Workarounds

It’s been over a year since Archimedes’ Maiden Voyage. If you read my last post, you will know that I’ve made some mistakes. I tried to address some last year before giving up disillusioned and deflated. The question remains whether Archimedes can be saved, whether I should build “Leonardo” adhering more closely to the V2 design, or should just give up. Here are the “workarounds” I tried last year.

First, you can see the new oarlock support fittings. They include nifty bicycle seat clamps that allow the oarlock to be easily adjusted to control the blade height above the water. Also added are 2 inch risers in the cockpits to prevent water overflow. These improvements worked, however there are bigger issues now that need to be solved.

• The oarlock fittings partially disintegrated over the winter because the vertical sliders were made of ordinary plywood. They needed to be rebuilt anyway though because it appears that the paddle blades should be further from the water than the old fittings allowed.
• Even though the cockpit extenders are light, the skis are even more unstable. Without a skier on the skis, they fall over.
• The FootPaddle needs to be mounted a full foot forward to allow room for the handheld paddle.

Testing on August 13 illuminated another major design flaw. Not enough thought was given to how the skiers would get into the skis. All the testing of V2, and V3 last year had been off of docks that were just a few inches above the water. It was possible to position the skis next to the dock with the FootPaddle blades resting on the dock. Some finesse was required to get away from the dock and into open water. The floating lower dock was roped off on 8/13, so I tried launching from the stationary dock, about a foot above the water. There was no way to have the skis up against the dock with the blades resting on the dock. I had to have the paddles at about 45° from the skis. This made it even harder to keep the skis from tipping over into the water.

So, here are the workarounds I’ve made or plan to make.

1. I’ve purchased new oarlocks that are open at the top, with a pin to go across and hold the shaft in place. The hope is I can have the skis right up against the dock, and then set them in the oarlocks once I’m away from the dock. I tried this once and almost died. I was using paper clips inserted through a hole in the end of the pin to keep it from slipping out. It is almost impossible to get the pin in while balancing on the skis. I’m looking for another way to hold the pin in place, however with the oarlocks moving a foot forward, it will be even harder to get the pin in.
2. The only way to solve the stability problem is with some sort of ballast. I see two ways to accomplish this.
   1. Use weight inside the cockpit next to the boots.
   2. Attach a fin to the bottoms of the skis. A fin might be more effective, since I would be able to get the weight lower down.

I tested interior ballast using stones. A couple of pounds allowed me to get into the skis when when the paddles were in place, however at one point I removed the paddles from the oarlocks (by pulling out the pin) and they fell right over into the water. I’ve decided to bite the bullet and get some fins. It seems there are glue-on options for standup paddle boards.

I’ve fabricated this test rig so I can figure out how much weight is needed, and how long the fin needs to be.

The ski is upside down in this picture. A 13 inch piece of wood sticks down from the bottom of the ski to simulate the fin. Quartz (counter top) blocks have been cut to 1/2 LB, 1 LB, and 2 LB weights and can be attached to vertical fin-simulator at 2 inch increments using copper wire. The little piece of quartz at the end is just to cancel out the floatation from the wood.