Popeye hydro sponson blue print

[sampit]

My Popeye bare hull I bought last year the sponsons were way from perfect and the hull would rock on a table top after a bit of block sanding it is near 100% now and should make a massive improvement on the water, this is what im thinking anyway!
the problem is I am a little thin on one sponson now, in fact on the very edge of cutting though I was thinking of making a pair of ride pads and epoxy them on and finish with f maybe 0.5mm carbon fibre plate, and blend them in to the hull with filler, or is there any other material I could use for ride pads? I am not sure how much area on the sponsons I would need to make them fit, first thought was 4" long from the heel,any help would be great.

popeye blue print.jpg

[sampit]

Any one!

[ron1950]

ive seen guys use wood shims,carbon etc its your choise....I had a real boat that was a super light lay up for drag racing that when turned into a lake boat the owner glassed the insides with light fg coat that seemed very strong when I owned it....

[ray schrauwen]

If you use Carbon fiber and you need to sand it to adjust it's more work than a softer material like G-10 fiber glass or Styrene or wood.

You might want to make the pad extend past the trailing edge of the sponson so it breaks free from the water better.

[RaceMechaniX]

G-10 is a good cheap material to make ride pads from. You can also use birch ply and epoxy coat to seal.

[martin]

Yep G 10 epoxy glass is excellent stuff & much cheaper than carbon, in the UK go to hobbyplastics.co.uk as they have a good range of G 10 sheets in different thicknesses.

[Rumdog]

Why not just pour in epoxy/microbaloons into the sponsons, since you already have them blueprinted? No need to do it twice

[785boats]

I did the same as Rumdog suggests in a cat after I sanded them a bit thin. You could even just lay a bit of glass & resin in there too.

But I've been thinking of adding ride pads to mine too as the edges of the sponsons are a bit rounded.

But if you do add ride plates, then yes, as suggested by Ray, let them overhang the heels but also along the inner edge of the sponson too.
Four inches might be a bit short. It's best to follow the curve of the sponson up a bit.

Here's some I did on a RTR hull that had really rounded edges. It really freed the hull up. Just sealed 1/16" aircraft ply. I will be doing the Popeye similar to that.

[ray schrauwen]

I did the same as Rumdog suggests in a cat after I sanded them a bit thin. You could even just lay a bit of glass & resin in there too.

But I've been thinking of adding ride pads to mine too as the edges of the sponsons are a bit rounded.

But if you do add ride plates, then yes, as suggested by Ray, let them overhang the heels but also along the inner edge of the sponson too.
Four inches might be a bit short. It's best to follow the curve of the sponson up a bit.

Here's some I did on a RTR hull that had really rounded edges. It really freed the hull up. Just sealed 1/16" aircraft ply. I will be doing the Popeye similar to that.

Heels as in, plural. This I'm not sure is best. Overhang on Port side yes but, not on Starboard side unless you mean overhanging from the exterior of the sponson. If there were an overhang on the inside of starboard sponson it could possibly trip up or plow into the water.
Maybe you meant trailing edges? Thats what I would suggest. Leading edges may perform better with nothing to cause tripping...
Now I'm trippin' !!

[785boats]

Yeah sorry Ray. Heels as in both sponsons .
But yes overhang on the inside of both sponsons Ray. Stops the water dragging up the sides of the sponsons. I guess those photos are a bit misleading really. You can see that I've added ride plates to the 'ride plates' that are already part of the original molding. which aren't the full width of the sponson. But the plates I added allow the water to break away clean from the original ride plates due to the slight overhang.
But with the Popeye the inside edge of the sponson would be the equivalent to the inside edge of the molded ride plate of the hull in the pics. It does work. No tripping. No ploughing. I've done it to nearly all my hydros.

If the ride plates are to be the full width of the sponson, then the overhang on the 'outside' edges, are only on the starboard one. Not the Port side. That could cause the boat to trip if it caught the water. This is assuming clockwise running.
I prefer to use only 1/2 - 2/3 width ride plates for less water contact.

[sampit]

All getting a bit confusing to a guy thats never ran a hydro before
I just ordered some epoxy/microbaloons to pour into the sponsons as Rumdog sujested, why do them twice!
we will see how it goes.

[tlandauer]

subscribed! What a great thread!
I am also confused, eagerly waiting for more clarification!

[785boats]

Sorry If I'm the cause of any confusion.
So this morning I did the pads on the Popeye to try & clarify it a bit.
Now I'm not saying that this is the best or only way to do pads. It's just the way I've done them.
3mm-4mm at the heels of the sponsons, & 2mm along the inside edges of the sponsons.
The sponsons had a bit of diahedral angle to them but I decided (rightly or wrongly) to set the pads flat & level with each other. Hence the piece of wood & the weights across them.
I decided to make the pads 2/3 the width of the sponson.
Anyhow, here's a few pics
There's also a pic of the pads on the Ferrari Arno XI I did a couple of weeks ago. Made a world of difference.
I hope this clears up any confusion.

I hope somebody else shows us how they do their pads for a different perspective.

[Shovelnoserc]

I'd like to see where this goes. I purchased a Ms. Geico 29 Hull (here on the forum) which was Blueprinted. I had a "stock" hull already. There was a noticeable difference In Handling between the two.

[sampit]

Thanks Ron thats cleared things up a bit with me. Do you just rough the ply up a bit and fix the pads with epoxy, and then seal with a varinish?