I am looking for a good looking, as well as functional USOM stand. The wife said “If it looks nice, I don’t need to hide my boats in the garage”, so that is my goal. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Thank you much.
-Andrew
Hi Andrew -
the best one I’ve seen, and it was (unfortunately) homemade, was built using clear plexiglass.
If you have seen some of the pond-side stands that are basically a post, with two supporting rods that fit on either side of the keel, but support the hull next to keel, this plastic one follows similar principle.
With the above in mind, also picture a curved letter “C” lying on it’s left, open side up. His homemade stand was split to support hull on each side of keel, it curved down to a 3/4" thick mahogany wood base, and then the other part of the “C” curved up to support the rear of the hull near rudder. I suppose one could also visualize a wine bottle counter top holder (of sorts) too.
Anyway, the wood was clear finished with several coats of varnish, and the plexiglass was about 1/2 inch thick. It was approximately 3" wide. He heated the plexiglass to allow it to be formed around a pattern from 3/4 plywood. Once cooled, it was drilled for brass bolts into wood base, and then completely polished so the stand supporting the hull was clear and without scratches. He had cut a slot near top area by hulll in which he could put a strip of Velcro to wrap around hull and hold to stand - but inside house he never used it. Hard to describe, but really great looking in his family room.
For your US1M, the stand will have to be at least 14 inches high to clear your keel depth, and a wide base will be necessary for stability. You can buy plexiglass rod, square and round tube and square rod and with a bit of heat and some artistic effort come up with a clear support stand that looks like glass.
Just something I saw and wished I would have spent time to sketch and measure so I could duplicate.
Dick
I have seen people cut a hole in the seat of a collapsable chair to put the keel through, and use that to hold a 1M.
Personally, I use a wood stand that collapses flat for torage similar to this: http://nomadness.com/articles/pix/4-stands.jpg
Instead of the webbing, use traps for a model yacht.
Here is my simple stand, made out of red cedar. It would look quite nice is varnished.
Instead of using plastic stuff, why not go natural? Many furniture designers are using stained & varnished tree limbs for indoor furniture, so you might consider making a stand from that.
You could go with a pair of Y-type limbs stuck in base made of slices of a tree trunk, or the crossed-leg style using straight pieces.
This is a monostrut stand made from 1-inch square aluminum extrusion stock from the hardware store. The fin is secured to the strut with bungee. The keel bulb seats in one of two foam cradles. The first cradle secures the bulb with the boat standing upright. The second, outboard cradle secures the bulb when you incline the boat to tune the sails.
I made this in a couple of hours with a hacksaw, a drill, and some sheet metal screws. It knocks down to fit in a suitcase if necessary. Michael