Adventures of Greg - Human Powered Vehicle 24 Hour Record

84.NEW SITE FEED!

Tue, 28 Feb 2006 08:59:43 -0700

The site feed for adventuresofgreg is changing to:http://www.adventuresofgreg.com/HPB/hpv.xml

83.WHY?? Feb 14, 07

Tue, 14 Feb 2006 08:59:43 -0700

February 14, 2007

WHY?

I was doing a presentation for a grade four class today at Elbow Valley Elementary School. I was having a hard time believing in what I was telling the kids. To be honest with you, I felt like a total fake. What the hell am I doing here, and what I am trying to impress upon these kids when I don't really know the first thing about going across a ocean in a 30 inch wide boat. I felt like a fool.

Andrew Mcauley is still missing and I am really bummed out. There is a photo in a New Zealand paper of his wife sitting by the side of his empty kayak weeping.

It brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it. There is also a photo of Andrew with his 3 year old son Finlay. He wanted to know how daddy was going to get home if he fell out of his kayak. This whole thing with Andew is weighing very heavy on me - it adds a ton of perspective to how I view this Pedaltheocean expedition.

During our question and answer session, one of the kids asked me why I do these things - why I built a human powered vehicle and set a 24 hour distance record, and why I am willing to face the risks to break the 43 day Atlantic crossing record in a tiny human powered boat.

He stumped me.

I couldn't answer his question. I knew the answer of course, but that answer had no words - none of my immediate thoughts about the simple and quite obvious question "why" would translate to English. I just stood there for a moment, smiled and said 'well, there is an old saying and it is, if you have to ask the question, then you wouldn't understand the answer". The boy smiled and immediately understood.

Suddenly, I felt a bit less like a fool.

Obviously, the answer to "why" isn't simple. If early adventurers weren't willing to explore what lay across the ocean, we wouldn't be living here in North America and the earth would still be flat. We need adventurers - in some way, they advance the human race. Some could argue that a crossing of the Tasman sea isn't doing anything to further our greater cause, but I am certain that Christopher Columbus was using technology and techniques that were developed by others who had less ambitious goals. Or perhaps I should say, had equally ambitious goals, but relative to a different time.

And then, there are the personal reasons. To push our boundaries and explore what we are made of, to test and expand our personal limits, and to motivate and inspire others to do the same. When you think you can accomplish something difficult, your confidence develops from what others before you have achieved. We feed on inspiration from our brothers and sisters in the human family. I believe it is our duty to make deposits to the inspiration bank when, where and however we can.

After the presentation, Matt filmed some kids chanting "Human Power Rocks!!!" to the video camera. I realized that if you want to make a difference in the world - you have to get people to listen to you. Breaking world records and ocean crossing expeditions give you a stage. No kid wants to be lectured about the obesity epidemic and physical inactivity from some grownup with a science degree. The speaker has to be someone they respect with a message they might be able to relate to. I'm still working on the message delivery, but I think it's slowly getting better and my warning about the health problems caused by physical inactivity just might be pushing through - who knows.

When I asked ocean rower and adventurer Leven Brown how he was dealing with Andrews death he counseled "I guess that's just the price we pay for living a life less normal."

I'm feeling a little better. Have a fantastic week and if you get the chance, don't forget to make a deposit to the bank of inspiration.

Cheers,

Greg Kolodziejzyk

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82.Andrew McAuley is missing Feb 10, 07

Fri, 10 Feb 2006 08:59:43 -0700

February 10, 2007

Andrew McAuley is missing

This is horrible news. I am deeply concerned, but still hopeful that Andrew will be found.

From the Sunday Herald Sun, Victoria, Australia:

"Search continues for McAuley
February 11, 2007 08:01am

NEW Zealand rescuers will resume their search this morning for missing Australian kayaker Andrew McAuley.

The adventurer's upturned kayak was spotted by a New Zealand Air Force plane late yesterday afternoon in rough seas about 75 km off Milford Sound in the south island.

There was no sign of Mr McAuley.

His emergency locator beacon was still in the kayak but a life jacket and immersion suit were missing, sparking hopes that he may still be found alive.

Mr McAuley had been expected to arrive in Milford Sound today after leaving Tasmania on January 11 in a bid to become the first person to paddle across the Tasman in a kayak.

Concerns about his safety emerged after New Zealand maritime authorities picked up a garbled distress message on Friday night."

Adrew McAuley set out on January 11, 2007 to become the first person in history to kayak across the Tasman sea from Australia to New Zealand. Andrew modified his kayak by adding a fiberglass dome he called "casper" that fastens over the opening in the kayak so he can sleep. He capsized many times during his expedition, and the canopy cover seemed to do it's job well, keeping the sea water out and popping him up after every capsize.

images from Andrew McAuley.com

Andrew was scheduled to finish his 1600 kilometer journey from Tasmania today. The latest news is that searchers are optimistic that Andrew will be found, as his life jacket and immersion suit were not found in the kayak. Authorities say that people have survived long periods in the ocean, such as Robert Hewitt, who was found alive 72 hours after going into the water last year. The visibility is good and the search involves a plane and helicopter.

Latest news on the search for Andrew: http://www.kayakquixotica.com/blog.html

Andrew's Tasman Solo Expedition blog: http://www.andrewmcauley.com/

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81.Calgary Science School kids say thanks Feb 4, 07

Sat, 4 Feb 2006 08:59:43 -0700

The Kids from the Calgary Science School sent me a package of cards they drew to thank my for the presentation. They all drew pictures of Critical Power, so I thought I would scan them in and post them here for you to enjoy! That just made my day!!!!! Thanks Calgary Science School.

80.The 24 hour Human Powered Boat Distance Record Within's deck is glassed Feb 3, 07

Fri, 3 Feb 2006 08:59:43 -0700

The 24 hour Human Powered Boat Distance Record
Within's deck is glassed

Check out this NIFTY Within boat speed calculator that Rick Willoughby whipped up for me:

You can change the cadence RPM, gearing for the prop, and drive efficiency and it will output an estimated speed and power requirement in watts. This is all based on the hull shape of Within's Nimbus Hyak hull shape, weight and an optimized prop.

Click here to download The Excel file is here

The 24 hour HPB record

The reason we are starting to run some estimates for speed and power for Within is because I would like to plan to make an attempt at the 24 hour human powered boat distance record this summer. The record stands at 168 km and was set by John Howard in his HPB called Pedalos. Some of you might recognize the name John Howard. He won Ironman Hawaii a way, WAY back in 1981. He's also a 3 time member of the Olympic cycling team, and owner of the 24 hour cycling drafting distance record of 539 miles.

I know from the 24 hour HPV record, that I can maintain an average output of 150 watts at 80 rpm for 24 hours, and with breaks and coasting, the overall average ends up at between 100 to 110 watts. My 100 watt speed in Within should be around 9 kph, so doing the math results in 216 km for 24 hours which is comfortably over the current record.

I would really love to take a shot at the record this summer - perhaps right here in Calgary, since all we need is a large, flat, calm body of water and a nice, sunny day. It will be a great opportunity to generate some PR for the Pedal The Ocean Expedition, and for me to get a better feel for cranking out the watts in Within (the power from Within!).

Within's deck is finished!

On Tuesday Ben, Matt and Greg Nuspel joined me in the shop to do the wet layup for the inside of the deck. It went way faster than I expected - we put down and wetted out a layer of Kevlar and the fiberglass woven roving. Then a layer of release film and blanket and it all went into my gigantic plastic bag. We used my vacuum cleaner to hog out the air to get it going, then two venturi's connected to my air compressor to pull the vacuum. The vacuum pressure wasn't very high, but high enough to press the wetted fabric tightly down to the decks edges.

I was very happy with the result - we were able to bend that heavy woven roving fiberglass fabric around a very tight edge and it came out nice and square.

I could not weigh it because I can't see the scale read-out under the large shape, but it feels pretty heavy. Definitely heavier than the Nimbus Hyak kayak hull that the deck will be bonded to. This will create a top-heavy boat, but we know that. The plan is and always has been to either add a ballast keel to Within, or to place a heavy plate between the seat rails on the floor of the deck. Well, that's what the prototype boat is for - to learn through trial and error in real, not simulated conditions.

Now, since I have Pat at RaceRecon to help me with the logistics of this project, hopefully I will be able to make some better progress in the shop with boat building. I think the next item on the agenda will be laying down a thick layer of fiberglass to reinforce the Hyak hull floor, then I want to get on the drive leg. Once the drive leg is completed, I want to build the drive leg bay in the hull, the seat, then the bulk heads. Then I'll join the hull to the deck and cut out the canopy.

Hopefully, Within will be ready for water testing in late April.

79.The new "Pedal The Ocean" video! Feb 2, 07

Thu, 2 Feb 2006 08:59:43 -0700

The new "Pedal The Ocean" video!

Dare I say that this video is now finished! After a million revisions and weeks or revising, creating 3D animations, filming, sound editing, etc, etc, etc. I think this is the last and final revision.

Luke at AmazingVoice.com kindly offered to sponsor the expedition by donating some of their top-notch voice talent. What a difference that makes!!!! It's amazing - really. I had their voice talent record voice-overs for all of my title screens that are too difficult to read on the YouTube and Google videos.

I also changed the logo animation to PedalTheOcean. Check out what a huge difference the voice talent makes:

..

Trimble Recon

I've talked a bit before about one of my equipment sponsors Trimble who make the amazing Recon PDA. You really need to watch this video of the running Recon PDA being tossed down the stairs of a stadium: Recon PDA rugged!

Trimble has started a BLOG called OUTDOOR RUGGED and recently featured yours truly.

78.New expedition name, logo and web site! Expedition management company RaceRecon is on-board Feb 1, 07

Wed, 1 Feb 2006 08:59:43 -0700

New expedition name, logo and web site!
Expedition management company RaceRecon is on-board

Introducing "Pedal The Ocean"
The Human Powered Trans Atlantic Speed Record Expedition

A big update today with lots of important news. First and foremost, I am signed a deal with Pat Brothers from RaceRecon, an expedition management company based in Sydney Australia, and the first order of business was a dedicated web site for the expedition, new name and logo.

So I got back to the drawing board and came up with PedalTheOcean, a spiffy logo and registered the domain name www.pedaltheocean.com which should be up in a week or so.

RaceRecon will be providing expedition support and expertise. I choose RaceRecon because they have some experience with expeditions of this type (see Crossing The Ditch.com , around Australia paddle expedition , circumnavigating Peurtico by kayak and one more very large expedition around Greenland which has not been announced yet), but mostly because Pat is a guy I can really relate to. He is a sub 10 hour Ironman triathlete and is a total geek like me. He digs watts and spreadsheets and aerodynamics and is a pretty decent web designer. He also 'gets' it when it comes to what we need to do to provide value to a sponsor and how adventure expeditions can be run like a business.

77.New expedition name and logos Jan 29, 07

Sun, 29 Jan 2006 08:59:43 -0700

Here are some concepts for a new expedition name and logo. All of these are available as .com domain names. The logos get the message across instantly - the globe with the red arrow shows the route across the Atlantic, the image of the boat "Within" is interesting and intriguing and the logo type is rough and extreme looking. The only thing that is missing in the logo graphic is any indication that the expedition is human powered - or pedal powered. This we could accomplish with the name. Finally, the sub text graphic "The Human Powered Trans Atlantic Record Attempt Expedition" leaves no doubt what this expedition is about.

As far as a name goes, I probably prefer 'PedalTheOcean.com" and "OceanCycling.com" because along with the image of the globe and the boat "Within", it is pretty dam self explanatory. "RecordCrossing".com" doesn't indicate that it is human powered, but does put the focus on the "speed record" aspect of the expedition which I like.

Note: The logo text graphic "THE HUMAN POWERED TRANS ATLANTIC RECORD ATTEMPT"
would be placed under all of these logo options. Also, ".com" could be added to all of the options.
(Click to enlarge)

76.Check out the new video! Jan 28, 07

Sun, 28 Jan 2007 09:00:35 -0700

I've been working on a new promotional video that will become part of a sponsor package. It's important, so I have been spending a lot of time working on it. I quickly outgrew Imovie HD and upgraded to Final Cut Express - wow, what an editing package! I am very impressed. You would not believe how long this 8 minute clip took to produce!

The YouTube version below doesn't do it justice because you can't read most of the small titles - much of it was shot in 1080i High Definition and it looks pretty spectacular on the big 1080i screen here. Much less so in Google Video or Youtube. It originally featured some really cool music from my collection, but I want to stay legal, so I substituted a Creative Commons tune that I liked - "What Planet Are We On" by Five Star Fall, as well as a cool number from my Brothers Band - The Plaid Tongued Devils "Miserlou".

...............................

A giant boat condom

I have been falling behind with the boat construction. Way too busy in the office trying to get this whole expedition mapped out - A budget, a schedule, an outline for a sponsorship drive, and this video. On top of that, training for Ironman Arizona is ramping up and I'm putting in about 3 hours a day on the bike, in the pool or on the track. Things are looking really good though - my fitness is starting to improve, I am making some headway with the expedition planning and we are slowing making progress on the boat.

I have a bit of an announcement to make soon regarding the direction and scope of this expedition. I have been negotiating with an expedition management team out of Australia that could take this whole idea to another level. I'll keep you informed.

Last Tuesday the team was over and we ended up goofing off and talking for most of the day. However, we did accomplish one thing and that was to build and test a giant vacuum bag for Within's next inside layer composite layup.

I have been really concerned about glassing the inside layer because all of the tests I have conducted to date resulted in disappointment. The edges of the wetted out cloth peel up and I wanted to wrap the fiberglass and Kevlar right around the edge of the deck. I discovered that the only way to get a nice, tight layup around that edge was to vacuum bag the entire deck. So, we built a giant plastic bag with Gorilla Tape, and inserted the boat deck into it, sealed up the end and pulled a vacuum. It worked great! We don't have much vacuum pressure, but the plastic sucked down to the form enough to press fiberglass and Kevlar fabric against the deck walls while the epoxy cures.

The plan for this Tuesday is to actually do the wet layup - a big day. Two layers of composite, tons of epoxy, wrap the giant boat condom over it all and vacuum all the air out. Then I need to get moving on the drive unit - then the bulkheads and drive bay and seat.

75.School presentation Jan 19, 07

Fri, 19 Jan 2007 09:01:05 -0700

School presentation and the Childhood Obesity Foundation

Presentation for the grade 5 class at the Calgary Science School

I was invited to speak at my Nephew Nicks school on Thursday - What a blast that was! I had a great time. It was whacky hair day which is why some of the kids in the photos look a bit strange. Didn't want you to think that was the current style in Calgary or anything...

I showed Critical Power and a short introduction video I have been working on which touches a bit on the 24 hour HPV record with Critical Power, my Ironman triathlon success and the new Trans Atlantic Expedition.

After the 10 minute video I talked about some of the science behind Critical power streamliner - like aerodynamics and gearing, etc. The kids really thought that was cool.

I finished my talk with a short discussion about the obesity epidemic. I have established a relationship with the Childhood Obesity Foundation, a registered charity whose mandate is to identify, evaluate and promote best practices to avoid childhood obesity.

The focus of my health warning is that we all need to start using our human power more to avoid the health problems that stem from a sedentary lifestyle. My message to the kids is that we are living in a sort of unnatural environment where we spend most of the day sitting in a chair, working, watching TV, in front of the computer or playing video games.

Since homo sapiens first walked the planet 100,000 years ago, our natural environment probably consisted of walking the distance of a marathon every day. Our environment has undergone a dramatic change over only the last 100 years or so (probably less), and evolution can't keep pace with this drastic change in lifestyle. As a result, we're getting fat and suffering from a host of diseases associated with our sedentary ways.

To put the last 100 years compared to 100,000 years of adapting to our natural environment into perspective, I showed the kids a roll of toilet paper. "If I unrolled this entire roll of paper down the longest hallway in the school, it would be a time line that would represent 100,000 years. Now, the last 100 years would be about 1/2 of one single square of paper at the end of the roll." In truth, we have been evolving for about 3 million years. 100 years of drastic change over 3 million years of evolution would be a single, tiny square compared to 40 entire rolls of toilet paper! How on earth can our bodies adapt in only one square!

Later, the kids sent me a list of questions. I thought the questions were good, so I reprinted them here with my answers:

1. Why are you doing this?

I like to experience nature in the natural way (through physical
effort). I want to live a long, healthy and happy life, and know that
to do this, I must stay active! What better way than to devote my life
to active challenges. To really 'feel' life is to grow, and personal
growth requires continually challenging myself by venturing outside of
my comfort zone. I live to inspire and motivate others. I would like
to convince the world that they can accomplish anything they put their
minds to.

2. Are you going to do any other feats?

Always!

3. How often do you race?

This year I will do 3 Ironman races and a marathon and a half-marathon
(maybe two). You can't really do any more than 2 or 3 Ironmans a year
- way too much

4. How long have you been planning to paddle across the Atlantic?

You mean "PEDDLE". Since I got back from setting the 24 hour record in
July of 2006 (not long). When I got home after setting the record I
was in the enviable position of asking myself "OK, now what next?" I
made a list of all the adventures I have ever thought about doing and
picked the Atlantic crossing.

5. How hard was it to make your bike?

VERY hard. Harder than you would think. When I started, I didn't even
own a single tool! I bought a TIG welder after about 20 minutes of
instruction from the salesman and learnt it all on my own by trial and
error and asking TONS of questions! I got a LOT of help. That is one
reason why I always offer advice to others (pay back and pay forward)

6. What made you want to do this?

I used to follow the stories of a friend of mine who rowed half way
around the world! His stories about the sea were mesmerizing for me
and I always thought that was something different that I would like to
do someday.

7. How long did it take you to build the bike?

About 2 years with plenty of learning along the way

8. Will you be doing any more record breaking?

I would like to take a crack at the human powered hour record someday
possibly. That's a tough one because I am getting older (I'll be 46
years old in March) and young guys have a definite physical advantage
when it comes to short distance speed (but not as much of an advantage
for long distance endurance)

9. How did you feel inside the bike?

Cramped! But it was pretty cool to be zooming around the track in that
space capsule doing 60

10. Did you have any sponsors?

No sponsors for the 24 hour record

11. Did you build more than one car/bike?

Yes, I built a velomobile to start with so I could learn more about
how to build bikes like this. Pictures of the "Rocket" velomobile are
here:

http://www.adventuresofgreg.com/RocketMain.html

12. What are you going to do after you cross the Atlantic Ocean?

Eat lots! And enjoy the things that we all take for granted: A warm,
dry bed to sleep in, fresh fruit, a roof over our heads, green grass,
trees and most of all I get to re-enjoy my family and friends!

13. What was it like to be in the Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii?

Pretty hard core! And humbling! The best in the world go there. I had
a 70 year old man pass me on the run. In the swim I was passed by a
BLIND person, then a one-legged man!!!!

14. Are you nervous about crossing the ocean?

oh ya!!

15. What was the hardest part of the bike invention and record breaking?

Well, probably designing and building a bike capable of breaking the
record. There was plenty of trial and error and many very frustrating
moments! But, you learn how to persevere and finish what you start!
I'm glad I did because there were many, many times I wanted to give
up.

16. How much will your boat cost?

I think the whole expedition might cost between $100,000 t0 $200,000

17. Do you consider the dangers of crossing the oceans?

Yes. I did an assessment:
http://www.adventuresofgreg.com/HPB/09-27-06.html and
http://www.adventuresofgreg.com/HPB/09-29-06.html

As I said in my video: sitting on the couch and watching TV or playing
video games eating junk food all the time is WAY, WAY, WAY more
dangerous!!!!

18. Do you get paid for breaking records?

Nope - I wish!

19. What do you do to train?

Ride my bike, ride my bike, ride my bike, ride my bike. Then I ride my bike.

20. What is the top speed of the boat?

We don't know yet, but we hope that it's cruising speed will be about 9 kph.

21. Will Critical Power be used again? For what?

If I need to defend my record, I may take another shot at the 24 hour
record with Critical Power.

22. Once you are done the boat, what will you do?

Test it. I plan on taking the next couple of summers and going to the
ocean off Vancouver and Victoria to learn more about what it is like
to be on the ocean for extended periods of time. I also need to learn
more about how my boat Within will handle rough ocean conditions. This
knowledge will then be used to build a brand new boat that will be
much stronger and may be built by a professional boat builder.

23. Are you going to try anything out of the boat?

Sorry - I don't understand the question??

24. How do you get enough money to make your bike and your boat?

Well, I worked very hard for many, many years at a couple of
businesses that I started when I was young. I was lucky to be able to
sell one to a very big software company called Adobe.

25. Do you do anything else for a living?

nope

26. How do you feel about your upcoming journey?

Kind of scared

27. How do you go to the bathroom in Critical Power?

I have a bathroom right on-board! A flexible tube allows 'waste' to run into a collection bag which gets pumped out at a pit stop.

28. What do you like most about completing so many projects?

You know - it really isn't at all about the destination, but oh, so
much about the journey! Can you tell me what you think that means?

29. How did you feel about being very healthy compared to many other
kids that are not very healthy?

Wow - lots of questions! I want to help kids become healthy and more
importantly, to teach them that they have to start becoming more
active NOW, because it becomes habit forming at this young age. When
they get older is when the real problems start and it becomes very
hard to change bad habits.

30. What other adventures would you like to go on?

One of you nailed it yesterday: To build a human powered airplane!

31. Are you nervous to use the human powered boat across the ocean?

Yep!

32. Will you still beat more records after you go across the ocean?

I hope so!

33. Do you think you could get more world records?

I hope so!

34. Are you ever going to become a pro triathlete?

No - I'm way too old.

35. Are you planning to do other Ironmans?

Yes - I would like to continue to do them. I'm doing THREE more this
year alone and hope to qualify for Hawaii again. It's an addicting
sport!

36. Do you do any other sports rather than triathlon?

Marathons, 10 km races, 5 km races and half marathons.

37. What inspired you to design and build a bike and pedal for 24 hours?

This is really strange, but believe it or not, it was an article in
Popular Science Magazine that I read about 10 years ago. It inspired
me so much that I never forgot it.

This is a topic for another presentation: I believe that it is your
INSPIRATION that makes things come true for you. That Pop Sci article
inspired me and I was able to visualize myself winning a record
someday in a cool looking bike like the one I saw in the magazine. Not
only did that come true, but I also got into the magazine!!! And, I
never even called them. They contacted me out of the blue - they heard
about it off the news wire and initiated contact with me.

38. Do you have a trademark on your inventions?

No - probably no new technology worth protecting

39. Why do you make records and set challenges?

Like I said, we have to continue to challenge ourselves

40. Will you use your bike again and break your own record?

Yes, I would like to do that someday. I have VERY fond memories about
both record attempts

41. Will you build other things (besides the boat)?

Maybe an HPA (do you know what that stands for?)

42. Do you always think you can do it?

No, but I am not afraid of failing.

43. What will your boat be called?

"Within" because human power is the power from within

44. I wonder what you are going to do after traveling in the Atlantic Ocean?

sleep

45. What/who is the biggest inspiration you have or had?

Two fictional characters:

This is funny, but true:

1. Forest Gump because he wasn't afraid to try anything
2. Kramer from Seinfeld because everything he did, he did with ALL of
his heart and sole.

46. Where did your interest in obesity education stem from?

It is a serious problem and I feel like I can help make a difference
by inspiring others to become active.

74.Within Deck Progress Jan 12, 08

Fri, 12 Jan 2007 09:01:33 -0700

Within deck progress

The deck came off of the hull quite easily - we had lined the hull with plastic and some duct tape so that dripped epoxy wouldn't bond our deck down to the hull. The Nimbus Hyak kayak hull temporarily went into the garage to make room for the giant upside down deck.

We knocked down the stair step edges of the Styrofoam slats on the inside of the hull, then rough sanded the whole foam core to a relatively uniform thickness.

I had previously calculated all of the areas that would require hard points, and marked them off with a felt pen, then gouged out the Styrofoam in those areas.

Hard points are areas of the deck core that are filled in with a solid substance to prevent fasteners and other thru-hardware from crushing the foam core. They also add considerable strength to those areas. Hard points are the 4 points around the canopy where I want to add hinges/latches, an area in the rear where the rudder is mounted, the bow and stern tips for a no-crush zone, the bow and stern for mounting cleats, and areas where the bulk heads will be placed.

The illustration above shows the location of the hard points and the 4 bulkheads - 2 small bulkheads 24" back from both the bow and stern to seal off areas that will be filled with solid buoyancy (expanding foam), and two main bulk heads to seal off the sleeping compartment and the bow storage compartment.

Camera man Clamp (Matt) beside Within deck with hard point areas carved out and ready for micro

This stuff is a god send! Rather than spending an eternity mixing powered micro with epoxy resin, we purchased some pre-mixed fairing filler. It's just epoxy resin with micro-balloons already mixed in. It comes as a 2-part mix like Bondo and cures in a couple of hours. Great stuff!

Ben had the bright idea of testing the fairing compound first by filling in a typical 1/2" deep carved out Styrofoam hole to see if the exothermic heat created by the thick epoxy mix would melt the foam. It did as you can see. So, we ended up filling the hard point holes in layers to avoid dissolving any of the foam core.

The image above shows the bow tip filled with epoxy/micro

I pre-cut all of the 18 oz fiberglass Woven Roving and Kevlar for the inside layers. These layers will wrap around the edges and fully seal off the deck. I will eventually bond the entire deck to the kayak hull, and add another band of fiberglass to bridge the seem on both the inside and outside. The area where the top and bottom (hull and deck) join should be pretty strong!

The plan for laying down the inside composite plies is to fully wet-out the deck edges and foam core with epoxy and wait for 3 hours until 'green' stage - this is where the epoxy has cured to the tacky stage. Then I will lay on my Kelvar. The tacky epoxy will hold the kevlar tightly around the edges of the deck. Then I fully wet-out the kevlar and wait another 3 hours for it to get tacky, then I'll lay down my final 18 oz fiberglass layer.

Kevlar pre-cut and ready to go.

Here are some illustrations of the rudder. The rudder is a NACA 0020 airfoil 24" long x 4" wide. A 5/8" stainless steel tube is bonded into the rudder and runs up through the hull AND deck though a stainless steel housing tube. This housing tube is screwed and glues and glassed right into both the deck and the hull. The is a small bulkhead (not shown) behind the tube to enclose the solid buoyancy area. The tube is also glued and glassed to this bulkhead.

Control cables will be mounted to a swing arm clamped to the top of the rudder tube from ABOVE the deck (not shown). The cables will run through holes in the top deck to inside Within and run into the cockpit area.

I have a LOT to do, and I think I had better get moving on this. It's going slowly because I have only really been devoting one day a week to the fabrication. I've been busier training for Ironman Arizona which is in April - that takes up a few hours every day. Also I have been really busy working on a promotional video for the expedition designed to find some sponsors - along with a sponsorship package. That has been really great exercise for me, as it is forcing me to really think about the specifics of the expedition and what exactly I want to accomplish. Also I have started thinking about costs, other logistics and a rough schedule.

There is not enough time in the day! I've got to start getting serious about planning my time better.

Here is a rough schedule off the top of my head:

January - have sponsor package finished
February - start finding equipment and supplies sponsors, drive leg, canopy, cockpit
March - have sponsorship funding secured, Within construction complete
April - Ironman Arizona, Within pool testing, equipment installed
May - Within mini-expedition
June - TRAINING
July - TRAINING (second mini-expedition??)
August - TRAINING, Ironman Canada, equipment and supplies secured
September - TRAINING, 24 hour HPB record attempt
October - TRAINING, Ironman World Championships
November - TRAINING
December - Jan - Feb - Trans Atlantic record attempt?

I wonder if December of 2007 is too soon???..... Another year of development would be great, but I don't see the need to be sitting around. Might as well get the show on the road.

Cheers,
gk

73.How is your ride? Dec 31, 06

Sun, 31 Dec 2006 09:55:34 -0700

"'Life is not a journey to the grave with the
intention of arriving safely in a pretty
and well preserved body,
but rather to skid in broadside,
thoroughly used up,
totally worn out,
and loudly proclaiming,

"WOW! What a ride!"'

That's how I'd like to close 2006 - what a fantastic quote. That just says it all doesn't it? Thanks to Roz Savage for that.

And I feel like the way I lived in 2006 brought me one step closer to sliding in broadside. What a year it has been, and what a wild ride!

the Kolodziejzyk family

2006 started out with some difficulty - the winter months of January to April was spent making modifications to my human powered vehicle - Critical Power for a second attempt at the 24 hour human powered distance record that I had scheduled for some time in the summer. I had just returned from a November failed attempt in Alabama completely motivated to fix our problems and attack the record again.

The first item on the agenda was to repair the cracks in the fairing shell caused from my many crashes at the NCAT test track in Alabama. Those were patched with carbon and we added some ribs to prevent the shell from caving in again in case of another crash. Then I had it professionally painted sexy silver metallic with a new CP skull logo advertising that I meant business this time around!

Other mods included adding proper chain guides to prevent another chain derailment which derailed the last attempt, a new, smoother canopy bubble, and a quick-access food/hydration compartment.

The winter months were also spent training for Ironman Arizona. Getting ready for an Ironman in the middle of a Canadian winter is brutal! all my runs were circular loops around the track at the Talisman Center and all my rides were inside on the mag trainer. Needless to say, I was concerned about my lack of any serious distance on the bike as the April Ironman date approached. My longest ride was only 4 hours inside on the trainer. The plan, according to my coach Jason Yanota, was to seriously ramp up the intensity to increase my power. And that we did. My training started with a couple of months suffering through brutal Lactate threshold intervals, then got worse with 4 weeks of MAP intervals (maximum aerobic power - grueling sets of all-out maximum effort lasting a few minutes and repeating until vomit is imminent.

The work paid-off. Ironman Arizona turned out to be the race of my dreams. I missed 3rd place by 2 seconds and easily nabbed a qualifying slot for world championships in Hawaii finishing in 10 hours, 15 minutes. For the last 4 years, it has been a goal of mine to break into the top 5 in my division and qualify for Ironman World Championships in Kona, and I had finally done it - I was ecstatic!

After a post Ironman recovery holiday in Florida with my family, the next item on the agenda was a new training program for another crack at the 24 hour distance record. I would have to say, in looking back, that my fondest memories of the entire HPV distance record project - both attempts actually, were my ultra long training rides. These rides were the back bone of my training program - every week I alternated a super long training ride with a 100 miler fast time trial. The goal of the 100 miler time trials was to hammer as hard as possible and try to maintain 230+ watts for about 4.5 to 5 hours on the M5 lowracer. My course was typically a 50 mile out and back flat and fast section of highway south of Calgary. Those days were tough, but rewarding.

The main focus of my training was the ultra rides. I started out at 8 hours and upped the duration by 2 hours every 2 weeks. These rides were unforgettable mini-expeditions that typically took a few days worth of planning in advance. My choice of route was always important because if you are spending 16 hours out on the road by yourself, you need to stay stimulated. My route of choice was the Highwood Pass - a 320 km circular route that took me up to the top of the highest paved road in Canada and through 2 provincial parks. I saw bears, Mountain goats, a Moose, and many elk. My ultra rides peaked at a 400 km day where I started out at sunrise from my home in Calgary and ended as the sun set in Jasper, about 16 hours later. What a day that was!

And then, in the second week of July, my crew and I flew off to Eureka, CA for my second shot at the 24 hour HPV record. Man, what a special moment that was for me. I have many vivid memories of that entire trip - from preparing Critical Power in the days leading up to the record attempt and the record itself, to all of the celebrations after. On July 19th at 9:00 am, after 23 hours of circling the 1/2 mile Redwood Acres race track over 1000 times, I had tears in my eyes as I realized that I had finally done it - I had broken the existing record of 1021 km and had another hour to add distance to it. It's always nice when a plan works out, and extra sweet when you can say you are the best in the world at something.

Soon after the 24 hour record my family and I flew off to France for a cycling vacation through the Loire Valley. That trip definitely goes down as one of our all-time favorite vacations. When I returned to Calgary, I started back at Ironman training to get ready for Ironman in Kona, Hawaii - another dream that was finally going to come true for me.

The fulfillment of a 5 year quest to make it to world championships was finally realized on Oct 21, 2006 in Kona as I completed my 10th Ironman distance triathlon, the world championships. It was a very challenging day and I learned some important lessons. We had a very relaxing vacation and I am motivated to make it back to Kona for 2007 to see if I can improve my finish there.

We returned to Calgary and I realized that I was in an enviable, exciting situation - one that doesn't come around all that often - what to do next? I don't ever look at these cross roads moments as doors closing on previous goals, but doors opening for new ones. An optimist stays up until midnight to welcome the New Year, a pessimist stays up to make sure the old one goes away. I was faced with a choice of embarking on a new adventure! New challenges that I can leverage what I learned and what I was able to accomplish from previous challenges. This was truly exciting! I made a list of all the things that I've always thought about doing, and talked them over with my wife Helen. When I nervously told Helen that I was thinking of pedaling a human powered boat across the Atlantic, she said “oh, I hope you don't mind that I don't want to go with you!" Man - she is awesome! She is so supportive. If I told her I wanted to build a human powered rocket and go to the moon, she would start packing the TANG. Wait a sec... You don't think she wants to get rid of me do you? Hmm.... Seriously, Helen is incredible. There is no way I could do any of the crazy things I do if not for her unconditional support.

And so it was decided - I was going to cross the Atlantic Ocean by human power. Immediately, I got in touch with the real experts - members of the human powered boats group, and instantly made friends with Rick Willoughby who had some very interesting ideas about exactly what that kind of boat should be about. Together, we came up with a design, and now I have a partially finished fiberglass and Kevlar pedal boat in my shop!

So - what is in store for 2007? Well, I have Ironman Arizona again in April where I would really like to repeat my performance of last year and place in the top 5 in my division and nab my 2nd Kona slot. In fact, my goal is to place top 3. After that, I will have most of the summer to gain experience in Within - my human powered boat. I am planning on some ocean trips off Vancouver Island, and possibly some more aggressive sea-testing in rougher ocean conditions. Helen and I are both doing Ironman Canada in August - so if I do not qualify for Kona in Arizona, then I will have a second chance in Penticton.

As far as what the new year holds in store for the Human Powered Trans Atlantic expedition, it will be an adventure for sure! - Probably some difficult moments, surely some excitement, hopefully some fun along the way and certainly plenty of learning. I am looking forward to making some new friends and strengthening some old relationships. It will be quite a journey for everyone involved. My goals for the year are:

1. To solidify my mission statement - am I going for a crossing record, or going for a solo, unsupported first of some sort?

2. To secure a Charity to work with

3. To secure a major corporate sponsor for the expedition

4. To find supplies and equipment sponsors for the expedition

5. To finish fabrication and testing of Within - the human powered ocean boat to my satisfaction

6. To collect some awesome footage for the TV / documentary series. Building, pool testing, ocean testing, training, etc - should be pretty interesting!

7. To make an attempt at the 24 hour human powered boat distance record. I may use Within for this, or may have to use something specially built for a record attempt.

8. To solidify a schedule of exactly when the ocean crossing will take place

On top of all of this, I vow to resume my drums music lessons, support Helen with her new business venture, and help my kids accomplish their goals.

But what I hope the most for in 2007, is to see that YOU accomplish your goals! You can accomplish what ever you set your mind to - But first, you need a plan because how will you know when you arrive if you don't know where you are going? A plan starts with listing your goals, so let’s start there. If it helps you, feel free to email me with a list of your goals for 2007. I can help with advice and motivation, so use me!

I BLOG because I like to entertain, to inspire, to motivate, to show what's possible, and occasionally to show that even the impossible is possible. But the main reason I blog is for me. It's a great way to solidify what my goals are and to record my trials, tribulations, successes, failures and lessons learned. I'm getting older and I forget stuff all the time. I am finding it increasingly difficult to learn anything if I forget my mistakes, because you don't learn from your successes, you learn from your failures. If you write it down, and tell it to the world, then you have to do it. And if you do it wrong, then it's there in pixels forever so you will never forget - and won't make the same mistake twice. Or at least, won't make the same mistake any more than a dozen or so times...

So hey - I wish you and your family all the best for 2007. And remember to enjoy the ride!

Greg Kolodziejzyk

72.Within's deck is fiber glassed! Dec 21, 06

Thu, 21 Dec 2006 09:55:34 -0700

Within's deck is fiber glassed!

I can't believe how nice this turned out! I received some composites advice from some of you out there and I don't think I was paying enough attention when I read the emails. I thought you were recommending 3 x 20 oz layers of glass + a layer of Kevlar on the outside of the 1/2" foam core skin. After laying down my Kevlar first, then a single layer of 18 oz Woven Roving, I realized that this was super thick and stiff and heavy. So, I went back to the emails and realized that the suggestions were somewhere around a TOTAL of a 20 oz. outer layer. duh!

The advantage to using this really thick E Glass Roving is that it covered over all of the seems between my 1" Styrofoam straps very nicely! It also covered over all of the small holes and dents, etc. After it cured, I have a very smooth, very tough and strong outer skin.

The disadvantage to a single layer of this Roving, is that all of my weaves run in line with and at 90% to the deck. I am considering adding a second layer of this 18 oz Roving at 45 degrees to the first, but that is going to make for one VERY thick, heavy and strong outer skin. Not sure what to do on the inside of the 1/2" core...

Ben is pin-pricking the Styrofoam plug with a nail board.

Ben and Matt came over and helped. We started by filling in all of the small holes and dents in the Styrofoam plug with a thick mixture of epxoy/micro balloons. Then we pin pricked the entire plug and squeegeed a 1-1 (volume) mix of epoxy and micro over the whole plug filling in all of the pin pricks and seems between the foam strips. Then we laid down our first composite layer - a golden layer of Kevlar.

Then we put down the 18 oz woven roving e glass fabric and wetted that out. Since it is so thick, it took a TON of epoxy! I draped a peelply sheet over it all to leave a rough texture so that if we decide to add another composite layer, the epoxy will adhere properly to the cured layer.

Next, I will either add another outside layer (or not, depending on the advice I get). I'll pull it off the kayak hull, flip it over and take out the styrofoam ribs, leaving only the 1/2" Styrofoam core. Then I will remove areas of the 1/2" foam core and fill with epoxy or wood for hard points where I will be putting fasteners through, etc. Next, I'll add a layer of Kevlar to the foam with another layer or two of e-glass roving. This time, the layers will wrap around the deck edges and overlap a few inches to the outside. I would like to vacuum bag this one, as the foam sections will be out and we can put the entire boat in a large plastic bag.

The next step will be to make the bulkheads, hull floor reinforcements, and drive leg bay (and the seat rails and seat). I was thinking of making the bulk heads in two halves - the bottom half which could be bonded and glassed right to Within's hull, and the top half which could be bonded to and glassed right to the Deck top. When the two halves (the deck and the hull) get bonded and glassed together, it would be easier to glass together a straight seem between the midway point on the bulkheads that to try to glass in the upper perimeter.

71.More logo choices for Within - the human powered boat Dec 16, 06

Sat, 16 Dec 2006 09:55:34 -0700

More Within logo choices

Thanks for your comments on my previous Within Human Powered Boat logo ideas. Most of you thought that perhaps the logo wasn't strong enough and I agree. I was sort of going with a typical boat logo - you know, sort of scripty and often free-hand or brush stroke. Human powered boats are interesting, different and represent a new approach to water travel. The logo should say that, so I gave it another shot.

Let me know what you think, as your comments really do help the whole process.

Click to enlarge

I like the above two logos the best. They are modern looking, clean, will reproduce well and will be fairly readable and visible on Within's hull. The Within logo on the upper left represents a prop spinning - perhaps the i dots resemble bubbles that a spinning prop might produce. The dots the form a circle in the middle of the logo type focus your attention to the middle of the logo - or WITHIN the logo. The circular shape created by the dots also resembles a gear. The shape formed by the top of this logo resembles the shape of the boat travelling left with the flying dots forming the shape of the canopy.

The logo on the upper right is an exagerated version of prop spin. It looks more like a spinning prop, and the double concentric circles looks like two chain rings. You definitely think of circular movement - like the turning of pedals, the spinning of a prop.

These four logos self explanatory - the man forming his arms directing attention to within himself. Or, he is holding a gear above his head. I think this one is too complex

70.Why human power is important to you! Dec 15, 06

Fri, 15 Dec 2006 09:55:34 -0700

Why human power is important to you!

I'm on a roll now - somebody stop me.

Styrofoaming Within's deck is very tedious work - like assembling a giant three dimensional puzzle, and I've found that I need to take short breaks or I start to get sloppy. Unfortunately for you, the breaks are resulting in these daily treatises showing up in your inbox. This is good though, as it really gives me a chance to solidify my 'greater good' message that is the basis for the human powered trans Atlantic expedition.

Yesterday, I talked about why Human Power was important to me - today, my topic is why Human power should be important to EVERYONE.

Our fragile environment

United States burns 20.4 million barrels of oil per day. We are damaging our environment beyond repair by burning copious amounts of hydrocarbons into our atmosphere. According to Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth", global warming is melting the ice shelf and global sea levels could rise by over 20 feet. Looking at the global temperature data and it's correlation to greenhouse gas emissions, I believe there is indisputable evidence that burning hydrocarbons is responsible for most of the global warming that is wreaking havoc on our weather systems.

Aside from the frightening global warming issue, I am also deeply concerned about our attitude with regard to consumption. Up until just last year, the US was the worlds largest consumer of natural resources. According to David Suzuki's "Sacred Balance" (I absolutely LOVED this book - everyone should read it), since 1940, Americans alone have used up as large a share of the Earth's mineral resources as all previous generations put together.

The real scary thing is, as of last year, consumption in China eclipsed that of the United States in all the worlds resources but oil, and China's 1.3 billion person economy is growing at a frightening 8% annually

Why is this concerning? There are around 6 billion people living on this rock today. Estimating future population growth at only 1% per year, the numbers are staggering. By 2015, experts estimate there will be 7 billion people on the planet. By 2050, there may be as many as 10 billion people living on Earth. Can mother Earth support this extended family? When will we reach the limit of our resources?

We live in a culture where incentives exist to encourage doing more with more - not doing more with less. Doing more with less is called "efficiency", doing more with more is called "Gluttony". Bigger, faster, more powerful vehicles that consume more fuel at faster rates, larger meals wrapped in complex, land-fill bound packaging, disposable products filling store shelves - you get the picture. Take the new wave of hybrid cars for example. Hybrid technology that was intended to produce spectacular fuel economy, was flipped around by car makers to instead, produce more horsepower for their new hybrid SUV's! Less green, more mean.

Human Powered vehicles are all about trying to do more with less. How to go faster or farther with less energy. Technologies Incorporated into human powered vehicles like aerodynamics, wheel rolling resistance, mechanical efficiencies and size and weight optimization are directly applicable to the cars and boats and other vehicles that we rely upon in these modern times. Most importantly though, Interest in human power represents an essential shift in basic philosophy from one of 'feasting on earths resources' to a 'do more with less' ideal.

Health

It is true that the world needs to pay more attention to human power as a step in saving the environment, but there is a far more important, pressing and urgent concern at hand here in North America and spreading quickly throughout the rest of the world. We are killing ourselves and human power is our only savior.

3 million years of evolution has produced an animal whose natural environment probably consisted of walking the distance of a full marathon each and every single day*. Now take that animal (also known as a "human being"), and stick him in a small cage, rob him of natural sunlight, make him sit in a chair all day and feed him a steady supply of chemicals and refined foods.

Is it any wonder that 60% of North Americans are over weight? Described by the World Health Organization as an "escalating epidemic", obesity is "one of the greatest neglected public health problems of our time with an impact on health which may well prove to be as great as smoking." Being overweight leads to many serious medical problems like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and many other health related issues.

An unnatural sedentary lifestyle causes chemical imbalances in our bodies which can lead to a host of psychological problems. Population studies have shown an inverse relationship between physical activity and depression, and there is evidence that active people who become inactive are more at risk of depression that those who remain active. According to a study from Duke University, aerobic exercise was MORE effective than antidepressant drugs in treating depressive symptoms in three study groups.

The cause of the obesity epidemic and skyrocketing rates of depression is obvious in my opinion. We need to become reacquainted with our "natural environment". Break out of our cages, get outside and get ACTIVE! Ride your bike, run, walk, swim, climb, row - whatever it takes.

Human power is the power to live. Use it or lose it.

* this refers to a Columbia University study published in early 2005 that suggested "you would have to walk 5.7 hours a day over fields and hills to approximate the energy expenditure of early humans". I have looked for the actual study, but all I could find was many references to it on the Internet.

69.Why I like human power and a name for the human powered boat Dec 14, 06

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 09:55:34 -0700

Why I like human power and finally, a name for the boat!

The day before the Las Vegas marathon, as I lay in my lawn chair trying to maximize my angle to the low December sun, I got to do some deeper thinking about why "human power" is so important to me. I mean, some people really get into WW11 history, some go nuts over collecting wooden toys and some guys build robots. What is it about human power that turns my crank?

Our passions are obviously related to our personalities. Being a typical male, I am hardwired to dig technology, physical activity is my life-blood, and I like the outdoors and to travel. I also like long walks on the beach and poking dead things with a stick.

As a young kid, I remember reading a National Geographic feature story about a team who rode their '10 speed' bikes from Argentina to Alaska. I was riveted by their story. This really spoke to me. The whole idea of riding my bicycle distances longer that we had ever driven our family car was something that resonated deeply with me. I read that National Geographic story about a dozen times.

I saved money from my paper route and purchased a brand new '10 speed' bicycle. Wow! It had 10 speeds and drop handle bars just like the ones used in the national geographic bike tour. I rode it everywhere. I duct-taped a transistor radio to my handle bars so I could listen to all the 1970's hits on CKXL Calgary radio station while I biked the daily 10 mile route from my house in Lakeview (there was no view of any lake) to my downtown paper route.

My passion for riding bikes returned just after I graduated from SAIT - a technical institute where I received a diploma in engineering, and an education in how to party almost every night, and still pass exams. Phil Evans talked me into riding our 10 speed bikes 100 km from Calgary to Banff. I almost died. I remember reaching the lake at LacDesArc and the lights started to go out. I had almost fainted. I think that trip took us a good 10 hours. Now I can ride to Banff, do a 15 km trail run, and ride back to Calgary in less than 10 hours.

We are the products of our past. Looking back, it's obvious that I would eventually become involved with the design, construction and application of human powered vehicles in some way. We are who we are, and I mean that LITERALLY! - check this out:

I got a really interesting email yesterday from Paul Kolodziej. in case you didn't know, my last name is Kolodziejzyk - only 3 letters longer than Paul's. Paul was reading my article in Popular Science magazine and noticed the similarities in our names. He informed me that in Polish, the name "Kolodziejzyk", and it's various derivatives mean "WHEEL MAKER".

Human power to me though, is so much more than travel under our own physical capacity. It's really about ALL of our power as humans. The power to choose, the power to create, the power to succeed, the power to cross continents, the power to cross oceans, the power to motivate, the power to love, the power to care, the power to inspire, the power to learn and the power to grow. Human power is the power within.

And with that, I have decided upon a name for the human powered trans Atlantic pedal boat.

I hereby christen the boat "Within". Because Human Power is the power from within. Here are some logo ideas. Let me know if you like one of them (click to enlarge).

68.Las Vegas Marathon Dec 12, 06

Tue, 12 Dec 2006 09:55:34 -0700

Las Vegas Marathon

My buddy Matt Hoffman, Helen and I flew off to Las Vegas over the weekend for the Las Vegas Marathon. Unfortunately, Helen couldn't run due to a hamstring tear, but Matt and I had good races. I was aiming for a 3:15 and ended up crossing the line a little over 3 minutes over that goal. Matt was aiming for a 3:20, but hit the wall with 6 miles left to go and finished in 3:29

The run was pretty nice - 16,000 runners with Blue Man Group playing at the start. It was mostly flat with a slight downhill grade and a tail wind for the first half with the inevitable upgrade/headwind for the second half of the 26.2 mile loop which made it a bit challenging. The first hour was pretty uncomfortable, as my right leg from the knee down went completely numb as I knew it would. I have no idea what causes this aside from an accumulation of training hours. It seems that whenever I reach 5 to 6 hours of running per week, my right foot goes numb for about an hour when starting a run. It's very uncomfortable, but usually goes away after the first hour, so I wasn't too concerned.

I knew when we first started out that the out-leg would have to be at a slightly faster pace due to the tail wind and favorable slope, so I reached the half way point with a 3 minute buffer on my time. Then I just tried to hang onto that 3 minutes for as long as I could on the home stretch. I thought I was doing a pretty good job though, as I was fluctuating between 1 to 2 minutes over my pace by the final 6 miles. That's when I started to really feel the soreness creeping into my legs and even though it felt like my pace was the same, my speed really started to slip.

That last 6 miles was very difficult and took quite a bit of focused mental effort just to maintain an aggressive pace. The agony you feel from shooting pains and fatigue in your legs during that last 10 km is hard to explain to anyone who hasn't experienced it. At every mile marker I would check my pace band, and be shocked to see that I had lost another minute! But that only fueled my determination to mitigate the time slippage and push through the pain.

I was pretty happy to cross the finish line at 3:18:52, only about 4 minutes slower than my goal. As it turned out, I would consider this a personal best marathon even though I ran a 3:16:46 at Tucson in 2004. Tucson was an all-downhill marathon and I finished in the top 20% of my 40 to 44 age group. In Vegas, I placed 22 nd out of 504 runners in my 45 to 49 age group which was a personal record top 4.3% finish.

Here is a chart that I keep showing my AG % finishes for all races since 2001:

I waited at the finish for Matt, who crossed about 10 minutes later. He was with the 3:20 pace group until the last 6 miles, then suffered the same bonk fate that I did and had to let his 3:20 dreams slip away. All in all, it was a fun weekend - caught a show, rested a bit and we both had great races.

Helen was sad that she couldn't participate, but she needs rest and recovery right now, as we both are committed to two Ironman races this spring and summer Ironman Arizona in April and Ironman Canada in August. Training for Arizona starts very soon.

67.Deck covering Dec 4, 06

Mon, 4 Dec 2006 09:55:34 -0700

Deck covering

Until just yesterday, I was calling the part of the boat we are making "the curved top part". Thankfully, Rick told me that it's call a "deck".

Here is a web page with a list of boat parts:

http://www.mum.edu/exss_dept/sailing_club/sail/learn_to_sail/lesson1.html

That goes a long way in demonstrating just how 'out of my element' I am with this trans Atlantic human powered crossing. Calgary isn't exactly the boat capital of Canada and I don't exactly stem from a long family history of maritime explorers. In fact, I know one guy who owns a boat and it's my brother in law Pat Lor - a ski boat that he keeps at our cabin in Whitefish, MT. We are welcome to use it whenever we like, but I'm always hesitant because I'm not a big fan of loud gas guzzling motors, and backing the beast and it's trailer down our steeply sloped driveway.

I do own two smaller boats, a pedal flippers powered Mirage Adventure and a pedal prop powered Shuttlebike which I converted to a human powered recumbent boat. My experience with these small boats, however, is limited to nice, sunny, warm days on an idyllic lake in Montana - not the open ocean.

Todays progress:

My official expedition training buddy Greg Bradley (right) came over today and lent a hand gluing down pink foam strips to the deck frame. Also in attendance was my other Ironman friend and expedition official video man Matt Hoffman (left).

Ben invented a pretty nifty tool to cut the foam strips with a 90 degree angle on one side, and a 15 degree angle on the other. We place the strips so that a 90 degree matches up to a 15 degree which allows a slight curve and it seems to work pretty well in almost every area of the mold.

Once the strip has been hot glued to the form, I hold them down with small concrete nails until the hot glue dries. This seems to work OK. I'll have a thousand little holes to fill with an epoxy/micro slurry before we glass it, but it should be smooth enough.

The tight curved areas of the nose and tail are way too small to bend the foam strips around so I think I will just fill them up with expanding foam and carve/sand the shape smooth. This will be far easier and more accurate than trying to mess around with these pink strips. Also, we plan on filling the bow and stern tips with expanding foam for buoyancy anyhow.

The foam strips are fitting together fairly smoothly. I sanding down an area to see how smooth we could get it after sanding, and it was OK - you can still see the joins, but they are difficult to feel with your finger tips. I would hope that the fiberglass fabric would 'drape' over these seems and smoothen them over. If not, we'll have to slather a layer of epoxy/micro over the whole deck after the fiberglass dries, then sand it smooth before paint. But, this isn't a streamliner, and it probably does not have to be perfectly smooth, so perhaps just leaving small imperfections in the surface will be OK. Maybe paint and primer will fill them in.

Here is the plan:

1. Finish gluing down the pink strips

2. Fill in the nose and tail areas with expanding foam

3. Carve and sand down the expanding foam

4. Sand down the entire surface of the mold to as smooth as possible

5. Fill in the holes with epoxy/micro (smoothen when wet - do NOT sand)

6. Cover deck with 3 (how many??) layers of fiberglass fabric and 1 layer of Kevlar (any advice on how many layers to do??) and wet out with epoxy resin.

7. After the Epoxy cures, sand down the sacrificial finish layer using more epoxy/micro to fill in any holes, divots or visible seems.

8. Pull the deck off the kayak hull and carve out the 1.5" thick Styrofoam sections

9. Rough sand down the inside foam

10. Lay down (how many layers?) of fiberglass on the inside (any Kevlar required here??) and wet out with epoxy resin.

11. Build the bulk heads and drive leg well and glass into the hull.

12. Build the seat and rails and glass down to the hull

13. Glass/bond the deck onto the kayak hull.

14. Cut the canopy top off

15. Glass in the top part of the bulk heads. I'm not sure how to get into the bow and stern compartments to glass in the other side of the tops of each bulk head wall? Perhaps I wait until we add hatches, then crawl into each space for some extreme fiberglassing.

16. Heat form the Lexan canopy window.

17. Capsize and stability testing

18. Prime, sand and paint

Matt (left) and Greg B (right)

66.Styrofoam skeleton. Nov 29, 06

Wed, 29 Nov 2006 09:55:34 -0700

The video clip above is a short 5 minute segment I put together using the footage we shot from the last couple of days. I wanted to preview how the light was in the shop and other areas of the house as well as how the Sony HDR-FX1 HD camera handled various conditions like hand-held steadiness, close-up focus, 1080i high-def image quality, etc.

It worked out kind of neat, so I uploaded it to YouTube.com for you to check out.

Todays progress:

I finished the Styrofoam skeleton today - it went pretty fast actually. The sections are hot glued onto the main profile. Next I will lay over narrow, 2" wide, 1/2" thick Styrofoam strips, then sand it smooth.

65.Shop day #1 - progress on the boat. Nov 28, 06

Tue, 28 Nov 2006 09:55:34 -0700

We made some decent progress on the test boat yesterday. Ben "BEAN" Eadie came over and built a hot wire cutter for the foam sections, and my Friend Matt "CLAMP" Hoffman contributed his expert filming talents.

I have not mentioned this yet, but I invested in a High Def video camera with the objective of filming this entire project which might find it's way into a documentary, TV series or film some day.

Matt "clamp" Hoffman is on board as our official expedition videographer.

We're all professionals here - so don't try this at home. Clamps history in the film industry is long and accomplished going back as far as a couple of days ago when he browsed through the Sony HDR-FX1 manual and learned where the record button was. And of course, you know some of my extensive maritime background which consists of driving over bridges crossing the mighty Bow river here in Calgary - at least twice per day - sometimes more!

Assembling the styrofoam sections:

I sliced up my computer model into 29 sections then printed each sections outline onto tiled letter-sized sheets of paper which I taped together.

For the main profile I had to tile together 88 sheets of paper and then cut around the perimeter.

The main profile section was traced onto multiple sheets of 2" thick pink Styrofoam, cut out and assembled into the Hyak kayak hull. After the main profile was secured into the middle of the kayak, I sanded down the edge with a wire brush to get the line smooth. The 29 perpendicular sections will be cut out of 1" thick Styrofoam and hot glued to both the main profile and the sides of the kayak.

To facilitate the Styrofoam cutting, Ben whipped up this nifty hot wire cutter which works pretty slick.

This week, I'll be in the shop alone and I will start gluing the sections into place. Hopefully, we can start fiberglass on the weekend or early next week.

64.The Hyak Test Boat. Nov 24, 06

Fri, 24 Nov 2006 09:55:20 -0700

I've been working with my 3D design software Strata 3d, trying to nail down a final design so that we can get started building it! Above is a short video of the design as it is now. After measuring the Hayak kayak hull, Ben made a very accurate model of the original kayak hull in SolidWorks. He sent me the 3D file for the hull and I created the rounded top section in Strata by skinning a row of bezier curves.

(click photos to enlarge)

The next step is to virtually (in software) carve the top section into vertical slices 18" apart. Then I will print these patterns out and use them to cut out 1" thick styrofoam sections. These foam sections will be bonded into the Hyak kayak hull and then 1" strips will be laid across and glued to the sections from bow to stern. After sanding the styrofoam, we cover with fiberglass and repeat for the inside leaving the 1" thick foam strips to act as sandwich core material.

The drive leg is shown is some detail below. I'm going with a mix of bike chain and the right angle gear box. The SRM cranks turn a chain that passes through two 1/2" stainless steel tubes down to the gearbox. The tubes will also be reinforced with cross braces and covered with stainless sheet. This will double as the structural member supporting the prop and gear box below.

Since this 'fin' is only a 1/2" thick, it only needs a 1/2" wide slot in the kayak hull to fit through. The slot has 5" tall walls to prevent water from flooding the boat. To remove the drive leg, the narrow slot leads to a larger square well in front of it that the gear box and prop will fit through. The drive leg will be fastened down to the seat rails and a through bolt in the well. A square plug will fit into the larger square opening in the well to seal it off from water and to smoothen out the bottom of the boat hull. I could further seal the narrow part of the drive leg well with two smaller, thin plugs that fit into both sides of the gear leg.

I have not yet marked off where the retracting canopy top will be cut-out, but I would need to make sure that once it is retracted, I can lift the drive leg straight up and out.

The seat is mounted to two 1" square tubes running length-wise down the hull floor and can be adjusted forward or back. I still need to figure out a way to move the seat out of the way to access the rear compartment.

Only half of the bulk head in front of the drive leg is shown - it will completely seal off the front compartment. I have NOT shown the rear bulk head which will completely close off the rear compartment.

We will probably start building the foam plug on Monday. I'll keep you informed.

63.The Nimbus Hyak kayak mechanical efficiency testing of 3 drive types. Nov 20, 06

Mon, 20 Nov 2006 11:48:29 -0700

The Hyak donor kayak from Nimbus Kayaks arrived last week!

It is in pretty decent shape, but does not include a top or any bulkheads - just the bottom hull. That's OK because I would have just cut out the top anyhow before adding my own top. Ben came over yesterday and build a little Styrofoam stand for the kayak, then proceeded to take measurements so he can model the kayak hull in SolidWorks. We'll use the Solid Works model to build the canopy top, and then use that 3D model to generate sections which we will cut out of foam.

Check out Rick Wianecki's Frank-n-liner streamliner at Warrens recumbents.com site:

This is exactly the male mold construction method that I plan to use for the test boat. I am a little concerned about wetting out fiberglass and not using a vacuum bag, as the vacuum would surely deform the thin foam strips, but Rick maintains that he never had any problems with the wetted glass bubbling or peeling up. I'm thinking we could use stretchy film wrap to press down the wetted fabric without distorting the mold.

TB-1 test boat ("TB" for 'Test Boat" - not a very inspiring name is it....)

Testing the mechanical efficiency of 3 types of drives

There has been some discussion at HPV boats forum regarding the efficiency, pros and cons of various mechanical drive approaches. The task with regard to human powered boats is to transmit the direction of power input from cranks which rotate in a plane that aligns with the boats length, to a prop which rotates in a plane perpendicular to the boat and the cranks. Rick Willoughby typically uses two right angle gear boxes and a shaft to transmit power from the cranks to the prop. Others such as Warren Beauchamp and Bob Stuart use a chain that twists 90 degrees from the chain ring on the cranks down to the prop.

The advantages to using two gear boxes and a shaft are mostly that it is structurally very solid and strong - probably a good combination for an ocean crossing. The disadvantage to this approach is potentially less mechanical efficiency than a twisted chain due to the heavy gear box.

The advantages to using a twisted chain is light-weight, possibly good mechanical efficiency and easy to replace standard bicycle parts if something goes wrong. The disadvantages to using a twisted chain is related to the fact that the chain isn't really designed to twist, and it may be difficult to replace a broken chain in the middle of the ocean. I'm just not certain how long a twisted chain drive will last.

So, at least with regard to the mechanical efficiency questions, I thought I would spend some time and conduct a few experiments designed to elicit exactly what the power 'cost' is for each approach.

To summarize, here is the mechanical power efficiency % for each drive configuration for average resistance of a prop spinning in water at 80 rpm at the cranks (relative to a straight chain at 100%):

STRAIGHT CHAIN = 100%

RIGHT ANGLE GEAR BOX = 94.1%

TWISTED CHAIN = 93.3%

THE STRAIGHT CHAIN

As a baseline - or control, I set up a drive that was a straight chain running from my 39 tooth SRM watts meter chain ring to an 11 tooth cog mounted on a bicycle bottom bracket. On the other side of the bottom bracket, I mounted a standard bike chain ring. A chain runs from the large 53 tooth gear to a 12 tooth gear on the rear wheel of a road bike on a magnetic resistance trainer stand.

The lower chain ring and bike wheel simulate similar resistance of a prop spinning in water. In this case, I am looking for an average resistance of around 150 watts of power to turn the cranks 80 rpm. The photo above shows a magnetic resistance roller and a wind resistance roller (red) on the rear wheel, but I found that neither was required to maintain about 150 watts of power to turn the cranks at 80 rpm. For this experiment, the rear bike wheel was freely spinning - this had the added benefit of being more consistent between drive leg configurations, as the magnetic and wind rollers change resistance slightly due to various pressures against the tire and temperature.

The control using the straight chain would be a best case scenario, as there is very little mechanical loss from a straight chain. Obviously, it is an unacceptable drive option because the direction of power transmission is in the same plane. (I would have to be sitting SIDEWAYS on the boat in order to use this).

Here are the results:

FREE SPINNING = 0 WATTS
No chains at all, just the main crank and pedals spinning freely. The SRM power meter was calibrated to measure 0 watts from this free spinning condition.

NO RESISTANCE = 2 WATTS
The bottom chain was NOT connected to the bike wheel. This test measures the no-resistance mechanical loss of the SRM 39 tooth chain ring with a straight chain to the 11 tooth gear mounted on the lower bottom bracket turning a pedal and chain ring with no chain or resistance.

RESISTANCE AT 80 rpm = 135 WATTS
This configuration is as shown in the photo above. The bike wheel is linked to the drive and simulates typical resistance of a prop spinning in water. It required 135 watts of power to turn the SRM cranks at 80 rpm.

THE TWISTED CHAIN

The chain twists 90 degrees from the 39 tooth SRM chain ring down to the 11 tooth gear mounted on a bottom bracket. The return side of the chain is tensioned and positioned with a chain guide (orange roller). A free spinning bike wheel with a 12 tooth gear provides the same resistance as the control. Note that gearing and therefore, the resulting resistance for both this configuration and the control is exactly the same.

Here are the results:

FREE SPINNING = 0 WATTS
No chains at all, just the main crank and pedals spinning freely. The SRM power meter was calibrated to measure 0 watts from this free spinning (same as the control)

NO RESISTANCE = 8 WATTS
The bottom chain was NOT connected to the bike wheel. This test measures the no-resistance mechanical loss of the SRM 39 tooth chain ring with a twisted chain to the 11 tooth gear mounted on the lower bottom bracket turning a pedal and chain ring with no chain or resistance.

RESISTANCE AT 80 rpm = 144 WATTS
This configuration is as shown in the photo above. The bike wheel is linked to the drive and simulates typical resistance of a prop spinning in water. It required 144 watts of power to turn the SRM cranks at 80 rpm. The twisted chain required 9 more watts of power than the straight chain to turn the cranks 80 rpm.

THE RIGHT ANGLE GEARBOX

The chain runs straight from the 39 tooth SRM chain ring to an 11 tooth gear mounted on one axle of a Mitrpak right angle gear box. A 53 tooth large chain ring is mounted on the other gear box axle which turns a chain connected to the 12 tooth bike wheel. Note that gearing and therefore, the resulting resistance for both this configuration and the control and the twisted chain is exactly the same.

Here are the results:

FREE SPINNING = 0 WATTS
No chains at all, just the main crank and pedals spinning freely. The SRM power meter was calibrated to measure 0 watts from this free spinning (same as the control)

NO RESISTANCE = 8 WATTS
The bottom chain was NOT connected to the bike wheel. This test measures the no-resistance mechanical loss of the SRM 39 tooth chain ring with a straight chain to the 11 tooth gear mounted on the right angle gear box turning a pedal and chain ring with no chain or resistance.

RESISTANCE AT 80 rpm = 143 WATTS
This configuration is as shown in the photo above. The bike wheel is linked to the drive and simulates typical resistance of a prop spinning in water. It required 143 watts of power to turn the SRM cranks at 80 rpm. The right angle gear box required 8 more watts of power than the straight chain to turn the cranks 80 rpm. The gear box required 1 less watt than the twisted chain, but 1 watt is easily within the margin of error, so I would consider both drives equally efficient.

The nitty gritty details

To start with, I used an old exercise bike with a roller pressing down against the rubber wheel. This didn't work at all because the bearings in the wheel are old and changed resistance periodically.

The SRM power meter computer showing crank rpm and power in watts.

This is a third drive option that I tested, but it didn't work at all. It's a flexible drive shaft from my Shuttlebike kit. There was far too much resistance and the shaft just twisted up inside the housing.

I had to fabricate a connection for the flexible drive shaft.

The flexible drive shaft connection to the SRM cranks and the lower bottom bracket

The Mitrpak right angle gearbox.

To make a collar to fit onto the gearbox shaft, I cut an axle from an old Shimano Octalink bottom bracket in half and inserted a smaller diameter stainless steel tube into it and welded it in place. This allowed me to use the standard spider bolt to mount the chain ring. The smaller diameter tube was a press fit onto the right angle gear box shaft. To hold the collar in place, I drilled and tapped a hole for a set screw.

The small 11 tooth cog fit onto the gearbox axle the same way - I welded a short tube to the back plate of the cog and press fit that onto the gearbox axle. It is held in place with a set screw.

62. Two ocean crossing events are happening now. Nov 19, 06

Sun, 19 Nov 2006 11:46:03 -0700

Two ocean crossing events are happening now

The Zeeman Ocean Challenge

Ocean rowers Ralph Tuijin and his brother Michael are just over half way across the Atlantic ocean on their way from La Gomera, Spain to Curaco. The expedition is a sort of shake-down leg for Ralph, as his main focus is to cross the Pacific Ocean at its widest point - solo.

The 16,000-kilometer solo Pacific crossing will not make use of any motor or wind-related power. This extreme challenge will take between 7 and 9 months to complete and will be non-stop, without re-supplies or any other support. After leaving from Panama in January 2007 Ralph will set course for the city of Cairns in Australia, where he expects to arrive in mid-September.

The brothers left La Gomera, Spain on September 27, 2006 and almost immediately ran into difficulty. After suffering seemingly endless sea sickness, they were struck by some very large 8 meter seas and their wind generator snapped in half. Ralph and Michael were relying on the wind generator as their main source of power for the impressive satellite communications system they were sporting. The plan was to transmit daily video and photos from the expedition using a state of the art Nera Fleet 55 satellite communications system.

Since early September, the duo has been suffering from unusual calmness. Flat seas and no trade winds make for a slow trip! Due to the wind generator malfunction, I am very disappointed that we are not able to enjoy the video coverage of the expedition that was planned.

You can follow the progress of the Zeeman Challenger on their nifty Google maps page.

Rames Guyane 2006

Today, Sunday, November 19th marked the start of the “RAMES GUYANE” event - the first transatlantic rowing race competed single-handed, non-stop and without assistance. Sixteen rowers - mostly from France will make their way 2600 nautical miles across the Atlantic ocean from St Louis in Senegal to French Guyana using a standard design 8 meter long, 1.6 meter wide rowing boat specially designed for this race.

The race is expected to take between 40 to 55 days depending upon weather. One of the main difficulties of “Rames Guyane” is the mandatory crossing of the “dol-drums” - an inter-tropical convergence area, where the trade winds give place to sporadic, uncertain and often adverse winds.

You can follow the progress of the RAMES GUYANE rowers at their Google maps "Cartographie"

61. An inspirational evening. Nov 6, 06

Mon, 6 Nov 2006 12:40:35 -0700

An inspirational evening

Helen and I attended Colin and Julie's presentation and documentary premier "Beyond the Horizon" last night in Canmore. What an inspirational event! Wow - it's absolutely incredible what Colin and Julie have achieved.

Colin Angus - the worlds first man to circumnavigate the globe by
human power and his wife to-be and Julie Wafaei

On May 20th 2006, after 720 days, Colin Angus and Julie Wafaei completed Expedition Canada - the first human powered circumnavigation of our planet. In my opinion, the human powered circumnavigation of the earth is one of the last great firsts. Colin travelled 43,000 km by rowboat, bicycle, canoe, ski, and foot - a journey that voyaged across 3 continents, 2 oceans and 17 countries. Julie travelled with him for most of the expedition, including rowing 10,000 km unsupported across the Atlantic Ocean, making her the first woman to row across the Atlantic from mainland to mainland and the first Canadian woman to row across any ocean (from mainland to mainland).

The team used zero-emissions travel to highlight issues with global warming and to inspire others to use non-motorized transportation.

Canadians Colin and Julie are currently travelling across Canada in speaking tour and film premiere. Colin's book, Beyond the Horizon, will be released in March 2007 (for those of you that can't wait he has two other books on previous adventures). An adventurer's resource centre divulging hard-to-find information (cold weather travel, ocean rowing, etc.) and on-line store offering expedition films and books will soon be available on this website:

http://www.expeditioncanada.com

The film was great! I HIGHLY recommend buying it when it becomes available through their web site. I can hardly wait to read his book.

I just love the way Colin operates - he just sucks it up and does what needs to be done. He makes me proud to be a Canadian. I think we all suffer too much from what I call 'analysis paralysis' - where you analyze something to death and then never get around to doing it because you have lost some self confidence, or have lost interest, or feel the need to study the issue ad infinitum. I think Colin does the necessary home work, makes minimum necessary plans, then just gets to work. He intuitively understands that there is more learning from doing than there is from studying.

Bravo Colin and Julie! - In this day and age of excessiveness where we strive to do more with more, your doing more with less approach to life is refreshing and inspirational. I hope the world wakes up and gives you the recognition you both deserve!

60. Sponsors and blatant self promotion. Nov 3, 06

Fri, 3 Nov 2006 12:39:48 -0700

Sponsors and blatant self promotion

On a whim, I blindly sent out some emails a few weeks ago to sort of test the waters with regard to how eager companies would be to sponsor the Atlantic expedition project by donating their products. I sent an introduction email with the above .jpg image attached. I have a macro set up in PhotoShop that mostly automates the insertion of the potential sponsors name and product image, then spits out a .jpg file like the one above.

I was a pretty good marketer in my former entrepreneurial life, and I know how important it is help your target audience imagine the benefits of what you are proposing. At Image Club (sold to Adobe, sold to Eyewire, sold to Getty Images, and now Veer), in our catalog, we always featured many great examples of what our publishing content software could do for a creative campaign. In my opinion, that 'creative inspiration' that we provided was largely responsible for the success of the catalog, and my company.

I have had some pretty good success with the blind email approach, and I really think I can get most of my equipment and supplies donated by companies who want to be involved with this project.

This is what I am offering sponsors in return:

1. Their company logo on the boat
2. A series of high res photographs and video clips of their product being used in the 'extreme' ocean environment while on the expedition which the sponsor could use as content for various advertising and promotional campaigns.
3. A testimonial from me regarding the applicability of their product and it's use during the expedition.
4. I managed to get quite a bit of press coverage for the 24 hour HPV record including the cover of Popular Science magazine, and I plan to aggressively seek as much publicity as possible for the Atlantic Expedition. A sponsor would definitely benefit from that kind of PR exposure. Imagine a sponsors logo on the side of Critical Power HPV in Popular Science Magazine that is distributed to over 7 million people!
5. Web site advertising content like the image shown above that the sponsor can take advantage of now, rather than waiting until I do the crossing.

I have not devoted much time to pursuing sponsors yet, but from the few 'feelers' I sent out, I managed to develop a few partnerships:

Nimbus Kayaks, inc.

Nimbus Kayaks is providing a Hyak Tandem Kayak that will be used as a base for the prototype human powered boat.

Trimble Corporation

Trimble is providing a Recon rugged PDA. These PDA hand held computers are absolutely incredible! Water proof and shock proof - perfect for an ocean crossing. I will be using the PDA to run a GPS with navigation software, and to BLOG text, photos and video web updates to the web site via a satellite phone. Trimble is sponsoring the expedition with TWO PDA's a primary and a backup.

Check out this video of the Recon PDA being
thrown down concrete stairs and run over by a tank!

Fugawi Marine ENC.

Fugawi Marine is providing GPS marine navigation software that will work with the GPS and Recon PDA computer.

Rugged Technologies, incorporated

Rugged Technologies is providing three of their top of the line water proof Cool series keyboards. The keyboard will plug directly into the USB port of the Recon.

I need your help

I think this approach to finding ways to fund an expensive project like the Atlantic crossing is really beneficial to both the sponsor and myself. I get the expensive equipment I need to complete my quest, and the sponsor benefits from valuable testimonial advertising content that is an important part of a robust marketing campaign.

I could use some help! If you have some free time and would like to become involved in the project, I could really use someone to help me find more equipment and supplies sponsors. I will provide you with a list of all the equipment and supplies that I require. You would need to phone the potential sponsor companies, speak to the marketing manager about a sponsorship in kind, and follow up with emails and various other information on the expedition that I will prepare for you.

From my brief experience, I have found that if I can connect with an actual person before sending emails, my chance of success is very high. Emails get lost and easily dismissed, whereas a phone call is taken seriously.

If you have a bit of time to spare and would like to get involved in the project, please send me an email or give me a phone call. 403-242-5482 greg@justgreg.com

59. The twisted drive, and Las Vegas marathon. Nov 2, 06

Thu, 2 Nov 2006 12:38:54 -0700

The twisted drive, and Las Vegas marathon
(click pictures to enlarge)

I have been SLOOOWLY cleaning up the shop over the last month or so. I gutted it, cleaned everything, then slowly moved stuff back and put it all where it could be found once again. I love an organized shop. I bought some new bins at Home Depot, and a bunch of blank sticky labels. Now I have a bin for everything - bottom brackets, headsets, clamps, hinges, velcro, tape, glue, funny shaped things that look like this, etc, etc... It really helps when you are building something or prototyping. To have a part, a special fastener or a piece of tubing that's already bent a certain way is very handy. I thing it's really part of the creative process - to be able to envision something and then just build it using stuff you have in a bin somewhere.

And this is what a well organized, well equipped shop will get you:

This is a drive leg for the prototype boat. I built it in less than a day using parts and materials from my many little magical bins. Plus, it EVEN includes a prop which I 'borrowed' from my Shuttle bike human powered bike kit.

The prop bolts onto a Shimano octalink sealed bottom bracket cartridge that is screwed into a bottom bracket shell. The BB shell is welded to the end of my drive leg shaft - a 2" x 1" rectangular Chrome Alloy steel tube. The other end of the bottom bracket cartridge is a Shimano Dura-ace 11 tooth cog from a bike rear cassette. I welded a round plate to the back of it, drilled a hole in it and bolted it to the bottom bracket cartridge.

The chain is Shimano 9 speed Ultegra which twists up the drive shaft to a 39 tooth chain ring on a Shimano sealed bottom bracket cartridge with two brackets welded to the BB shell. 4 bolts secure the bracket to the rectangular shaft allowing the chain ring / cranks assembly to slide up or down the shaft for various lengths

A take-up pulley guides the chain down to the small cog.

I can pedal forward or backward and because my main chain ring is adjustable, I can take out all of the slack in the chain and the chain stays on the gears.

The plan is to sand down the cromaloy steel and coat it with epoxy or powder coating. For extra water proofing, I could wrap a couple layers of fiberglass/epoxy around all of the tubing which probably wouldn't be a bad idea. The bottom brackets are sealed and should withstand prolonged periods of being submerged under water. At least, that is the experience of others who have used standard bike bottom brackets as bearings for props. Mountain bikes can take quite a bit of mud, dirt, water and torque and a decent quality bottom bracket cartridge will last for years.

The best thing about using standard bike parts is they are all easily replaceable. If the chain goes, it can be replaced with a new chain, or replacement links can be added. If a bearing fails, the entire BB cartridge can be removed with a standard BB wrench. I could carry 3 or 4 or even 10 spare replacement parts - they are all very light weight and take up very little space. This entire system could easily be overhauled - even on the water if required. Well, that's the idea anyhow - and one of the purposes of this first drive leg.

I will need to make a fairing for it to keep the water out of the spinning chain. Ill probably wait until I know exactly how this drive holds up under some decent abuse before making a fairing.

There are a few obvious issues with this first drive leg design. Mostly, it appears to be a lot wider than I thought it would be and that will make it less efficient as it slices through the water due to the extra width of the fairing that needs to cover it all. Since I wanted to keep everything 'standard bike stuff', the main chain ring is offset to the right (typical bike mechanical geometry), but the prop is directly below in the center. Therefore the chain near the top is further to the right than where the chain is at the bottom where it joins the prop. I'm not sure how to re-work this, or even if it's necessary.

The main purpose of this drive leg is to TEST it!! I Want to know for sure that the twisting chain will stand up to at least 500 hours of use in salt water. I am going to mount the drive over a large bucket filled with salt water and rig an electric motor up to the crank. I'm going to replace the chain ring / cranks shown with my SRM power meter so I can set the speed of the drill to approximate my typical power output which will be about 150 watts. In fact, I'd like to overshoot that for this test and run it 24/7 at 200 watts to see what wears out.

I am going to sand down the metal parts and paint a coat of epoxy over them to protect the steel from the corrosive effects of the salt water. My plan is to run the chain directly through the water and make sure that it is always well oiled via daily lubrication.

The drive leg that will be used on the boat will be mostly water tight and I would like to use stainless steel, so I don't expect too much salt water to ever even touch the steel or the chain, but I want to get an idea of what the worse-case abuse would be. What if my fairing cover over the drive leg is smashed, or develops a bad leak and everything gets permanently soaked in sea water? I want to have some idea as to what would happen and how all of the parts would handle that kind of exposure.

I'm going to run some numbers through JavaProp and design my own prop. Rick Willoughby has been making his own props by bending stainless steel plate like Cory Schaffhausen's home made prop.

Las Vegas marathon

I am recovering fast from my sub par performance at Ironman Hawaii - in fact, if it wasn't for my bad ankle, I felt like I could have done another Ironman 4 or 5 days after finishing Kona (not that I would want to!). I think that shows you how hard I really DIDN'T go in Hawaii.

Helen and I are doing the Las Vegas Marathon on Dec 10th. I've been slowing getting my running back - starting with plenty of elliptical trainer, then moving some volume to the soft tread mill, and slowly doing more track running. I'm at the point now where 50% of my running is on the track and the other 50% is split between the elliptical and the tread mill. But, my ankle is healing, so I think I'll be OK for the marathon.

My goal is to break 3:20. My best marathon time is 3:15, but all I need to re-qualify for the Boston Marathon is a 3:30. The deal Helen and I have is we will only both go to Boston if we can both qualify. She just did the Portland marathon and missed her 3:50 qualifying time by 2 minutes! I think she just might do it in Vegas, so I better do it as well.

58. Plans for the prototype human powered ocean boat . Oct 29, 06

Sun, 29 Oct 2006 15:25:13 -0700

Plans for the prototype human powered ocean boat
(click on images to enlarge)

Steve Schleicher from Nimbus Kayaks in B.C. has kindly offered to donate a slightly damaged Hyak tandem kayak that I plan on modifying to build a prototype human powered ocean boat. I plan on using this boat to gain much needed experience in ocean conditions, and to learn more about exactly what the final trans-Atlantic version of the boat should be like.

The Nimbus Hyak kayak is 19' 3" long, 28" beam, 15.5" depth and weighs 79 lbs. The plan is to cut off the Hyak top and fabricate the ocean boat canopy as illustrated in the rendering at the top. I will probably use the Styrofoam section male-plug method that I used to build both the Rocket HPV fairing and a Critical Power streamliner canopy top.

Basically, I will take the computer model of the curved canopy top, slice it up into 2" thick sections and project and trace each section into 2" thick Styrofoam. I glue the Styrofoam sections together and sand down the stair-step edges. Then I cover the foam plug with a combination of fiberglass, carbon, Kevlar and some type of sandwich core material like nomex to make it all stiff and strong. Then I will build the walls and floors for the compartments, install the drive leg, rudder (not shown), hatches to access the front and rear compartment, seat, etc. Then finally I will bond the one-piece top onto the Hyak hull and then cut-out the retractable canopy mid section hatch. Then I cut out the windows and fill-in with Lexan. And finally, add hardware, paint and other details.

The prototype boat is based on a design from Rick Willoughby with help from Stevie Smith from the human powered circumnavigation expedition Expedition360 and Leven Brown from his trans Atlantic solo rowing expedition Columbus Run. The drive will be a standard bike cranks/chain ring / bottom bracket to a twisted chain that turns a small gear mounted to another bottom bracket which turns the prop. Warren Beuchamp has a fairly simple and tested drive that I plan to base my design on:

A faired fin made from carbon or fiberglass will cover the drive leg steel tube and extend to 3 feet below the boat bottom. The prop will be only about 1 foot below the boat bottom and the bottom of the fin will hold 20 pounds of lead ballast. I calculated where the center of weight was including the 20 pounds of ballast and my own weight, and positioned the seat / drive leg unit exactly in the middle of the boat, 115.5" from the stern. I assume that the front half and back half of the boat weight approximately the same. If my center of weight is slightly off, or if I want more weight in the stern, then I can install movable ballast weights under the floor boards in both the front and rear compartments to balance the boat as required.

Stability is maintained from both my weight being fairly low in the boat, as well as the 20 pound ballast 3 feet below the boat and some additional ballast weights under the floor boards of the bow and stern compartments. The weight of the ballast keel should allow me to stand up and lean slightly over the side of the boat without tipping over.

Capsizes are prevented by:

1. All three compartments are water tight - the front, rear AND cockpit when hatches are closed.

2. The weight of the ballast on the end of the drive leg 3 feet below the boat

3. Additional ballast below the floor boards in the front and rear compartments and possibly even the cockpit floor if required.

4. I will be strapped down to my seat with a harness so my body weight stays low in the boat.

If the boat capsizes, it should roll upright even if the cockpit hatch is open and the center cockpit compartment fills with water.

The rear and front compartments are both water-tight with accessible hatches in the bulk heads. There are two sealed compartments filled with expandable foam in the bow and stern. These should prevent sinking if the hull is damaged and all three compartments fill with water.

The rear compartment could be used to store supplies, or used as a resting or sleeping cabin. The front compartment is for storage of supplies. I'm not quite sure exactly how to gain access to the forward compartment because the drive leg is in the way. It might be possible to add hatches to the top, but I don't like the idea of having to crawl up on the nose to get something from down in the front compartment.

I also have not yet figured out how to store and deploy the sea parachute (sea anchor). It needs to be fastened to the bow, and again, I do not like the idea of crawling across the nose to attach the sea anchor every time it is required. The sea anchor is very important because it prevents the boat from being pushed backward when travelling into strong head winds and rough seas. I could stow the anchor in the cockpit area with cables running outside the boat to the nose, but I don't like the idea of cables running outside the boat. I really want to keep the outside shell aerodynamically clean.

The efficient aerodynamic shape of this boat is not so much for speed, but to minimize the effect of strong headwinds which are a big problem with an ocean crossing. Most human powered boats are not designed with aerodynamics in mind because of the slow average speeds of the boats which might be as high as only 10 kph. However, when pushing through a 50 kph headwind, the 'air speed' of the boat is 50 kph, and a smooth, aerodynamic shape will absolutely help stop the boat from being pushed backward.

I have shown the canopy hatch as hinged to the rear and to the front. I am not sure which configuration is better. If the hatch flips backward, then it allows access to the top of the bow, but won't allow access to the top of the stern. Perhaps there is a way to fasten the canopy hatch with 4 hinged clamps (any such thing??). When all 4 clamps are closed, the hatch is secure. Buy un-clamping 3 of them, the 4th will act as a hinge allowing the canopy hatch to rotate away to the front, the back or either side. Or it could be removed completely and tied down to the rear deck. I like the hinged clamp approach, as it is the most flexible, but I am not sure if any such hinged clamp exists. When the canopy hatch is open, it is held in place with two lockable, removable struts.

The seat will rotate forward to allow access to the rear hatch. Although, I can see now that I could not access the rear compartment with the canopy hatch closed, as there would be no way of rotating the seat out of the way unless I could stand up - even then, it will be tricky. I can figure that out later after I have build the boat and can experience exactly how much room I have in there to move around, and how that seat could be moved out of the way.

Since this boat is designed to be operated with the canopy hatch closed, Adequate ventilation is very important. If ocean conditions allow, the canopy top could be opened slightly to allow some air flow into the cockpit. Aside from that, I will install a fan with fresh air intake and exit vents for the cockpit compartment (and the sleeping compartment if it is going to be used for that). The fans will be powered by lithium polymer batteries wired to solar panels on the top of the bow and stern. The small window cut into the canopy hatch is purposely small to avoid solar heating.

I'm not sure how to calculate the solar panel power production / battery storage / power consumption for the electronic equipment. I'm also not sure exactly how much electronics will be required on the test boat - although, I would like to run everything I plan on taking to the Atlantic to make sure that it all works exactly the way it's supposed to. Maybe someone out there in AOG land can help?

Electronics for the test boat:

1. iPod, a small amp and 2 speakers
2. Ventilation fan (used often)
3. Iridium 9505A Satellite phone (Used at least once per day to transmit BLOG updates, etc)
4. Tripod Data Systems Recon PDA Tripod has agreed to sponsor the expedition by donating TWO of their very cool water proof, rugged PDAs! Watch for more news on this development in the future. It will run a GPS and navigation software (The software is being sponsored by Fugawi Marine ENC)
5. A small 12 vdc bilge pump to keep the cockpit area dry when the canopy hatch is open. This could be manually powered if need be.
6. Auto steering system. I would like to power a simple, small compass slaved auto steering mechanism

For typical day trip uses of the test boat, the Iridium sat phone and the PDA with GPS could probably be powered by replaceable AA batteries and therefore probably don't require power from the on-board rechargable batteries and solar panels. I would think the items that need constant power would be the bilge pump, the auto steering system, the vent fan and the amp/speakers. How much power? How many batteries? How many solar panels? Can anyone offer advice with this?

If the rear compartment is to be used to sleep or rest in, then I should install 2 port holes to allow for lookouts and to let in some natural light.

The drive leg is inserted and can be pulled out of a slot cut into the hull for transportation and beaching. Since the drive leg includes a 20 pound ballast (maybe more), I am not sure how to pull it out while on the water. The ballast required to keep me stable when standing up is the same ballast that I would be pulling out of the water. I'm not sure how to deal with this. Perhaps the drive leg could be designed to rotate forward into a bay in the bow compartment. Then a paddle could be used to row ashore or to a shallow dock. A long slot cut into the hull would disrupt the smooth surface of the hull bottom though - I don't like that. Maybe a worm gear with a hand crank to raise it up would work. Once it has been fully raised, it could be stowed in the forward compartment or laid down flat on the deck beside the cockpit seat.

Advice, comments, suggestions, feedback ??