Radio Sailing Shop Boat News : Dec 2014 - Craig Smith Chase,Frank Russell goth,Mini40

December 11th 2014 -        2015 IOM Worlds - Final Entry Allocation - May 2015 California USA

  World Champion   DEN   ISR   SUI
  GBR 25 Rob Walsh 1 DEN 93 Soren Andersen 1 ISR 37 Nir Shental 1    
  AUS   2     2 ISR 51 Oren Boker   SWE  
1 AUS 6 Scott Condie   ESP   3 ISR 11 Almog Amir 1 SWE 98 Claes Brunnhage
2 AUS 299 Scott Backhouse 1 ESP 174 Gines Romero 4 ISR 57 Oren Vardi 2 SWE 50 Thomas Enwall
  BAR   2 ESP 15 Miguel Salvador 5 ISR 9 Yam Amir 3 SWE 14 Claus Lindstrom
1 BAR 74 Peter Allen   FRA     ITA   4 SWE 45 Tom Olson
  BEL   1 FRA 73 Alexis Carre 1 ITA 52 Mauricio Morbidelli 5 SWE 46 Johan Ameln
1     2 FRA 188 Marc Alazia 2     6 SWE 128 Hans Funke
  BRA   3 FRA 38 Patrice Montero   MLT     TUR  
1 BRA 111 Denis Astbury 4 FRA 195 Laurant Bourriquel 1     1 TUR 12 Burak Sahbaz
2 BRA 157 Daniel Mueller   GBR     NED     USA  
  CAN   1 GBR 42 Brad Gibson 1 NED 99 Huub Gillissen 1 USA 193 John Ebey
1 CAN 36 Julian Laffin 2 GBR 39 Peter Stollery 2     2 USA 29 Craig Mackey
2 CAN 54 Peter Stevens 3 GBR 75 Tony Edwards 3     3 USA 71 Gary Boell
  CHI   4 GBR 95 Graham Bantock   NOR   4 USA 56 Jess Atkinson
1     5 GBR 83 Ken Binks 1 NOR 47 Torvald Klem 5 USA 43 Dennis Rogers
  CRO   6 GBR 147 Gregory King 2 NOR 41 Egill Bjaerke 6 USA 199 George Pedrick
1 CRO 35 Zvonko Jelacic   GER     NZL   7 USA 55 Mark Golison
2 CRO 8 Mario Sklrj 1 GER 293 Olivier Weiss 1 NZL 171 Ian Vickers 8 USA 28 Stephan Cohen
3 CRO 4 Marko Matic 2 GER 211 Udo Ropke 2 NZL 82 Paul Goddard   Guests  
4 CRO 33 Robert Matulia   IRL     POR   1    
5 CRO 96 Boris Bakotic 1     1 POR 151 Jorge Camilo 2    
6 CRO 68 Robert Grubisa 2       RSA   3    
7 CRO 80 Mirko Ukas       1     4    
8 CRO 44 Vedran Vesanovic       2     5    
  3          
  Non NCA Countries applying for IOMICA guest spots            
  BAH     JPN              
BAH 88 Stan Wallace JPN 73 Okada Yoshiaki            
      JPN 59 Hirao Minao            
      JPN 19 Takemoto Takahiro            
      JPN 43 Umebayashi Masami  

 

 

December 6th 2014 - Craig Smith has just completed the build on a new IOM design called CHASE (or CHACE - read on). As with all Craigs boats it is meticulously built and has innovative features. Craig explains the evolution of the design below:

"The design name is the Chase.  It is Huub Gillissen's design.  Actually he and I started on it in late 2007 after we kind of teamed up.  We met at the worlds in Marseille and have been working on things together ever since. It started life as the ACE.  There was the ACE 1, 2, 3 and then ACE no.4 got chines.  So Huub called it the Chase, meaning Chined ACE.  The original ACE was Huub’s take on a mix of the Widget and Michael’s Scharmer’s interesting Mk XVa that Michael sailed at the 2007 worlds. He didn’t actually start to make the ACE until 2010.  It was only a side issue at first, and the design was going back and forth from my computer to Huub’s for a couple of years.  Also he was still playing with an Obsession that he made from timber. The chined version of the ACE ended up with a bit more buoyancy in the front third of the boat.  It happens when putting the chines on, just to get it all to fair in nicely without looking like some weird thing.  We moved the mast and keel further forward than the ACE and so far Huub has had great results with the boat. The idea’s have been mainly Huub’s and turning those into a boat on the computer has been my job.  He tells me what he thinks might be good and I do it in Maxsurf.  I designed the deck and it’s layout in Solidworks.  It’s been a good team effort with Lindsay Walker being involved, to try the boats here for me. So far we have built and tried Michael Scharmer’s boat the Mk XVa commonly called by locals, “The Gherkin”, then the TBA 1, 2, and 3, (no.3 became the Fusion).  Before that, we also tried the ACE and ACE 2 and a boat from Sweden called the Pentyl, which was designed by Bo Jonnson.  And now the Chase."
 

   

 

 

October 2014 - We have not updated boat news for a while, so prolific boat builder/modeller/racer Frank Murphy has provided us with a bumper edition of some of his boat builds and info on the Lilydale Radio Yacht Club in Victoria Australia. Frank had this to say:

The Lilydale Radio Yacht Club Inc.is devoted to the hobby of building and sailing model boats of all types.  The club offers a friendly, safe and fun environment to practice our hobby/sport. As there are several clubs in the Melbourne area that cater for those more serious "Class" yachters, it was decided that the club would cater for all comers, no matter what type of vessel they have.  We have regular weekly races but these are all handicap races. The biggest and fastest may get line honours but the smaller slower boats often get the points. - Simply to avoid congestion at the start, boats are classed basically as “Big” or “Small”.  The simple distinction is that a Big Boat is any vessel that is over 1100mm in length or has a mast height exceeding 1400mm. Our computer controlled system makes allowance for the difference in start times and it is not uncommon to see the better Small Boats pass a number of the Big Boats. The Racing Rules of yachting are extremely complex, so the LYRC has a modified and simplified set of rules specific to the needs of the club and its members.  We sail to gentleman's rules, round all the marks, give way when required and avoid collisions.

My Boats: - I will say at the outset that I derive a great deal of enjoyment from building boats (of many types) from scratch.  My personal challenge is to not only build a boat that looks good but also performs very well and is highly competitive.  The time taken to build is irrelevant as long as I achieve those two goals.

#751 - Spinifex - This boat was designed by club member Andy Milne and was my introduction to both building and sailing model yachts.  It is 1098mm LOA with a 1400mm mast, cedar planked hull and deck with carbon fibre ribs and a 1.75Kg bulb on the keel.  It is a standard plank on frame build.  It has a standard Hitech HS-815BB sail arm servo. When first launched, it immediately proved to be one of the fastest yachts in the small boat category and reasonably competitive with bigger boats such as Marbleheads and some 10R’s. I have built several of these boats for club members and a number of other skippers have also built them.  Coming up to eight years old, Spinifex is still highly competitive, albeit with a larger (more top side roach) and better set of sails.

   

                    

   

#752 – Clara May - The decision to build this boat was made in a temporary moment of insanity.  My wife had been ill and I’d bought her an Artesania Latina kit of the Clara May, a typical west coast of England trading ketch.  So having built that kit, I thought that would look good on the water but a lot bigger.  Easy enough to start – just scan the kit frames and enlarge from the 1/50 scale to 1/20 scale, cut the frames and mount them on the board.  The first few planks were no trouble but then the complications of complex curves at the bow and stern set in.  Needless to say, it took ages. Having finished the basic planking, I need to know what ballast I needed.  I floated the hull in the pool and added sand till it was down to approximately the correct water level.  12+KGs.  So, fibreglass the inside, add carbon fibre and epoxy in a LOT of lead.Anyone who has built a working model of an old sailing ship will know the complexities of getting all the sails to work properly.  Designing a system to make the three flying jibs work correctly was another headache and took a lot of experimentation.  They are controlled by a separate servo.  The vast majority of deck structures and fittings are handmade.  I believe the only items I bought are the anchors, the wheel and some of the blocks and deadeyes. After about twelve months, we eventually went sailing and what a surprise.  With a false keel attached (another 1.5KG) and an extended rudder (it would hardly turn with the scale size), it performed way beyond expectations.  Even in a moderate breeze, all the sails set nicely and it is reasonably manoeuvrable but perhaps a bit faster than scale speed.

   

 

# 753 – Southern Run

Spinifex (#751) was classed as a small boat.  I wondered how a larger version would perform and would it be competitive against the Marbleheads and 10R’s and some of the more expensive commercially produced fibreglass and carbon fibre boats.  I decided to build essentially the same design as Spinifex but 25% longer (1370mm) and 10% wider and deeper with a 1950mm mast. Like Spinifex, it proved to be very competitive from the start, particularly in light conditions.  After a few weeks racing, I replaced the keel with a longer unit and reduced bulb weight (down by over 1Kg) and this improved performance considerably.  This boat now has a new set of top side deep roach sails and even after seven years, still gets the occasional line honours. It has a RMG Sail Winch and just for a bit of fun, I added working Nav Lights, (high brightness LEDs) which are great on foggy winter mornings on the lake when boats disappear in the murk. 

       

 

#756 – Firetail - This is Frank Russell’s IOM Goth design.  It is slightly modified in that I added a sloping transom (I just don’t like vertical sterns) so it is about 20mm longer than a standard IOM and it weighs less.  I have a 1.8Kg bulb underneath instead of the required 2.4Kg.  But, I also run this in our small boat category so the mast is only 1400mm.  So although close, it is not strictly an IOM. Again, it is built plank on frame but with a tad more complexity courtesy of the sharp chines at the stern.  The pics will show the different coloured cedar I used above and below the waterline.  I have an RMG Sail Winch installed. Interestingly, even with less sail area, it outperforms most of the standard IOMs in the club all of which are using taller masts (big boat category) and more sail than this boat.  One day, I’ll put the 2.4Kg bulb on and run the max IOM sails to see how it performs.  This boat regularly wins line honours (small boat class) in most breeze conditions.  It is fast.

   

                             

 

#758 - ???? - Now, this was just for fun and to see what it would do.  Again a Frank Russel design but going to the smaller end of the scale – an RG65.  Again, slightly modified with a sloping transom and my first foray (and probably last) into the intricacies of Swing Rigs. From a planking perspective, this was probably the most difficult boat I’ve built.  Being so small and with such tight curves, it was more difficult to get the cedar planks properly aligned, even though I did use thinner (in width) timber.  So, there were a few imperfections showing prior to the sanding process.  I completely covered the inside with carbon fibre tissue and epoxied that in.  Again for something different, I stained the hull black below the water line and used a mahogany stain above it.  The deck is 0.5mm ply painted grey. The swing rig mast sits on a ball bearing in the bottom of a tube going the depth of the hull.  Bearings top and bottom are Teflon (courtesy of an old chopping board). Using the swing rig requires a little more attention when sailing.  Unless I turn quickly, it will go into irons and just stay there.  My main issue is losing sight of it amongst all the bigger boats, not to mention trying to judge going around the buoys – I have difficulty seeing it as it’s so small.

   

   

 

FailmileD - And for something different when I need a break from sailing and want to go a bit faster. I’ve always been interested in the WW II gunboats and after some research, decided to build a 1/24 scale model of a Fairmile D.  I imported the glass hull from the UK along with a number of fittings that were supposed to be accurate scale but really were just a load of resin rubbish.  In short, I scratch built the vast majority of the superstructure and deck fittings.  Guns, crew and a few other bits were purchased.  Overall build was almost two years. The boat has four Graupner Speed 600-Eco electric motors powered by two 9.6V NiMh battery packs controlled by a number of specifically designed control boards from Action Electronics in the UK.  The main guns are servo controlled and can both swivel and raise / lower controlled by the transmitter.

   

   

Frank is happy to provide more detail on any of his boats to people who may be interested. email fmyukon@gmail.com

 

 

10th Febuary 2014 - Here is a foiling trimaran built to the Mini 40 rules by Ian Holt, which has a sophisticated foiling system. Ian had this to say about his interesting and very fast project:

Hi there - I designed and built the boat to the Mini40 class rules. The rules for the Mini40 class are very simple, basically 4ft long, 4ft wide, max sail area 0.9sq metres.  They even allow an unmeasured jib for speed trials! - I made the hulls over plugs, each hull with 2 layers of carbon twill, with a combined weight of 300gms/sq metre.  The 3 hulls were then set in a jig and the 16mm diam cross beams built out form the main hull, to meet 14mm tubes coming in from the floats.  The foils were made from 4 layers of uni-directional carbon over a form, The main hull is as small as I felt I could make it, the main purposes of the hull being to locate the jib tack, the mast, the winch and the rudder.  The main hull is also needed for tacking in light airs.  The foils are further forward than normal, but appear to work because I have also moved the rig further forward and I am using a larger jib than is the norm for the class.  I built daggerboard cases in the floats, and the foils rotate inside these.  The advantage of the kinked foils is that it moves the foils further apart, making the boat more stable.  The short vertical section of the foil also helps reducing the sideways slip when sailing to windward

   

   

 

January/February 2014 - Here are some snaps from our recent cruise to the east coast of Tasmania

  

  

     

  

     

  

  

  

  

 

25th November 2013 - Royal Declerck has just finished building this foiling catamaran and we can't wait to see some images of it foiling. While he was at it, he has made up a land yacht called Scarlet Runner, and Royal reports it goes like a rocket. Royal had this to say about the cat build:

Hi Denis - I used a plan of a Kampai 40 as a start and scaled this to fit 72 cm overall length and 50 cm beam with a 1.0 metre mast. To construct the hulls I used an 18mm x18mm balsa core and glued the bulkheads onto that. Then strip planked using 2mmx25mm balsa. The top I constructed as a shaped deck, and then glued this onto the hull. Covered the whole lot in fibreglass cloth and resin, finishing off in the normal manner. The radio, servos, rudder tiller etc was purchased from your good selves and these are housed in a central pod which is glued to the cross beams (10mm aluminium) The winch wouldn`t fit in so I used a small sevo with an extended arm, I think this model will mostly be sailed in a shy or broad reach situation. Still to do "sea trials", but will let you know how it goes. - Thanks again, Royal.