Apollo wrote:Well Sentynel, we would get the locals to direct us to the iron ore and fossil fuels. There never was a limit to island size or how many materials the island contributes.

Sentynel wrote:Okay, so in addition to knowing how an engine works, you now need to know how to extract iron from iron ore and smelt that into steel (this includes knowing how to find and extract the various other chemicals needed for the process), how to use that steel to produce an oil drilling mechanism, and how to separate the crude oil you produce into useful products. Let's say you do all that; you can now forge/cast steel items and have ample supplies of various oil products. Then you need to know how to build all the tools you'll need to construct a working engine (could you build an accurate metal lathe, for example?). And then, even if you know how an engine works, you need to know how to construct incidental bits like spark plugs (which also requires being able to build an electrical generator and battery). Of course, you could try building a diesel engine instead so you don't need spark plugs, but that requires a much higher standard of construction accuracy than a petrol engine, and is generally trickier to get right, because it needs to withstand the enormous pressures needed for ignition without spark plugs. You'll also need to be able to construct a gearbox of some sort.

David Cat wrote:hmm. A sailing boat then.

Sentynel wrote:

David Cat wrote:hmm. A sailing boat then.

Which is precisely what I suggested just over the page..

sentynel is gay

Gingerbreadman wrote:Gingerbreadman has a thought

Black Magician Guild | The First Law | Larion Senate

I am Jonathan Stroud

Gingerbreadman wrote:Gingerbreadman repeatedly stabs nathaniel's left armpit with a wire brush

Sentynel wrote:Don't make it too big, though. If it's too big you'll have problems controlling the sails, plus you wouldn't be able to row it if the winds dropped. The easiest and most efficient rig to build is a simple sloop, but that means the sails are very big and you'll need to construct some system of winches and pulleys to get them up and down and adjust them. If you go for a more complex rig like a schooner, then the sails are smaller and easier to make and handle, but the rig's less efficient and fewer people know how to build a schooner/etc rig than a sloop rig.
Also, I think a catamaran would probably be a smarter choice than a monohull - saves trying to make a heavy enough keel to avoid rolling.

Sentynel wrote:Don't make it too big, though. If it's too big you'll have problems controlling the sails, plus you wouldn't be able to row it if the winds dropped. The easiest and most efficient rig to build is a simple sloop, but that means the sails are very big and you'll need to construct some system of winches and pulleys to get them up and down and adjust them. If you go for a more complex rig like a schooner, then the sails are smaller and easier to make and handle, but the rig's less efficient and fewer people know how to build a schooner/etc rig than a sloop rig.
Also, I think a catamaran would probably be a smarter choice than a monohull - saves trying to make a heavy enough keel to avoid rolling.

XxHogwartsHokagexX wrote:Ahem...Lord of the Flies, anyone? O.o

sentynel is gay

David Cat wrote:

XxHogwartsHokagexX wrote:Ahem...Lord of the Flies, anyone? O.o

Hmm. I'd probably be Piggy and we all know what happened to him.....

David Cat wrote:

XxHogwartsHokagexX wrote:Ahem...Lord of the Flies, anyone? O.o

Hmm. I'd probably be Piggy and we all know what happened to him.....