If anybody is interested here are some more details and photos of the two RG65s in Chris Jackson’s Sail Free feature in December’s Marine Modelling International.
The Jif65 http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/fossil121/RG65Jif65# is built straight from the free plans downloaded from the Traplet website http://www.marinemodelmagazine.com/downloads/?cid=3686 (Printed full size for a grand total of £3:50 by a copy shop down the road) with the 2 mm aluminum keel blank, bulb and fitting kits from PJ Sails
Radio is a Futaba 2.4ghz with two standard Futaba 3003 servos that seem to cope with the sheeting loads. This was originally set up with extended sail arm endpoints and programmed dual rates on the rudder as I had a new toy to play with but sails as well with the stock settings
If I was building the boat again I would use a ply keel box as the balsa is a bit flexible and spend a bit more time on the static trim so she uses more of the waterline length more of the time.
The sails on boat boats are flat cut mylar drawing film, the seams are purely because I only had an A3 pad and not to add shape.
The second boat is a scaled down Boxkite IOM . http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/fossil121/RG65MiniKiteIOM# It’s a hard chine hull with 4 panels on each side
The hull is balsa with 1 coat of SP epoxy on the inside and two coats on the outside. The keel box is liteply with two lightply frames to hold it in place. Deck is balsa. A mixture of soft balsa and enthusiastic sanding have left a couple of patches on the hull were there is more epoxy than wood but its still fairly solid having survived being dropped out of the car and being run down by an IOM on the water.
The keel is wider than the JIF to match the IOM plans and not mess up the COE to much but also much deeper. (The blank was bought oversized and it seemed a shame to cut it down) Again its 2mm aluminum with a leading and trailing edge. The bulb is made up from laminated lead sheet and car body filler and is about 100g over the ideal weight.
The radio is Spectrum 2.4ghz with a Futaba micro servo for the rudder and a high torque Hitec HS-654MG as the sail winch with a double pull on the sail arm. Possibly overkill but the standard servos seemed to be struggling at the top end of the wind speed for the top rig. The servos are mounted on a removable board to make changing them over easier. Batteries are a 4AAA 800ma pack velcroed in front of the keel to keel the weight down to 1.15 kg overall
The rig is straight of the JIF65 plans with various Micro Magic bits including the gooseneck.
I’m very happy with the way the boats sail. They seem fairly balanced and track well well enough to sail hands off ocasionally. I have raced the Kite against a couple of other RG65s (Puma/Jif2) and she seems to hold her own but does need a bit of breeze to get going. A lighter keel bulb might improve the light airs performance by lifting the transom a bit more out of the water.
For a next RG65 I might put in the effort to plank a round bilge hull. I’ve had a quick look at the plans for the SailsEtc Rogue but also like the look of the new Racing Sparrow RG65. http://www.racingsparrow.co.nz/docs/RacingSparrow_RG65_v1trial.pdf (I nearly built the original Sparrow instead of the JIF65)
matt