RC Tall ship?

Rcsailing.net Technology Discussions
1

has anyone ever made a rc Tall ship?

I have a model of the HMS Pandora that I’m planing to to convert from a static model to a functional RC sail boat http://www-users.cs.umn.edu/~bradleyk/interests/HMSPandora/final/Constructo4.jpg

2

blademaster,

You’ll need ballast to keep it upright once the wind hits it. Like a fin with bulb extending below what you’ve got. It will look the same once in the water, different on land.

Lots of vintage yacht builders here, and a post not too long ago with ideas/pictures of schooners with fins. Someone soon will provide the right links and you’ll find the solution… which I’d say is to leave this model as is, and build another boat taking into account wind, water (least of which is keeping it out of the inside) and RC needs from the start.

yar

3

Yar is right on! Keep your nice display model. Even a very skilled RC sailer would not take on such a challenge willingly.

Better to start from scratch with a boat that is designed to sail. The main problem is that wind and water do not scale. Better to have aproperly balasted yacht.

There are many semi-scale historical models about, usually schooner types, where the square rigging is kept furled, and they sail on the fore and aft sails.

Here is an example of a three master of about 5 feet length from Fleetwood in England. It has a false keel under water to help it track and to get the balast down lower for stability.

4

Wow, beautiful Pandora! I agree with the other guys, though, save your beautiful ship and build a new one specifically for sailing. There are many reasons for this, including a) very hard to gain access, with an existing scale model, to the hull interior to place your RC gear - you’ll probably have to cut up the deck, wrecking existing detail. b) making the hull watertight (and waterproofing the interior just in case drops come aboard), can be a challenge. These are not impossible problems to solve, but the process is not easy.

I built an RC 4 masted barque. Simple construction, fairly fast and easy to do, the thread is here:

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=743611

The barque started out as a free-sailer, but then I converted to RC (planned RC from the beginning, so access was not a problem). There are some videos of it sailing also. Sailing a square rigger is different from sailing a sloop, but not impossible, and it’s certainly loads of fun.

5

I saw a rather expensive large RC sailing model of Surprise from the Aubrey-Maturin books. It was based on an actual French boat of the type that matched the description of Surprise.

The outfit had several large sailing RC boats meant to be sailed as square riggers. They were not inexpensive but they seemed to be well though out.

Try a google search. I found the site very interesting.

Edit: here is a URL, but it is not the version of Surprise I was looking for.

http://www.rcscalemodel.com/HMS%20Surprise%20Kit.php

I don’t know if this is adapted to RC use or not. The history of the actual vessel is described in detail, but nothing about the model.

Edit: Here is the URL of the RC Surprise. These guys make fine RC boats.

http://www.modelsailingships.com/ships/hms.html

Pete