Almost-A-SCAMP Progress Report #5 . . .

[Spot]

One hour and 18 minutes of a NZ boating rally with Scamps and other John Welsford designs.
I think there is a Scamp straight away when he fisrt gets to the boat ramp. Have to go to work so only watched a few minutes...

[Brian S]

Charles, regarding plywood for foils. I've often thought that the right way to use it was to make sure the grain was oriented at 45º to the length of the foil. Given a 90º ply orientation in the wood, you'd now have each ply set running roughly 45º to the bottom of the keel, and that would be far stronger than 1 set of plies parallel to the keel. Of course, you don't get nearly as much yield out of a sheet of ply doing it that way.

I remember an old timer on the GP14 (14' dinghy, a fairly resurgent racing class in England now) forum explaining that the GP14 always used either solid mahogany or laminated lengthwise staves, and that he'd seen guys snap off ply centerboards when they had to climb out on them to right a boat. I don't know if those guys he referenced had glassed both sides of the ply foils...

I'm also reminded of the several examples from the West Wight Potter forum where Ruddercraft rudders for the 19', which were machined from UHMWPE (King Starboard) had snapped off while sailing.