Once or twice a year, something special happens. Something you don’t normally see. Something so incredible, its worth writing a blog post about: The members of MITERS go outside.
Hear Ye, Hear Ye: its time for the legendary, certifiably insane, MITERS BOATING ADVENTURE. That time of year when we use our big brains to make magical machines which defy physics by not sinking and occasionally exhibiting forward motion.
Usually, every boating adventure revolves around a “main event” of Dane’s creation, such as the Doom-Winch or the boat named Three Wave Rectifier. However, this year a different scheme was proposed: the MITERS Air Mattress Speedboat Regatta. The rules were simple:
- Primary flotation must be provided using at least one air mattress.
- Bus voltage is limited to a maximum voltage of 72 V.
Only a few things were banned, mostly due to noise concerns:
- Leaf blowers
- External combustion engines (pulsejets, we’re looking at you Mike)
Everything else is allowed: sails, oars, underwater bicycles, hydrofoils, etc.
Anyways- LET THE BUILDING COMMENCE!
No access to MITERS this time made construction slightly more challenging than normal. However, we all made do in our various back yards. Mike decided to make, of all things, a CATAMARAN SAILBOAT. He utilized CAD (Cardboard Aided Design) to make the pontoons, which were spaced exactly to straddle an air mattress. Fred came over to help construct everything.
We also converted an old RF dish into a solar cooker, using several sheets of aluminum foil. The aluminum foil was only vaguely flat though, so it didn’t focus very well. The focus area was about 6″ around, so sadly a hotdog only gets about 10-20% of the incoming solar radiation.
Savva found some nice 6″ ducted thrusters on the loading dock. I did some scoping to determine if they were brushed or brushless, and eventually the proper phase wires were located.
We both made semi-legitimate 2×4 frames to attach them to air mattresses.
Savva and I went shopping at Market Basket. They had some cheap ribs and watermelons.
ONWARD! We rested well and waited for the day to come….
Aaron and I got to the lake a little later than planned, at around noon. Surprisingly we fit all of this stuff in the tiny Honda Fit.
My air mattress contraption was horrendously slow on the 4s battery I brought, so I was forced to accept a tow by Aaron. Luckily, the motor controller could take a 6s, so we upgraded later in the day.
The others began to arrive and finishing touches were added.
Miraculously, Mike’s catamaran floated, even without an air mattress. But we added it anyways just in case.
After a brief tow out to sea, Mike’s thing actually, wait- is he actually sailing?
Mike’s thing ACTUALLY VAGUELY WORKED. A catamaran sailboat made in literally 12 hours. NOT BAD, MIKE!
Dane’s aluminum and strapping thing also worked pretty well. He was quite content.
Birkel made this simple trolling motor contraption. Look how happy he is!!
ONWARD!!! TO THE ISLAND!!
Aaron’s boat, as usual, was the workhorse of this adventure. However, this is unsurprising, as it was an actual off-the-shelf product propelled by an actual off-the-shelf gas moter. No points for creativity, but points for reliability and usefulness. This was the designated “lifeboat” of the regatta, despite at least three leaks on the hull required a few pumps every minute or so. Shows you how much confidence we have in our vehicles.
Fred came prepared. This vehicle had a trolling motor attached and somehow drove backwards quite well. More on this later.
More on Fred’s thing later.
A base was established, and sausages were cooked. About a month ago, our neighbors gave us a cast iron pan. We used it to cook bacon here with about a 50% success rate. The fire got really hot!!
Group photo!! 😀
The solar cooker provided entertainment for the weak-minded individuals (just kidding mike)
Someone made some potatoes which inevitably tasted as though they had been heavily seasoned with ash. Some brave souls ate them though.
Lotsa boats!!!!
The sacrificial hotdog. After about 2 hours the hotdog was warm to the touch, but I ate it anyways. Next time, better aluminum foil.
Fred brought this WONDERFUL contraption which was the bucking bronco of boats. It was a trolling motor with a contactor and some dodgy pedal steering device. On a massive boat, I’m sure this trolling motor could move you from point A to point B at maybe half a mile per hour. However, on the air mattress, this thing RIPPED. It also could steer, so it would pretty instantly throw off the rider when on setting 5, the maximum setting.
And finally, THE RACE OF THE MATTRESSES!!!
Savva and I both had used the bad thrusters which really lacked enough thrust to actually move an air mattress, so rather than failing independently, we attached both thrusters to the same air mattress and decided to commit to failure together. We all badly maneuvered into position:
And we’re off!!
I don’t know who won, but I do know that Savva and I finished dead last, no questions asked. We were beaten even by Cairan, who’s motor had broken and resorted to paddling. Lol.
Anyways, we enjoyed the rest of the day, humbly admitting defeat. We attached two air mattresses, end to end, to make a NIMITZ CLASS BATTLESHIP:
I brought my nice cutting board and we cut up the watermelon. Yum!
A quality day!!! Stay tuned for the next boating adventures!!!
Wow this post is SUPER LONG- if anyone actually read this far, let me know why you read this whole post lol.