Runner bags.

Now the runners have been sharpened I wanted to protect them from getting damaged! This resulted in a small side project making runner bags.

I started with buying an ordinary padded ski bag. The zipper needs to have two zipper heads so that when the bag is cut in two you end up with two bags with functioning zippers.

Unnecessary stuff is cut of and markings made where the bag will be sewed together.

The plan was to use a sewing machine to sew the bag ends together but the padded material was too thick.

So I ended up sewing by hand!

When the ends where sewed up the middle part was cut away resulting in two bags.

Handles where sewed to the bags with the sewing machine. I should have changed to a black sewing thread...

Runners in safe storage waiting for further refining.

Sharpening the runners.

 I was able to arrange so I could use one of the local sailing clubs runner sharpening machine!

This is what she looks like! I rigged the machine back on my trailer so the sharpening was done outside.

There are quite a few possibilities for adjustments. From runner point of view the angle is the most important. Pre adjusted to choose from is 100 degrees and 90 degrees angle. 

Ready to begin. First up is the front runner. I started with 60 grit sand paper and finished with 120 grit paper .

Quite a lot of material is removed. This is after first runner is sharpened.

Ready!

Below an attempt to show the how the runner is sharpened in a 90 degrees angle. My apologies for poor picture quality.

Back at home some oil was applied to the sharpened surface to prevent it from rusting.

Building the chocks.

Beginning to build the chocks. Cutting the parts needed.

Most of the holes drilled. 

Preparing welding.

Same procedure for front runner.

Welding outside in -10 degrees Celsius.

Front runner chock is still missing the "arms" to fasten steering lines in and hole for steering shaft. 

Rear chocks are basically ready. I'm still considering if I should build a bracket that would grab around the plank. The idea is that it would take up the sideways forces on chock during sailing helping to keep runners in parallel. Alternative is to have  a turnbuckle connected between plank and rear chocks this would also allow some adjustment if parallel alignment between runners is off.

This was how I planned to attach steering line arms  originally but the steering radius would become to big as the arms hit the springboard limiting the steering too much.

Determining how much the runner is able to turn before hitting the chock. The front runner is able to turn around its axis a a little bit more than 20 degrees (+- 10 degrees from level) in total and the rear runners about 17 degrees. Building instruction says that runners should be able to turn around their axis between 10 and 20 degrees so I guess this is OK.

Steering arms still not welded.

Front runner.

Front runner was basically made in same way as the rear runners! Location of shaft hole is a bit different and no stiffeners should be needed.

"Designing" the parking break that will be on the front runner.