Star 45 RC Sailboat Build Blog

Well it's time for me to take a bit of a winter break. Am doing loads of thinking about my next steps on the boat, but for the next few weeks will have precious little time to actually get anything done on it. So... I'll hopefully return to this blog in January 2015 (or shortly after) with my next moves. Right now it looks like it will be the cockpit deck, but we'll see what happens when it happens. For now, have a fun and peaceful holiday season!!! Peace!  _/)

In my open transom modification of the Star 45 into the new, experimental Star 47.5 RC sailboat, I needed to create a bulkhead that will separate the open cockpit from the interior "cabin" part of the sailboat. No, the bulkhead doesn't need to go all the way down to the bilge. The cockpit decking will come up at least halfway and perhaps more so that water will drain out.  Perhaps you might be able to see where I'm going with this, but if you can't then it should make sense later on when I start to add the cockpit decking. By the way, I'm pretty convinced now that this finished boat will weight a TON! I'm guessing well over 14 lbs. Perhaps over 15. The Star 45 class minimum is 12 lbs. all up with rigging, battery, etc... Ugh. But really, who cares. It's a one-of-a-kind one-off version of a Star 45. The only other Star 45 within 700 miles is my original boat so it's not like there's a local fleet which will stop me from sailing. I...

Today I test installed the electronics. It was a challenge getting the RMG SmartWinch installed but it eventually went in. I had to enlarge the holes first though. Should have test fit the winch much earlier before I installed the "Radio Tray" in the hull. Oh well, it fits now. Then I hooked up all the other electronics including the cool exterior RMG On/Off button and then binded it with my Spektrum DX6i radio. And voila! It all worked! Now I should uninstall it all but what a pain that is. Think I can build the rest of the boat around it all? Also worked on shaping the support pieces that will go underneath the mainsheet block. It won't be installed for a while but you'll eventually see what I mean. Shalom!  _/)

Trimmed the rudder to fit the bottom. Normally you wouldn't have to do that but because the Star 47.5 RC sailboat hull is flatter than the regular Star 45 RC sailboat, I needed to do it. Then covered it in fiberglass and squeegeed it off. Then cut out a piece of 1/16" plywood to make the bulkhead that will later be glued to the aft side of frame 6. After several test fits I then clear coated the aft side of it. Will glue it in later this week I think. I'm not really sure yet where I'm going with the cockpit area and will just have to figure it out as I go. It'll be fine! Aloha!  _/)

This morning I drilled through the bottom of the hull. Remember that the wooden support piece already had a hole through it so all I had to do was stick the drill into the hole and gently drill through the bottom. Easy peasy. Then I added a clear coat of epoxy to the outside and used a stick with string wrapped around it to coat the inside of the hole. I scuffed up the tube with sandpaper and coated it with epoxy and slid it into place. Then I epoxied in some lateral supports made from scrap plywood. They are all clear coated as well. This should all be sufficient to withstand the forces from the rudder post. My guess is that the post will bend before the rudder support piece lets go. When I ever get the cockpit deck installed it will surround the top of the post and will give it further support. Peace!   _/)

Today I started on the rudder post of my Star 47.5x RC sailboat. The post is made out of 5/32" brass tubing drilled into a wood support piece. The shaft is 1/8" stainless steel and fits perfectly inside the tube. The top of the tube is above the waterline so it doesn't need to be sealed. However in my case that really doesn't matter anyway as it is exposed to the outside deck and not the interior. I started by drilling a 5/32" hole through a wide piece of flat plywood using my drill press to ensure that the hole was as perfectly vertical as possible. Then I inserted the 5/32" tube through it. When the board sits on top of the sheer/deck it will perfectly line up the tube with the fin. The wood support is made out of 5/8" dowel cut to 2 1/4". I used my drill press again by cutting a 5/8" hole into a board to hold the piece of wood, and then swapped out the bit with a 5/32" bit and drilled through the center of the dowel. Then I ...

Yesterday I was only able to put a tiny amount of epoxy on the bottom around the keel tubes and let that work its way into the hole. I made a mistake when I installed the tubes by forgetting to first epoxy coat the insides of the holes in the bottom of the hull. Ugh... But I think the epoxy worked its way in pretty well last night. At least it did for the forward tube. Not so sure about the back one but tonight I added a second coat on the inside to both tubes so it should be totally watertight now. I'll also be putting a few coats of clear epoxy paint on the outside later on which will then seal it from the outside too. I should be fine... right? I also added two support struts under the king plank where the mast will go. They should be plenty to distribute the downward force of the mast to the keel so that the deck doesn't collapse. I'll need to think about my next steps at this point. The keel bulb needs to be attached to fin. That's easy. But I need to con...

Today I cut two holes in the bottom to accept the 7/32" brass tubes for the fin. The keel is set extremely far back for a normal Star 45 but I'm hoping it's just right for the new Star 47.5x. Because on my first Star I blew out the king plank trying to drill through it after it was installed, today I drilled the holes on my drill press before I installed them. I had cut the strips extra long so that I could adjust where the king plank holes were relative to the bottom holes and still have enough plank to work with. Worked out great. Now I'll need to reinforce the sides of the king plank.  Then I laminated two oak strips to form the king plank. Because this variant on the Star will have an open transom the king plank will not run the entire length as it does on the normal Star 45. I've ended it where the mainsheet block will go. You can see that in the pictures. I had a big question answered today. I had been wondering what would happen when I cut the to...

Last night I laminated on the remaining layers of the rudder and clamped overnight. Today I sanded and shaped it. Will still need to fiberglass it though, but that will need to wait until another day as I'm cooking the Thanksgiving turkey right now and people are coming over shortly! Happy Thanksgiving!!! Peace !  _/) Wood RC sailboat. Radio sailing. Seattle, Wood framed rc sailboat. Wooden radio sailing. Star 45 rc sailboat. Star 47.5x radio sailboat. Cedar bottom sailboat. 

Epoxied in the rudder post today. Tomorrow I'll sand it and then maybe epoxy on the other layers. This picture is before I added thickened epoxy to the slot.  I did the rudder post early enough in the day that I was able to also laminate the remaining layers on tonight. Peace!   _/ ) Wood RC sailboat. Radio sailing. Seattle, Wood framed rc sailboat. Wooden radio sailing. Star 45 rc sailboat. Star 47.5x radio sailboat. Cedar bottom sailboat. 

Sanded the fin today on my stationary sander and it turned out well. Just a few little pits and such but otherwise I think I have a nice cord and shape. Did the first three layers of the rudder tonight. Got it clamped and weighted down. And then I used some of the extra thickened epoxy to fill some of the pits on the fin. Will sand them tomorrow. Then will epoxy in the rudder shaft next. Starting to consider what I'll do for the deck and the cockpit. The normal Star 45 has one continuous deck but if I'm simulating an ocean racing yacht then it needs to have an open transom and lowered cockpit. Got some ideas but haven't settled on anything yet. Peace!  _/)

Sanded the fin today and then added a layer of slightly thickened epoxy. Will let it dry and then tomorrow sand it again. Hopefully that will be sufficient and any shallow areas will be small enough that they can be filled with Interlux Primer later on when I start painting. Aloha!  _/)

Put the fin, and my knuckle.. ouch, on the stationary sander tonight. It shaped up pretty well. Tried to leave it as close to the original size as possible so that it doesn't fall under the tolerances of the Star 45 rules. Not sure why I care because this boat will never be allowed to race anyway. But just in case... I'll trim it tomorrow morning if it's not too cured, but otherwise I'll fight with it tomorrow night. Could be a challenge. Fair winds!

This morning I started to sand the hull. Discovered that there were some ripples. See picture. This was taken after an initial light sanding. The shiny bits in the picture above are the low spots that didn't get sanded. At this point I had to make a decision: A) Do I continue sanding until the shiny spots are sanded too, risking cutting into the glass too much, or B) Do I stop sanding now and add another layer of epoxy, wait for it to dry, and then sand the entire hull again? I did A, but probably should have done B. So I started to sand in earnest and while I didn't do any really serious cutting through the glass, I did expose a bit of the weave. See picture below. When I spray clear epoxy paint on this it should completely disappear, although worst case it might show at certain angles or might be a bit milky. I'm pretty sure I'm fine but we'll find out eventually. But, if I were to do it again I'd have opted to put another layer of epoxy on instead...

Waited about four hours and it was set up enough that I could trim the excess cloth from the hull. When it's at the green stage it slices quite easily and it came right off. Then mixed up more epoxy and spread on a second coat. Doesn't look too bad but we'll know more tomorrow when I can sand it. Looks like most of the ripples and waves should sand out well, but I'm not sure I have enough epoxy layered on to smooth the entire hull. Oh, and I did the last three layers on the fin. It's all clamped up and should be ready for shaping by tomorrow.  Peace!  _/)

Got the fiberglass on the hull, trimmed it, and then wetted it out with epoxy. Then carefully used a soft scraper to squeegee off some of the extra epoxy into a cup. At first I thought it looked great, but then I started to notice some waves and rises and such. Ugh...  I think what happens is the the cloth begins to relax and then shows ripples. Great. Will wait a few hours until it reaches the green stage and then trim off the edges. After that I'll roll on a second coat of epoxy and then let that dry overnight. Fingers crossed that when I do an initial sanding tomorrow that I don't find tooooo many ripples or cut into the glass too much. Aloha!   _/)

Last night I epoxied the threaded rods into the first three layers of the fin. I'm using 10-24 stainless steel threaded rod from Tacoma Screw in Kirkland, WA. When I got home tonight I sanded the dried epoxy flush with the fin. _/)

Trimmed and then shaped the bow piece tonight. Used a metal rasp file thingy to rough it out and then some 60 grit paper on a block to fair it to the hull, and then finally cleaned it up with some 400. It looks pretty good. Also shaped the chine edges of the hull by rounding them over with the 60 grit paper and then cleaning it up with 400 grit paper. I realize that the real racers out there tend to square off their bows so that they can later install silicon or rubber bow bumpers permanently. This is a great idea if you are racing all the time, but my first priority is appearance so I'm making a better looking bow and will show it off whenever I'm not racing. When I do race I'll just use a tied-on bow bumper that I can remove afterwards... no big deal. Shalom _ / )

How's that "Star 47.5x" name sounding to you? I like it so far. Thoughts? (UPDATE: It is now called the Salish 475 as of 10 May, 2015! Click the link to see the completed boat!) Mixed up some pretty thick epoxy and stuck a stick of mahogany that I found laying around onto the bow. The epoxy was thick enough that I didn't need to clamp it. Hopefully it doesn't slide off in the night. Yes, I know mahogany doesn't totally match the cedar bottom right now but after the epoxy is on they will look great together and will compliment each other well. The two look great together on my first Star 45. Tomorrow I'll shape it to form the bow. Then either tomorrow or Friday I'll do a final hull shaping and round the chine corners a bit. If I get bored I can always continue with the keel laminations or I can start on the rudder laminations.  Saturday I'll epoxy the hull if time. I can't do it on a work evening because I'll need to be awa...

Well that was a quick decision! As soon as I published that last post I started in on cutting the transom. Used a stringer and some thumbtacks to make the curve in the hull. Cut the sides with my razor saw and the bottom with my handheld coping saw. Cleaned it up with sandpaper. Pretty easy actually. I'll fiberglass the hull with the open transom but will probably install a proper transom piece afterwards. So... the name of the boat... if I keep the transom at this current length, then it is 47.5" LOA. How does the Star 475 sound? Star 47.5? Star 47x? Star 47.5x? Oooh... I like that last one... the Star 47.5x, hmmm... What do you think? Perhaps I could call it the Star 47.5x until it's totally completed and maidened and such, then I can drop the "x" at that point and just call it the Star 47.5 RC Sailboat. And what does this mean for the rig and keel? Should I now bring the keel and rig aft an inch to split the difference between a Star 45 (which is actua...

Had enough light this afternoon to get the sander and some 60 grit paper and have at the hull. Got it faired out pretty well and then ground down the edges. The edges went quite quickly... much easier than trying to use a coping saw. You just have to keep a watchful eye that you don't go too far. You can always do more, but you can't easily put it back! You can also do more later with a sanding block. Then after the 60 grit I did an overall sanding run with 120 grit paper and then 220 grit paper. Next steps are to add a bow piece and grind that down to form the bow. Following that I'll do a final fairing of the edges. I haven't decided yet if I'll cut the transom before or after I fiberglass the bottom. Have to think about that one for a bit. Hopefully I'll fiberglass the hull this weekend. Aloha! _ / )

Phew... finished the planking! Those final outside planks barely have enough hull to grab onto, but they're on. They are showing more gap between the planks than I would prefer though. Oh well... The very outside planks will mostly be sanded completely off, but I needed to cover the last slivers of hull that were showing. Had to use some pretty creative clamping and rubber banding to get the last planks to stay in place.  This is a picture of the planks as they overhang the hull. I've tried to keep them as close-cut to the hull as possible to limit how much grinding I'll need to do later. However, a bit of overhang is desirable so that you can sand right to the edge without worry. Afterwards when you grind the edges you should see a fairly consistent thickness on the hull planking. Tomorrow, if the weather holds, I'll take the whole assembly and strongback outside and start to fair it with the sander. Once I'm satisfied with the bottom then I can also ...

Got eight more planks clear coated and installed today. Also got started on the fin. Made a flat gluing jig from some MDF and then glued the center piece and one of the outside pieces together. Probably should have done three pieces but whatever. Clamped and weighted the hell out of it and by tomorrow it will hold its shape well. I have at least one more set of planking to do, but might be able to finish early this week and start fairing out the bottom. Fun times shaping the bottom. The new Star 45x RC Sailboat is taking shape!  Aloha!