I just got back from the "Hiswa" international boat show in Amsterdam.
And made a picture of the (tube snuffer) of the 2003 Nacra F18.
Does anyone of you have any experience in building a thing like that ?

Is it plastic? If it was it looks to be an extrusion of some type. You could mold a plug and make one out of fiberglass.

I don't know the material it looked like polyester or epoxy.
I do have more picures if anyone is interested.
Boat + Tube
Unforunatelly the one from the front had to much licht on it.

Bob,

Thanks for the nice pictures. May I suggest something on the picture with too much light on it?

I once took a picture of a part of my car engine and the flash from the camera flooded out the foreground and left the background too dark for my subject to be seen. A quick brightening of the picture in a digital image editor turned the foregound into pure white and brought my subject into perfect view.

If you took those with a digital camera, I'd bet that you have a very good chance of altering the appearance and revealing better detail that you thought was included in the capture.

If you email the picure to me or post it here, I'll give it try.

GARY

I've seen the tube snuffer that is used on some of the Tornados. The tube snuffer is part of the spi pole. A lot of carbon and probably expensive but it looks really nice.

I will get the snail type instead and put in on my A-cat. The snail works best for Uni rigs, otherwhise you need to have the snail at the bridle.

/Hakan

There several Tigers at the MEGA with snuffer tubes indentical to the one on the Nacra.
Many of the boats at the Tiger Worlds this month had them.
Go to http://www.hobieworlds.com/tiger2003/default.asp and look at the pictures.
They look so much alike, they may be made by the same independent company.
I haven't heard any comments on how well they work.

I have seen these referred to as "Trumpets" on the Hobie Tiger.
The relatively small opening forces the skipper to head downwind to douse, however there is less windage than the full length snuffer and bag.

Robert,
I've check these out and while I have not made one I have made a few other things.Tthey do appear to be a simple thing to make. The only tricky bit would be shaping the aluminium tube on the mouth of the trumpet.
A vacuum pump would help but you could do it without one.
Just need to make a colapsable mandrel from plastic storm water or sewer pipe.
Coat it in PVA to act as a mould release and do you layup in glass and or carbon / kevlar. My understanding it the F18s only use glass but the Tornado ones are carbon & kevlar.

The ones I've seen slip the pole thru a couple of cylindrical fittings on the side of the trumpet.
These would be made seperately and glassed onto the trumpet later.

Regards,
Phill