fnkershner

Another Syren! This will be fun!

Dave - That is exactly how I did it on mine, with a couple of exceptions. 1. I didn't make them out of wire. I bought them from a fabric shop - they are called Bra hooks. 2. I used a simpler stitch. but yours look better.

DORIS!! How wonderful to have you back! Thank you for sharing with us! Don't let a few idiots deter you from a very special skill. You are very much loved and appreciated here! :pirate41: :pirate41: :pirate41:

This is beautiful work. What a wonderful way to spend my holidays reading such an amazing build log.

Jerry - Do you use a bilge pump? I have not found the need. The small amount of moisture I get usually dries before my next use. And considering we do about a dozen hard races a day. I am pretty confident. On the subject of the Top sails. I would suggest that there are managed the same way my main is. The only difference is that you have a gaff in the middle. i.e. it is treated as if it was one sail with a batten. I can't image a situation where you will not want your topsail to be in line with your main or the lower sail on any of your masts. It also simplifies your rig considerably. You wont need any special lines for your top sails. They are just controlled by the lower sail. Jerry - Tell us more about your R/C controls for your Pride?

Dave - I haven't forgotten you. I have to work today and still have house guests. I will do the research on Saturday.

Jerry - I would consider you the expert on this subject. You have far more experience than I do in this area. I am satisfied with just my plain old Sloop with 1 mast and 2 sails. As this discussion was progressing I was think of you and hoping you would jump in here. I would be very interested in seeing some pictures of the rig you describe.

Oh My! I will be up your way ASAP. I have a SolCat 18. We have much to discuss.

Glad to see you have the right priorities. Too bad I have to work today and house guests are still here!

If I understand your comments correctly you are referring to the need to have your jibs pulled either to the Port or Starboard. I hope I got it right. I did look back thru the log to see your info about sail plan and "learning the Ropes". Here is another example of what I mentioned before about the difference between function and accurate duplication of a real ship. On a real Sail craft of any size you will have sheets for each sail that are run both to starboard and to port. One will be engaged and the other waiting for a tack or jibe. When I was part of a sail racing crew one of my jobs was to be in the pit (cockpit) grinding these sheets. If I was lucky there was another grinder with me. But often it was just me jumping from one side of the boat to the other as we made our roundings. Anyway back to R/C. Maybe the best way to explain is another set of pictures. You will see in the pictures below that the Jib sheet is run from the fairlead aft of the hatch thru eye bolts to a point that is exactly on the centerline ahead of the mast. From there you will notice that the Jib sheet runs up to the Jib boom and used another brass clip. The reason you only need 1 sheet is that for R/C all you are concerned with is pulling it in or letting it out. Believe me when I tell you that if you have any wind you will not have any trouble getting the sail to fill and swing out going either upwind or down. So all you need is to be able to control how far out the sail is. And if you double the sheets as described above. You can get just the right adjustment between the 2 sails controlled by the same sheet. In other words when the mainsail is tight you will want a bit of play in the corresponding jib. So the jib sheet will be just a bit looser than the main. I am guessing for your schooner rig you will have a set of sheets for each mast. And all but the Mizzen will have a corresponding jib. In the 2nd pictures notice also that the termination on the Jib boom has a couple of rubber grommets around the boom. This allows me to fine tune the rig for the wind conditions. I can either slide the sheet in or out to tighten down the throw of the Jib. You will also notice that the jib is rigged with an outhaul. This allows me to give the sail more curve or make it flatter. An outhaul is impossible without a Jib boom. I know that you do not intend to race your boat so some of these adjustments are likely unnecessary. Just giving you more food for thought. Finally the position of the Fairlead is carefully chosen to accomplish the same thing on the Mainsail. In your case this may not be possible. So you are likely going to have eyes guiding your sheets either across your deck or under the deck. Some of the racers in our club prefer to have a clean deck. So they do everything I have shown you under the deck. Personally this scares me. What happens when I need to replace my rigging or adjust something.

I am so glad I can give you more to think about. Merry Christmas! And since it is Christmas. Let me fulfill another promise - I said I would give you some pictures of my rig. So here you go. I hope this gives you a whole week of thinking! LOL The first picture is a macro shot of my Fairlead. There are several R/C sailing sources on the web for these. It has a threaded shaft which I cut down for the thickness of my deck. The next shot is the sheet termination. Let me explain. The sheet is one continuous run from the jib to the servo arm and back to the mainsail. So the doubled line goes thru the fairlead to the servo arm and then to this termination. Obviously you don't need a brass snap. I just found it useful to make sure it did not come back up thru the fairlead. You will see that the line is doubled over and crimped. The string we use is call Spectra. it is as strong as Kevlar and very slippery. So it doesn't hold a knot very well, that is why I use a crimp. The next shot is of the servo arm. It doesn't show in the picture. But there is a Brass Grommet wired to the end of the servo arm. This allows the sheet to slide thru and give you a double throw for the same distance of the arm. We use this in racing to get the max distance of sail from shroud to shroud. You may not need this. And the last shot is meant to show everything from the fairlead to the arm and then to the termination. For the termination I used a small scrap of wood that I rounded off and Epoxied an eye bolt into it. It is then Epoxied to the underside of the deck. I hope this helps. and again Merry Christmas. I know in your time zone I am a bit late. but enjoy Boxing day anyway.

Todd - I have to ask you about your Avatar. Do you have a Hobbie?

Todd - If you send me a PM I will take care of the rest. All I need is an email address.

From the discussion here I guess I am a very lucky man. As the president of our local club I find that I am often called on to visit a long time member who has decided it is time to retire from modeling. More often It is a call from a relative who tells me that so and so has passed on. They often have a kit on the shelf or an unfinished project and what help finding them a home. This is how I gained a kit of Ajax. I must say that from what I see in the box I am quite impressed. I will get to her some time in the future.

Ok, I guess I am going to have eat some of my word above. Here is Washington (Not WA Australia) we have a R/C boat manufacturer. I have one of his boats. I have learned most of what I know from him. He sells a kit that is a Schooner. It is 47 inches long. And it has Gaff rigged sails and 2 jibs. I still haven't learned how to include a link in a post. But if you search for T47 R/C schooner I bet you will find it. There are some very good pictures on the site which should help. Let me know if you don't find it. There is even a good picture of the deck which shows the rigging of the sheets. And he uses just one servo for 4 sails.

Well it is a holiday, so even you can take a break. Besides there is always something to work on even if you can't paint. I find that one of the thing I enjoy the most about this hobby is the mental challenges. I often spend my free hours away from home trying to solve a problem. it is like a puzzle. I will even wake up with a new approach to something. And then the opportunity to talk it out with others just adds to the fun. I know you have plenty of time before you will be rigging your sheets. I will take some pictures and find a detailed description of my workings. By the way what is your sail plan? I have found that here is where authenticity and function diverge. Let me explain. When we build static models most of us strive for it to be as close a representation of the original as our skills and wallet allow. It is just a miniature of the original. But in R/C we are more interested in function, that is does she sail well. For an R/C craft it is hard to accomplish both. A good example is the modifications you will be making for the keel & ballast. Function does not always scale well. Another example you may already have thought of is the number of Jibs. On a schooner it is customary to have 3 or 4 jibs. On an R/C it is very difficult to Tack that many sails and it will have an effect on the performance of the ship. Also most period schooners had gaff rigged Foresails & Mainsails, and they also had a topsail on each mast. I am guessing here but I think you will find that the R/C topsail will give you fits and you will get better performance out of a full sail instead of a Gaff rig. It certainly will be easier to control.

Todd & Charley - Do I have you on my mailing list for the Puget Sound Ship Modelers? We have a very active club. And by the way Todd you have way too much wood in that workshop I can see a scratch built ship in your future.

I am familiar with most of those products. I have the Hitec 765 for my sheet servo. I use an extended arm with a double throw system and a continuous sheet from the Jib to the Main. Mine is a sloop rig but I have lots of torque. I find the arm to be a more positive control than the drum. Also if you have access to a servo programmer you can extend the reach of the arm from 90 degrees to 120. I get more positive control faster than I get from the drum. I also have enough throw to go from shroud to shroud. And you can buy both the Hitec and the programmer for less than those other servos. Since your model is going to be very close to 1 meter long I don't think you will need those drums. I also get a range of approx. 1/2 KM on a digital 2.6 rig. PS I also have a lake near me that has a max depth of 2.5 Meters and is 380 acres. It is not hard to recover your boat just by swimming or small row boat. I often see R/C power boats there.

Wow! what scale is it? is it POB? this is very cool. Unfortunately you will finish your Harvey before I do. So we will not be building J boats together. I can't wait for you J boat log!

Oops, how could I forget. Since she is rigged fore and aft only then sailing here will be easy. May I suggest that all you need is 1 sailing servo. It will make it much easier to control. Also make sure all sails are club footed (have a boom), and then you are all set. Let me dig up a diagram of how we rig our boats to share with you. You will need a very high torque server. But you can run all the sheets to this servo and she will tack easily. I bet you will be flying wing on wing in a very short time. Do you have any parks with boat ponds near by? Our club uses a city park that has a pond that is 1 meter deep and 35 meters in diameter. It is perfect for beginning sailing. we often have races on this pond.

Blackie that is so kind of you. I wish I was there and could go out for a sail on that wonderful ship. Also the picture tells so much about her planking. Very nice and what an inspiration. Now I have to inform you that what I have on the shelf is not this ship. But instead she is the 1:35 version of the America's cup J boat. After watching the log on this forum for the same kit I am leaning to doing her next. She should be fun and hardly any rigging. Also lots of paint to cover my planking. Thanks for your comments on my Harvey. I do hope to have the paper planks today. They should build confidence and become great templates for the real planks.

I had assumed that the motors were just to ensure you don't loose her and that you intended to actually sail her as much as possible. Is this not true? I have seen R/C sailboats with 1 channel for sail control and I have also seen Square rigged with up to 7 channels. I would suggest that you will need separate controls for the square rigged and fore & aft sails.

Now comes the Hard part - Step 5. Cut out the planks. Use a French curve for the bow.

Ok, It has been a long time since I have made an update here. I have received several 3 inch wide sheets of Walnut from Jeff at Hobby Mill. They are amazingly beautiful with very tight grain. I should have started here sooner. Now that all my holiday shopping is done and all the house guests have come and gone. I am committed to getting these last 16 planks on the hull before the end of the holidays. I will carefully document each step for those who find planking as challenging as I do. By the way I have sworn I will never again do a double planked hull. In fact all the kits on my shelf require copper or paint. Yeah! The fact that Nirvana is about to catch me with a kit that I sold him is also a motivation. So here we go! I should also mention that I have not been completely away from model building. A friend from work has purchased 2 T37 R/C sailboats and we are very close to completion on the first one. Tomorrow we will complete the rigging. That should leave the installation of the R/C electronics, which I think he can handle. Step 1. Lay clear Packing tape the length of the hull so that it covers the area that needs to be planked. In this cast I have take that 1.8 inches wide so I needed 2 rows of tape overlapped. See first picture below. You will note the packing tape in the photo. Step 2. Using a sharp pointed marker mark the top and bottom of each bulkhead on the tape. This has proved a bit frustrating since I have not found a marker that does not wipe off the clear tape. Step 3. I have cut a legal size manila file folder into 3 inch wide strips to simulate the walnut provided by Jeff. I should also mention that I ran Jeff's wood thru the thickness sander to get it down to .5MM thick. Step 4. Now I took my proportional dividers and marked off all of the planks. The last 2 photos show the result.

I also agree. Since you have such a nice rounded Hull and no chine. You will need the full keel or a fin keel. I think the full keel will look better and allow for shallower draft. How many channels are you planning? I would guess: 1. For rudder. 2. Motor speed control 3. Sails 4. ? more sail control or are you going to have each prop independent? For our R/C sailing club we have a tug to go get wayward R/C sailboats since they have no electric motor. Knock on wood (or epoxy) I have never needed this assist. PS Like you I do my best work thinking aloud. Drives the wife nuts. But oh well.