Here are a couple of pics of a bad planking job, a bad glassing and some form of a bulb plug.
Its a design from www.racingsparrow.co.nz which looked ok, despite being untested according to the designer…but I was bored so went and got balsa etc a few days ago.
Enjoying it thoroughly, might be a cheaper and fun replacement forreal boats. I have to say not knowing much about models how current they are in terms of design when compared to real race boats.
So far so good with the design, im about to give the hull one more overall fairing, the molds per the plans are fair etc.
I have to say you have picked a very slight design One thing though is the hatches. Hopefully you will figure something that is really neat. Which design do you construct? I am thinking of 1 meter one. As Marc said practice makes perfect, we are going to root and support your project.
That one on the Sparrow forum is mine. It was my first go at building a planked hull. (I used to do a lot of model aircraft construction and flying back in the 60’s, gives my age away!! so I am not new to planking). I bought a Micromagic then a Victoria before finishing the Sparrow 500 off.
It sails very well. It’s very light so accelerates quickly, but is prone to stalling when tacking at low speed as there is not enough momentum to retain the speed through the turn. It has a surprising turn of speed for such a small hull. The GWS 2MSBB servo is more than enough for the sails.
Most people at first sight think it is a footy!!!
Barbs has been too busy to get much done lately but heres a few of the hull faired, ready for an undercoat…fairing was done with Q cells and epoxy. The slot for the keel has been cut and is reasonably straight as far as I can tell.
The keel consist of a 3mm alu bar as a core which is about to be covered in balsa, then faired. Barbs hopes for a root thickness of 5mm but that might be optimistic. If the day job hooking is paying for itself I might try to consolidate the light glass sheathing etc to get a 10 to 15% of chord.
Apart from that im trying to get a uni assignment in while tarting around on here.
One querstion hanging over my head, but well down the track is sails…some say make a set of flat one panel’s for a trial…would that be selling myself short or should I use at minimum some luff curve?
Also im undecided on the rig but have been given a lenght of CF fishing rod blank. Im going for a conventional rig…I think ill go for a deck stepped rig and shrouds on this one as I can correct most fuck ups re balance as opposed to the more tricky un stayed where im worried ill get the rake a bit out building the mast step and have no way to correct it short of some deconstruction.
Oh yeh Barbs bestie, Karen Walker us talking about building one so we might have 2 in Sydney.
One thing though is the hatches. Hopefully you will figure something that is really neat. Which design do you construct? I am thinking of 1 meter one. As Marc said practice makes perfect, we are going to root and support your project.