Boatbuilding at Atlantic College 2007

(Last updated by Asbjorn Damhus March 2007)

X-18 has had a face lift

After some 25 years away from AC "Double Trouble" found its way back to us 2 years ago. Now she has had her bottom cleaned up, sanded and painted and filled and painted and sanded and...

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The roaming life of an AC boat
She had been a St. John's Ambulance boat for a while. The last couple of years before being given back to us, she was sitting on land at a marina in Cardiff Bay, so all the wood was dry and ready to be worked on.

Funny how someone thought of calling her "Pheonix", the same name that we chose for the first of the "P-boats"...

X-18 has had several other paint jobs the last 2-3 decades...
Let the sanding begin
Paul Dowling instructing first years in how to get the perfect finish. Note: Vain students have removed dustmasks for picture!

Looking better already
Months later
Much sanding and painting had happened before the boat looked this good. Since then she has had a couple of final coats of 2-component paint, and now we are just about ready to make a mould, so we can make little X-18 clones in fibre glass. Of course the original boat will be in service as well, so lots of nostalgia is promised to returning ex-students for a few reunions to come!

Time frame: Mould made in August/autumn 2007

smooth like a baby boat's bottom...
Meanwhile the P-boats ...
 We were quite happy about the fleet at the beginning of August period 2006...

3 good looking fast boats
... however a rather unfortunate day out during the instructors course lead to the boats suffering damage on the planing surfaces, cracked gel-coat etc.

a closer look reveals: some attention is needed
...so building on P4 was halted...
and the half-finished boat was turned upside down and polished very well to allow us to make second bottoms for P-3 and P-2.

...

After this procedure has been completed, we are now ready to turn P-4 back over and put the deck and tube on.

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 ...mostly we worked harder than this!
We also have a couple of second-hand 40 HP engines, that the RNLI sold cheaply, so we are ready to complete our first twin engine boat for decades (since S-5.5 in the late 1970s, I think?).

You may recall that we were hoping to design a new twin engine boat a couple of years ago, and were asking for input as per Bruce Matheson's letter below. However, we were faced with strong 'recommendations' from the RNLI that to be able to continue our fairly accelerated training programme of student "crew" for call-outs (1 year as opposed to 3-4 years or more at other stations) we ought to have a way to teach them on a boat similar to the B-boat. We therefore decided to change our plans and fit P-4 with 2 engines. We have also had a rather slow response from ex-students on the design side of things, so it does not look like we have 'lost an opportunity' yet.

Time frame: P-4 to launch in August?

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 these engines come from decommisioned D-class boats
The reunion of the 74s in 2004
When I mentioned the dream of building a twin engine boat to the year of 74 at their 30th reunion I had a prompt and positive reply from Bruce Matheson, who went home to go through his attic looking for old blueprints, and test results from sea-trials with X-24. Bruce has subsequently written to a number of his year and others with an interest in AC boatbuilding. His letter is re-printed below. I don't know how much response he has had, but after a period of silence Bruce has reemerged as keen as ever. Read his letter and act, if you, too, still have a soft spot for the rigid hull inflateable and its birthplace. As a starting point I can mention that Rob Steiner's old copy of Admiral Hoare's Seamanship notes have come to the surface and could form basis of the "Manual" mentioned below.

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 The ILBers from the class of 74 testing P-2 at their reunion
The reunion of the 75s in 2005
gave a very positive response from my own year, who were here for their 30th reunion. In August 2006 four of them came back and and worked several weeks on P-4, and gave the present students a few glimpses of what 'our world' looked like! August 2007 will see Geert Lansloot back for his 3rd August boatbuilding session, and maybe others will join him? What will we be working on in August? Probably putting the final touches on P-4, maybe making a mould for the sailing safety boats

(naming competion: what should we call the fibreglass clones of X18?)

Thanks to Neil Lewis for scanning the old photos of X-18 as she was back in the mid 70s

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 X-18 in its prime! ...and what about the young boys launching her?

Ex-student involvement

Design & Operations Manual for ILBs

Appeal at the August 04 Reunion for Support for ILB Build Programme

Quite a number of keen boat builders from 72-74 enjoyed this years reunion. Asbjorn Damhus' challenge to us was to return some of the benefit we had at College from our involvement in ILBs. Money always helps but with thought it was apparent that collecting all the scattered knowledge would be of more lasting benefit. The 72-74 ILB crew are keen to help with this and I trust there will be many others.

Our year engaged in prolific boat building with X23 completed and X24, X25 & X26 started. Our second years had had the benefit of design knowledge recently passed on by Desmond Hoare. Several of the development boats built in the late 60s were still in use. When I visited in subsequent years it became apparent that much of the design knowledge was being lost and expensively relearned through experience.

Concept of a Design & Operations Manual

Design manuals are used in my industry (nuclear power) to capture and pass on the reasons why designs are as they are. Drawings and the real object give clues but not the designer's intent behind the choice of shape, size and material. If the design intent is unknown then any changes can unwittingly negate the original purpose of the equipment.

The suggestion to make this an operations manual is also deliberate. The function of a boat has a major effect on the form. The two aspects must be linked.

Manual Sections As a really brief outline I suggest the following 3 sections

Boat design; hull shape, structure, rails, tubes, fittings, design methods, standard design, AC ILB build history, equipment used on board, trolleys, engines and props

Operation; boat driving though waves, launch & recovery, towing, beach landing, anchoring, tides, weather, radios, navigation, Glamorgan coast, boat maintenance & test, line swimming, safety & survival at sea, coordinated rescue missions.

Reference Material; books, photos, records of designs, other organisations reference material

Information Sources

Purpose

Gather the information students and staff need to build efficient ILB designs based on experiment & experience. The College intention is to start another P series boat (in GRP with foam sandwich inner structure) very soon then design a twin engined "Atlantic 75" clone/expedition boat.

Appeal to ex ILB crew and staff

The challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to both write down what you remember of ILB build & operations plus dig out anything useful saved from your years at AC.

Plan

I am prepared to try and edit/collate the material sent in. As regards the development of a standard hull structural design inside the P series mould, is one of our professional boat builders prepared to advise? Once people offer to help with any aspect then we can coordinate our efforts. Next years task is prepare a well considered design for the twin engined boat.

Bruce Matheson

at bmatheson@btopenworld.com