Main Framing

Christmas break was coming and Dad had expressed some interest in RC sailing rather than flying.  Less stress with boats, eh?

After a bit of searching I found a wealth of knowledge at the AMYCA (American Model Yachting Association).

It turns out that the Star 45 is very popular and has a long history with RC Yachting.

A 45.5" hull and and a 10 lb minimum weight makes for a hefty model yacht.

Model Sail Boat: Building a 45inch Star Boat

So now with the pictures.

The first plans I found looked like this but the resolution of the jpeg was so low I couldn't read most of the dimensions.

I then found a great blog that had lots of different versions of the Star 45.  

The full sized templates were already plotted to scale in pdf format.

So off to the lumberyard to get some meranti plywood and some 1/4" oak board.

Some coffee and contemplation.

 Do a bit of planning.

Glue the templates to the plywood.

Make some bulkheads.

Rip the oak to make chines and battens.

Rip the planks from spruce patio decking.

Rip a backbone.

Layout the frames.

Install the bulkheads.

Keelson, chines and battens.

Plank up to the chines.

Trim the planks to the chines.

It Started a Year Ago

Well it started out a year ago when my younger sister decided to get me something for my birthday that would bring back my younger days of model airplanes.

I came home and my wife asked, "Did you order something?"

Baffled, I said "Noooo".  "Well there's something on the front step with your name on it." she replied.

It was a five foot long box that could have held a set of golf clubs or large flower arrangement.

The critical clue came from "Hobby....." on the box and the sender was from Yellowknife.

Ohhh it's from Dorothy!  Opening the box I found a RTF (ready to fly) Super Cub with RC controls and a few spare parts.

Flying the RC model at 56 years of age proved a bit daunting since the reactions are not as intuitive and the learning curve a bit steep.  The first flight was lost in Suburbia when a gust took it out of sight.  

Three weeks of canvassing and postering led to it's return by a retired resident who had found the plane just outside the search area.  He had seen some of the posters and found one that still had an intact phone number.

The battery was so dead that it wouldn't charge on the automated Li-ion charger for safety reasons.  I rigged up a circuit to slowly bring the batteries up to 3.6 volts so the automatic charger could do the rest.  Some puffiness of the battery package resulted.

Long story short flying an RC plane is fairly stressful when you need instant reactions to prevent catastrophic results.  

You can't just push reset and get a new plane.