The "New" 1933 Wampum III RC Sailboat

While I'm waiting for my sails for the Sun Wind II, I've been busy resurrecting the 1933 Wampum II. I'm calling it the Wampum III until I can get more creative. It is a wooden "Traditional" division Vintage Marblehead radio control sailboat. It will be constructed from these laser-cut frames and planked in Western Red cedar.

Here's how it looks so far:

After many different rudder designs, I finally settled on one that is fairly close to the original. If it doesn't work out well, then I can always make a different one.

For those of you who have never made a plank-on-frame boat, all that business over the deck is the building board. You build these things upside down on a strongback. Each frame fits into a custom building board that spaces them correctly. Then you plank the frames, and afterward you cover it with fiberglass and epoxy. Makes for a very strong hull.

This is roughly how it will look during construction. You build them upside down on a strongback. On top of the strongback, you glue down the building boards, and then install the frames, and then finally the keel assembly.

Here is a picture of the laser cut sheets (not the actual files though). It's SIXTEEN sheets of 12" x 24" plywood! Seven sheets of cheap 1/8" Lite-Ply, but the rest are birch ply in either 1/8", 1/16", or 1/32".

The way that I've designed the keel is the main reason for so many sheets. Many of these types of frames that you see have a hollow keel. I'm very much interested in making these boats strong and stiff, so I've elected to build up the keel with layers of plywood. Yes, it will add weight, but mostly down low where you want weight anyway. Currently, my ballast should only be about ten pounds even though on the original boat it was 13.25.

If I actually build this boat, then I'll also need to make my own lead ballast. It will be molded and then epoxied and through-bolted through the inner core of the keel.

More later!

Peace!

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