Invention ideas??

Now THAT'S funny!

Why not Virtual?

How about mechanical. It could have a system of blocks and pulleys inside and a line you pull on the outside to telescope it to its full length and then to release it. I wonder if anyone has tried something like this. It would certainly be an expensive mast, (and heavier also).

Am I wrong or do they have a cat with telescoping crossbars to increase beam?

Although telekinetic WOULD be the best!
Heck!! I wish I could make the entire set up Telekinetic!
That would certainly draw people to catamaran sailing! IN FACT THAT'S IT!!!! THE FIRST GUY THAT INVENTS THE FIRST TELEKINETICALLY SET UP CATAMARAN WILL MAKE MILLIONS!!!!

I can't do it. My ears start smoking when I try!

how about some rig where as you push the boat of the trailer a line pulls the mast up,is that a catastophy waiting to happen or what? I think city officials should open more beach mast up storage so we would'nt have to invent this particular method.

Take a look at the WaterWorld movie again if you need sailing ideas. Lots of nifty telekinetic stuff there- except the non-sailing part of the flick that was Hollywood crap. I heard Randy Smyth did some of the sailing bits.

There was a system like this. Inflatable ball at the top,tubing and co2 cartridge at the bottom. I don't think it was auto though.

Someone even posted an advertisement selling the device. I think today it could be automatic because they have the life vests that open on contact with water. Here is a thought...... IF the top of the mast had a foil as Mike Catley proposed and IF the ends of the foil had this inflation device would it not be able to lift the entire mast out of the water and get it to that critical spot where the boat is tipped enough to make righting that much easier?????? What I mean to say is that the wind would be able to affect the lifting of the sails and the hulls would be tipped to at least perpendicular to the water surface so in theory wouldn't that make the craft VERY easy to right? Would that not be another selling point??

Greg

The whole idea of a mast float is to keep the boat from going turtle. Righting is a different problem.

You guys need to think about towing your boats backwards. Makes putting the mast up much easier.

Mike. You mean with the sail on?? I can see how towing the boat backwards with the sail on might help bring the mast up. .....and back down with chunks of hull attached to the shrouds

Back to the telekenisis bit. I guess all catamarans ARE telekinetically assemblable. The sailors are the ones who have to learn telekenisis. Rick?.... Can you add that to one of your seminars??

I have seen enough masts dropped to steer clear of anyone hoisting it up, no matter how firm their grip appears.
The thought of the average sailor telekineticaly stepping their mast, well, the slightest distraction, and crash!
"Wanna Beer" (crash) short shorts (crash)bikini(crash) "What's your sail number?" (crash) now let's think where the shroud pin is? (crash)
I think the increased liability would exceed the advantage of not holding the mast as you hoist it into the power line...?

The mind is a terrible thing....

Are you stepping the mast with boat on the trailer backwards? If so what are the advantages to this? My Mystere 6.0 has no pins ("So every body get to hell out of the Way")in the mast base and so I tie it off using a fairlead on the mast near the base to another on the beam centre.Get on the tramp lift and push it upright and get somone to pin it. Now if there was a trailer A' la' tornado cat or Mrarstom I think, that tilted sideways enough to pivot the hulls vertical so you could attach the mast base and then walk mast till it was perpendicular, pin it to the bridle then swing the whole boat mast up, horizontal. Or you could compile all my ideas' on video take them down to parks' and recs' and they will probably be willing to give you mast up storage on a beach all by yourselves.

My latest invention (I'm going for the prize) is a lifejacket that makes me look buff. You know fat guys would wear them if I could do that!

good luck with that!

i have been making ritual wind indicators using model airplane technology for years. think of a hand launch glider fuselage with a wire shaft through the balance point, minus the wing and elevator. some of my early ones were made with balsa, bamboo, feathers, and decorative colored thread wrapping with shaft bearings similar to a rubber powered model plane. my recent versions have a colorful soda straw fuselage, vane made from half the bottom of a styro coffee cup (shaped and sanded), with a piece of sharpened pencil for an adjustable nose weight. these things are very sensitive and move in the slightest puff. they only last a few months so i am repeatedly reinventing them. wind seeker icons.

Good Idea.

GARY

As for limiting the mast from the 90 degree position:
I have a non-stretch line on a the winch which goes through a block setup up at the top of the mast support on the trailer. The height is just right for leveraging the mast once it's on the ball and raised about a foot or two off the rear crossbeam. I attach the line around the mast above the spreader and tie it back onto itself with a trucker's loop(I make the loop point the same as the forstay end length to allow me to untie once the mast is up). This keeps the mast at 90 degrees when raising.
For side to side control I use my jib blocks with cleats clipped to two eyelets on my trailer cross member on either side of the front crossbeam. The jib sheet is then attached to a trap wire per side.
So from one position I can crank the winch, raisng the mast and steady the side to side motion with the jib sheet.
There's room for improvement but since I only set this up once or twice per season it works for me.

Tim

I do have my boat backwards on the trailer.It's just a lot easier to set it up by myself. I have a pin for mine, most tie on though. I tie my spin. halyard to the front spin. pole tang before raising. After I raise it I pull that and cleat it then jump down and pin it. The only real negative to doing it this way is if you drop it your car takes the hit. I think the big advantage is the angle of the mast before raising.I neeed to get my mast support modified so I can slide it up and pin it. My goal is to be able to get my shoulder under the mast before I start to push up. A lot easier on the back. I'll take some pic's this weekend and post them next week.

We had a guy here with a 18sq. He modified his tilt trailer. He added a 5hp gas motor and hydraulic pump and hydraulic ram. Tilting his boat for trailering took seconds. A tweak to the geometry and your idea would work.

And Bob,just so you know,I understand your posts. Must be a Canadian boat thing. LOL.

Mike,

If I understand what you are doing, you rest the mast on the car to hold it high enough to help when you raise it. I have an H-16 and made a tripod that I set the mast on to hold it up when I raise it. That may be a way for you to hold the mast up (and turn the boat around on the trailer). I extend the jib halyard with a length of line and tie it off similar to what you describe, then pin the forestay. The tripod is 3 poles and some rope, not much to it.

Howard

Here's one from a old Hobiecat magazine.

Jack Hoying
Fort Loramie, Ohio

No the the mast stays in the front mast support.(thats the front of the trailer) That does the same job as your tripod. After I untie the mast I stand on the tongue of the trailer and slide the mast until the diamond wires are over or past the mast support. Then I go to the other end lift the mast out of that support and slide it back and pin it. So when I stand on the back of the boat the mast is about chest high before I start raising.

Not an invention so we've hijacked this thread.

Towing backwards (stern forward) solves a lot of problems if stepping solo. On our beach you can regularly see solo mast stepping on all kind of boats like Mike's Mystere 6.0 as well as a Mystere 5.5, 5.0 and 4.3, a P19, P18, P16, GCat 5.7 & 5.0, Hobie 16, 18 and 20, and ALL Darts. I think Smitty even runs his I-20 this way.

Here is a photo of my M5.0 with the mast in the trailer cradle as I begin my lift, mast pinned with a long screwdriver. The downhill slant holds the mast past vertical as I step forward to clip the forestay. Quick, easy, solo; NO INVENTION other than a good idea. Note the P18 doing the same in the background.

Now I know why the cradles are on the front of the trailer,I have been towing the boat bow forward there was too much room in the cradles. No wonder I've been doing so crappy in the racing scene I'm towing the boat backwards!

Sure beats sailing your boat backwards... That, from what everyone tells me, IS SLOW>

Nice Dave,

Now I don't have to take any PIC's. And your probably right, this isn't an invention. In fact it kills the need to invent ways of supporting the mast like tri pods. Bummer.

Dave I think it's fair to say this is a "developing" thread.

Developing Thread:

The earliest humans in the hunter gather stage made clothing out of animal skins. Only as civilization developed did weaving and more sophisticated clothing production begin.

Spinning Threads

Using fibers both animal and plant to create textiles necesitated the conversion of those fibers into actual threads. The production of threads and yarns was a major step in the development of civilization. Twisting fibers to produce threads is known as spinning. It is a necessary step before further operations such as sewing, weaving, and knitting can proceed. Primnitive man probably first use rocks for spinning thread. Archaeologists theorize that rocks were commonly use by primitive peoples for spinning thread, but can not conclusively prove it. As the first humans to spin thread were nomadic pre-agrarian peoples, there is little archeological evidence. No one knows when man first began to refine spinning technology. It appears to have been independently developed in several different civilizations. Historians estimate that humans first began spinning threads about 10,000 years ago. Through much of history the only spinning device used was the dropspindle. Medieval European spinners often used a distaff to hold their fibers while they were spun on to spindle. This was commonly done at home by the women and children. The term “distaff side” today has come to mean the maternal side of one's family. Wool and flax in Europe were most commonly spun materials with a distaff and dropspindle. The distaff was a forked stick or staff around which a a bundle of cotton, flax, silk, flax, or other raw fiber was placed. The distaff was either held in one hand or secured in a waistbelt. The spindle was a tappering rod which was rotated by hand and twisted the raw fiber into a usable fiber. This dropspindle was the primary device used to spin threads for clothing and other textiles for most of European histopry from Egyptian mummy wrappings to the fabulous tapestries of Medieval Europe. It was effective, but was labor intensive, requiring an enonrmous amount of labor. This and the equally labor intensive weaving process made clothing in the ancient and Medieval era exceedingly expensive. Archeologists in the Middle East have found hand spindle whorls dating to 5000 BC in Middle Eastern excavation sites. One historian suggests that since the wheel does not appear until about 3500 BC, the use of dropspindles may have lead primitive man to discover the wheel. Perhaps during the endless hours of spinning fiber, man may have realized that the rotation of a spindle whorl of a spindle, man may have experimented perhaps by accident with that rotation, by dropping or placing it on a vertical instead of a horizontal plane--creating the wheel.

The Spinning Wheel

Using fibers both animal and plant to create textiles necesitated the conversion of those fibers into actual threads. The enormous length of silk threads created a huge need for some kind of winding device. Silk in China may date from the 27th century BC, although some authors give more conservative estimates, most agrree it was before the 14th century BC. No one knows when the Chinese first fiber winding machines, but they appear to have been developed out of a need to form silk treads out of silk fibers. There is mention of silk fiber winding devices in Chinese dictionaries by the 2nd century AD. The initial devices were quilling machines which may date to the 1st century BC. Actual spinning wheels. No one knows when they first appeared in China. It is known that spinning wheels were being widely used in China by the 11th century. By that time, cotton culture had developed in China and spinning wheels appear to have been a way of adapting silk winders so that cotton fibers could be created. Historians believe that the the spinning wheel was one of the devices that Marco Polo brought back to Italy from China. While this is conjecture, there is no evidence of spinning wheels being used in Europe until the late 13th century.

Weaving

Weaving is the interlacing of threads, yarns, strips or other fiberous material. It is primarily associated with the production of fabric for clothing, but other items are also woven such as baskets. Weaving is well established in aiciet socities where it was generally relegated to women. While weaving has pre-historic orgins, many technical developments over a long period have led to modern industrial weaving mills.

Cloth in CatSailing

Cloth is a very important part of catamaran sailing.

Nice Gary,
Dave your right it's been JACKED.

I saw this the other day. A novel way to cruise on a light air day, and get some excercise. Now to put a sail on it.
http://www.shuttlebike.it/articolo_in_costruzione.htm

and

www.shuttlebike.com