Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from April, 2018

Wampum VM & New Hydro Build

It was a fun RC boating weekend! Yesterday I went to Monroe, WA to watch the local RC hydroplane guys run their boats. Today I sailed the new Wampum VM RC Vintage Marblehead sailboat at the Seattle Model Boat Pond in South Lake Union next to the Center for Wooden Boats and the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI). The Wampum VM and the Sun Wind HF are both done and sailing very well. My next project will be a 1/8th scale hydroplane. I'm making the Miss Wahoo. To follow that build, please check out my other build blog at http://scalehydroplanes.blogspot.com/ . So this may be one of my final posts on this blog for a while. Occasionally I'll be posting some new information or events, but other than that, I'm signing off for now. Hope to see you at my hydro blog! Aloha!

Presenting the Wampum VM Vintage Marblehead RC Sailboat!

Ta Da! Presenting the Wampum VM Vintage Marblehead RC Sailboat! Just had a perfect maiden sail for the newly resurrected from 1933 Wampum II, which I'm calling the Wampum VM due to the necessary changes I had to make to the original design to make it RC and to use modern materials. She sailed perfectly! I hardly had to make any adjustments. Has just a touch of weather helm. I could not have asked for a better first sail! This will be a very fun boat to sail in the future. Aloha!

Standing Rigging, part 1

Got a start on the Wampum VM Vintage Marblehead RC Sailboat standing rigging this weekend. Can't do it all until after I varnish the deck, but got the mainsail installed and the boom installed, and a few other things. Here is a nice trick... prop your boat's keel up on the floor so that it is perfectly on its side. Then line up the entire rig. Measure where everything will be attached. Mark those spots with sticky notes. Mark the sticky notes exactly where to drill attachment points.  But first, don't be a complete idiot like I was and attempt to install the mainsail backasswards! Gawd... Got my sails from Carr Sails . He does a great job. Here are a few of the things I was able to install today. In this first picture you can see the gooseneck, the boom, and the boom vang. Roger from Model Yacht Fittings hand makes these things and they are works of art. He has complete kit just for Vintage Marblehead boats.  The mast crane is my own creation. You can

Wampum Hatches

Got the hatches built! Over the past few days I've managed to make the hatches. I'm using strong, rare-earth magnets. Circle ones for the main hatch, and narrower rectangular ones for the aft hatch. Obviously I haven't done any cleaning up or finishing on them yet. Picking up my sails tomorrow. We're almost sailing! Aloha!