Stringers and Sheer Rails Installed on Sun Wind II

This morning I installed the stringers (1/8" x 1/8" stock) and the inner sheer rail (1/8" x 1/4" stock). I'm fortunate to have a nice table saw that I can mill my own stock with. There was some fir and cedar left over from a wine rack project, so I was able to go out and mill what I needed.

Some things to notice in the picture above:

1. The fin to frame connection. This, again, is my big experiment with this project. The fin is one layer of 1/8" ply, and then 6 layers of 1/16" ply, for a total of 1/2". The layers are then tied into a series of three doubled-up 1/8" frames, for a total of three 1/4" laminated frames. Where they meet, they slot into each other with a total overlap of about 2". You can also see an empty slot for a half-frame that will be added shortly.

I added some 1/4" x1/4" or thicker stock to each of the corners to build up the material. On my actual build, and in my CAD drawings, I've added some 1/8" plywood braces in place of the square stock you see. Hopefully the actual build will look cleaner, and be lighter, than this mock up!

2. You can also see the stringers and the sheer rails. The technique that I've found most useful at this stage is to simply use rubber bands to hold the stringers and inner sheer rails in place while drying. Works very well! The idea can be adjusted for planking too. This image shows the outer sheer rail drying, and it doesn't have rubber bands... just clamps of all sorts.

Peace!

Comments

1934 America's Cup Rainbow J-Class RC Drawing

At some point I would very much like to model a vintage America's Cup yacht. The one I've been most interested in lately in the 1964 winner Constellation. But this past week I was sent a 1/16 scale drawing of the 1934 Rainbow. It's a beautiful drawing! Full sized so it's very large. I have been working on making it into a 3D model, but as is true with most hand-drawing lines, none of the lines from one view match up with the lines from the other views. For example, I spent a lot of time tracing the "sections" view so I could make stations. But when I tried to match them up with the plan/deck view or the waterplanes view, none of the lines met. Some came close, but all had to be adjusted. Then, once they are matched to the deck and keel lines, it's obvious that the hull is not fair. I honestly doubt that the hull would be fair if you simply used the station lines as originally drawn either. Back when they made these boats, they put it on the actual bu...

IOM Rig Box (IOM Sail Box) plans

So all the cool IOM kids seem to have nice wooden boxes to store their rigs in. This might be my next quick project then, so that I can pretend to be cool too. :-P The rig box images that I've seen online are mostly similar, and would work well, but David Jensen from Bellevue, WA, USA (The same guy who designed a fantastic IOM boat stand I posted about earlier) has a really nice design that he shared on RC Groups . Or if that link doesn't work, the go here and search for " IOM sail box " or " IOM rig box ". It holds three sets of rigs for the A, B, and C rigs. He also has a nifty way to attach his IOM boat stand, with a boat on it, to the rig box. His rig box has wheels attached, so once everything is loaded up he just wheels it to the launch spot. Very nice! There are other sources online. They show different variations of the same type of sail box. Here's a nice looking one . Here's a YouTube video of a really nice one . Wil...

IOM Sailboat Stand

I made an IOM boat stand! The plans are from David Jensen in Bellevue, WA, USA. I found the plans through someone else's blog here , and a model sailboat club from Australia here . It was pretty straightforward to build. My only contribution to the design is that I laser cut the cradle out of 1/8" Lite Ply. I made eight copies, and then epoxy laminated two sets of four each. Turned out really well. If you wish to laser cut your own set, here is my DWG file . You'll have to have your own laser cutter, or send the job to a laser cutting company like National Balsa . Here are the original plans , and here are the original plans for just the cradle . Thanks to David Jensen!! Note that in the picture below, my boat is not finished! Yikes. You can't see it in this image, but there's a small chuck of self-stick foam behind the bulb to protect the bulb. I'll eventually incorporate some Velcro or a strap of some sort to hold the bulb in place so...

A Wooden "Alternative" IOM RC Sailboat

Being forced to stay home due to the Coronavirus quarantine has had a positive impact on my boat building. I still haven't been able to sail my newly completed Vickers V8 IOM, yet have just planked and glassed a wooden Alternative IOM . It only took me eight days. It usually takes a couple weeks. I haven't been motivated to blog about it, but I started planking on 5 April and finished planking last night. Today I sanded and have fiberglassed the outside. The Alternative by Brad Gibson was a challenge to plank due to its up-swept bow and flared sheer near the bow. It turned out okay, but as any builder will tell you, there are goofs all over. One that I only discovered after sanding is a lighter colored plank on the starboard side. It really showed up after fiberglassing as the epoxy brought it out... GAAAAH! How did that get there? The other goofs I'll let you find, but that one is pretty obvious. Here's how it looks so far: Here you can see that mu...

Search This Blog