Showing posts with label Show. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Show. Show all posts
Thursday, December 8, 2016
Lavranos Leisureliner 2 on display at the Cape Town Boat Show 2013
In the main hall there are no yachts on display really, just one very small one that's an unfinished product and the same one as displayed looking the same last year!
What is being promoted is the new version of an old favourite and with an upgrade by its designer Angelo Lavranos who tells me he will be trying the first LL 2 in Langebaan late December, after which he is sailing in the 2014 Cape to Rio yacht race.
CKD Boats cc will be introducing the new Deluxe Light Ply and Teak & Ash laminate flooring to Admiral Power Cats, the builders of the new Leisureliner 2.
Roy
The entry discount for yacht club members is 50%, so take your membership card!
What is being promoted is the new version of an old favourite and with an upgrade by its designer Angelo Lavranos who tells me he will be trying the first LL 2 in Langebaan late December, after which he is sailing in the 2014 Cape to Rio yacht race.
CKD Boats cc will be introducing the new Deluxe Light Ply and Teak & Ash laminate flooring to Admiral Power Cats, the builders of the new Leisureliner 2.
Roy
The entry discount for yacht club members is 50%, so take your membership card!
Tuesday, November 22, 2016
1st Annapolis Spring Boat Show
Here's Windalier at the 1st ever Annapolis Spring Boat Show being held from today, April 27 through Sunday, April 29 at the Annapolis City Docks and surrounding vicinity. She's design #1615. The boat is currently on the market for $395,000.
Broker Jeff Grey will be at the show all weekend.
Contact:
Mobile: 774-454-7638
Email: jgrey@sparkmanstephens.com
Monday, November 21, 2016
Machine for Preserving the Wind show video
Here is a video showing my latest installation work, Machine for Preserving the Wind. Its up till June 30th, 2011 atTruck Gallery in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
There is also a review of the show up here at FFWD Weekly.
Oh, and Adam Savage tweeted a link to my sculpture, my inner geek is unspeakably happy.
Each of the 40 poles that make up the piece are mounted on a string pivot, allowing them to sway freely. They have a cast concrete counterweight at the bottom that balances the wooden pole so they can sway with the slightest movement. These are then connected with a series of strings that allows them to be pulled back, and released to sway freely on their own. In this way the poles are indirectly coupled to the drive mechanism, they can be pulled back, but then they are free to sway and swing on their own, resulting a much more organic and random movement than if they were directly coupled.
To drive this mechanism the poles are connected to a pair of large wooden cams. A cam is basically a wheel with an irregular shape that causes a follower on the wheel to move back and forth in a fashion reflecting these bumps. In this case each bump outward corresponds to a gust of wind, and pulls the poles backward. The two wheels turn at slightly different speeds, and the output of each is mixed and averaged, resulting in a program that takes over 14 minutes to repeat.
The cam wheels themselves are driven by a multi stage reduction drive. An electric motor, of the type usually used in a household furnace, is hooked up to a worm drive speed reducer, and then to a two stage chain drive, this setup brings the speed of the motor down from 1725rpm at the input to half of an rpm at the output, a reduction of over 3000:1, this process increases the torque from half a foot pound, to over 400 foot pounds after friction losses. This was fun to design.
Friday, October 28, 2016
Palm Beach International Boat Show
Starting tomorrow, a bunch of us will be down at the Palm Beach International Boat Show, March 22 - 25. We'll be on a 55' wooden daysailer called Patrician. Find us on Ramp 2, Slip #229. We hope to see you.
Monday, October 17, 2016
2010 Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show
Sparkman & Stephens Design/Brokerage Booth 2009The Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show is coming up quickly. Details as follows:
BOAT SHOW SCHEDULE
October 28-November 1, 2010
Prime Time Preview:
Thurs. Oct 28, 10am - 7pm
General Admission:
Fri. Oct 29, 10am - 7pm
Sat. Oct 30, 10am - 7pm
Sun. Oct 31, 10am - 7pm
Mon. Nov 1, 10am - 5pm
Sparkman & Stephens will again be located with our design/brokerage booth in the Superyacht Builders & Designers tent. Our booth number is 765.
We will also have the 126' Feadship Krisujen on display, located at dock FG, between the Superyacht Builders & Designers tent and the Swimming Hall of Fame.
Krisujen - Image by Billy BlackPlease feel to inquire if you require complimentary tickets. We have a limited number and these will be treated on a first-come-first-serve basis. We look forward to seeing you in Fort Lauderdale.
Wednesday, October 12, 2016
Anchored in Townsville under an awesome Air Show
12-16 October 2016
We dropped the mooring in Pioneer Bay soon after first light and motored south in almost windless conditions along the western shores of Orpheus Island towards Townsville where we planned to spend a few days before continuing our trek south.
We lived in this North Queensland city in the 1980’s. It was where we bought our first house and all our children were born. Although not having been back for quite a while, we still had a number of friends here we were hoping to catch up with. We also discovered we had arrived just in time for the coming weekend’s T150 Celebrations to mark the City’s 150th Birthday. This included a massive Australian Defence Force Airshow followed by an enormous fireworks display. Best of all it was all going to happen over the water off the beaches where Our Dreamtime at anchor would have the best seats in town. Talk about perfect timing.
 |
| Motoring on glassy seas through the Palm Group of Islands. |
The run through the Palm group of island was quite pleasant as we cruised past many attractive small islets. Much of this area is a designated Air Force live firing range centred on Rattle Snake Island but it was inoperative at this time so we could take the shortcut right through the middle of it.
 |
| Rattle Snake Island is a RAAF practice range for fast jets. |
It took quite a while before the wind strengthened enough to sail but when it did we had a very nice square reach in through the West Channel between Cape Pallarenda and Magnetic Island .
 |
| It was fantastic when the wind picked up enough to turn the engine off and enjoy the sailing. |
 |
| Our Dreamtime loves the wind square on the beam making good speed in light conditions. |
 |
| The light and shadows combined to produce a very grumpy emojo face on Townsville's Castle Hill as we approached. |
The water here is quite shallow so we kept a close eye on the depth gauge as we made our way towards our planned anchorage in an area known locally as ‘The Duck Pond’between breakwaters at the shipping harbour’s entrance. This area beside the Breakwater Casino is earmarked for future reclamation but in the meantime offers a good, free and reasonably well sheltered anchorage.
 |
| Orpheus Island to Townsville - 45.0 Nautical Miles - 8 Hours 02 Minutes Average Speed 5.6 Knots - Max Speed 7.8 Knots |
 |
| Townsville's Duck Pond can provide a shallow but free anchorage adjacent to the centre of the city. |
However it is very shallow with only the quarter of the area further most from the Casino offering depths of more than of 1 to 1.5 metres at low tide. The sea bed is very soft, fine mud which is very forgiving if you do touch, or in our case, sit in, the bottom. We draw 1.5 metres and on a couple of low tides during our stay our keel was buried about 30cm in the mud without any problems. The soft bottom does require putting out more anchor chain than you’d normally use in such shallow depths. Many people have been caught out here with boats dragging in moderate winds. Access to the shore is available via a dinghy dock next to the fuel dock in the marina for a $10 a day charge.
 |
| Sunset from Townsville's Duck Pond anchorage. |
 |
| A stark reminder that we were in Crocodile country was this trap complete with pig's head bait in Townsville's Duck Pond. |
Beside the marina the Tobrook Memorial Baths which were originally built back in 1950 have been expanded once again while preserving its heritage. Because of Townsville’s warmer climate, the Tobruk Pool was used as a training venue for the Australian swimming squad for the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games and 1960 Rome Olympic Games. Team members included Australian swimming legends Dawn Fraser, Murray Rose and Lorraine Crapp. Six world records and 13 Australian records were set there in one night in 1956, with the footage featured on the first day of television broadcast in Melbourne.
Continuing west, The Strand is now full of new public amenities including a water park, excellent children’s playgrounds, exercise equipment, outdoor stage area, public art, cafes and the excellent rock pool swimming facility at the western end. On the headland at Kissing Point the old Army Reserve Barracks has also been redeveloped with a military museum, parkland walks, art gallery and lookouts. We enjoyed the best part of a day exploring Townsville foreshore including an excellent lunch at a Greek Café.
 |
| We were very impressed with Townsville's redeveloped Strand. |
 |
| The public facilities such as this BBQ area are first class. |
 |
| No need for a gym membership when there is such good outdoor exercise equipment in the park. |
 |
| Not all is at it first seems. |
 |
| A fun piece of public art. |
 |
| No shortage of fun for the kids here. |
 |
| Townsville's Strand provides plenty of options for a dip. |
 |
| The rock pool is excellent. |
 |
| A couple of the Townsville locals we came across. |
Great Townsville friends Peter and Mariane joined us on board Our Dreamtime on Saturday morning to get set for the big airshow. As we enjoyed a great lunch of fresh seafood on the stern, we were provided with plenty of entertainment as vessels both great and small filled the duck pond jockeying for the best view. With all the action happening overhead we really didn’t think it mattered that a number of boats anchored in front of us. Sure enough ALL the huge range of aircraft taking part across the five hour show flew low directly over our boat at different points of their demonstrations.
 |
| Fresh prawns, Moreton Bay bugs and bubbles waiting for the air show to start. |
 |
| An hour earlier there was not one boat anchored behind us. |
Heritage warbirds such as a P51 Mustang, Catalina Flying Boat, Lockheed Hudson and Neptune Maritime Surveillance aircraft were joined by the RAAF’s latest and greatest including FA18 Super Hornet, C17, Wedgetail and of course the Roulettes aerobatic team. A great bonus were two unbelievable demonstrations by a Major Richard ‘Punch’ Smeeding from Misawa Air Force Base in Japan in the cockpit of a USAF F16 Fighting Falcon. The fast jets were certainly the stars of the show. We’ve only included a few shots of the planes here but if you’re a aircraft nut and would like to see more you can have a look at almost 80 shots Rob took in our T150 Air Show Facebook Album.
 |
| We could not have asked for a better view of the T150 Air Show. |
 |
| The sound of the V12 Merlin engine in this P51 Mustang in RAAF colours was glorious. |
 |
| The very LOUD RAAF F/A-18F Super Hornet put on a brilliant display |
 |
| Vapour pours off the USAF F16 Fighting Falcon in a loop over our boat. |
 |
| The RAAF Roulettes in tight formation flying the PC-9/A |
 |
| Flares fired off by a C130 Hercules and PC3 Orion were the perfect way to launch very long and spectacular fireworks. |
 |
 |
| The reflections over the water added a great dimension to the fireworks. |
On Sunday morning we were able to catch up with our old neighbours Phil and Anne over brunch and drinks at the Townsville Yacht Club. Although we hadn’t seen each other for 16 years we had kept in touch over recent times via Facebook. The fantastic thing was we found ourselves sitting and chatting as comfortably as if it had only been days since our last conversation rather than a decade and a half. If they hadn’t had another previous commitment we probably would have been there late into the night.
After our goodbyes we strolled to the nearby Maritime Museum on the banks of the Ross Creek and were very pleasantly surprised about how good a job this volunteer organisation has done in presenting the marine history of the region. There is a very good area dedicated to World War Two Townsville and the pivotal Battle of the Coral Sea that occurred uncomfortably close to these shores.
 |
| Townsville's Maritime Museum was well worth the visit. |
 |
| The WW2 exhibit was very informative. |
 |
| This model of HMS Pandora that sank on the Great Barrier Reef after arresting Bounty mutineers was one of many. |
An excellent display details the loss in 1911 of the luxury passenger vessel SS Yongala in a cyclone south of Townsville. One hundred and twenty two people had been on board, and none of them survived. It was not until 1958 that divers discovered the wreck site.
The Yongala steamed from Mackay for Townsville in the afternoon of March 23 carrying 49 passengers and 73 crew. She was still in sight of land when the signal station at Flat Top (Mackay) received a telegram warning of a cyclone in the area between Townsville and Mackay. Although the shore-based wireless station was capable of wireless communication few ships carried wireless in 1911. Ironically, a wireless destined for installation on the Yongala had recently been dispatched from the Marconi company in England but was yet to reach Australia. Five hours later, the lighthouse keeper on Dent Island in the Whitsunday Passage watched Yongala steam past into the worsening weather. It was the last sighting.
 |
| Karen with a model of the SS Yongala which foundered south of Townsville in a cyclone. |
In 1943, a Royal Australian Navy minesweeper corvette, on a passage from Townsville to Brisbane clearing the shipping lanes off the Queensland coast mined at the beginning of the Second World War, fouled on an obstruction believed to be a shoal, but which was not investigated at this time.
In 1947, the Royal Australian Navy hydrographic vessel HMAS Lachlan examined the obstruction using anti-submarine equipment and an echo sounder. The obstruction was thought to be a sunken ship, and presumed to be that of SS Yongala. No further action was taken, leaving Yongala in peace for another eleven years. It wasn’t until 1958 that Townsville divers rediscovered the wrecks location and the Yongala was positively identified.
The museum’s display includes a very good video presentation and many artefacts from the wreck including the ships bell. The Yongala is now fully protected as an historic wreck under federal law and has become a world famous site .
 |
| We did like the sense of humour of museum's volunteer staff. |
All too soon our time in Townsville came to end. There were many other people we would have loved to have spent time with. It also would have been great to take a look at what has become of our first home but the south easterlies were giving way to some predicted north easterlies opening a weather window for us to continue south. The wind dictates how long we stay somewhere and when we move on .
We would spend one day reacquainting ourselves with the delights of Magnetic Island then we would be underway again.
We love to receive comments on our blog from readers. If you do leave a comment and you also have a blog, please leave a link as well. We'd like to click over for a visit and leave you a comment too.
 |
| Good afternoon from Townsville. |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We love to receive comments on our blog from readers. If you do leave a comment and you also have a blog, please leave a link as well. We'd like to click over for a visit and leave you a comment too.
To stay right up to date with what we’re up to and see lots more photos check out and 'like' our Dreamtime Sail Facebook page at DreamtimeSail
If you have only recently discovered our blog and would like to read how it all started, or work through our previous adventures, click the link to go back to our first blog entry. Stuff it. Let's just go sailing anyway.
Sunday, September 4, 2016
Zeeslang up close at the Dusseldorf 2014 boat show
My thanks to Michael again for supplying the picture which he told me was taken by a professional .
The picture Michael mentions is my own taken at the RCYC Small Craft Basin in 1977, scroll down to find it and the same Zeeslang on moorings.
Check the link for some history on Zeeslang:
Roy
Dear Roy,
Click on the picture to open it up.
The Fotografer was Klaus Andrews. www.KlausAndrews.com
The plans no longer exist, as the original owner refused to sell the plans with the boat.
The picture Michael mentions is my own taken at the RCYC Small Craft Basin in 1977, scroll down to find it and the same Zeeslang on moorings.
Check the link for some history on Zeeslang:
http://www.boat-duesseldorf.com/cipp/md_boot/custom/pub/content,oid,44692/lang,2/ticket,g_u_e_s_t/local_lang,2
Roy
Dear Roy,
thank you very much for that picture - it looks like as if the deckhouse had a very different shape back then. Is it correct that the picture was taken in 1977?
Attached please find a few pics taken at the Dusseldor boat show. On one of the pictures you can see a small red sailing boat model. By sheer coincidence this happened to be a model of Zeevalk - the predecessor of Zeeslang :) Quite interesting that the hull shape had a number features of Zeeslang already, so from Bruynzeels's point of view, Zeeslang clearly was an evolution.
regards
Michael
Saturday, August 20, 2016
Some highlights from the IBEX Trade Show
At first glance IBEX looks like any other boat show. The Mercs, Yamas, and Suzys were clustered together in outboard land. Companies like Ritchie, Raymarine and Garmin had nice booths, but where are the boats? The few you see are showing off products like boat covers.
Then you notice booths selling fabrics, composite materials and resins. The people are different also. They're wearing lots of nice poloesque shirts bearing logos that have words like Scout and Grady White embroidered on them.
This is the trade show for boat builders, and I'm a newbie NMMA Innovation award judge. I feel right at home here. Welcome to the International Boatbuilders Exhibition and Conference produced by the National Marine Manufacturing Association and Professional Boatbuilder magazine.
This is a Trade Only show, and it's all about business. This is everything production boat builders worldwide need to build their boats and manage their facilities. With a 47 percent increase in visitors over last year this bodes well for the industry.
This is the trade show for boat builders, and I'm a newbie NMMA Innovation award judge. I feel right at home here. Welcome to the International Boatbuilders Exhibition and Conference produced by the National Marine Manufacturing Association and Professional Boatbuilder magazine.
This is a Trade Only show, and it's all about business. This is everything production boat builders worldwide need to build their boats and manage their facilities. With a 47 percent increase in visitors over last year this bodes well for the industry.
In many ways it's like a slightly altered dimension. The Butterfly effect is in play. Instead of West Marine you see their Port Supply wholesale division. Airmar is represented by their distribution company Gemeco which I will talk a bit about later.
Award judging is not a piece of cake as my worn out feet can atest to. There are 89 entries spread across 13 categories. Here is the catch.
You have about 2 gigabytes of entry information to review prior to the show. The awards are going to be presented just before the show opens on Tuesday morning. We are starting our work early on Sunday morning. The judges want to meet with as many entrants as possible to give them a chance to personally pitch their products.
You have about 2 gigabytes of entry information to review prior to the show. The awards are going to be presented just before the show opens on Tuesday morning. We are starting our work early on Sunday morning. The judges want to meet with as many entrants as possible to give them a chance to personally pitch their products.
To do this we have to chase them down in a convention hall under construction. This means the seven of us are dodging fork trucks and threading our way through through a sea of crates. Sometimes the entrant is there, if not we try later, and some we track down down and get the pitch via cell phone. If you could see our GPS tracks, it would look like a bowl of spaghetti. I'm not going to discuss the deliberations, but we all take this very seriously, were happy with our decisions, and we all volunteer the time to do this.
I've always thought a good sobriety test would be to put on booties. While standing you have to balance on one leg and use two hands to pull those shapeless baggy things over your shoes, and then repeat. Now do it while balancing on a 10" wide coaming while carrying your tool bag. They get dirty quickly and they cost about $2 a pair.
One of the winners of an innovation award was Trimaco's E=Z Floor Guards. It works like a giant Scotch tape dispenser. Fellow judge Judy Waldman is my foot model in the picture. Step on the pad, lift your foot up and slide it back. Then push down and the aft serrated edge cuts the plastic material. Simple, fast, and inexpensive. I think it would also be great for boat shows. I'm always amazed at how large the pile of shoes can grow dockside.
The thing that struck me about the Medallion Viper II Malibu Command Center, winner of the IBEX OEM Electronics award were the two words said. Automotive model.
Instead of looking to the marine industry for electronic components Medallion metaphorically turned to Detroit. The touchscreen display you're looking at is also used in the S class Mercedes, and other vehicles. As explained to me the standards in the auto industry are high, and production volumes are very large. This in turn insures a long product support life.
When contrasted with many custom marine electronics systems I have seen that are expensive, produced at low volumes and had a too short support life this is a very viable approach. This display is bright anticipating use in convertibles, and has an additional anti-glare film applied to the surface.
A secondary touch screen is used for navigation and other vessel control functions. Modern ski and wakeboard tow boats such as Malibu's are very sophisticated. With multiple ballast tanks and using fast pumps the boat's weight and balance can quickly be adjusted for varying loads.
Speciality tabs are deployed to control wake size and position. A thumping stereo system, seemingly de rigueur for these boats is also integrated into the Medallion control center. This was a well executed and carefully thought out system integration job and worthy of the award.
Speciality tabs are deployed to control wake size and position. A thumping stereo system, seemingly de rigueur for these boats is also integrated into the Medallion control center. This was a well executed and carefully thought out system integration job and worthy of the award.
Airmar's transducers are known to almost all boaters, but their distribution arm Gemeco is not well known to the public. Gemeco is the distributor of Airmar's transducers and much more.
The catalog is like marine electronics delicatessen. Nearly 180 pages of transducers, their connectors, cables, fairing blocks, and spare parts. A huge selection of marine networking and communication gear from Actisense, Maretron and others. In effect every everything needed to deal with NMEA networks is all in one place.
The catalog is like marine electronics delicatessen. Nearly 180 pages of transducers, their connectors, cables, fairing blocks, and spare parts. A huge selection of marine networking and communication gear from Actisense, Maretron and others. In effect every everything needed to deal with NMEA networks is all in one place.
Today's marine electronics are more than ever able to communicate using a huge array of technologies. The interactive "Connected Boat interactive display was sponsored by Simrad and was demonstrating for boat builders the "Art of connectivity."
A dozen manufacturers were showcasing use of RS232, NMEA 0183/2000, Ethernet, Bluetooth, Wireless, ANT, Cellular, Satellite, Internet, JT1939 and more. This was a really good piece of work made better by the presence of Chetco's Joe Burke who could explain in detail what can be done.
Advanced technologies that have traditionally been either unaffordable, or ignored by boat builders are slowly creeping into the light and some of this was apparent at the show.
The Handibot low cost CNC machines created out a Kickstarter campaign were being shown and a session on 3D printing was held. Add to the mix design and manufacturing software, laser based coordinate measuring systems, robotically cut hull plugs, advance composites and closed mold technologies.
The Handibot low cost CNC machines created out a Kickstarter campaign were being shown and a session on 3D printing was held. Add to the mix design and manufacturing software, laser based coordinate measuring systems, robotically cut hull plugs, advance composites and closed mold technologies.
It was a great learning experience topped off by listening to coach Bob Knight's keynote address. Humorous at times poignant at others, and all on the subject of personal self reliance. He never threw anything, but most were careful about what questions they asked him. Bob Knight was an excellent choice by NMMA for a speaker.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
