[quote=nacraman57]Ed, funny you should mention Kelly Johnson as I had an uncle that worked in the infamous skunkworks for Lockheed. He would come out to the farm for vacation and it would take several days for him to decompress. He once told me that even though the SR-71 still holds altitude and speed records it was one of the last projects to be designed using a slide rule! Makes you wonder what's in the hopper now. Ironically, the titanium that went into that plane was imported from the Soviet Union! I had the oppourtunity to examine an SR-71 up close at Offutt AFB before it was moved to the Srategic Air and Space Museum in Ashland, NE. I remember running my hand along the underbelly and thinking that it felt like a bunch of pop cans riveted together. Anyway to avoid being accused of hijacking this thread I thought I'd better show you the righting pole you asked about that I made several years ago for my 5.0. It is an Alcoa seamless 6061 aluminum tube 2.25 OD, .083 wall. The hinge is made of the same indestructable acrylic plastic cutting boards are made of. The line is a .25" Marlow pre-stretched although I think some of the new space age Dyneemas might work better. At the end of the pole I installed a small block that I can feed a rope attached to a righting bag if need be. There are more pictures I put in an album in the Tech section.I used rope locks instead stopper knots to adjust pole angles. The angle that works best for me is straight and parallel to the mast. When the boat pops back up the pole swings straight back under the tramp[img]http://www.thebeachcats.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=79887&g2_[/img] Hope this pic shows up...if not go to the Tech gallery[/quote]
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