Peter very kindly sent me the details of his magic box for transporting my IOM and rigs on a plane to Australia. The box is easy to assemble with care and cheap to build. I have made one myself but painted it white inside and out. With a 3d printed boat, I wanted to reflect heat if the box ever got left out in the sun airside.
Basically it is a standard rig box shape on plan but with a much deeper section at the top of the rig to enclose the boat. A strong bulkhead is fitted in the middle to which the bulb and fin is bolted (the rig bag slides under the bulkhead). I carefully slide the bulb into a tight fitting piece of plumbing pipe for which there are standard brackets to hold it in place (short pieces of pipe insulation are rammed into the ends and then jammed against the sides of the box to make sure the bulb can't move). For the Italy trip I also carried 2 Tx which were secured with string and then sandwiched with soft foam when the lid was fitted. Also added for Italy was a small tool kit (ice cream tub) and all the essential spares dotted about and wrapped in bubble wrap. All up weight was 15kg. Everything else went in hand luggage.
I built the box to go to Canada in 2003 and it has survived trips to Spain, Australia and Italy without any damage [also San Fransisco 2015, Brazil 2019, Croatia 2022 and Spain 2023 with Shaun Priestley]. The only down side is that the lid is secured by 20 screws so it is a bit of a hassle if security want to look inside!! If you do decide to build, make sure everything is carefully packed and secured (especially the bulb) as the consequences of 'loose' packing with this type of box are obviously much more dramatic!
Here is a diagram with the overall dimensions of the magic box followed by a set of pictures showing how everything fits inside
The bulb packaging
The grey pipe is 38mm internal diameter and is 380mm long. The slit is 218mm long and about 5mm wide.
The bulb has a sock which is a bit of old duster I think. The bulb goes into the tube with the aft end of the bulb first. This means the trailing edge of the fin comes to a stop at the end of the slit. This is because the tube is secured in the box with the forward (blunt!) end of the bulb pointing at the ground (ie the away from the carrying handle). This means that gravity will be trying to push the bulb and fin out of the slit in the tube and it will be the blunt end pushing on the side of the box (rather than the really sharp end trying to poke its way out of the box!). That said, the bulb should be so tightly jammed in the tube that it can't move!
Back to sliding the bulb in to the tube, there is a piece of thin but tough white plastic folded in half and taped to the back edge of the fin. Not only does this protect the back edge but it protects the sides if the fin from being scratched by the edges of the slit when you slide the bulb in. It is a very tight fit with the duster and the bulb actually opens up the slit a bit to accommodate the bulb. There is some duck tape around the slit end of the pipe to pull this in tight. At the pointy end I jam in some thin walled pipe insulation and then jam in some chunkier short sections of pipe insulation. The box should effectively be pushing these in (ie they should be sticking out of the tube until the tube is put in the box. When clamped to the bulkhead which you'll see in a later email, there is another sponge packer which keeps everything really. tight.
The bulk head and the bulb packing is the most important bit as clearly we don't want it coming loose!
The plastic pipe is slightly shorter than the internal width of the box but the chunky bits of pipe insulation at each end are long enough so that they can't be forced completely inside the tube. This means they stick out and have to be squashed in against the box at each end i.e. the box ends up trying to force the pipe insulation in which helps keep everything tight.
The Bulkhead
The bulkhead is 6mm ply with 20 x 20mm stiifner along the top and down the sides. The bulkhead is fitted at 90 degrees to the side with the handle attached. The cut out is shaped with the highest bit 54mm above the base of the box. Basically, you cut out the minimal amount to get the rig bag in so that as much strength is retained. When I slide the rig bag in I have to flex the masts a small amount to get them in. The pipe clips are permanently screwed to the bulkhead through their top hole and then removeable nuts and bolts secure it through the bottom hole.
The box is made with 3mm ply with 20 x 20mm framing. The ply is glued and pinned at 100mm centres to the framing. The lid is entirely 3mm ply with the exception of one piece of 20mm framing which runs from the widest end of the box to the bulkhead. The mast laid on the box in the image attached shows the line of where this bit of reinforcing sits when the lid is on. This simply stiffens the lid over the top of where the fin lies. There are 3mm ply 80mm diameter reinforcing patches either side of the bulkhead which take the handle attachments.
Here is a picture of the lid with its reinforcing bar.
The rig bag slides in under some zig zagging rope which helps to keep it secure. Note that the masts are along the side which doesn't have the handle (ie the bottom of the box when being carried).
The bulb tube is bolted into the clips making sure the pipe insulation is tight against the sides of the box.
The boat goes deck down (normally with the rudder off of course!). I have two straps which go around the hull which are attached to the handle side of the box. As with the bulb and rigs, the straps are so that the boat can't slip or move down when the box is being carried. I haven't put any bubble wrap or foam packers in around the boat but normally the front section is full of padding.
The tool box, spares, txs etc.... Are all secured to the bottom of the box (bottom when its being carried). To be honest I can't remember exactly hiw this is done but so long as the stuff can't come loose it should be fine. All up weight with everything in was around 15kg I think.
Note
1. All the dims on the drawing are external overall dims and include the lid thickness.
2. As previous email there is only one bar fixed to the lid.
3. The bulkhead is 6mm ply and framing and is very strong. The framing down the sides of the bulkhead is screwed in from the outside rather than pinned.
4. The 410mm dim is the overall dimension to the face of the ply measured along the line of the bulkhead.
5. There is no bulkhead around the txs. They are just tied in with plenty of foam packing around them.
5. There is no bulkhead around the txs. They are just tied in with plenty of foam packing around them.
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