Incubating

Just talked to Luiz Fernando, my boatbuilder. Due to my bad flue, I was calling to cancel our Saturday meeting, tomorrow.

Guess what? He had a bad flue too! He was down since Monday. I am heaving-to myself, since Tuesday. Well, that cleared the origin of the little buggers. I started feeling bad on Monday. And here I am, still down.

We discussed the ring-frame construction again. He started by suggesting alternative approaches. Insted of using stainless steel to reinforce the wood structure, carbon tape or tow should be used with epoxi in the ring-frames. I was worried about weight of the stainless too, and was therefore reliefed by his suggestion. Cutting and welding the stainless involves expensive gas and long working hours. I will consider that when making a cost comparison. Carbon is expensive, yes. But it is the material for a light-weight boat. And we won't need much of it.

Even though we are still also discussing Piassava as a possible substitute in some places. I found research material about tests involving piaçava and epoxi resin. Results were promising.

One of the happy circumstances with Luiz Fernando's envolvement is, that he has a selected network of friends, neigbours which are engineers, scientists and such. Somehow we are allways considering their input in our discussions. Tuninho for example has extensive experience in material test from his profession as a quality engineer at some helicopter business. I have posted a sketch by Tuninho on this blog before. And of course Pedro, which is an engieering teacher at University, and long time friend. He build reclinable bicicles. See: http://www.zohrer.com.br/

They are very confortable. The first day I tried one, we went up the Corcovado Mountain!