October 2, 2009-Wings Project Update

wingssail images-fredrick roswold
Spotted Wings

Sanding Gets Serious

Oot's boys have been sanding the hull now for three weeks and that's some serious sanding. Today they applied the primer.

wingssail images-fredrick roswold
Primer

Rudder Repair

The rudder had bad pitting about 2-3mm deep all around the shaft where the shaft enters the rudder. This looked like a break-point to me (also where Scarlett O'Hara's rudder broke); we wanted some sort of fix. The welders at Luk Engineering built up the shaft and then shaped it to restore the surface. What they also did, which you cannot see, is insert a solid post inside the rudder post tube to add strength where the rudder post enters the rudder itself.

Rudder Drawing


Windvane Rebuild

We also asked Luk Engineering to rebuild the windvane. I built a plywood jig to hold the brackets in the some position as they would be on the transom of Wings and I told the welders what sort of improvements I wanted, and they did a great job. This is how it turned out.

Finished Windvane

Mexican Panga makes it to Thailand

An American guy from San Diego named Britt is importing these Panga's from China and selling them in Phuket. One difference from the version we knew in Mexico is that they have a deck built inside the boat that is high enough so that, with some drain holes, rain water can run out. This keeps them from sinking in the monsoons of tropical Asia (not a problem in Baja).

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Phuket