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!

Making very slow, steady progress on the planking. Can really only add one plank per side, per day. Sigh... Epoxy takes too long to cure. Peace!

Here are some images for various ways that you can use rubber bands to clamp down the planking when making a model wood RC sailboat like my Vintage Marblehead (VM) "High Flyer" Sun Wind II. Start with a fairly wide strongback. Mine is 8" wide 3/4" MDF. Then drive tacks or even small finishing nails, into the outside edge of the MDF in line with each frame. MAKE SURE THAT YOU ARE LINED UP WITH THE FRAMES! If you do this in-between the frames, you will warp the planks. Then get yourself a couple bags of various sizes of rubber bands. To clamp down a plank, just be creative! There are many ways you can use rubber bands to exert pressure on the planks. Here are a few examples: The Sun Wind II is coming along. It'll be a while though before the planking job is finished. Phew... Aloha!

Got the keel braces epoxied in. They butt up against the fin to transfer the load of the fin onto the frames and hull planking. The entire 10 lbs. of the fin bulb will put a lot of leverage on the top of the fin, which only extends into the hull less than 2". What the braces do is to lock the top of the fin at the edges of the slots so that the top of the fin is completely anchored to the frames. There is little chance of the top of the fin now breaking from the frames. I'm hoping that the three doubled frames with additional keel braces is enough to transfer that load. In the bilge, frame 5 is now 1/2" thick! And frames 4, 4.5, and 6 are all 3/8" thick. At this point, I'm actually quite confident that this arrangement will work. It also leaves the interior wide open, except for the mast support column, for the servo tray and lines. The keel braces added about 2 oz. but I feel that they are worth it. Now off to shape and fiberglass the rudder. P...

A NOTE ABOUT GLUE: If you read some of my earlier posts regarding my mock-up test hull, you'll know that I often used Titebond II to glue things instead of epoxy. That was because that boat was never going to see water. This time I am almost exclusively using epoxy. This is the real deal boat and will be sailed, so a waterproof adhesive is required. Specifically I'm using WEST System 105/205. Read more about it here .    ------------------------------------------------------------------ I started to laminate the fin tonight. Just the inner core made from 1/8" plywood, and then the first side of ply #2 made out of 1/16" plywood. You need to take extra caution on the first three or four ply's so that it remains really flat. The last few ply's you can stop using the 3/4" MDF form, but use it for the first several. Use the excess epoxy: Then use the extra epoxy to clear coat some of the frames. Between laminating the fin and rudder, you can easily ...

Tada! Here's how my 6 laminations of 1/32" plywood turned out today when I took the clamps off... Here's how it looks mounted to the servo and servo tray. Yes, I have some work to do on the tray, and especially on putting down some velcro for the battery and receiver. And I'll need to ziptie the wires too, but you get the idea! Peace!

OK, so this is a total experiment and if it doesn't work I'll just make one out of aluminum. I laser cut 6 layers of 1/32" plywood and have laminated them together to make a crazy weird servo arm. This is how it looked in SketchUp Pro with the plastic arm underneath that came with the Hitec HS-815BB Sail Servo... Here are the laminations after the laser cutter finished: And here they are being laminated between two scrap pieces of 3/4" MDF: We'll see how the finished product looks tomorrow when I open it up! Aloha

Last night was spent avoiding the State of the Union address by instead working on the latest, and hopefully final, version of the Sun Wind II laser cut frames. Unless something obvious comes up, this is the file that I will shortly use to make the complete Sun Wind II boat from. It's nine sheets. I know that someone out there could have puzzled this together better to make it fewer sheets, but whatever... Six sheets are 1/8" plywood, and three are 1/16" plywood. There is a tenth sheet that can optionally be cut from 1/32" ply. The only part on it is a spacer for the rudder, but alternatively you could also just grind the edges off of the 1/8" rudder post to get it down to the 7/64" thickness of the actual rudder inner piece. Either way you run the risk of being slightly off-center with the post, but the amount should be so little as to be inconsequential. More later when the laser cutting starts... hopefully next week! Peace!

Today I cut my test hull off of its supports and did a lot of clean up on the sander. Sanded the transom flush, as well as the bow. Cleaned up the sheer a bit, and then finally added the rudder. It's done! I attempted to make a male mold for the lead bulb, but it cracked off the lathe before I could get it down to size. Oh well... it was a good attempt and I'll try it again shortly. Overall, I love it! Now onto the real thing... next up, it's time to make the entire hull and do some RC sailing! Aloha!

At this point, I feel that I have now pretty much finalized the new Sun Wind II RC Sailboat lines. And I like it! Today I finished the servo tray (see previous post) and cleaned up a number of extraneous lines and such. I think she's done. The original 1949 lines : Profile view of my updated Sun Wind II lines : Note that my transom appears to be flat, not rounded like the original. When built however, this boat will also have a nicely rounded transom when a wood finishing piece is added. Likewise, the bow will match the original bow lines when you add the shaped bow piece. These lines are for the purpose of making laser cut frames. Front view of my updated Sun Wind II : Aft view : Would love to hear what people think! Aloha!

While waiting for epoxy to cure on my Sun Wind II mock-up hull, I've finally been working on making a 3D model of the 1949 Rip Tide. I started with some curves that were drawn in AutoCAD by a gentleman named Roger. For now, I'm simply calling it the Rip Tide II. After a false-start a few months ago, I now have a nice 3D model that is almost ready to create some laser cut frames. Here's an update... First, these are the lines that Roger made based on the original lines. I've seen the original lines that are going around the internet, and they are pretty crude. So Roger did a great job! Then, from Roger's 2D CAD drawing, I have made a 3D model so that I could test the fit of all the parts and frames. I've also made changes to the design to make the Rip Tide a "High Flyer" RC sailboat. So I dropped the draft to 16" and added a spade rudder. Here is what it now looks like... I also built a building base for the frames to help with a...

I found a great way to clamp planks while making my Star 45's and Vintage Marblehead's. My building boards are 8" wide. I hammer in strong thumbtacks into the side of the building board. You could also use nails or brads. (See pictures below) The idea is that you can loop rubber bands over the hull, or through the hull, or around specific planks as needed to keep pressure where you want it. The rubber bands simply hook onto the tacks. See my pictures below. The pictures below are from a Star 45 that I built a few years back. Used the same technique then too. Good luck on your build! Peace!

I've begun the planking on my mock-up Sun Wind II. Last night I installed the outer sheer rails and let the epoxy cure. This morning I was able to fair the sheer rails and begin the planking. I'm using 1/8" x 3/8" clear cedar that I milled myself. The edges were beveled slightly on a sander, although I could have just used the table saw. Cedar is very nice to work with, and so far is conforming to the hull shape well. Will update as more planks are added. Only two so far. And I'm only doing one side. The other side will remain open so that people can view the internal structure. This is a mock-up and will be on display. The real RC boat will be built next after all the changes needed are discovered. Aloha!

Here are the other boats I've built in the past few years: 1. A Tippecanoe T37 . These are kits available from Tippecanoe Boats in Washington State. 2. A classic, wooden, Star 45 . It has been officially measured and is class legal. The Star 45 is a pretty, classy, builders boat that has withstood the test of time.   3. A Salish 475 . It's my own variation on the Star 45. It was built from the same laser cut frames as the Star with a number of modifications aft of frame 6. It is an update of the classic look and was an attempt to mimic a modern ocean racing yacht. I've also built four Pygmy kayaks and many other projects. It's all fun... right?! Aloha! Radio controlled sailboats