MOVING TO A NEW SITE!

Cory is moving to a new site!



Click HERE to follow Cory's latest adventures.

Or type http://coryrcraft.blogspot.com/ into your browser.

I Present: Valkyrie

Here it is! This is how the Valkyrie looks with all of it's parts in place (except mast). This test was a great success, except for a pinhole leak that let one of the amas fill with water making the boat too heavy to take off. Soon I will have some pictures of it flying!

Success and Some Mistakes

Finally! The steering system works perfect! The Valkyrie can now be turned and controlled with the rudder pedals easily. In fact, it turns a little better than expected. It even handles being towed well now. However, I did mount the AOA beam a few inches too far forward on the rudder board so, as you can see in the pictures, as soon as the boat hits about four or five knots the board takes a sudden nose dive. I should be able to fix this by simply sliding the attachment point aft.

Valkyrie Floating

The boat is in the water complete (except for mast)! Now for some tests of the new steering system...

The Rudderboard --> Shoe Connection

I had to come up with a way to connect the existing shoe to the new windsurfer rudderboard. The connection had to be strong yet able to pivot, and had to be made with parts at hand. The result seems like it will work well and I can remove the whole assembly in less than a minute by removing three nuts so that the board can still be used as a windsurfer! I also added some new leads and attachment points for the rudder cables.

The Rogue Ama

A few weeks ago, while the Valkyrie was tied alongside for the night, something hit the port ama and broke it off. The ama undertook a voyage all by itself during the night and it took me quite a while to find it half buried on a beach on the other side of the bay. It must have had quite a trip as there is a fair bit of damage. Along with fixing the damage I added some drain plugs and inspection port to make accessing the inside possible.

The New Rudder Board

I bought this windsurfer for $75 ec (about $30 us). It will replace the wood board that I built. That one ended up being too heavy and didn't plane quickly enough, but I believe this new board will work MUCH better.