Star 45 RC Sailboat Build Blog

The Star 45 plans arrived from the AMYA store... and they're big! The AMYA Star 45 plans only cost $20 and are three large-size sheets mostly in full (100%) scale. The third page isn't entirely full size as it shows the sail plan in reduced scale. Nice plans. Reproductions of the original 1985, revision 3 plans. Clearly done by hand back in the 80's and not on computer. They have a nice vintage feel to them. Nicely bound too. Lots of information! Great offset tables for those wishing to loft their own. Wish it had a touch more information about the deck rigging/deck layout, but that appears to have changed a lot over the years so I'm not sure how valuable it would have been anyway. Today's boats use sail winches and seem to be very different from what little is shown on the plans. Very excited to get started once my T37 is finished! Happy sailing!

Been looking at some pictures of Star 45 boats built by Ken Bauser . Amazing! If I can get even close to the quality he achieves then I'll be happy. Happy sailing! :-) Building a wooden RC sailboat. Wood RC sailboat. Wooden Star 45 RC sailboat. Wood framed model sailboat. Wooden model sailboat. Wood model RC sailboat. Wood radio controlled sailboat. Model RC Sailboat. Cedar RC sailboat. 

My laser cut frames from Stevens Aeromodel arrived! That was super quick. They are very precisely cut. Looks to be super accurate. Can't wait to start. However, they didn't come with any instructions. I didn't expect them to, but now that I have them it would be nice to know exactly what to do with them. There are some online pages that can help, but still haven't found an exact instruction manual yet. If anyone knows of an instruction manual for a the Star 45 laser cut frames please let me know. So now I suppose the purpose of this blog will be to document the build using the frames and make my own manual! Maybe some others who have Star 45 RC Sailboat building experience can chime in and help out. And maybe others might be able to benefit from this blog. Hopefully I will at least! Fingers crossed! But be patient... gotta finish my T37 first ! Peace! Building a wooden RC sailboat. Wood RC sailboat. Wooden Star 45 RC sailboat. Wood framed model sail...

So I bit the bullet and actually ordered the laser cut frames from Stevens Aeromodel . If you buy from them then you have select the frames that match the thickness that you plan to plank the sides with. The options are 3/32" or 1/16". I opted for the 3/32" frames. Since there are really no other Star 45's around here I'm not toooo concerned about building the lightest boat out there. Right now I'm planning on strip planking the sides and bottom with cedar that I'll mill myself. Cedar is light but not as light as the balsa that they suggest in order to get the lightest boat. I'd prefer to have a slightly heavier boat that looks good. Also, cedar, although light and soft, is much tougher than balsa, so one layer of 1.4 oz. fiberglass on the hull will be plenty to protect it. In addition, by using cedar I should have a more rounded hull shape. Balsa is so soft that you can actually bend the wood too sharply around the frames and risk having a boat tha...

This is my second RC sailboat blog. Just starting down the whole RC world here, but so far it's been great. Please see my original blog about the Tippecanoe T37 RC Sailboat . Star 45 RC Sailboat: I've had so much fun building this T37 that I would like to build something else in the future and have been looking at the Star 45 class RC sailboats. So I finally ordered the plans from the AMYA store. There are some gorgeous boats online and I'd like to try one. It will be a much harder challenge than the T37 but will end up with a 45" boat that is modeled after the Star International boats. It actually looks similar to the T37 but 8" longer and much beamier at 12". They weigh more too coming in at a minimum of 12 lbs. Anyone have any experience with the Star 45? It seems to be an East Coast thing, although Rod Carr , the guy who built the first one, lives near Seattle now I believe. Otherwise I don't think there are many others around here. I...