Presenting The "Sun Wind HF" Radio Control Vintage Marblehead Sailboat!

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, I was experimenting and figuring things out. I was also writing my "Wooden RC Sailboat Construction Manual" which should be available soon. Wood boats are fun and relatively easy to make, so hopefully many people will get a copy and make their own boats.

I'm still not sure how I will make the laser cut frames available. My two options are: A) find a company to cut them, or B) just release the files and let people cut them themselves.

UPDATE: (11/11/2017) I had the maiden sail, and it was obvious that the rig was too far forward. The entire rig has now been moved back about 2". It now points much higher. These pictures are of the original placement. See more recent posts for the newer placement pics.

Vintage Marblehead Sun Wind HF wooden radio control sailboat

Vintage Marblehead Sun Wind HF wood radio control sailboat

Vintage Marblehead sailboat laser cut boom

Here is my crazy, funky, a bit artsy, a bit 'techy' looking laser cut mainsail boom. It was made from eight laser cut layers of 1/32" plywood that were then epoxy laminated. It's very lightweight and plenty strong.

It's only early November, but here in Seattle it's cold, dark and rainy... so not sure when she'll have her maiden sail. Will post pics of it on the water when that happens.

Then a proper photo shoot sometime in the next couple weeks.

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...

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...

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...

Search This Blog