transom cut from an old table top so I could mount a 2hp motor.
Kit pre-chopping built up like this chaps...
www.shorebase.co.uk/boating/canoes/eonac/eonac.asp
Having saved effort in the build I then had plenty of enthusiasm to take it on the local rivers.
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>>why not put at least SOME cargo back on the canals
Because shipping containers - at 8' wide - won't quite fit into a 7'-wide narrowboat. A real shame.
Kelloggs were using the Bridgewater Canal until it was frozen solid for weeks in 1974?75?. That was too long a delay for cornflakes, so ended it.
Last edited by: Mapmaker on Thu 5 Jun 14 at 10:45
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>> SOME cargo
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>> Because shipping containers - at 8' wide - won't quite fit into a 7'-wide narrowboat.
Not all lorries on the road are loaded with shipping containers. Therefore, not all freight is travelling in a shipping container.
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>> Not all lorries on the road are loaded with shipping containers. Therefore, not all freight
>> is travelling in a shipping container.
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The amount that is containerised is huge though and height is a problem as well as width. Huge amounts have been spent from the seventies onward on modifying the railway to take containers.
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My anecdotal observations of lorries on the motorway would lead me to conclude that the majority of road freight is being transported in curtain-sided trailers rather than in shipping containers.
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>> Not all lorries on the road are loaded with shipping containers. Therefore, not all freight
>> is travelling in a shipping container.
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Neither are all canals only 7 foot wide:
www.waterwaysworld.com/images/widebeam_map.png
Unfortunately those in the south don't quite meet those in the north, but I'm sure a little bit of digging would link them up. Probably cheaper than HS2.
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'Daft b****rs.'
- Blaster Bates, 'Dynamite in the cut'.
:o}
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Just because achievements - Cliff Pope
