Fabers Paddler Hydroplane

[Ernie Lazenby]

and another

[Ernie Lazenby]

I have made the rudder according to fabers drawings. Its a strange shape!

[kno3]

Way cool, can't wait to see this one on the water!

[Ernie Lazenby]

 Mechanism now fitted and it runs very nicely.  I put the motor into a box which will eventually simulate the small petrol engine intended by Faber to be used. (some scale work to do!)

  Bath test tank testing later today and lake testing on Sunday.

  Hope it works, if it does I will make a superstructure/do the cosmetcis and generally make it look good.

[derekwarner_decoy]

Hi PD's.......Ernie ...we can see the 15 mm wide kevlair reinforced urathane drive belt....but is the ratio 1:1.3???......must be a pretty healthy motor under that cover & capable of ?? 15000 RPM unloaded... so does this mean a 2000 RPM & 20 amp current draw? ....I am not sure what will happen to the vessel as the discharge of water from around the herringbone wheel seems to be the question....... Derek

[Ernie Lazenby]

Bath tests done and encouraging.  Water does not get into the boat because of a close fitting lid across the enclosure where the paddle wheel is.

 Current draw is not a problem.  Out of the water the drive system is drawing around 2 amps. I have not measured it yet under load but it was sat running flat out in the bath for 5 minutes and the speed controler (20 amps) did not get warm at all.  Motor geared 5:1 fited with a 12 teeth pinion to a 24 teeth drive wheel total of 10:1 reduction.

 Ran it on 6 volts and have the facility to go to 7.2 or 8.4.

 The lid acorss the top is clear and therefore I could see the flow of water coming off the blades.  On each side of the mechanism well above the blades I have two vent pipes fited in accordance with fabers theory; I could see air bubbles coming out under the hull rearwards of the blades and therefore i assume air is being drawn in via these vents.

  I have no idea if this model will go at any great speed, I doubt it, but it certainly has forward thrust and so far I am happy at what i have achieved.  Sunday will see exactly what its able to do when i get it to the lake.

 the model sits nicely on the water, approx 1/4 inch(quarter of an inch) of the hull is displaced.

  At the end of the day I have no doubt that I will have a Paddle wheel boat thats unique no matter what speed it does or does not do.

[bogstandard]

Ernie,

At the end of the day I have no doubt that I will have a Paddle wheel boat thats unique no matter what speed it does or does not do.

That is the correct way to look at prototypes, then there is never any disappointment, only jubilation if it goes better than you thought it would.

A superb build on your part.

John

[steamboatmodel]

Please Post Videos if you can?
It looks great.
Regards,
Gerald

[Dinosaursoupman]

Hey PD's,

Though not Faber's Paddler, this is one very fast paddlewheeler! http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=02DKzQFsgJU

Randy

[mjt60a]

There's a coincidence, I was just watching that too!
this clip is a bit longer (not much though...)
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=meDcNK0-tio

[Ernie Lazenby]

First lake tests of this  unknown & untried concept were interesting. The boat works in that it goes forward at more than walking pace and is much faster in reverse!; several reasons why this may be so.    Drum may need to be reversed.  or the step forward of the paddle box is too big and is blocking supply of water to the blades.  Motor cold /speed controller cold so next tests will be on 7 cells = more revs without altering the gear reduction.  In reverse the motor good clearly be heard to be loading up more and this is most likely due to the increased volume of water in the box.

 More experiments needed but I am very hopefull that if the speed in reverse can be applied to forward speed it will be impressive.  As it is the boat works and is quicker than any paddler I have seen!:  I am pleased that 100 years after Faber submitted his design something has hit the water and moved.

 Eddy has taken some video footage.

 I think tinkering with the engineering and design is an interesting challenge.

[Eddy Matthews]

A couple of photos showing Ernie Lazenby's paddler hydroplane during it's first on the water test... There are also two short videos to show it in action which can be found at:

http://www.paddleducks.co.uk/index.php?ind=downloads&op=entry_view&iden=778

http://www.paddleducks.co.uk/index.php?ind=downloads&op=entry_view&iden=779

Not the best quality video, as they were taken on my stills camera, but I hope it gives a flavour....

Regards
Eddy

[bogstandard]

That is very impressive Ernie, for the first trial runs.

Keep up the good work, and I am sure you will soon get it cracked.

I played about with stepped hulls a few years ago, converting one designed for ic to run on electric power. I used a combination of blutack, thin plasticard sheet and thin aluminium ducting tape to carry out quick modifications to the steps. Had it all cracked within a couple of hours of it being on the water, then a few hours in the shop modifying the hull to my water test findings.
My main problem was that going from an ic diesel engine running at say 5K RPM to a hot electric motor at 10K RPM, I had a lot of ventilation caused by the last step before the prop.

John

[Ernie Lazenby]

One of my friends who plays in the same chess team as myself is a lecturer in applied physics at the univeristy and for years was head research scientist for a company. It took him all of 2 minutes to conclude that the step I had put in front of the paddlebox was producing  'negative energy water'

 I altered the step and tried the boat yesterday. A marked improvement in forward speed without turning the paddlewheel around but thats probably still on the cards. Unfortunately the gears in the geared motor stripped probably due to me going fully into reverse before the drum had stopped turning forward.  I am going to use a different gear system  but leaving the toothed wheels and belt.

  On top of that I also noticed that I had got the front of the boat slightly wrong probably in my haste to prove the paddlewheel theory. I noticed that the line of the underside of the hull near the front and extending rearwards had some 'rocker' in it and this will prevent the front lifting up. I spent 3 hours today sorting that out.

  I am convinced the theory is sound and I can get more speed as soon as I sort out these initial teething probelms.

   I have also sourced a very nice lady who makes 1/12th scale figures to order fully poseable and highly detailed. She is going to make me a rich gent in his tweeds etc to go in the back holding a tiller arm and also a mechanic to be seated near the engine. Not cheap at £38 each but very nice with proper cloths and highly detailed features.

 After much discussion and amusement in our house I am calling the boat 'The Henry Faber'  my wife wanted it called the 'Hadron collider' !! She thinks the drum wizzing around is amusing.
t

[Dinosaursoupman]

Hello Ernie,

Well I'm glad to see that your experiment is proving me absolutely wrong. I have a question; I didn't notice it until now but, from what I gather from the drawings, the vanes on the paddle look to form a "V", with the bottom of the V the leading edge in forward rotation. Yours, as built, looks more like (for lack of a better description) a frown, with the outside edges being the leading edges in forward rotation. So, am I reading the drawing wrong (it is awfully small) or have you some other reason for the choice? Secondly, what do you estimate to be the RPM on the wheel while in the water?

Keep up the good work and next; see if you can get it too hydroplane using steam! There's a challenge for you. 

Randy

OK disregard that previous message, I just took a closer look at the original drawings and see that the leading edge of the vanes are on the outside of the wheel. But I also notice that the vanes are more of an upside down "V" than a "frown". So I'm wondering if that might have an influence as to why the boat goes faster in reverse than forward?

Randy