Tarka shipped off today

Tarka was on display outside the Mountbatten building on campus this morning, in fantastic sunshine. Lots of ECS staff and students came to look and ask questions before we packed her up into the shipping crate, and onto a lorry to begin the long trip to the US.

See the ECS news story too.

Boat Launch

The boat launch was totally successful!

It was really great having people around to check the boat out, and I think the press really enjoyed it too! Check out the following links for the press coverage:

• http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/about/news/2457
• http://www.bsn.org.uk/view_all.php?id=15055
• http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/search/4301287.Solar_powered_speedboat_makes_a_splash/

Some of the videos are pretty funny! You can see me with the strange posture as I was trying to get my weight as far forward as possible to get the nose down.


After all the press had left, everyone had a go on the boat. It was quite exciting seeing everyone's different style of driving, as well as just how manoeuvrable the hull is.

First powered test on the water.

Tarka went out on the water this evening for her first powered test. With only two batteries and even those not fully charged, it was still very impressive to see the speed and manoeuvrability on the water. It's really very pleasing to see what we've achieved in such a short time, and a relief that we will have a good demonstration for our press launch tomorrow!

Solar panel testing

It was one of those rare bright Monday mornings where the intense sunlight was shining down on our south-facing Mountbatten roof garden. We decided to use this space as our solar panel test facility for the day.

The 215W SunPower panels were specifically chosen for their superior power to weight ratio and adequate efficiency. They were connected directly to a neat-looking MPPT, which was wired to a 12V Varta battery.

The selected MPPT has a set of indication LEDs that correspond to its charging status. Once the panel packaging was removed and the sunlight was exposed, the appropriate LEDs flashed on indicating that the panel was successfully charging the battery.

For the remainder of the morning we took some voltage and current readings in order to identify the charging characteristics of the power charging system. These measurements will be later used in optimising the electrical performance for the endurance race.

Boat construction full steam ahead Part II

Recently, signs of anxiety had dawned upon members of the team after learning that the deadline for shipping the boat was just under a month. This led to significant progress on the hull construction front.

Eagerly pressing on, the bulkheads were placed in their relative positions whilst piecing together the separate panels of plywood on top and adjoining them with cable ties.




As a result, we got our first full view of the boat profile; with its sheer size yet to sink in...



Unfortunately, while bending one of the front panels near the bow section we noticed a sudden crack forming, which clearly extended over 7 cm from the bottom edge.


At the time it seemed most sensible to repair the fracture by filling it with epoxy glue, just as we did along all the other panel edges.

A crucial part of the hull construction was adjusting its shape by positioning reinforcements along the edges. This was accomplished by carefully placing stringers over the sides of the boat and clamping them down until the glue dries. The stingers were added simultaneously with the aim of ensuring perfect symmetry along the axis of the boat.


Still, thing were running behind schedule and Dirk had asked for someone to takeover during his trip to Denmark. I thought this would be a good opportunity to offer a hand as I’ve always been keen on building a boat.

Armed with documents written earlier for each process step and the relevant data sheets I instantly got down to business. I also had Rich, Pedro and my brother come over and provide help with what was to be a fairly laborious, yet enjoyable, experience.

In a nutshell, our weekend consisted of the following:

Removing the cable ties

Sanding down the edges

Adding epoxy and glass fibre tape over all the seams of the boat

And laying a uni-directional glass sheet from bow to stern in order to reinforce the boat along its length.

Of course, that work only concerned the inside of the boat. Next, came the outside –the never ending story!

As with any racing boat the outer surface must be designed for ultimate smoothness. In our case, this was achieved by filling all the bottom panel edges and holes with epoxy, waiting for it to dry, sanding and then dusting off any excess. It is difficult to recall the number of times we repeated this process but we certainly went as far as to ensure that the hull wasn’t sanded away into one big pile of wood dust.

So here we are, sanding all the way through the night, removing any bumps or ridges in sight.

Rich spending most of his days resolving that crack:

Upon arrival, Dirk also got a piece of the action having bought a sanding disk for his drill, which he had previously opposed to using for the reason of dealing with extra thin plywood!

During Reuben’s visit we managed to get a look at his well crafted gearbox that was specifically designed to fit with our outboard and Lynch motor.

Here it is in action...



Obviously, for him, there was no escape from joining the sanding club...

The exterior of the boat progressively refined to a nice, smooth and regular surface. Eventually, after sustaining a few hand cuts and burses, a sore back and a permanent high from the smell of epoxy we finally reached a point where we felt confident in her curves!

It was time to bring her out into the fresh air, give her a very thin layer of epoxy and a good wash...

Once that was done we got out the grey paint and applied three coatings:

After the third coating we decided to prepare for our first launch in the water.

Lets hope this baby can float!!!