Airwave

Ross 780

Airwave 990 email: reichelt1@gmail.com

Replica Aircraft and Models

Seaway 25 Restoration

"Volcano" is a 36 year old Seaway 25 that was wrecked in cyclone Ului in the Whitsundays.

We have restored the boat to its former glory after an extensive rebuild spanning two years.

The progress of the rebuild can be seen at Trailer Sailer Place .

This is the finished result

It's a great old boat, that now has a new lease of life.

Airwave 9.9m (32ft6") Trailable Yacht

Length........... 9.9m (32ft 6in)
LWL.............9.7m (31ft 9in)
Beam.............3.01m (9ft 10 1/2in)
Displacement......2400kg app
Ballast in keel ......700kg
Draft keel down.....2m approx (6ft 7in)
Draft keel up.......260mm approx (11 in)Headroom...1.91m (6ft 3in)

Trailer weight...960kg

"Airtime"

Hull is XM Coremat sandwich construction. Deck is Divinycell foam sandwich.

Mast and rigging: Allyacht Spars/Selden twin spreader rig, with single line reefing...two reefs.

Power. Honda 20hp remote electric start and electric tilt outboard engine, coupled to tiller.

Rudder electric raise and lower.

Doyle sails.Yarn tempered main, Pentex number 2, yarn tempered number 3, kite with Doyle snuffer for easy hoisting and dousing.

Electric refrigeration.

Electric water pressure

2 x ~110 litre fibreglass water tanks.

Inverter 600w

New blue bimini, boom cover, deck bag for jib.

2 x Maxie Metho stoves, one with griller.

TV/DVD (HD)

Electric keel raise and lower

Electric toilet with 120 litre holding tank, and macerating electric transfer pump.

Autohelm with remote.

2 x 100amp AGM deep cycle batteries New in September 2011

2 x 40w solar panels directional

1 x 20w solar panel for battery maintenance.

Swiftco trailer with electric brakes (trailer is not immersed)

Towing oversized yachts in Queensland:

We now tow the boat with a permit under the regulations below

Here are some of the latest relevant guidelines

http://www.tmr.qld.gov.au/~/media/3c1dc39c-7d70-455a-a2de-b4ea9ba428d8/pdf_guideline_for_special_use_trailers_carrying_dragon_boats_etc_form_26_v1_june_2011.pdf

http://www.tmr.qld.gov.au/~/media/3295096d-6bb8-405a-95f8-ea48f945f236/pdf_class_permit_220_th_11.pdf

http://www.tmr.qld.gov.au/~/media/3ed57636-203f-4581-b619-5d30b4a2f58c/form4_excess_dimension_dec2010.pdf

Spinnaker is easy to put up and down with the snuffer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjlkWAQAZsI

Above: Two Airwaves on the sandbank in Rous Channel. A surprisingly good place to walk around and investigate.

We had to motor 45 n. Miles from Bundaberg to Urangan to get in before a 40 knot gale that was building and came on fullstrength

the next day. Honda 20 never misses a beat and uses little fuel. Here we are getting in as night falls.

Airtime and Magenta in Coongul Creek.

Magenta with her asymmetric blue furling MPS looks a picture heading up the coast from Brisbane to Bundaberg, in company with Airtime.

Magenta sailing to Moreton Island in December 06

Airtime sailing upwind from Bundy to Urangan. We ended up having to motor as seen above

This is our Airwave 9.9 called Airtime

sitting on a sandbank beside Rous channel, Moreton Bay.

This is Magenta, which is a diesel powered Airwave 9.9, just launched 19th October 2006.

The Concept:

The Airwave 99 is intended to be a fast, easily handled yacht, suitable for short-handed or single-handed sailing, able to manoeuvre in shallow water,(app.300mm) and to sit on the sand at low tide. It will be trailable if required, or it can live on a trolley or marina berth in a marina.

Features:

Draft When the keel is up the yacht draws just over 250mm. Power in the prototype will be via a Honda 20hp 4-stroke outboard with remote throttle, electric start, and electric tilt (although diesel would be an alternative. If a saildrive is fitted, then a bulb keel would be recommended to protect it, and still allow sitting on the sand. Draft would then be about 500mm with keel up.) If a shaft drive diesel is fitted, with a shallow angle on the shaft, then the 250mm is still the keel-up draft.

From skipper's position, sheets for the main, jib, and switches for the electric raiseable keel, electric raiseable rudder, electric anchor winch, and engine tilt and controls will all be within reach without moving.The rig is a 40ft twin swept spreader deck stepped unsleeved 7/8 fractional with high aspect ratio fairly conservative sailplan. Selden boom is only 4m long, with single line reefing from cockpit. The rig is raiseable with a halyard winch single handed, and will roll forward onto the pulpit on a rollered strut in the cockpit.

Interior

this is the saloon which is convertible into a huge double berth, see below

this is a very large double berth from which the occupants,( plus any occupants of the front veeberth,)
can watch the flatscreen tv on the main bulkhead.

After some initial jamming caused by slight narrowing fore/aft of the centrecase, the keel is through and
goes all the way up and down with no problems.

This is the pulley system to raise and lower the keel. 4mm rope looks very thin and flimsy but apparently
has a breaking load of 2059kg and so is stronger than the winch. However we have removed one of the
four circuit breakers to hopefully reduce the ultimate strength of the winch so it can't break the rope.
Keel goes up and down very easily which makes us think we could have used a lighter winch.

Ross 780e

New Ross 780 e 8.2m yacht.

Note: (Even though the boat is now 8.2m long, it's still a variation of the older 780, so we have decided to keep the name Ross 780 to avoid confusion with the Ross 830. The 'e' means 'extended')

The 780 moulds have been altered to improve the cruising abilities and features of this yacht.

the hull and deck have been lengthened to 8.2m. This gives us an extra 200mm of length to the hull in the galley/bathroom area, and an extra 200mm of length to the cockpit.

The keel will be approx 125mm longer to increase stability. Another 30kg of lead will be incorporated in the solid bottom keel section.

The performance may be minutely enhanced by the slight increase in WL length and stability; on the other side of the equation is a bit more windage.

After 68 Ross 780's made since the 1980's, we're officially 'retired' now and the 780 isn't still in production. However we intend to keep making a small number of boats to be sold as fully fitted yachts, albeit fitted to a fairly basic stage.

Here are some pics of the yacht. When we can we'll get pictures of the 780e's sailing.

Ross 780 Earlier versions

The Ross 780 has been a quiet achiever in the trailer yacht scene in Australia, with so far 67 boats being made since the mid eighties. The Ross in its present form is the inspiration for the Airwave 9.9m yacht, with the aim being to make the big boat a natural follow-on from the smaller one, with all the controls being in similar position.