Just in the nick of time!
Updated: Feb 3, 2022
As a quick bit of overall information - In our quest to be as environmentally friendly as possible we are swapping out the Diesel engine for twin Oceanvolt 15 kWh servo prop motors. More about these motors will be described in the future - but for now there is some reference material under the "boat" tab and "2022 refit plans".
Just before leaving Colorado - we worked with the amazing folks at Oceanvolt to procure a Servo Prop "flange". This is an integral piece that locks and seals the new electric motors to the hull of the boat. Oceanvolt was kind enough to provide us with engineering drawings from which I could derive accurate measurements to plug into CAD and create my own "mating" surface for the Oceanvolt flange (shown below). At the time - we were not sure if we would be bringing our CNC plasma capabilities to Newfoundland and we wanted to get this part manufactured before leaving Colorado on the first leg of refit logistics.
Oceanvolt provides purchasers with a mating flange for their motor to hull attachment. Essentially the motor attaches to the Oceanvolt "flange" (an oval metal plate that seals the motor and interior of the boat from the water). The Oceanvolt flange is then mated (bolted) to the hull. Conventionally - this is done on fiberglass boats where the mating platform/surface is fiberglassed into or to the hull. But in Hakluyt's case, we had to engineer a metal mating surface - essentially a mirrored flange that will get welded to Hakluyt's steel hull. More of this will make sense I am sure once it gets installed and we publish pictures - but for now - here is the jist...
The servo prop motors will project from the hull in a similar fashion as shown in the CAD rendition below (the apertures / portals and skegs for the motors are not illustrated):
The blue flange (not shown but would go in the gap represented below) sits in between the motor head and the "servo prop"
An image of the motor with the Oceanvolt flange connected can be found at:
For starters - here is the painted Oceanvolt mating flange.
The goal here was to engineer a mating surface for this flange to mount to. The flange above does not show the water sealing gasket that would sit between the motor "head" and the flange - but hopefully this gets the point across. Oceanvolt provided me with some architectural drawings for me to reference. I then plugged the reference measurements into CAD and created an accurate and nearly mirrored mating surface.
This drawing was then converted to a file for CNC plasma cutting. The first test cut on a plate of 3/8" steel went perfectly! Albeit a little rough on some edges - some refining of plasma cutter speeds fixed that!
Finally the cuts were made in 1/2" steel plate and all went equally as good!
The finished result was impressive! Amazing what we can do with CAD and CAM!!!
A little rough on the second cut - but that will "buff out". ;-)
Here is the end result - Oceanvolt flange seated on our custom designed mating flange.
Our custom flanges will get welded to a vertical tube that match the aperture dimensions of that oval hole you see in the middle. Then that tube will get welded to the hull - after two rather large holes get cut in the hull that is! That will be an interesting day when that happens... ;-)
But for now - we have the first "parts" for Hakluyt's new electric propulsion system!! Boring to an extent for most - its incredibly thrilling for us and represents the first stage of our refit - undertaken a few thousand miles away from the boat!!!
Cheers!
Comments