low friction insert in snout for bow sprit.

[phil_kirk]

I noticed that marmite had a plastic or nylon insert in the snout tube which i assume is to provide a low friction surface to help the pole go in and out better. What is it Paul and where did you get it? 

if anyone else has any suggestions of obtainable low friction tubes or materials that can be stuck on but wont fall off i would be very interested.

[PiersHS]

Helicopter tape always worked well for us in the SB3... I'll try and find out where i got it from, we haven't had to replace it in ages!

[Andrew Whapshott]

I've used Delrin for a lot of yachty things, Not sure how easy it is to get, but its really good for sheaves, bearings etc. I reckon it would make a pretty good pole slider..   

[Phil Alderson]

Nylon kitchen chopping boards also work, just cut to the required size. A little heat can help bend to fit.

[Will_Lee]

Rich Taylor turned some beautiful delrin bearings foe the Deamons.

On Atum and Antidote we used lots of silicone spray and made sure the surfaces were really smooth. Might have used PTFE paper from Tim Unerman for the bottom aft  bit.

[phil_kirk]

Tim kindly gave me some of the PTFE paper but I find that it wears when the pole is possibly partly loaded and I am replacing the paper ocasionally. It coul be that I need to realign the snout and inboard pole support a bit better.

[Clive Everest]

I now own the Subtle Knife, one of the Deamons.
I do not think that it has been used that much in its 4 year life but the turned delrin bearings are very badly scored, to the point that it could easily be getting fine Hayling sand trapped in the scoring and pressed into the delrin - not good.
I think that Delrin and Nylon are both too soft and that a harder low friction bearing material is needed.
If I was doing a new boat, as I hope too next winter I would use something like an Igus plain bearing:
http://www.igus.co.uk/iPro/iPro_02_0001_0000_GBen.htm?c=gb&l=en
The materials they use are much harder than delrin or Nylon and specifically designed for bearings.
They even have materials designed for wet environments.
They are available in 5mm increments of diameter. I am not sure how what your pole diameter is but their 75mm bearing cost £10 each if you buy 5 off. They can be purchased on line.

Clive

[john_hamilton]

ill pitch in to buy something with you phil, im in the same boat as you....chortle chortle

[phil_kirk]

Thanks Clive and John,

I will measure my pole and snout diameters. 

I probably need something very similar for the inboard end pole support.

A pack of 5 between 3 of us would be cost effective and give us a come in handy spare or two.

As you know no cherub is the same but they are all quite similar!

[john_hamilton]

well my pole and snout are carbon copies (the puns keep getting better) of yours phil, so whatever you need, i do too

[phil_kirk]

Well the inside diameter of my snout is 66mm. However i don't think i can allow for the thickness of the bearing without sacrificing some length of pole out of the boat.  So to incorporate the bearing i need to make a slightly larger diameter snout.

John your pole was a bit longer than mine so I expect that your snout will be a couple of mm larger in diameter than mine to allow for the larger diameter of pole at the snout.

[john_hamilton]

oh ok, ill have a look, its not like my kite flies brilliantly anyway, so i can prob still keep to the same order as you :/

and i was thinking of sandwich wrapping the bearing and doing a single skin of carbon round it, flopping this off, building it up appropriately, attaching to boat, then put in bearing, just so i don't get any resin on it. i dont have any idea regarding the inboard end though

[pratn0]

Thanks for the link.

I think I'm going to use one of these on Madge new snout.

Will let you knew how it goes

[john_hamilton]

do you want to buy with us for discount?

[pratn0]

I'm likely going to to get two tubes.  Outer longer tube to build the snout around then a short insert for the outboard section to deal with the taper. 

As I'm building from scratch I have a bit more freedom on length and diameter than you guys do.

Will let you know what dimensions I'm looking at once I get the pole unwrapped  in few days after it finished curing in the hot aile at work.

I will keep you posted.