Star 45 R/C model sail boat | Terry's progress

Hi Don: Terry here in stormy south Florida.. I have been following all the chatter on wood vers. fiberglass hulls. Weight and so on. One of my new hulls is just completed. It is out of wood and has a bass wood planked deck and all formers are used. I don't use the 2 layer bottom.. I use 1/16 3 ply plywood cut into strips for the bottom planking. This allows me to follow the nice curves that the star 45 is noted for. I then use "wood flower" fine saw dust and epoxy and one of those many credit cards that you get in the mail to fill in the gaps. I use this peanut butter mixture to fill the gaps and prior to setting up use my gloved fingers to smooth out the epoxy mixture that has come through the inside. I then sand the bottom of the hull and use packing tape to seal the bottom of the hull from the outside surface. I then use epoxy and brush a good coat to cover and penetrate the wood. I have built 4 hulls like this and they all are sailing fine.

I have a finished hull with all the servo-mounts and deck. The hull has been coated with epoxy and sanded. Hull sides and bottom primed and painted. The strip deck has been spar-varnished. The weight of the hull with out anything else is now at 21.23oz. this is without the light plexy radio cover.

I dint know if I would want a hull any lighter but to each his own. It is more about twiggling the sticks and sail tuning and BASIC sailing know how that wins races.

I want to post some photos as I am now building the rigging and fitting out the hull.

I would like to see how others have rigged the sheets and lines. I have used a combination of ideas that I got from other boats while at several of the Ft. Pierce races.

I am using a grovey mast with a spreader. I use one set of standing lines and one set of running lines. I use the coated stainless leader wire from bass pro shops. I use home made mast crane and mast block. I use arrow shafts for booms. I have windjammer sails and the boats run great. I have a plaster mold for the keel bulb. I make a plug out of balsa and then molded it with a 1 x 1/2" wood frame. the only pointer you might consider other than the harmful fumes is to place your mold in a warm oven for 1hr. or more as to get the moisture out of the mold. Otherwise the first few castings will have steam tracks or pockets. I have only used the wooden keels made form the layers of ply. I like the look and the boats don't try hooking as much. The flat metal keels have a very sharp angle of attack. When the shaped keel is heeled over it has a more forgiving angle of attack. I tryed both keels in my pool. The metal sheet planes at a very shape angel and the shaped one is more forgiving.

I will get some photos up shortly. Terry