CD03 - Issue #74: Designer / Builder Paul Bieker--Process Control ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Bieker took a retired racing sailboat ofrecent vintage (an Ultimate 30) thathe'd found as "surplus" and then convertedit to power for his own use. Thehull is easily driven by a 40-hp fourstrokeoutboard, making the boatexceptionally fuel-efficient.believes could be moderated with fins.He loves being able to take friends fromSeattle to the San Juan Islands on justsix to eight gallons of fuel—"about asmuch," he says, "as you'd burn in a carand a quarter or less than a moderatesizedpowerboat. If your criterion is tospend a certain amount of money to getaccommodation, then you won't end upwith a boat like this. It's more like acamping vehicle. That appeals to me. Itgives up some volume in return forefficiency. Seems a little sad that ourrecreational pursuits are so wasteful. Ifthere's one part of your life that youmight tune a little more to your surroundings,it should be your recreation.When you do, you end up loving yourboat and the way it goes through thewater."In the end, says Bieker, "the designer'sgoal is to understand what the owneris looking for and to create the bestsolution. I like coming up with a sensibledesign that I didn't expect. Youknow, you're your own worst critic, butwhen you struggle with a problem longenough and something comes to youthat is the simplest by far, there's greatsatisfaction in putting it on paper andseeing it get built. One of life's biggestpleasures is when your mind takes youwhere you didn't expect to be."Expect Paul Bieker to bring somedaring to the Oracle America's Cupcampaign. On his 14s, he's now experimentingwith composite rigging andmultiple headstay locations. He's alsointrigued with making vessels globallystiff while more flexible in the microcosm,noting that subtleties in Aleutiankayaks allow them to bend in ways thatoften produce better performance thanmore rigid, modern designs. He's fascinatedby natural flexible designs—suchas fish. He points out that their tails,which lack muscles, twist to enhanceefficiency, but he won't yet reveal justhow he plans to interpret this naturaladvantage. He concludes. "If I do 10boats that really light me up, and eachhas features that haven't been donebefore, I'll feel a lot better than if I haddesigned 100 boats that are mediocre."About the Author: Steve Callahan hasdesigned and built multihulls, authoredan educational text ou multihull design,written widely on racing designs andpersonalities, and made many offshorepassages. He is a frequent contributor toProfessional BoatBuilder.DECEMBER/JANUARY 2002 81
The Foils FactoryRussell Brown is perhaps best knownfor creating a series of wood/epoxy"flying" or Pacific-style proas, one ofwhich he sailed across the Pacific in2000. But he's also designed and builtsuperbly crafted tooling and componentsranging from kayaks and othersmall craft, to sail slides, hinges, goosenecks,maststeps, and instalment pods,often favoring carbon fiber. When hemet Paul Bieker. Brown wanted to buildthe appendages for Bieker 14s. Judgingfrom the unparalleled competitiveachievements of Bieker's boats over thepast six years, Brown has clearly succeeded—andall this from a convertedchicken barn in Port Townsend,Washington.For his rudders and boards, Biekerchose a modified Eppler foil sectionwith a complex tapered profile and hollowtrailing edge. Brown says, "No matterwhat tricks I had up my sleeve, Icould not possibly build these by hand.The recurve would be very hard to dowith hand tools, and the taper wouldmake it impossible." Instead, theprocess begins with refined aluminummolds produced by Kinetic Researchnear Seattle, using a computer-drivenmilling machine. The tooling is very stableand durable, but Brown notes thattemperature control is essential to keepthe molds from contracting and expanding.He liberally employs heat lampsand therefore suffers, he says, "an astronomicalelectric bill."Brown waxes the molds and tapesthe perimeter flanges before he appliesa kind of gelcoat composed of roomtemperature-cureepoxy mixed withgraphite powder, applied first with afine-toothed squeegee, then a roller.After scraping off any excess resin, hecures the gelcoat under a heat lamp fora few hours, then applies a fillet to theleading edge using Cabosil high-densityfibers. Following the cure, he lightlysands.With Gougeon Brothers Pro-Set resin,Brown begins laying in the skins. Thefirst layer is a tightly woven, fine-strandE-glass, followed by woven carbon,both cut to perfectly fit the mold bymeans of plywood templates. Nextcomes four (for the rudder) to five (forthe centerboard) layers of unidirectionalfibers, the lengths staggered to handlethe side loads even when a board is notfully deployed. For boards, he adds athick piece of carbon where it exits thetrunk. A beefy piece of carbon cut backslightly from the edges and overlappedby a thick piece of biaxial glass completesthe skins. The biax will spreadloads from the shear web to the surroundingfibers. Brown then lays downpeel-ply and a perforated bleeder cloth.82 PROFESSIONAL BOATBUILDER
Page 1 and 2: The Following ArticleIs ProvidedCou
Page 3 and 4: Bieker's BoatsForm flows from funct
Page 5: Paul Bieker preps his own Internati
Page 8 and 9: An isometric view of alifting hydro
Page 10 and 11: are plates maintaining the strength
Page 12 and 13: map looks uneven, with really bigsp
Page 14 and 15: almost as well fore-and-aft as it i
Page 18 and 19: Resin emerges through the peel ply,

CD03 - Issue #74: Designer / Builder Paul Bieker--Process Control ...

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?