The maiden voyage of the AEOLOS P30 is getting closer. We have all the important parts together. We are still waiting for some fittings that got stuck in customs. The rudder is amazingly strong. It's a real knife. With six people on the rudder nearly no visible flex, only a little bit on the thin tip.
The AEOLOS P30 rudder is an important part of the lateral plan and reduces drift. It is long and works like a wing. Upwinds you should balance the boat so that it's a bit weather helm so the rudder has a small angle of attack ... then it creates lift, like a centreboard in a dinghy like 505 or FD. With this you can pinch off everyone at the start.
Hans Genthe´s personal experience was that the Farr 280 "4sale" is a real weapon, works like a Swiss Army knife and is perfect for the Solent, the Baltic Sea or most conditions in the Mediterranean. Despite the normal rudder, also downwinds the "4sale" is more benign than, for example, the very similar L30 with twin rudders, although the "4sale" has more sail area and is much wider.
To transform the forces of the big rudder into the hull we have developed a rudder bearing box. Each bearing has 170 balls which carry the load.
These AEOLOS Rudder bearings brought some unexpected tasks ... the bearing quality which we got here in the UAE was not acceptable ... at least to weak. After a lot of research we decided to develop our own milling machine specialized for our purpose. We have done some tests with mixtures of glass, carbon, graphite, collodial silica, epoxy, etc. Finally we ended with undirectional carbon/gaphite bearings. Incredible strong and nice smooth grooves for the bearing balls. Interior: We designed a removable mast strut so you can easily remove the table and cooker arm to lift the keel safely or reduce the weight during racing.
The turnable navigation table works perfect. The benchs at the side and for the foreship matressses are easy removable.
Perfect for a lunch break.
The space in the boat is nice, enough for Hans, too. He is 1,94m tall.
Comments