An instructional video

[Carl]

We would greatly welcome informed comments on this new video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNbfTnHqFPo&feature=youtu.be

Cheers -
Carl
--
Carl Douglas Racing Shells -
Fine Small-Boats/AeRoWing Low-drag Riggers/Advanced Accessories
Write: Harris Boatyard, Laleham Reach, Chertsey KT16 8RP, UK
Find: http://tinyurl.com/2tqujf
Email: ca...@carldouglas.co.uk Tel: +44(0)1932-570946 Fax: -563682
URLs: www.carldouglas.co.uk (boats) & www.aerowing.co.uk (riggers)

[Rebecca Caroe]

Carl, very clear and in a way it's a pity you chose it to be a silent
movie!

We've added it to the Rowperfect news roundup that publishes on
Friday. BTW did you 'shoot' the film yourselves?
Rebecca

[Carl]

Thank you, as always, for your very kind words, Rebecca. Bit I fear
it's not quite up to the standard set by The Artist.

Yes, we could use a voice-over, but we're learning on the job, so
feedback is invaluable. I guess we will, in due course, add sound. One
step at a time.

We did the whole job in-house. My colleague, Neil, brought together the
necessary virtual boat parts - some built up from scratch, others using
our existing CAD part-files - & with these assembled the virtual boats.
We did this in the software we use for our CAD/CAM work (Rhino-3D).
The resulting boat models could then be moved, illuminated and rotated
on screen to give all the required views, each of which was then
rendered in the same software - nothing fancy was attempted.

We shaped the views to fit with the intended text, which of course
underwent significant edits as a result. The images were transferred
onto Neil's Mac where he was able to assemble them, with the text, into
the finished article.

It was an "interesting" learning process since neither of us had made a
film before. I hope the result disguises the pain it caused us? We did
it this way because it worked better than conventional video filming for
showing the kind of detail we wanted viewers to see. And no problems
with trembling camera-work & stroppy actors!

Thanks -

[sully]

On Jan 25, 8:12 am, Carl <s...@sss.jjj> wrote:
> We would greatly welcome informed comments on this new video:
>  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNbfTnHqFPo&feature=youtu.be

Well, I don't like 'instructional videos', a webpage will do that
prints well for me.

So exclude me from the "informed" part of the comments!

I did like that you pointed out the importance of measuring
everything, and not taking for granted that manufacturing process in a
shell is consistent.

That rang a bell with me because more than once I've stood on the
tarmac thoroughly perplexed with a replacement rigger from same
manufacturer that doesn't fit the boat, or measuring pitch on
supposedly zero pitched blades at ranges up to 2 degrees off.

Maybe that could be emphasized more that people put the effort into
measuring. I noted it because I've been there a few times!

Also, maybe another couple tips on how to measure and record so as not
to minimize measuring error. If this was in the latter part of the
vid, I apologize, I didn't make it all the way through. I don't know
how long it took me to figure out to measure between bolts by going
outside/inside, for years I tried middle to middle - duh. I saw you
had that part and had to laugh at myself.


I had sound off at work, so I may have missed it as well.

thats the other good thing, it was well understandable w/o sound.

[Carl]

Many thanks for helpful comments, Mike. And I do regard you as very
well informed, so all that modesty is misplaced.

Although presented as a video, what we have is really a set of slides to
flick through, stop or reverse at will. The lack of sound at your end
was to be expected - we have yet to provide a sound track :)

You're dead right about taking care. We encourage everyone to follow
the "Measure twice, cut once" rule but try not to get too preachy.

What we don't say in the video, but is worth saying here (& adding to
the video), is that:
1. These methods are really accurate & result in riggers which fit just
as they should, & at the heights and spreads requested.
2. Although nearly every boat is slightly (sometimes more than
slightly) different to the one before it - boat-builders are only human
- we do have a massive database of valid specification data for comparisons.
3. We rigorously check your data against this database for similar
shells. If we see any cause, from this or from anything else we see, to
doubt the accuracy of any data entry we promptly query it with the
client. And if we sense that any short-cuts may have been taken, again
we check with the client.
4. Finally, we never build a rigger until wholly satisfied with the
information before us. If that takes a few extra emails, that's what we do.

The right result is paramount. Working together in this way gets it.

Hitherto, clients have worked from the instructions already on our
website. They're all still there if you go into our web-shop:
https://www.carldouglas.co.uk/index-shop.html
& play, just for fun, at pretending to order some riggers & you'll see
an invitation to "edit specifications". Click that link and I think
you'll appreciate that we have always tried to provide clear information
for users. This has worked extremely well for a long time, but anyone
with any doubts is always encouraged to phone or email me to discuss any
points of possible difficulty or doubt.

Still, we felt that for many it might look daunting, or they might doubt
the resulting accuracy. Hence this video. Which is why we're so keen
to enlist everyone's help to get it right.

Sincere thanks for yours -

[Phil]

On Jan 25, 4:12 pm, Carl <s...@sss.jjj> wrote:
> We would greatly welcome informed comments on this new video:
>  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNbfTnHqFPo&feature=youtu.be
>
> Cheers -
> Carl
> --
> Carl Douglas Racing Shells        -
>      Fine Small-Boats/AeRoWing Low-drag Riggers/Advanced Accessories
> Write:   Harris Boatyard, Laleham Reach, Chertsey KT16 8RP, UK
> Find:    http://tinyurl.com/2tqujf

> Email: c...@carldouglas.co.uk  Tel: +44(0)1932-570946  Fax: -563682
> URLs:  www.carldouglas.co.uk(boats) &www.aerowing.co.uk(riggers)

Not seen the video, but - I am acquainted (well, related) with a
boatbuilder. When ready to order riggers for a newly built boat, Matt
Woods could expect a lump of 3-ply approx. 12" x 30" in the post,
neatly wrapped in brown paper.
On the plywood would be scribed all the angles, heights, bolt holes,
spans....
Never got one wrong.

Phil.

[Carl]

On 26/01/2012 14:32, Phil wrote:
> On Jan 25, 4:12 pm, Carl<s...@sss.jjj> wrote:
>> We would greatly welcome informed comments on this new video:
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNbfTnHqFPo&feature=youtu.be
>>
>> Cheers -
>> Carl

>

> Not seen the video, but - I am acquainted (well, related) with a
> boatbuilder. When ready to order riggers for a newly built boat, Matt
> Woods could expect a lump of 3-ply approx. 12" x 30" in the post,
> neatly wrapped in brown paper.
> On the plywood would be scribed all the angles, heights, bolt holes,
> spans....
> Never got one wrong.
>
> Phil.

Yes! I recall Cyril Bishop, with his withered leg, turning up on his
push-bike at Molesey having cycled out from the Matt Wood works in (&
almost under) Biggs Row in Putney. He had a bag with a pair of dividers
and ruler in it, a length of shell-building plywood under his arm, & not
much else. Then, just as you say, all the data we ask you to write
down, Cyril would simply pick off the boat & scribe onto that plywood.

I still get folk worrying that the scribing method we describe surely
can't be very accurate - but it is. Indeed, if done with a modicum of
care it gives results to better than 0.1 degree. And if it isn't done
well, we spot that straight away.

When we receive either the marked paper or the scanned image of those
marks we don't mess about with protractors, so many of which are merely
poorly printed bits of clear plastic, often off by >0.5 degree. Nor do
we get out our excellent steel vernier protractor. Much better, we take
the image of the marked lines into a CAD program & overlay onto them a
set of new lines which show even where the pencil wobbled on the
original. If the image shows signs of distortion we can correct for
that (that's why we like you to use square-lined paper). Then we use
the CAD to read all the angles directly & we copy & paste them straight
into our rigger design software.

Cheers -
Carl

--
Carl Douglas Racing Shells -
Fine Small-Boats/AeRoWing Low-drag Riggers/Advanced Accessories
Write: Harris Boatyard, Laleham Reach, Chertsey KT16 8RP, UK
Find: http://tinyurl.com/2tqujf

[Henry Law]

On 26/01/12 01:16, Carl wrote:
> On 25/01/2012 23:55, sully wrote:
>> On Jan 25, 8:12 am, Carl<s...@sss.jjj> wrote:
>>> We would greatly welcome informed comments on this new video:

I looked at it but I've never measured for riggers so don't consider
myself in the least informed. I do know instructional videos, though,
and this is a good one. It will be better with voice over, when you get
to it; it will make it easier to focus on the important thing.

Also, given that the viewer can go back and forth at will, I wonder if
the pauses between the stages need to be as long as they are.

> 2. Although nearly every boat is slightly (sometimes more than slightly)
> different to the one before it - boat-builders are only human - we do
> have a massive database of valid specification data for comparisons.
> 3. We rigorously check your data against this database for similar
> shells. If we see any cause, from this or from anything else we see, to
> doubt the accuracy of any data entry we promptly query it with the
> client.

This is the bit I like best. What a perfect case you make for
preserving knowledge: your "institutional learning".

--

Henry Law Manchester, England

[Carl]

On 26/01/2012 22:45, Henry Law wrote:
> On 26/01/12 01:16, Carl wrote:
>> On 25/01/2012 23:55, sully wrote:
>>> On Jan 25, 8:12 am, Carl<s...@sss.jjj> wrote:
>>>> We would greatly welcome informed comments on this new video:
>
> I looked at it but I've never measured for riggers so don't consider
> myself in the least informed. I do know instructional videos, though,
> and this is a good one. It will be better with voice over, when you get
> to it; it will make it easier to focus on the important thing.
>
> Also, given that the viewer can go back and forth at will, I wonder if
> the pauses between the stages need to be as long as they are.

Your comments are much appreciated, Henry.

Agreed, we do need a spoken commentary.

We set the timings to allow sufficient time to read each slab of text -
it is annoying to miss part of the text and still not have time to take
in the image. I've experimented with speaking the text, but found it'd
need editing down if not to sound gabbled & incoherent like a TV weather
forecast. Had we but words enough, & time??

>
>> 2. Although nearly every boat is slightly (sometimes more than slightly)
>> different to the one before it - boat-builders are only human - we do
>> have a massive database of valid specification data for comparisons.
>> 3. We rigorously check your data against this database for similar
>> shells. If we see any cause, from this or from anything else we see, to
>> doubt the accuracy of any data entry we promptly query it with the
>> client.
>
> This is the bit I like best. What a perfect case you make for preserving
> knowledge: your "institutional learning".
>

Thank you!

Cheers -

[Walter Martindale]

On Jan 25, 11:12 am, Carl <s...@sss.jjj> wrote:
> We would greatly welcome informed comments on this new video:
>  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNbfTnHqFPo&feature=youtu.be
>
> Cheers -
> Carl
> --
> Carl Douglas Racing Shells        -
>      Fine Small-Boats/AeRoWing Low-drag Riggers/Advanced Accessories
> Write:   Harris Boatyard, Laleham Reach, Chertsey KT16 8RP, UK
> Find:    http://tinyurl.com/2tqujf

> Email: c...@carldouglas.co.uk  Tel: +44(0)1932-570946  Fax: -563682
> URLs:  www.carldouglas.co.uk(boats) &www.aerowing.co.uk(riggers)

I watched the first part of the video - informative, seems quite clear
and thorough.
I hope this doesn't rub the wrong way, but I've found the best way to
get a replacement rigger to be Hudson Boat Works's method.
Holding the broken/old rigger in hand, phone the company, quote them
the number stamped on the rigger, and await delivery of a rigger where
everything is made to the same template/computer aided design/
manufacture specs that the originals were made. One time, we had a
rigger break (crew ran into a dock at the side of a race course, broke
the wing off a rigger, had to borrow a boat to race for their medal),
I phoned HBW, and arrived home three days later to find a new rigger
stuffed in between the front door and storm door. Fit exactly the
existing holes, pins measured out to the correct span as marked on the
frame, and pitches were perfect...

I know that doesn't compare with what the video is aimed at - fitting
CD Aerowing riggers on boats that may or may not be CD, (and I've
ordered, installed, and used Aerowings - they're very good riggers,
and Carl's instructions for measuring are very helpful)...
w

[Carl]

Many thanks, Walter.

Without question, if you have bust or lost a rigger or riggers from a
set, then use the ID that we stamp onto each rigger of every set to get
a prompt replacement (we keep full records).

The purpose of that video, as you saw, is:
1. to help the many clients who wish to replace other riggers in order
to breath new life into an older boat or want rigging which works better
than the existing lot.
2. those who have chosen to order a new boat but want our riggers on it.

There are many boat-builders who happily order and fit our AeRoWing
riggers as original equipment. They send us the specifications and we
build riggers to the joint requirements of the builder and their client.

However, some boat-builders either won't play ball, or prefer not to
work that way. Our video should further assist those clients who still
want that boat _with_ AeRoWing riggers. The customer is, after all, King.

Cheers -
Carl

--
Carl Douglas Racing Shells -
Fine Small-Boats/AeRoWing Low-drag Riggers/Advanced Accessories
Write: Harris Boatyard, Laleham Reach, Chertsey KT16 8RP, UK
Find: http://tinyurl.com/2tqujf