Star 45 RC Sailboat Build Blog

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!

Waited 12 hours and was able to epoxy down four more planks. I'm out of the dark cedar now and will simply have to finish the out planks with the lighter color cedar. It'll look great! Back again tomorrow for more planking. Had a great time today sailing my T37 in the first of the Winter Frostbite series. We changed venues to Gene Coulon Park in Renton, WA because the Seattle Model Boat Pond was completely crapped up by Canada Geese poop. Huge turds floating everywhere and the Seattle Parks Dept. hasn't gotten around to cleaning it yet. I think they need to reconsider their filtering system! Stay warm! 

Trying to do two rounds of plank epoxying today. Just finished adding four more planks this morning and will try to do two more tonight if these ones are dry enough. I'm really happy about the rubber band clamping system that I'm using! It allows for some very creative rubber banding that can address most of the issues that pop up with clamping cedar bottom planks on a wooden RC sailboat like the Star  45x. In the pictures below you can see bands going up and over the top to generally hold planks down. You can also see some rubber bands that go inside the hull, and then are routed up and over the planks and back down the other side on the inside of the hull. These are to hold the outside edges of the planks down onto the frames so the epoxy can make contact. Finally you can see rubber bands wrapped around the planks with clothespins holding the two ends of the rubber band together. These bands are to keep the planks gently snug to each other. Hopefully they'll b...

Four more planks tonight. At this pace it should take me 5 or 6 more days to completely plank the bottom. Sigh... I might be able to get two planking sessions per day over the weekend if I get up early enough and do four planks, then do another four in the evening. Should be enough time for the epoxy to set enough to hold it.  It's getting easier to hold down the planks at the bow now that the most extreme curve has been epoxied. As the planks move to the outsides and aft of the bow, they don't have to bend as much. This rubber band clamping system works really well for model sailboats! I'd imagine that it would work well for any wood framed model boat actually. You can sort of get the idea of how much holding power the rubber bands exert on the cedar bottom planking in the picture below. I'm off to race my Tippecanoe T37 tomorrow for the first of the Winter Frostbite series... and it will be frosty too. Looks like it will be in the high 20's o...

Got four more planks on the Star 45x RC sailboat. Sticking with the alternating color scheme, and also sticking with the epoxy clear coating. It takes more time but it'll probably be worth it in the end by not having to clear coat the inside. Not sure I have enough of the dark cedar to finish the job though... fingers crossed. I had to be quite creative with the rubber bands in order to not only hold them down but together. Also have to use some rubber bands routed through the inside and up and over the planks to keep the outside edges down onto the frames. The plastic clothespins you see are holding the ends of rubber bands together. I wrapped a rubber band down underneath the planks and back up the other side and held the ends with the clothespin to keep the planks gently held together. How to build a wooden model sailboat. Wood model RC sailboat. Wooden radio controlled sailboats. Model sailboat. Wood framed model RC sailboat. Aloha!

Added four more planks today. Decided to alternate light colored cedar with darker colored cedar. We'll see if it looks great or dorky. Also decided to do these four planks using the epoxy coating method described yesterday. However, it's a real pain in the ass so I think I'll probably revert back to the Titebond III edge gluing method that I used on the first Star 45. Although I'll see how I feel tomorrow night for the next four planks. Aloha!  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. 

Today I milled up some vertical grain cedar into planks 3/16" thick by 1/4" wide. I certainly could have gone wider to make my job easier and take less time, but I did 1/4" wide on the first Star 45 and it looks great. It looks "scale" for you model builders out there. Wider would look silly, and if you go too wide then you'll end up with large gaps between the planks. Narrower looks best and is best for fairing the hull when all the planks are installed. That said, going narrower will take a lot longer. The last time I used Titebond III waterproof glue and only applied it to the edges of the planks and then to the tops of the frames. Today, at least for the first two planks, I used epoxy instead. And I may just continue using it and clear coating the edges and what will be the inside of the plank. My reasoning is that it will accomplish a few things. First it will clear coat the inside of the hull right now and save me a step later. The last time I clear...

Both sides are now faired and ready for the bottom planking. Ended up using my random orbital sander with 60 grit paper again. It is very aggressive though and there are a few spots where I took off entirely too much. However, since I am filling and painting the sides it should be OK in the end. Tomorrow I start milling and installing the planking. Need to make some decisions about what species to use and if I'll use any sort of accent colors of wood.The majority of the bottom will be cedar, but I'm not sure if I should have a lighter colored plank down the center. Peace!