Excel Volaire 390 build thread

[Pikey Dave]

Well! we finally got her salty. Had 3 days down on the Menai & they were cracking. On the first day we launched off the beach just past Ty Calch. We could have used the slip at Chris's, but we thought that we may as well set ourselves a challenge to see how we fared. It took us a shade under an hour from parking up to setting off down the strait. We had to negotiate around 100m of pebbly beach to get to the water, which highlighted a problem with the launching wheels. The wheels are held in the deployed/stowed position by a couple of luges that engage in slots on the mounting brackets. The only thing that holds them in place is gravity, going over the pebbles caused the wheels to un-lock & the boat dropped to the ground. More of that later.
We got to the water, and were quickly on our way. The DF20 starts first pull & as long as you get it to the "decompressed" position before starting her, she doesn't pull you over the transom, you only do that once
The water was oily flat calm, so we didn't get much chance to see how she performed in a sea, top speed was 17+kn. We did a few hours fishing, caught our tea & had a potter around Pilots Cove. She seems very sure footed, very stable & dry when hitting wakes of larger passing craft.

Day 2 saw us launch at Ty Calch & use the slip there, the breeze had picked up & with wind over tide, we had 0.5m waves in the strait. We set off down the strait head in towards the bridges & the Swellies, the plan was to have a coffee in The Gazelle. The bit of wind certainly made a difference & to keep things comfortable & civilised, we dropped speed to around 10kn, I was still impressed with how dry the ride was. We negotiated the Swellies ,no problem, having the 20HP on the back gives that extra piece of mind for passing through heavy tidal areas. Coffee was consumed & thanks to the "Eat out to help out" scheme they were half price, cheers Rishi
The ride back up to Ty Calch was with a following sea & it soon became apparent that the engine was trimmed too high, this sounds counter intuitive as you'd normally trim up for a following sea. We lost grip on several occasions & the prop was ventilating heavily. I think this is due to the way the (inflatable) hull rides the waves, the draft is so shallow that when she crests the wave, the arse end lifts & the prop loses grip. Anyway, dropping the trim pin another hole cured it. Dropping the trim knocked a Knot of the top end & slightly increased the splash back from the leg, but not enough to be a problem.
I had lowered the sounder transducer & moved it slightly further astern of the transom, this seems to have cured the issues with losing the bottom at speed. I now have a perfect trace up to around 10kn & acceptable up to WOT. I have digital depth readout at all speeds, so that's sorted.
Over the 2 days we did circa 50nm & used 12Litres of fuel, I'll take that anyday.
All in all happy & impressed, saying that, my experience of SIBs is minimal, so it's not a ringing endorsement of the marque, but she'll do for us
I've resolved the issue with the launching wheels dropping out of their location slots, a couple of pegs machined up out of plastic & some bungee does the trick. I just need some black bungee to tidy it up.

[Pikey Dave]

couple more pics of the wheel securing pins.

[jeffstevens763@g]

Good write up Dave and a great trip by the looks, fuel consumption is bang on I get 50 miles to 18 ltrs with the 25. I found a lot of cavitation with my engine I think the tube cones keep the transom high so dropped mine 2 inches. Glad your happy with the set up around mull next then

[Steve509926]

Sounds like you had a good trip on Anglesey you definitely had the weather for it, the fish looks good too. Shame you couldn't make it up to Ullswater for my maiden voyage, but you was right it blew a gale and rained all day Tuesday and Wednesday.
Would love to meet up some time and compare your Volaire 390 to the SD360.

[Pikey Dave]

Originally Posted by jeffstevens763@g

......around mull next then

I definitely fancy that, & I’ve had one eye on longer trips as I’ve been kitting her out. I think I need to hone my skillset & experience a bit first.

[Pikey Dave]

Originally Posted by Steve509926

Sounds like you had a good trip on Anglesey you definitely had the weather for it, the fish looks good too. Shame you couldn't make it up to Ullswater for my maiden voyage, but you was right it blew a gale and rained all day Tuesday and Wednesday.
Would love to meet up some time and compare your Volaire 390 to the SD360.

I’m up for another trip down to the Menai later in the year, but we’re looking busy now until October. Cornwall & then France (hopefully [emoji849])

[Steve509926]

And I thought I was having to many holidays!
Dont forget you'll be losing 14 days if you go to France.
Where do you launch from when your on the Menai?

[jeffstevens763@g]

Originally Posted by Pikey Dave

I definitely fancy that, & I’ve had one eye on longer trips as I’ve been kitting her out. I think I need to hone my skillset & experience a bit first.

Weathers key Dave we were going round end of last month but ended up in loch etive for two nights wild camping had to sit the rain and wind out drinking wine an expeariance I will repeat no dought

[Pikey Dave]

Originally Posted by Steve509926

And I thought I was having to many holidays!
Dont forget you'll be losing 14 days if you go to France.
Where do you launch from when your on the Menai?

We launch at the Caernavon end of the Menai, either at Chris’s (Ty Calch) or further along off the beach.

Hopefully, by the time we get to France, the quarantine might be over.

[smallribber]

PD

Have you been out in your Rib this year or have you gone total Gurnard

[Pikey Dave]

Originally Posted by smallribber

PD

Have you been out in your Rib this year or have you gone total Gurnard

Nope we've had the RIB out too, lockdown & weather permitting. You had yours out?

[smallribber]

Originally Posted by Pikey Dave

Nope we've had the RIB out too, lockdown & weather permitting. You had yours out?

The lockdown of course held things back but we have managed about 7 trips out in the Rib and hard boat. Hopefully a few more this year

[Pikey Dave]

After our recent trip on the Menai, I realised that I miss having a compass on board. Ordered a Ritchie Kayak EP99 from Pirates Cave which seemed to fit the bill. Compact, decent quality & heavily damped. Yesterday was p155ing down, so the shed called. As with most things, a 10 minute job turned into half a day, I had to rework the mounting for the plotter to make room for the compass. Also as previously mentioned by some of the overly OCD afflicted members, the fastners for the mounting plate didn't match, so I machined up 6 matching fixings. All in all, I'm happy with the arrangement, it's compact & doesn't use any additional space up. I checked the compass in its mounting position & it's pulling about 5deg off, probably due to the LiFePo battery in the power pack underneath. I can live with 5deg on a bouncing SIB.

[A1an]

Good job.......on the fasteners.

[willk]

Originally Posted by A1an

Good job.......on the fasteners.

one of them is different

[A1an]

Originally Posted by willk

one of them is different

But you cant see it so it doesn't count.

[Pikey Dave]

Originally Posted by willk

one of them is different

where ?????

[jeffstevens763@g]

Originally Posted by Pikey Dave

After our recent trip on the Menai, I realised that I miss having a compass on board. Ordered a Ritchie Kayak EP99 from Pirates Cave which seemed to fit the bill. Compact, decent quality & heavily damped. Yesterday was p155ing down, so the shed called. As with most things, a 10 minute job turned into half a day, I had to rework the mounting for the plotter to make room for the compass. Also as previously mentioned by some of the overly OCD afflicted members, the fastners for the mounting plate didn't match, so I machined up 6 matching fixings. All in all, I'm happy with the arrangement, it's compact & doesn't use any additional space up. I checked the compass in its mounting position & it's pulling about 5deg off, probably due to the LiFePo battery in the power pack underneath. I can live with 5deg on a bouncing SIB.

Yep good job on the bolts, why does the lifepo battery pull the compass I need educating

[Pikey Dave]

Originally Posted by jeffstevens763@g

Yep good job on the bolts, why does the lifepo battery pull the compass I need educating

I’m guessing it’s the Fe in LiFePo; iron

[willk]

Originally Posted by A1an

But you cant see it so it doesn't count.

It counts if you KNOW it's there