The Wampum III is on its way to reality! Last week I cut the frames. Sixteen sheets total! Yowza. This weekend, I made a strongback to build it on. Now I am busy laminating the double-frames, laminating the keel layers, and clear-coating the rest of the frames. I'm also going to start on a plywood mock-up of the ballast. I laser cut those sheets and will laminate them together. I'll then fit them to the keel and shape the entire thing. Then the ballast mock-ups will be removed, further shaped with thickened epoxy, and then eventually molded in refractory cement. Finally, after the molds have cured, I will cast the lead ballasts. Fingers crossed that it all works! Here is the strongback made from 3/4" MDF. The sides are 4" x 48", and the top is 8" wide. Notice that I've drilled holes in it where the keel alignment holes are. With the Wampum III, you will want a very flat space on which you laminate the keel. You'll do this before you...

The Sun Wind HF Vintage Marblehead RC Sailboat The original placement of the rig was way too far forward. The boat wouldn't point at all. I initially used the original plans, but in converting to RC the rig then needed to be moved. Ended up moving it about two inches aft. That necessitated covering the first holes as best I could. Some you can still see, but overall I think it looks pretty good! Here's how it looks now with the better placed rig: Peace!

The Vintage Marblehead Construction Manual is now available! It comes in two formats: 1. Electronic PDF format for $25. Just send a PayPal payment to my account (stevedeligan@gmail.com), and then send an email to the same address. I'll reply with the PDF copy. You should get it within 24 hours normally. This is a nice option for those of you who have tablets, or who do your builds near a computer. The links work, and you can sometimes zoom in on the images for a better look. 2. Or PRINTED in full color with a coil binding so that it stays open to any page. Looks beautiful! It's available from Lulu Press for $45. I know that sounds expensive, but it's 123 pages of text and pictures on how to build the Sun Wind HF. It's a very niche book that is printed-on-demand, so it costs a lot to print each full-color copy. I've received lots of positive feedback for my printed Star 45 Construction Manual, so hopefully you'll find this one useful. ...

Well I started on the Wampum III today by cutting out all the parts. It was a total of sixteen sheets of 12" x 24" plywood! Took about two hours to cut them all on the Full Spectrum laser cutter. Here's how they look so far... The frames are all cut from Lite Ply. It was first time that I've tried to laser cut it, and it cuts very well! I'm using Lite Ply from now on whenever possible. It is also actually very lightweight too. Good decision. Here are all the rest of the parts. The keel is going to be built up from layers of 1/16" plywood. I'll mold my own ballast so that it is fitted onto the inner core piece of ply. Should work well. Next step, start to laminate the keel. More later! Peace!

My new Vintage Marblehead Sun Wind HF rc sailboat had its maiden sail this afternoon! Very light winds, and I'll need a lot more time to do some tuning, but it didn't sink and it came back to shore, so it all went well! However, it was VERY obvious that the rig was too far forward. So now the entire thing will need to be moved aft about 2". The pics in this post are of the original placement of the rig, and you can see that it's too far forward. Will update a new post when it has been moved back. Now, how to cover the holes... ugh!  There were a few asking for better pics of the spars... Will hopefully be able to take her out again this weekend for some proper wind, but the forecast isn't looking good right now. Tough time of year for sailing. Aloha!

I'm in the process of thinking, yes... just thinking, about making my own ballast for both the Sun Wind Hf and for the upcoming Wampum III, both Vintage Marblehead sailboats, but using two different styles of lead ballast. The Sun Wind HF takes a torpedo style bulb. I 3D modeled one in Sketchup Pro 2017, and from there exported an STL file that I used in one of our 3D printers at school (I'm a teacher and the CTE teacher actually printed it for me). Here is what we ended up with... two identical male molds: Here is what the bottom of one of them looks like: 3D prints are a bit rough, and if I used them straight they might stick to the cement too well. So I'm coating them with thickened epoxy and will then sand them down. I'll then wax them before using them. The idea is that I will sink these into a container of refractory cement and let it harden, will remove the molds, and then let it cure for a long time (weeks). The concrete will probably also take a t...

Tuh da! I present to you the resurrected 1949 wooden Sun Wind HF Vintage Marblehead radio control sailboat! This Vintage Marblehead sailboat, despite being called "vintage", is a brand new boat based on the original 1949 design, but updated to the newer VM rules. Original Designer : Gus Lassel Year : 1949 Original Class : Marblehead Current Class: Vintage Marblehead (VM) "High-Flyer" Division Resurrection Designer (converted to RC and to the "High Flyer" ("HF") rules: Steve Deligan 2017 LOA : 50" Draft : 16" Displacement Ready to Sail (including batteries, servos, etc...) : 16 lbs. 14.5 oz. Ballast : 10 lbs. made by Jeffrey Gros Sails: Carr Sails Hull : Western Red Cedar on laser cut 1/8" plywood frames Deck : Alaskan Yellow Cedar with Mahogany trim It took five months to build, but much of that was down time, so not really that long. If I build another one, it will take much less time. For much of this build, ...

The sails arrived and they look amazing!  Thanks to Rod Carr, of Carr Sails . He does very nice work. And he is more than happy to work with you too. He truly wants you to like his sails, and he wants his sails to both look good and perform well. Use him for your next set of sails. He's threatening to retire from sail making in the next few years, so either get your sails soon or try to convince him to stay in the game. Here they are mounted to the mast and laid out for measuring with the spars.  They are attached using a "jack wire" system. Small brass cotter-puns are glued into holes every 6" down the aft side of the mast. Then you lay out the sail next to the mast and carefully cut small windows out of the luff of the sail at each cotter-pin. You leave a small amount of room both above and below the cotter pin for the sail to stretch as you apply downhaul. Then you run stainless steel wire through the mast crane and crimp it on. Now carefully route...