so this is my first attempt at scratch building. I decided to go with the JIF65, mainly due to the completeness of the plans. have found that balsa is definitely not my friend, and will have to really slow down and concentrate on my cuts. but got everything cut for the bulkheads and the hull, got them glued and sanded, (had to fill some very ugly gaps along the way) and am now putting the fiberglass on with the first coat of epoxy. I know its probably not the cleanest in the world, but its been really fun learning so far. 
got the keel in and a second coat of epoxy, got the rudder made and the internal supports in place. I’ll get pictures of the internals after the epoxy dries since I forgot to take them before I put the epoxy on :dunce:
any suggestions would be most welcome.
How much fun is building boats 
I’ve finally been sailing ours and so far 3 people have started builds just from seeing ours on the water.
Cheers
Andrew
I"m loving the construction, and can’t wait to even do just a tub test on mine. are there any good tutorials on how to make the sails?
If you look for Claudio’s tool there’s some good stuff but rather advanced. I made the Jif65 sails out of drafting paper. I didn’t even have a big enough piece so I put pieces together with double sided tape, and used gaffer tape for the re-enforced bits, but it only kind of worked lol. I couldn’t find the recommended tapes out here. Did you get the keel trunk in straight? I messed that up twice:( boats still go very well anyway.
I got the keel trunk in fine, but that may be because I didn’t follow the plans exactly. Instead of using 2mm aluminum for the keel, I got a set of helicopter blades and used one for the keel and the end of the other for the rudder. Because of that, I had to make the keel box wider than it calls for, almost 5mm, so I think the extra thickness helped me to align it easier. I know that its adding more weight, but since this is the first build, I’m not too concerned about weight. I’m more concerned about getting better at cutting the dang balsa without it looking like a kindergarten class got a hold of it.:rolleyes:
Let me know how the blades work out. I used Claudio’s method for glassing round a keel fin and rudder on the 2 rangers we just built. It was realy successful, even for a schmuck like me.
And I completely overbuilt the rangers. As they are our first boats really, we thought rather go overboard (
) with the strength side of things. Reckon I added about 300g too much lol. And yet they still pick up tiny winds so I wouldn’t stress about weight at all.
There’s my sails. This boat was never completed as my daughter decided she needed it and thus began “Hello Kitty1”. Fully functional except didn’t put the radio/servo gear in. We push/pull it around the pool alot.
i have used helicopter rotors on all my keels. you can get some wooden symmetrical 600 sersies blades for around 30 bucks… they probably have more chord than is needed, but it takes alot of the guess work 
You can spend more on carbon/foam blades with are thinner and probably stronger… While I havemnot done it yet. if you are close to an RC hobby shop that sells whirly birds, you be able to get in touch with guys who have some broken rotors. since rotor are sold as a matched set for balance and such, you may get lucky and be able to get rotors for cheaper… if they have a hard landing and break a blade.
one blade will do a keel and rudder. I built the keel box around the rotor root, and made keel fin removable. this way…I can use one keel and rudder for multiple boats…
thats pretty much what i did, one blade for keel and rudder, and have a spare one if (when) i build the next one. just got the 16oz trolling torpedo sinkers in the mail, and now i need to figure out how to mount them. I’ve seen where some use a hammer and chisel to open a gap, and some that cut it out. i even thought of drilling a hole through it and putting a bolt through it and epoxying the bolt to the keel. which would you recommend?
pat, I have done the bolt method. and I have also used my drill press and drilled out a slot in the bulb for the keel, . if you do the bolt method drill two holes and use 2 bolts that way the bulb will resist “twisting”
either method worked for me… drilling two parallel holes was easier (used a drill press vice to hold the bulb) than drilling the slot and then using a dremel to clean up the slot. but drilling two holes in the keel for the keel bolts that were aligned was a bit more difficult.
6 to one 1/2 dozen to another…
So i’ve been a busy beaver, got the interior pretty much finished as far as i can tell. got the electronics in and to my surprise, they work! got the deck done, and epoxied, now hammering away at the keel bulb. hope to be be able to finish this part of it this weekend, so i can start working on the sails and rigging.
Haven’t posted in a while, but in the interim I’ve just about finished. just need to do some finishing touches on the rigging and get the control lines run. hope she sails well 
Pat,
can I be Critical and constructive at the same time?
it looks like your jib pivot point is very very close to where the jib tack and forstay attach. this works well are large boats were you have crewmembers and sheets. as the crew member when they sheet in the jib it pulls the foot down and aft, which results in your jib twist. on model boats we don’t have that luxury.
with your current setup you have no tension in the leach of the jib. which means it won’t hold its shape very well the clew will want to rise up in all breezes. Which means the leech will twist off dumping power and wind.
ther eis no hard fast rule as a distance to move the pivot point. but the further aft you move it, the more tension on the leech. this is why we add jib club topping lifts. the tension we add from the forestay can be Dailed out with the topping lift it. thus providing the best possible shape to the jib.
http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/21420184/homepage/name/574899?type=sn
I appreciate any help. I’m still learning the terminology, so i might be a bit slow with this, if i’m understanding correctly, i should move the point where the jib attaches to the deck aft?
if you look at the above picture. you see that pivot point on the jib club is about 1.5" aft of were the forestay attaches to jib club… so you want to keep the jib sail in the same location in regards to its distance from the mast… and slide the pivot point aft on the deck and on the club as well
So more like this?
also, what is your feeling about adding a weight to the end of the jib club? I’ve seen several that have them to help (i think) with positioning the jib when tacking.
I don’t use one but on light air days it helps with getting the jib out going down wind.
looks like it may be a smidge to far aft. but gives you a good place to start. Also keep in mind that you will now need a jib topping lift… to be able to twist the jib…
Would the jib topping lift be the swivel attachment between the jib sail and the mast?
the ib topping lift attaches at the aft end of the jib club and near the head(top) of the jib. its sole purpose is to raise and lower the aft end of the jib such that it will impart twist, upon the leech (trailing edge) of the jib.
i think i have it. thanks for being so patient and explaining this. I haven’t added the jib topping lift yet, but i re-did my whole Jib arrangement. I’m noticing that if i lift the aft end of the jib club, its super tight, i assume that means i need to loosen the forestay line and the line that holds the top of the jib?