Tonight I modeled the Hitec HS-815BB Sail Control Servo for use in both the Rip Tide and the Sun Wind II RC sailboats. I'm going with a sail arm servo instead of a drum winch like I used on my Star 45 and Salish 475. I really want the deck to look clean, without any sort of shock cording like I have on the drum winch boats. Yes, I can use an internal self-tensioner, but a swing arm is also much easier to use. It may not be as competitive, but on the other hand, a lot of guys swear by them and say that they are just as fast as the drums. Since I'm not into racing, I don't care and will go for simplicity. Besides, this servo is $50 compared to $300 for the RMG SmartWinch. RMG winches, by the way, are amazing! I suggest you use them on certain boats. But for the VM Rip Tide and Sun Wind II, I'm going with simple and clean. Here's how the 3D servo looks. I wanted to make sure that it would fit, and that the arm had plenty of room to swing. Looks good so far!

Version 1 of the Sun Wind II RC sailboat laser cut frames files are almost finished! Phew... Ended up being eight sheets: Four sheets of 1/8" x 12" x 24" birch ply, three sheets of 1/16" x 12" x24" birch ply, and one sheet of 1/8" x 6" x 24" balsa. Here is how the first sheet looks: The cheapest 1/8" plywood I found today was over $18 for a 12" x 24" sheet! Yikes! So I came home and bought several sheets online for about $5/sheet from National Balsa . I've used them before, and they are OK, but you might get some twisted or warped sheets. And a few sheets I bought from them had deep horizontal scratches in them. But this time they will all be internal frames which will be tough to see, so it doesn't matter that much. It'll take a week or so for the wood to arrive, and the laser cutter hasn't been set up yet at work, so I'll just have to hold my breath until I can finally try my first laser cuts

Tonight I finished the Sun Wind II RC sailboat building board and supporting frames. I think I'm almost done! Hopefully by next week I can try out the new laser cutter at work! Here's what the building board and frame supports look like. This is how it should look while being built upside down on a table. More updates shortly. Aloha!

I'm currently working on the building board. Just made the base boards, and now need to work on the frames. Remember that you will build the hull upside down on a strongback. The building boards will align the frames exactly where they need to go. More updates when I get further along. Aloha!

I am not a professional CAD guy, and making 3D models of RC sailboats in order to create laser-cut frames, is simply a hobby. So take my notes with a huge grain of salt. In addition, I only have real experience with two applications: SketchUp Pro and Rhino 4. Both are great, and each has their advantages and disadvantages regarding RC sailboat work. In the end I'm using Sketchup Pro (early versions up through 2017) for most of the work because it is by far the easiest to use. The tools, features, capabilities and functionality are all perfect for most of what needs to be done, with one huge exception. That exception is curves, and along with that, curved and faired surfaces. Rhino is what you would use if you were designing a full-size boat. It does remarkably well with curves and surfaces. You can fair curves, and it includes a curve analysis tool that graphically shows you how fair your curve is. Sketchup Pro is much easier to learn though. Rhino isn't hard, but if you

First update : I've started to refer to this boat as the Sun Wind II. There are now enough changes to the original fin and rudder that it's really no longer an authentic reproduction. And, due to the line drawing being pretty crude, I've had to make several changes when certain lines don't meet up. For example; there were several instances when one of the buttocks didn't match up to where they should have in some of the frames. This is understandable because hand-drawing boat lines is very difficult and you must be extremely accurate. If you're off by the smallest amount, then some of the lines will not match up. They didn't have our extremely accurate computer 3D modelling ability back then! So... yes, I've corrected many of the problems, and my lines are much more "accurate" than the original, meaning that they all meet up properly. However, that doesn't mean that my version is better than the original. I had to make my own best guess

Have been working on the Sun Wind Radio Control sailboat 3D model today. Got the keel parts and the rudder worked out. The rudder looks large, but the concept is that you laminate those parts together and then sand the hell out of it until you get down to the shape you want. It won't be as thick or as deep fore and aft as it looks now. Although a larger rudder would be good, so you shouldn't sand it entirely away. Today's progress... The circle is a 2" diameter cutout that you can use to gauge the garboard hollow. The Vintage Marblehead rules state that: "Garboards: Garboards shall be hollow, with not less than a one inch radius in the area of the keel fin. This may be checked by use of a disk 2 inches in diameter, fitted to the garboard at a midship section." So... that is what that disk is for. In the old days they used to carve a very massive (relative to the size of the hull) keel out of solid wood. Then, when the boat was planked, it was

One of my current projects is to 3D model Gus Lassel's 1949 "Sun Wind" Vintage Marblehead (VM) sailboat. Apparently it was originally called the "Sun Daze", as in fun sailing on Sundays, according to Adrian Olson whose father had a connection to the original designer. (By the way, check out Adrian's other model yachts too. He does beautiful work!) Boats back then were free-sailing or vane-sailing. I think this was a free-sailing boat but am not sure. My version will be modified for RC. All I have to go by is an old set of lines, but hopefully I can get a decent model out of it. Eventually I would like to make laser-cut frames from my 3D model and actually recreate the boat in RC. Adrian Olson offers a modern fiberglass kit for the Sun Wind. The pictures look beautiful! My intention is to create frames so that a builder can make their own wood & fiberglass version. I really doubt that many people will want to go through the effort it can take to mak