Star 45 RC Sailboat Build Blog

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!

Every project has its ups and downs. So far I've had a few minor ones. Not happy with my hull weight or the clear coating on the inside of the hull for example. There are others too, but mostly I can live with them or they are recoverable. Last night though I had a huge disaster. The king planks that I just installed needed to be drilled through to mount the keel. However my bit was just too aggressive, and big, and the king planks were just not wide enough. The bit completely blew out the sides of the king plank! God... I had to cut out a section of the king plank and will instead put side planks. In the end it'll all be OK and is certainly a learning experience. I'll have to consider what the best practice might be and put some options in my manual. You can see multiple holes in the section I cut out. That's because I'm installed three different sets of keel tubes so that I have three different keel positions to choose from depending on the wind. Work t...

It's been a few days since I posted. Making slow but steady progress, and spending a lot of time documenting everything for the Star 45 Construction Manual I'm writing. Since my last post I've clear coated the inside of the hull. Not happy about it at all! It's pretty sloppy and due to the fact that I used unthinned epoxy. If I do another boat I'll use thinned epoxy for sure. Just a teaspoon or so or lacquer thinner would have done it. It will be much better looking and will still be moisture resistant enough for how much water might ever get in there. Oh well... live and learn. This week I finished the keel lamination and even put a layer of fiberglass on it. Then yesterday I ground down the lower end of it so that it will fit the keel bulb. Won't mount the keel to the bulb though until after I mount the keel to the boat. It will be much easier to align the holes and figure everything out without the heavy bulb. Then I'll remove the keel and permane...

She was released from the strongback today! Looks good on the inside. Not too much dripped epoxy at all. But it's heavy, and I mean HEAVY! Well... OK... that's relative to the real racers. The hull weighs 27 ounces which is a tank compared to the 16 oz. minimum that the racers strive for. They build theirs out of balsa. Mine might weigh a lot but it's a strong as a tank too. It will never be holed. Time to clear coat the inside. Oh yes, my boat weighs that much before I waterproofed the inside! God... If I ever build another one I can cut a full 6 ounces easily by using lighter sides. The cedar bottom planking looks good though so I'm glad I used it. But should have used much lighter sides. Oh well... Peace!

The hull sanded out well, but still needed to go further. I didn't want to cut into the glass too much so I added two additional coats of epoxy this morning to build up a bit on top of the first sanded coat. This way I'll have plenty of room to sand down to where the entire boat is even. Also got started on the keel threaded rods. Cut the 36" stainless steel 10-24 threaded rod I got from Tacoma Screw so that I had two 9" rods. Yesterday I laminated the first three panels, so today I bedded the rods in the slots with thickened epoxy. I made some cuts into the rods so that the epoxy would grip the rods completely and never come out. I felt that bending the rod would be a bit of overkill and I'm already heavy enough. This method should be more than plenty strong! Later, after all my keel tubes have been installed, I will make a final cut on the rods. But for now the 9" gives more than enough extra room to work with. Tomorrow I'll be sanding the h...

Big steps today... I fiberglassed the hull. Looks good but loads of drips and waves and such that I'll need to sand out before I put a second coat of epoxy on tomorrow. While waiting for it to completely dry I started laminating the keel. Epoxied together the first three panels. Next steps on the keel are to cut some threaded rods and glue them into the first three keel panels. Then I'll laminate on the rest of the panels. After that will shape the keel properly. That's it for now. Hope you're coming along well on your builds. Peace!

The bottom is planked, faired and trimmed. The transom is covered with nice Cedar. And I epoxied on a piece of Mahogany for the bow. Tomorrow I'll shape the bow piece and trim the planks that overhang the trim. Fiberglassing is coming soon. That is always an adventure! Fair Seas!

Planking takes longer than you'd expect. Since I'm only able to work on it for a limited amount of time each day, I'm only able to get about 8 planks per day (4 at one time, wait for the glue to dry, and then 4 more). It's day three of the planking and it looks like I'll finish tomorrow. The rubber band hold downs are working beautifully. In this picture you can see that I'm working my way back with the double and triple banding as the planks work to the outside and aft. Starting to consider my keel and rudder builds now. Found some 10-24 stainless steel threaded rod from Tacoma Screw, and some 7/32" brass tubing that exactly fits over it. They will make up the keel bolts and the keel tubes that the bolts pass through. Got a bunch of fittings from Long Beach RC and Midwest Model Yachting . Pretty cool stuff... blocks that look exactly like big boat blocks. Very realistic. My boom materials arrived. Still waiting on the mast and decking materials...

My Sails arrived yesterday! They were made by Rod Carr Sails. Started the bottom planking this morning. Came up with an idea that I particularly like for the bottom planking! I rigged up a way to use rubber bands to hold down the planks. You just put tacks in the sides of the strongback and string rubber bands across the top to hold the planks down. How cool is that! I guess it was a good thing that I made my strongback 12" wide. It's a slower process than I imagined. I've only been able to do six planks so far. May be able to get another four today but that's it. Gotta let the glue dry. I'm edge gluing the planks with Titebond III. Works well. Peace!

This morning I cut out the sides and glued them on. I first clamped the 3mm Mahogany Luan sheets up to the side of the hull and traced around the edges. Then trimmed them on the bandsaw. Sanded the bow ends at an angle. Then glued them on using epoxy. I'm using WEST System 105/205. Finally I clamped the hell out of it using clothespins and large binder clips. Now just waiting for it to dry. Yes, I know what you're saying. Isn't that, um, a bit heavy? Next to Balsa, yes, it is heavy. Each side weighs 4 oz. I'm sure that a side made of Balsa wouldn't even weigh an ounce. However, here is my reasoning: 1. I don't care that much about weight as this will be the only Star 45 within 2 hours drive at least. 2. This boat will be bullet-proof and will never get holed if I ever do race it. Balsa is flimsy. Besides, if you side with Balsa you'll need to put two layers of 3 oz. glass on. With this boat I'm going to put one layer of 1.4 oz. gla...

Just got a box in the mail from Australia. It's my new RMG SmartWinch 280ES sail winch ! Oh boy! Its got loads of wires coming out of it, but the schematic looks pretty straightforward so hopefully it will set up easily. My only worry really is the connection to the battery. I'm not sure if they offer that type of connection here in the States. Off to the hobby shop this weekend to figure it all out. The round black thing on the boat is their new RMG Switch-BEC. It's supposed to handle higher torque servos and power supply and such. Whatever... it looks cool! It mounts flush to the deck and is waterproof. It looks so much better than a large toggle switch sitting on top of the deck or underneath. Peace!

So I've been very busy with the ordering over the past few days! In the past three days I've ordered my sails from Carr Sails , the mast from Ludwig RC Yachts , and a bunch of fittings from both Long Beach RC and Midwest Model Yachting . Loads of money spent, but it's worth it. Besides, the actual boat is pretty cheap... it's the outfitting that costs so much! And I already ordered an RMG Sailwinch a couple weeks ago and it should arrive soon. So I'm done with much of the big spending at this point. And I've been making a lot of progress on the Star 45 Construction Manual. And master Star 45 builder John Fisher has agreed to look at it when it's completely roughed out and help do some editing for me. He's one of the people you should thank for creating the laser-cut frames.  Not a whole lot got done on the actual boat today. But I did manage to trace out the side panels that I'll use. I'll cut them out tomorrow if I have time. It sounds he...

Yesterday I managed to complete the sheer rails by laminating the outer to the inner. Today I took some 80 grit paper and a sanding block and was able to fair out the stringers. It took about two hours and looks great! I'm very happy that I chose to use Cedar for the stringers. I'm not as concerned about weight as the pure racers are, but nonetheless the Cedar hardly weighs much at all. And it looks great! Smells good too for now. Still not happy with how the transom ended up. For some reason everything fit well except for the transom. Not sure why. I will use Cedar planking on the bottom too. Stay warm! 

It seems that I've been spending much more time on writing the Star 45 Construction Manual instead of working on my actual Star! But now I've written it up to the point where I need to make more progress on the boat so I know what I'm talking about. The manual is now roughed out with everything I know so far. But it's good to keep building and writing at the same time. I often find myself adding or editing after doing a step.  I'm using tight-grain Cedar for the stringers and for the planking. Milling it myself on the table saw. It makes lovely stringers but heavier than Balsa, though not so heavy that it will make much difference. Some images with the sun on the frames. The sheer rails still have yet to be added. Just clamped up the sheer rails on each side. I had glued on the inner sheer rail earlier today and it was dry enough to allow me to glue laminate the outer rail onto it. You can see the clothespins holding the clamped outer sheer rail...

You know how when you buy something that you have to put together, how it comes with assembly directions? You buy a bookcase or a model, or a kids bicycle, or whatever, and you get the instructions. Sometimes they are even in English. The set of instructions doesn't exist for the Star 45. Yes, I know, it's not a kit. You have to piece together all the parts and materials and figure it out for yourself. Nonetheless, I wanted an instruction manual! So I got started making an instruction manual for the Star 45, and it has slowed my work on the actual boat! Sigh... Oh well, I'm a geek and writing manuals is fun for me, so it's all good. There are a few sites out there that give advice on how to build a Star 45, but they are mostly jumbled suggestions... not a step-by-step manual. That's what I'm going to try to make so that other people can have some of their questions answered. If you have suggestions for the Star 45 Construction Manual, please let me know an...