Star 45 RC Sailboat Build Blog

Hi, I've been away from my Star 45 build and the writing of my Star 45 Construction Manual for over two months now. Life can get in the way sometimes... Hoping to get back into it more now that spring is coming and the weather is improving. Not sure how much longer it will take me but just hang with me and we'll eventually go sailing! I have been a bit stuck on my deck design. Finally came up with this: The pattern was made by using a sheet of poster board. It wasn't long enough to cover the 45" so I taped two sections together. I then messed around with some designs. It's not ideal but it'll work for now. Next I traced it out onto my decking material (1/16" x 12" x 48" birch ply) that I bought from National Balsa. It's thicker than the real racing guys use but, as a reminder, I'm not that interested in national level competitive sailing and would prefer to have a stouter boat that I can play with here in the Seattle area and...

Finished laminating the rudder this morning. It was dry enough by this afternoon that I could sand it, shape it, and fiberglass it. It's not necessary to fiberglass it, but because the trailing edge is so fine I figured that a layer of fiberglass would be good protection. It doesn't add toooo much weight. I'll trim the edges tonight when it gets to the green stage. Also last night I covered the bulb with a layer of thickened epoxy. This morning I sanded it down and faired the bulb smooth. Then I brushed on a layer of clear epoxy over the entire bulb and bottom portion of the keel. Tomorrow I'll lightly fair that and if needed will add another coat of epoxy.  Hope your build is going well! Peace!

Sanded the bottom of the bulb this morning and rough sanded the rest of the bulb. Painted on a nice thickened coat of epoxy on the bottom just now and will fair it a bit when it dries. Looking good so far. Started to make the rudder too. Laminated the inner 5 layers with some slightly thickened epoxy. These are the ones with the slot for the rudder post in them. When dry I will epoxy in the 1/8" stainless steel rod for the rudder post. I'll bend it to fit the slot. Then I'll laminate on the last four outer panels.  That's it for now. It snowed! So I'm going to go have hot chocolate and play. Happy snow day!

Didn't have much time to work on the boat yesterday but did manage to fill the remaining space in the keel slot with some epoxy. Used an epoxy syringe to slowly squirt epoxy into the front opening. It's now completely filled with epoxy. Today I made up some very thick epoxy and ran a fillet around the transition between the keel and the bulb. Used a plastic spoon to be consistent. With the excess I started to fill in the bulb's cracks and such. I'll let that dry completely and then give it a quick sanding. Then I will add another layer of thickened epoxy all over the bulb. I used a plastic spoon to help smooth the fillet. The remaining thickened epoxy spread over the bulb. More coats later. It will be a few more days until I have a smooth bulb. Slow but steady... Soon I should probably make the rudder too.  Peace!

Short project today, and now need to just let it dry. I mounted the keel bulb to the keel. Ground down the keel so that it would fit the bulb. Thought that would be easier than trying to open up the slot in the bulb more. Pretty easy job, but be careful you don't grind off too much. Lined it up by running the keel all the way through the bulb so that it could sit flush on the table. It is recommended that the bulb just sit there too and that you allow it to have an upwards slant to it. It just didn't look right to my eye so I propped up the back of it just slightly. The nose is still higher than the tail but it looks better. Then drilled out the holes in the side of the bulb and bore all the way through the keel.  Gently hammered in the pins through the holes to secure the keel. Mixed up some epoxy and poured some into the small opening in the top front and let that drain downwards for a minute. Then flipped it over and poured the rest into the bottom of the slot ...

Today I installed the rudder post assembly. A few days ago I made a piece for the rudder tube alignment piece to fit on top of. Today I installed it in place. In the pictures you can see the tube sticking out the bottom of the hull. It is not permanently epoxied in yet and will be removed when dry. The little stick of wood is to help position and prop up the front of the piece while it dries. It is not in the epoxy and will be removed later. The tape is just holding the tube in place for now. The idea is that I'm using the entire tube to help align my rudder post with the keel. I'm aligning it both side-to-side and fore and aft. It's held in with very thick epoxy. So thick that it's almost like clay... it holds its shape until dry. I've only epoxied it to the frame. Later, when I cut the tube and permanently install it I will get more epoxy underneath it better. Also used the remaining epoxy to fill in the gaps between the keel tubes. Should hold th...

Well I still haven't entirely figured out what the exact process will be, but I've started to recover from my stoooopid king plank blowout problem. I laminated some wood, Popsicle sticks actually, to the inside of two cedar planks. Then glued those to the remaining ends of the king plank. See picture. The tubes are just set in there as spacers now but luckily are just exactly the correct thickness. Also added a 1/4" piece of cedar for my mast support piece. It should transfer the weight from the mast step to the keelson. You can see in the picture that I also added my shroud support pieces. Purposely let them run a bit longer, and then laminated a second plank of Mahogany on top to make a solid 1/4" of hardwood that I can screw into later. So things are coming along and I'm sure I'll recover from the king plank blowout just fine. Not done yet though. More later! Peace!