Ten years ago I had been pestering a buddy of mine to teach me to sail. I had done a bit of wind surfing and hang gliding and wanted to try sailing. So we purchased a 1973 International 505 racing dinghy from a guy down in Santa Cruz. We paid $1300 - he had taken the boat apart with the intention of renovating it. We spent a couple of fun months, working evenings and weekends, getting all the many many systems working. Probably close to $2000 spent at West Marine. We sailed it for a couple of years on a local lake and had a blast. With three sails up and me out on the trapeze that boat really flew - until one of screwed up and we capsized. We capsized on a regular basis but had a lot of fun. I will never forget the look on the guys face who was driving his Mastercraft ski boat and we blew by him at over 20 knots (at least it seemed like it)! We sold the boat with the intention of buying a newer one and going down to San Francisco to start racing. However, life got in the way.

Ever since we sold the boat I had been looking for a hobby to get into and then start with RC cars for bit and then got hooked on this at the beginning of last year. This hobby works well because I get to build and fly and can sneak it in around other stuff.

I have the horiz stab put together and will post a couple of pictures soon. My building environment is considerable more cramped, and more rudimentary than yours.

What I learned from your pictures which really helped was to use the scrap balsa from the LE doubler to clamp it.