Sun Wind Frames Assembled

Big step today! I assembled and epoxied the frames for the Sun Wind II RC sailboat!

First, I drilled out the rudder tube hole with a 5/32" bit. The gap that is designed into the aft rudder tube keel assembly easily guided the bit through the slot and simply widened the sides a tad. You can now see that the rectangular opening is now a circular hole. The 5/32" brass rudder tube will easily epoxy into it later on.

Then started on the frame assembly by epoxying the frames down onto the strongback. Then added epoxy to all the slots on both the frames and on the fin and keel assemblies. They all slipped together pretty well after a little adjusting and persuasion.

Here is how it all looks while it cures.

In this image you can see a rubber band holding up the half-frame (Frame 4.5), otherwise it would slip out. The planks clamped to the sides are to keep Frame 4.5 aligned with the other frames.

In this image you can see the first use on this boat of the rubber band clamping system that I use. Notice the tacks pushed into the sides of the strongback. There will eventually be tacks to the outside of every frame. The rubber band system is really helpful during planking.

In this case, Frame 9 needed to be held down, so I simply ran a rubber band from one side to the other.

Looks good right now. Fingers crossed that I've lined up the fin just right.

Tomorrow I'll start on the small keel braces that get epoxied to the frames and butt up against the fin to prevent twist, and to transfer the lateral load from the fin to the frames and hull planking.

After that, it's on to the sheer rails and the stringers.

Aloha!

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...

Made a Mast Crane

Made a mast crane based on one that I have made in the past for my Star 45's. Works well for them, and should work well for a Vintage Marblehead Sun Wind. It's made from brass, with a bar for strength soldered to the top. The idea is that a slot will be cut into the top 2" of the mast, and the crane will be through-bolted. This link is to the original schematic of a mast crane that you can build yourself, courtesy of the Miami Valley Model Yacht Club in Ohio. Here is my updated version. Click to see the full-sized image and then copy and paste it into Word. It "should" print at just about the correct size, but you may have to adjust the image a bit. Cut it out and spray glue it to some brass sheet. Cut it out on a band-saw and then sand smooth. Be careful when working with tools and metals!! This is what I ended up with for my Sun Wind HF. I decided to reinforce the crane with a length of brass bar soldered to the top edge. Back to deck pl...

Search This Blog