Star 45 RC Sailboat Build Blog

I'm writing a construction manual for the Star 45 and wrote up a short "how to" for using two-part epoxy paint. Here it is in pretty rough draft form. You'll have to work out some of the details yourself. Good luck! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Two-part epoxy paint tips Klass Kote sells durable epoxy two-part paint in a variety of colors. It might sound intimidating but it’s really not that hard to use. You will need to spray it though. BE SAFE! ALWAYS WEAR A QUALITY PAINT MASK/RESPIRATOR. DO NOT SPRAY WHERE PEOPLE, PETS OR ANIMALS MAY BE EXPOSED. FOLLOW ALL LAWS AND KEEP THE ENVIRONMENT SAFE! 1.     Spray gun : You really need to spray this product. If you don’t have the equipment then consider another product (spray cans). If you have or can borrow an air compressor then you can buy a very cheap spray gun from Harbor Freight . It lasts for many jobs and is easily worth the money. Be sure to run a ...

Today was warmer, for Seattle at least, and it reached 60 degrees! Woo hoo! So I did my base color, white, on top of the filler that I did over the weekend. Sprayed four light coats on. Just the smallest amount of orange peel... certainly much less than when I sprayed my T37 last fall. It was much colder then and I now think that that caused the huge amount of orange peel that I had. Tomorrow I'll mask for the white lines and then spray on the red. Should look great! Then the next day some yellow accents and finally a black number. Not very traditional for a Star 45 (Most Star's I've seen are one solid color) but I'll like it and that's all that matters. Also have been thinking about the rig. A recommendation from the Star 45 Yahoo Group page said I should check out  the EC12 site . The EC12 ("East Coast 12-meter RC sailboat has a rig about the same size as the Star 45 and the rigging page is pretty helpful. I'll use some of their ideas I'm su...

Only did one thing today, but it made a hell of a mess. I sanded the filler coat that I applied yesterday. It sands very well and you end up taking the majority of it off. However, it nicely fills the small dips and scratches. It also filled the hull-deck seam and the sides of the deck material. You can clearly see where I've sanded right through the filler coat. That's perfectly OK, especially when using it over fiberglass. Had this been raw wood as on the T37's then I would have followed it with a second and probably third coat. In that case, by the time you get to the third coat the hull is completely white and you can no longer see the grain. Since we covered the Star 45 hull with fiberglass I really only needed to do the filler for the small places where there were some minor dips. One coat is sufficient of this boat! It was just a bit too cold today to start painting, but tomorrow is supposed to be in the 60's so I'll start tomorrow afternoon...

This week I trimmed the deck flush to the sides of the hull. Looks OK. Not too many waves and such. It's not perfect, but when it's all finished you'll hardly notice. It did leave a bare-wood edge though that needed to be taken care of. On my T37 I began my finishing with a few coats of Interlux epoxy filler (Primekote 404/414) because it was bare wood. The T37's do not have a layer of fiberglass on the outside so you need to fill the grain if you want a really smooth finish. The Star 45 does have fiberglass on the outside of the hull, therefore no wood grain to fill. However I decided to put a single thick coat on anyway. It will help with filling some dips and such, and should fill some of the larger scratches as well. It's easy to sand and when I work it down with finer and finer papers it should leave an almost plastic-like surface with no scratches. It certainly doesn't hurt to do it and only adds an extra day or two to the finishing process. Besides,...

The deck was finally glued on today! Phew. After spending a long time in the previous week just getting everything prepped I was finally able to epoxy the hull on today. Started by brushing some epoxy on the top of the hull; along the sheer rails, the tops of the frames, the tops of the shroud backing, etc... on everything that wasn't already epoxied and that would need to adhere to the deck. Then put additional epoxy (but not so much that it would run) on the underside of the deck. Used a ton of blue tape and some clamps to hold the deck down until tomorrow. I won't know until tomorrow if the deck will show some waves where the tape was, but I'll just have to risk it I guess. Hopefully it won't be too bad or noticeable. I'll need to put some filler along the seam I'm sure, but shouldn't be too bad. More tomorrow when the tape comes off. Fingers crossed! Peace!

Today I water-tested the hull! It floats! And it's bone dry on the inside. It is my last chance to check for leaks before I epoxy down the deck to the hull so I thought it would be time to water test it. No leaks and it floats well with the keel attached. Also worked on the deck. This morning I wiped the deck off with a damp towel to get as much amine blush from the first coat off as I could, sanded the deck gently, wiped it down again, and then when completely dry put on a second coat of epoxy. Tomorrow I'll gently sand that and then it will be time to install the deck to the hull! Peace!

Put down a layer of 1.4oz. glass from ACP Composites over the deck. Decided to do the fiberglass before I installed the deck so that I could easily sand the deck. If I had installed it first it would have been too easy to cut through the deck in a strip because the deck has a slight curve to it when installed. This way I can sand, add another layer of epoxy (not glass) and sand that flat before I install the deck. The deck should still easily bend to that gentle curve easily enough. In this picture you can see the wet-out step. In a few hours, when it's at the 'green stage' I'll easily be able to trim out the opening and around the edge. When you do your fiberglassing be sure to monitor it so that you don't miss the green stage. If you trim too early you'll pull the glass away from the wood. If you want too long you won't be able to easily cut it. Usually it takes two - four hours to reach the green stage depending on temperature. More later! Pea...

Boring day today. Only did one small thing. I drilled a hole in the aft frame right in front of where the through deck block will exit so that the sheet can pass through the frame. That's it for today! Not much more I can do until the weekend. Peace!

I'm waiting to do my next big step until this weekend when I have more time. I'll be applying fiberglass to the top of the deck. That won't take too long but I'll need to make sure that I'm around 3-4 hours later to trim the deck edges and openings while the epoxy is still in the 'green' stage. Not much to do until then. Today I ordered paint from Klass Kote . They make really nice epoxy paints. They are two-part paints meaning that you must mix the paint with a catalyst for it to work. Then most people spray it so you also need to add a reducer/thinner to make it sprayable. I had OK success with my T37 but experienced too much orange peel. This time I'm hoping to spray in warmer conditions (it was in the 40's when I sprayed last time) and will review my notes from last time. Should be better. I'm also going to try to use their clear coat instead of varnish. Fingers crossed that it'll work OK. I'll let you all know! Also trying to c...

Got a number of smaller chores done on the Star 45 RC sailboat this weekend, most with the idea of getting the deck ready to install. First I made a backstay bracket out of a jib stay/shroud rack.And the cool thing is that it extends exactly 3/8" out, which is the class rules. Should be perfect! I clear coated the bottom side of the deck. I could have waited and simply done that when I install it, but I had a lot of extra epoxy mixed up and didn't want to waste it. Now I'll need to lightly sand the epoxy before I install it but that's no big deal. I also drilled a hole for my RMG on/off switch that I'll be using. Cut a slot in the deck for the aft through-deck block. Got the rudder linkage shaft made by gluing two linkage rods into a piece of carbon fiber tubing. Reinforced some places that will need lots of holding strength. For example I added blocks of wood to both the bow section where I'll mount the jib rack, and to the ste...