Dan Clapp's Insanity by Dave Fellingham

[Dave Fellingham]

While cruising the web I came across photos of Dan Clapp's insanity, a Skeeter class racing ice boat, which seemed like a good subject for a bottled ship. With only eight pieces, one sail and five lines it could be a quick build, but each detail will have to be executed perfectly.

 

I collected several photos and set to work generating drawings. Three photos gave me the ability to generate my best guess for the shape of the hull. Click a thumbnail for a larger version. [i'm trying to figure out how others post larger photos but everything I post has these teeny thumbnails.] 

 

This photo first attracted my attention to insanity but is clearly heavily photo-shopped and not particularly useful.

 

This gives a good partial plan view.

 

One of two profile views.

 

The other profile view.

 

Bow view and intended pose for my model.

 

Part of my drawings for insanity. The concentric circles are the bottle ID and neck ID.

 

I chose a 2 liter Pyrex reagent bottle 5 inches / 127 mm in diameter with a shoulder 6 inches / 150 mm above the base and a short 1.060 inch / 27 mm inside diameter neck, about 9 inches / 230 mm tall overall to be displayed vertically. The plans above were reduced to fit the model inside a 4.5 inch / 114 mm circle which will give me at least a 1/4 inch / 6 mm clearance all around.

 

I printed patterns for the pieces to make from wood onto the paper side of freezer paper and ironed these patterns, waxy side down, to appropriate pieces of wood for the five wooden pieces. The hull and outrigger are bass wood. The forward skate strut is .015 inch / 0.4 mm plywood. On the real ice boat the sail is captured in a slot in the airfoil cross-section mast and the foot of the sail is captured by the boom. I replicated this by building up those two components from three pieces of the thin plywood glued together in such a way as to make a slot in the mast and boom. The center strip in each was sanded down to .008 inch / 0.2 mm thickness. The mast was built up in a curved fixture to duplicate the curve in the bow photo above. The boom was sanded to .025 inch / .64 mm thickness. After cutting and sanding the components to final shape I gave them a coat of cheap automotive type primer to fill the grain for final sanding.

 

My five components, from lower left: front skate strut in front of the hull; boom and mast on the top edge of a strip of

card stock; and the outrigger which was steam bent to give it a bit of curve. The curve in the mast doesn't show here.

 

I have three skates to cut from .005 inch / 0.13 mm stainless steel shim stock and a sail to make - and yes, I'm going to duplicate the Jack Nicholson "Here's Johnny!" sail. After painting and detailing I'll move on to rigging the five lines and get the water and ice ready.

 

Thanks for looking in.

Dave

[Gwyl Blaser]

Dave,

 

I am looking forward to the finished vessel!  The hull, the outriggers, and the skate struts look really smooth.  The lines are blended to perfection.  I think you crafted the hull perfectly.  I'm glad you are going to add the "Here's Johnny" image on the main. Wonderful execution, and excellent craftsmanship. 

 

I think I will  add one of these ice racers to my "want to build" list.

 

Gwyl

[Dave Fellingham]

Dave,

 

I am looking forward to the finished vessel!  The hull, the outriggers, and the skate struts look really smooth.  The lines are blended to perfection.  I think you crafted the hull perfectly.  I'm glad you are going to add the "Here's Johnny" image on the main. Wonderful execution, and excellent craftsmanship. 

 

BTW, your mention of the larger photos in your post, caused me to look into the backend, and I changed the thumbnail view to the regular view. No more thumbnails.  Just full size images.  I like it better that way.  I am always open to making adjustments etc.

 

Now back to keeping this thread on topic!

 

I think I will  add one of these ice racers to my "want to build" list.

 

Gwyl

 

Thank you, Gwyl, you're very generous.

The first image I posted above attracted my attention, but it was Jack who hooked me. I just had to do that sail.

I agree, I also like the full size photos rather than thumbnails.

 

Most of the class racer ice boats are pretty much the same in each of the classes except for colors and some slight hull differences. Another option might be one of the old school stern steerers from 100+ years ago, a time when ice boats were the fastest vehicles on the planet. Here's Whiff built in 1876, one of the oldest ice boats in existence, and still in use as a club boat by the Hudson River Ice Yacht Club.

 

[Gwyl Blaser]

Dave,

 

I can only imagine how scary those stern steerers were when going lickety-split on the ice.  I do like the gaff rigged sail though.  It too would be fun to model.

 

Gwyl