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Runner Talk |
Those of us that have been fortunate enough to get out on the ice a few times this season have been reminded by the elements of those little things that make big differences in iceboat performance. Mike ,Larry and I got together this afternoon for some shop talk and preparations for the next day on the ice. Runner maintenance was the theme and sharpening Mikes runners got my mind on the topic.There are some great reads by some great people on the internet about runners and maintaining them. I have stumbled on to a few of them and listed links to them in the right hand column of this page. As for myself I am not a runner expert but more of a trial and error kind of guy. Sailing with your buddies is a great way to guage how things are and are not working. Thursdays sail was a great example of that. The great thing about runners is if you suspect your buddies runners are working better or worse than yours you can stop, swap and be sailing again in about 15 minutes. If your really stealthy about it, your sailing buddy will never know you made the swap with him. We had three runner scenario's going on the last day we sailed. Razorsharp runners, Runners sailed a half season on a sharpening and runners sailed a full season since purchased new with no sharpening since purchased. The ice was soft for this time of year and temps were in the low to mid 30's the day we sailed. The razor sharp runners were slow but solid, the set sailed a half season on a sharpening were a bit slow in light wind but great in the corners with little to no skidding, the set that was sailed a season with no sharpening was sliding bad in the corners. As you can see in the above photo my equipment is not state of the art. My jig is crude and my belt sander can be purchased for less than 30 bucks at any hardware store. I use belts ranging from 120 grit to 320 grit. This set up seems to work ok for my needs. I personally hate sharp runners because they really slow me down on soft ice so I refuse to sharpen them until I start spinning out. I usually sharpen once a season and try to get my runners sharp as well as smooth. Mike sharpening his steering runner as Larry watches on. Mike, Travis and I are using 36" Sarns runners on our boats. Bonnie and I both have home built plate runners made from mild steel that work fine as well but require sharpening more often. Bonnie has a set of angle runners that he built for the soft spring ice which work great. I will try to get pics of our homebuilt runners on this page in the future. |