Skip to main content

The Vintage Marblehead Sailboat Construction Manual

My printed version arrived! It looks great, if I do say so myself.

It's in full color, with a coil binding so that it will stay open to any page.




The Vintage Marblehead Sailboat Construction Manual

The Vintage Marblehead RC Sailboat Construction Manual

The Vintage Marblehead RC Sailboat Construction Manual

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. You should get it within a week or ten days after ordering.

This manual is useful for first time, plank-on-frame builders using laser-cut frames and epoxy fiberglass. It does not use the "pinning" method of old, but rather uses epoxy to a large degree. You won't see hundreds of small holes on your hull.

While written using a Vintage Marblehead boat as an example, the methods and skills used can be transferred to a number of RC (radio-control) wooden model boats intended for actual sailing.

This is not a manual for how to build "scale" models! These boats will actually be sailed, and therefore must be water-capable. Scale models will have much more detail, but could never go in the water. Our boats are epoxy coated, water-resistant, and designed to race.

There are three items that are hard to find for anyone wishing to make a Vintage Marblehead RC Sailboat:

1) The laser-cut frames for the design they want to build. National Balsa has the files for the "Sun Wind HF" and you can order directly from them. They will quote you exactly, but it should be less than $180 including shipping and materials. If you want either the "Rip Tide" or the "Wampum", please let me know. National Balsa can cut them, but they don't have the files yet. The "Rip Tide HF" frames should be about the same price, but the "Wampum VM" frames could be more expensive due to several additional sheets.

2) The lead ballast properly sized and shaped for their design. I'm also working on this one! Not sure what the charge will be, but hopefully less than $100 for the Sun Wind and Rip Tide. Probably a bit more for the Wampum ballast.

3) A Construction Manual for how to build a Vintage Marblehead RC sailboat. This manual addresses that final challenge.

Everything else needed to make the boat is readily available from several suppliers, or your local lumber yard (you may have to mill or buy your wood). 


Aloha!

P.S. If interested in how to build a Star 45, that construction manual is also available. This was my original construction manual.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

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

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

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

IOM Alignment and Measuring Jig (UPDATED)

I need to start to consider how I'll mount the fin and bulb, and get it all straight, so I made a 3D modeled alignment jig: Ian Dundas in Scottland sent me pictures of his setup. I just bought a laser level too! He does amazing work and has been a great help in this project so far. There is also another jig featured on page 14 of the winter 2008 Canadian Radio Yacht Association (CRYA) newsletter that features one. It's by Lawire Neish. Read it here . I took both those designs and made my own version that features sliding cradles for the hull, a fixed waterline sight, proper depth to cradles for the bulb, etc... Most of the parts can be laser cut, and the two end pieces and the base can easily be cut on a tablesaw. It has fixed waterline sights that are 420mm above the top edges of the bulb sliders in the base. The fore and aft cradles can be slid up and down to adjust the waterline of the hull. You'll see that the overall interior length is 1003mm t