Star 45 RC Sailboat Build Blog

Went out to the Seattle Model Boat Pond near Lake Union today to sail the Salish 475 radio controlled sailboat. Not much wind and pretty dark clouds, but whatever... it's May in Seattle. :-P When I get a chance to go out on a sunnier and windier day, hopefully I can find someone to go with me and sail it so I can take some proper pictures with my real camera instead of all these iPhone pictures. Now what to build next... I've already bought a Proctor Enterprises kit of a 1/6 scale Sopwith Camel. Or maybe I'll build another Pygmy kayak. I've already built three so at least on that build I'll actually know what I'm doing instead of on this blog where I'm fumbling around! That's it then... I'm building another Pygmy kayak! See ya!  Aloha!  _/) Fine art radio control sailboat. Wooden radio controlled sailboat. classic wooden radio control sailboat. Star 45 RC Sailboat. Salish 475 RC sailboat. R/C Wooden Radio C...

More pictures of the new Salish 475 RC (radio control) Sailboat... Hope you like it! Also see the posting on RC Groups under Sailboats . See what else I'm working on at my other blog: http://www.rcmodelyachts.com.  Until I develop a logo/icon/symbol thing for the Salish 475 I'll just use the numbers on the sail. You can see them in the picture below using the font Slugfest. The logo/icon thing will need to be in the Northwest Native American art style and reflective of the Coast Salish people (or maybe some of the people's a bit to the north... Haida, etc... they also have amazingly beautiful art!) Aloha!  _/) Fine art radio control sailboat. Wooden radio controlled sailboat. classic wooden radio control sailboat. Star 45 RC Sailboat. Salish 475 RC sailboat. R/C Wooden Salish 475 RC Sailboat radio control sailboats Star 45Radio Control. Radio Sailing. Classic wood sailboat. Cedar hull planking. Cedar sailboat bottom. Wooden sail...

Yes, it's the same boat, but with a new name all its own... the Salish 475 RC Sailboat . Perhaps it should be formally known as the Coast Salish 475 in homage to the First Nations Coast Salish peoples of the Pacific Northwest and to better define it as being from the PNW coast. Some might object to it being named after a people though, so in that case it will be simply the Salish 475 as in the Salish Sea. Although I have taken 9 credits at the University of Washington from Bill Holm on Northwest Coast Native American art, I do not have adequate talents yet to incorporate NW Coast art onto the boat. Perhaps in a future boat! A number of ideas were floated on the RC Groups discussion , but the final vote was my wife's. I like it! By the way... it's pronounced "Say lish". The Coast Salish 475 : LOA: 47.5" Beam: 11.375" Weight: 14.5 lbs, 9 of it in the bulb (Yes, it could easily be build lighter... this was the prototype) Kiln-dried cedar ...

Today Rod Carr and I met at Juanita Beach, WA to test sail my Star 45 against the new Star Salish 475. Had a great time although the wind was pretty squirrely. We found out that the new Star Salish 475 sails really well! It held up on all points of sail better than the regular Star 45, especially in that it was more stable longitudinally. The thing was on rail on all points of sail. Rod thought it was more stable upwind, although it was also very stable downwind. Switching back and forth between the Star 45 and Star Salish 475 you could really tell how differently the two boats handled. As far as speed they were very similar. I would guess that the new Salish 475 was a bit faster. We would need more testing to make sure. I couldn't be happier with how this boat turned out! It was really fun to finally see it sail, and then to see it sail as well as and better than the Star Salish 45 was really rewarding. Peace!  _/)

Just got back from the maiden sail of the Star Salish 475 and it went very well! Neither Rod Carr nor I were entirely sure where it would balance out so when I made the hatch/mast step I added many options. Today I kept trying different settings and kept moving the mast back a step at a time, I finally was able to balance the boat pretty well. Wasn't much wind but got enough small gusts that I could get it healed over pretty far and could experiment a little bit. Here are some pictures of the boat after the maiden (none of the maiden though as I was by myself and couldn't fiddle with both the camera and the Tx): With my original settings, as I had feared, there was a great deal of leeward helm. But after messing around with the mast step settings and the rake, it ended up being very balanced. I even thought I might have some weather helm so I'll probably have to back off on some settings. However, I am SO happy that it will balance! Phew! You can...

Tadaaaa! Finally finished! Mostly... there are a few tweaks and fixes to do, but then again there will always be tweaks and fixes. So I'm officially calling the new, experimental, Star 475 RC Sailboat finished!  UPDATE: The new official name is now the Salish 475 ! (as of 10 May 2015) The maiden sail is tomorrow morning. More updates then on how it sails and any balancing adjustments I may have to do.Spent today having Rod Carr tweak the jib. Looks great now. For now, here are some pictures: In the picture below you can get a good look at the Rod Carr Sails. Much larger jib than on the regular Star 45, but also a much higher aspect main. The overall sail area is the same as on a Star 45 but has overall longer luff, especially on the jib, so upwind performance should be good. Also notice that I don't need a backstay extension arm like on regular Star 45's! It's just a normal backstay. Phew! In the picture below you can see the turning block platfo...

The standing and running rigging is now installed!! We can now see what the boat will finally look like. However there are some adjustments that need to be made before the maiden sail (hopefully this weekend). First, the jib needs to be recut. Rod Carr is meeting me this weekend and will make the adjustments. You can see in the picture that the jib boom is virtually laying flat on the foredeck. That just isn't right. Until I get the jib dialed in this weekend I will wait to trim all the rest of the rigging and clean it all up. I've also got to work on the mainsheet control. I've got toooo much movement at full-in and hardly any at full-out. Might need to reverse the drum or something as I'd much rather have the subtle adjustments on the full-in side. Hmmm... will need to read the RMG booklet for this one... However, I did take some pictures of the boat outside as-is and it looks pretty good! More pictures once I get the rigging all dialed in. ...

I've been away from this blog for a few weeks. Went to Paris! And then when I returned I completed the finishing but was so upset about it that I didn't feel like blogging over it. Ugh... The finishing was very frustrating. For whatever reasons I just couldn't get it right this time. My first two boats look better than this one. Just can't get a glossy finish. There are pits too. Just not my best work. But I had to finally just stop trying to mess with it and move on to the rigging. This part so far is going better... phew. Here's the backstay arrangement I came up with. Also finished the mast by installing the spreaders (they're crooked though! Ugh... not doing well lately!) and the upper tangs. Then today I installed the shrouds onto the mast and left them extra long so I have something to work with when I install the bottom hooks to the rack. You can see that I've also glued on the neoprene to the underside of the hatch. We'll see h...