Tom Roberts

OK, thanks for confirming what I thought to be correct . I reckon what we now have clear is to finish and get out of the way ASAP!! Interesting thought --- it means the 'race' course is from the start line to to the finish line plus 1 boatlength ?? Thanks for all the constructive comments Tom Roberts

What i am trying to clarify is, have i contacted a mark of the course or did i cease to be racing once my bow crossed the line along the course side of the finish line ?

stern has not cleared the line

Very light winds. My boat has ghosted over the line and number called. Some seconds later my stern drifts onto the finish bouy ! Have i finished ??

Can't find it ? Whet is the search I need to use?

I got it for a donation to the RNLI . It came with a fin and lead ,also a rudder. Probably cost about £300 to get it to top condition so a project worth doing. At Gosport we built a fleet of ADRIATIC IOMs ( basically a wooden SEDECI) And we used cheap 40kg/cm servos from Amazon that cost about £30 each as a lever arm winch on a 2 to1 system , worked very well and cheap to replace. Lots of room under the fordeck! I will post image of the boat when finished. Not sure what colour? Tom Roberts

I have just got this Widget and have stripped it ready for full paint job. Hope to sail it at Poole later in the new year. Hull No 1701 . Looks like it was built by Dave Creed

Rub bac k with 320 grade w/d Normal car plastic padding type paste in all dints and dents. Rub back and go don through grades of w/d paper to get desired finish Spray a coat or two of primer Rub back Spray with cheap car spray paint. Leave for 2 days then polish Note !! Check weight before and after process to make sure no rules are broken. Buy wellies !!

Thanks for the wise responses to my post. Main reason was to put it out there for comment. I think we can put the rig to a sensible height under current understanding of the rules. Part of the interest in design is to identify areas of possible development and test the edges of the rules perhaps for no other reason than to make it clear where they are. I usually work in wood so making a deck well in no real issue but to make a mold that incorporates a deck well is not easy for the home builder. The flat(ish) deck design concept would be very simple without a de k well, hence my interest in alternatives. Thank you to Brad and others for replies to my post. Now let's have a look at fin rake !! Both forward and aft ! Cheers to all IOM sailors Tom Roberts GOSPORT MYC

Hi all I am drawing out a new deck plan for an IOM project and want to explore the flat deck option to keep the rig low. Having built a number of the style with the conventional deck well I can see that the deck limits mark goes on the bottom of the kicker well. I want to do away with this and am wondering how to keep to rules and have a deck limits mark. Do I need to have a false deck inside the Hull whare the mark can be located. If I cut an opening 8n the main deck and measure down to the inner deck how different is this to normal well. Opinions welcome !!! Tom Roberts

Thanks for that info. Looks like i will have to make up a silicone mould !

Can anybody tell me where to get the plastic hatch covers to fit Vickers V9 models ( in the UK hopefully).

If you know of a secondhand britpop in the UK please call me!

Thank you Richard , didn't know DC made moldings like that !! Should save me time in future !!

john949 You are quite right, i have made glass boats using both male and female molds. My wooden IOMs come out at about 600gms so you have done well to get a 10R out at about 500gms ! As you say the key for IOMs is to make a fair stiff hull to a good design and keep the weight to minimum and in the middle. Like to see a photo of the 10R in build. I tried making a balsa hull to see if i could get one ultra light, by the time it had sucked up my stocks of resin it was almost the same as cedar ! Tom

I would be interested in seeing the construction of the overweight boat. I cannot see how that much material can be added to make up 1kg ??? Have you checked the scales ?

Hi you could make fairly simple molds for both the kicker well and the radio pot well out of scrap wood and filler. then just make a fibreglass moulding from this.. I buy my fins from Dave Creed so i ask him to supply the fin box to match the fin profile, does not cost a lot and saves many hours ! I tried making the wells out of wood t it is not easy . I did use a piece of 1.5mm ply for a couple of boats, if you heat it up a bit with a hair dryer or even hot water you can bend it to form the shape of the mast well , make a cardboard template from a well on another boat.

Not sure about other classes but i am glad the IOM class rules leave the door open for the home builder. If what you are saying is correct ( and i have doubts about the stiffness ) it means that sailors are in the hands of a very limited number of people with access to complex molding facilities and an autoclave. Surely this means that for these classes it is expensive and is a limiting factor on development and class numbers. The option to turn a design idea into a working model is just not there. Sorry, but i just like wood.

I will go back to the start of the process but i thought i would send these images of how the winches have been fitted in some of the boats. The key is to keep all the weight on centre where possible You will see examples of a winch being fitted in the centre both vertically and horizontally. I have now gone over to using arm winches mounted under the foredeck. i keep a centre web down the middle of the foredeck for structural strength and appearance. There are many ways of fitting the winches and servos but it is important to keep access easy. The orange boat is a much modified Alternative made of cedar but i did not like the colour of the wood so it got painted ! It has a winch mounted on a shelf fitted just in front of the bulkhead. the final image is the first V8 i made. As you can see the layout is really old school ( copied from my Jazz made many years ago). Some of these ideas have been changed and discarded so they are just ideas of how it has been done in the past.

With the problems and long lead times of getting a new competitive IOM, a number of people have approached me about how to start building a boat. There are a number of very competitive designs out there which are certainly faster than I am! I am putting this out there because if there is interest in this area i would be happy to share my photos and experiences of building the 15 IOMs completed over the past 2 years. I rather think there a number of sailors who would like to build and sail a woody by are not sure about first steps. So over to you, if i get enough interest i will start the ball rolling. Tom Roberts (Gosport )

My money would be on the wooden boat ! Because of the construction they are very strong, main problem would be a high speed t-bone but i have never had a problem. I look at it as a race boat so treat it like any other boat. It is probably easier to maintain a boat like this because at the end of the day its just a lot of lolly sticks glued together, in the event of a crash just get more lolly sticks !

The lighter boat is an "ADRIATIC" by Ceccarelli and is basically a wooden SEDECI, so far the design is looking very competitive.. The darker coloured boat is my own design, it is called RHUMBA. It has a very low wetted area and a waterline length of 950mm, it performs well in lighter conditions but has enough buoyancy up front to take gusty conditions in its stride. The aft deck was made using a mold but a wooden deck is similar weight I am going to build my next boat in sitka spruce, it is slightly heavier than cedar but is very strong and durable. I usually line the inside hull and underside of the deck in glass tissue and WEST epoxy. On the outside i use 2 coats of WEST, flat back and a third coat which is then flatted back up to 2000 grade then polished using trade vehicle cutting polish. Apologies for drifting off topic, perhaps i should open a new thread on building wooden boats. I have added a couple of building images but i have loads if people are interested.

Hi I have built a number of wooden IOMs over the past 2 years and not one of them has been overweight. By using well engineered construction you do not have to put a lot of timber into the hull. A well built woody is very strong, so much of the internal structure needed on a plastic boat is not required. My latest boat was built using Obechi ( usually use Western Red Cedar) for the planking and came out about 240 grams light ( includes A rig and battery). below is an image of the boat and evidence of the weight using my own scale that was checked using the calibrated scales at Gosport.

Can i use TUFNOL as a rudder tube, brass is ok but we sail in salt water and the brass will react with the stainless in the end.