atwinda

I know the sea lite is a crap boat, and that even that is an understatement. But in any case, my roommate bought one awhile ago. Like most people I found that the sails had too much shape because they were so loose- and after tinkering with them making them as flat as possible, it did sail better. At which point I realized.. I am sail maker.. So I took it to a level much, much too good for a sea lite and made med. weight kevlar/mylar sails (I know, I have since made .5oz nylon sails for it). But found that even with a dead flat sail it was way to overpowered. The problem, the bulb weighs like 1.5 lbs at the most, and the keel fin is 2.5" long. So.. This week while my roommate was gone, I removed the keel from the boat and cut it in 1/2! I ended up adding 5" to the length of the keel, and moved the bulb end 1/8" forward in an attempt to compensate for the overwhelming windward helm (better align the CE and CLR). I used balsa to make a "strut" between the two pieces. I sanded 3/8" in on edge of each piece to allow the glass and bondo to be faired. I then wrapped the strut in glass and carried another piece up to the plastic where I sanded it down. Over all the glassing went VERY smooth.

Tomorrow I'll trim the excess glass and use bondo to fill and fair the new shape of the keel fin.

The attached pictures are of the kevlar/mylar sails and the freshly glassed 5" addition to the keel fin.

pompebled

My guess is, that after testing this set-up, you'll be looking at a taller mast....

Keep the pictures coming please.

Regards, Jan.

atwinda

I think you under estimate how lite the keel is... And also how much more efficient the sails I made are over the stock ones. But I would guess that a stronger mast would be in order at some point.. the plastic doesn't quite cut it. So if I am going with a stronger mast, I might as well make it taller right? haha.

pompebled

If the keel is that light, it's probably not a massive lead bub, but a plastic torpedo filled with...sand, leadshot, whatever?

While you're at it, making it a lead bulb might be a next step, before a taller rigg.

Please, keep us posted how the mods work out.

Regards, Jan.

atwinda

plastic with leadshot I would assume.

Any way, it's up to my roommate (the boats owner) now to get some new servos... the ones that came with it didn't last long :/ Until then it's just going to sit there wanting to be sailed :\.

harrier81

You should continue with this experiment, i have my sea lite but i don´t like sailing it because of it´s bad performance. I´m a newbie with sailboats so just don´t know what to modify, please explain why you decided to change the sails and keel...?

atwinda

I remade the sails because they aren't "real" sails; In the sense that they do not have shape built into them. So the sails I built have luff curve, and leech shape plus battons. The keel was modified because the "stock" keel is way too short in any amount of breeze. The lower the weight is, the greater the righting moment, and therefore the higher heel moment you can have (as in the sails I made).

atwinda

Update:
Finished shaping and fairing new keel fin. I wet sanded it to 600grit, and used enamel to paint it up. I'm two light coats into painting it, and I'll probably call it good at three. And I would have finished that third one today, however it started to rain. So put that on hold to fair the mold for my custom 36" hull.

Midget

dose this mean you have to make the rudder longer???

the boat is looking good im taking notes my freind has got one so ive shown him this
site, might give him some tips

atwinda

I highly doubt any of what I have done will make the boat "better" in a serious sense. I mean, sure it's going to help, but the sealite isn't exactly a race boat to start off with. And truly not worth the effort I am putting into it, when you can just buy a much better product in the first place. But, what the heck, it's always fun to get a little practice in fairing keel fins!

We'll see about the rudder once I am able to get this thing out on the water.. Still waiting for roomie to get new servos!

Thanks for the interest

atwinda

update: Keel all finished, servos back in, sails back up.. waiting for good day to give her a go.

harrier81

Hi:

Would you explain how to build the new sails?, here in Mexico is dificult to get some ripstop, so i can´t afford to make a mistake with the unique ripstop yard i have.

What radio gear you have on her? my Sea lite still has a stock radio gear, but thinking about change it because Transmitter is to small for my hands, it was designed for kids.


I´ll be waiting for the maiden voyage, just to know how the mods worked out.

Thanks for share with us.

atwinda

To be honest with you, it's entirely pointless to modify the sealite- especially sails if nylon is hard to come by. I work in a sail loft, we throw away pieces much bigger than what's required to make the sails (and thus why I have three sets).

Like you said, the boat was designed for kids.. it's a toy, not really worth throwing any more money at. If you are going to throw money at a boat, get a "real" rc boat. my .02 cents.

I found that even with very small shaped (the ones in the picture are not shaped) sails the sea lite was over powered, and this the reason for modification of the keel. So keep in mind if you are dead set on making new sails, you'll probably need to mod the keel.

pompebled

Now there's a sad sight; a modelboat, pressing it's nose against the window, dying to get out and play!

Please make an effort and take her for a spin!

And make some pics for us, please.

Regards, Jan.

harrier81

yes you´re right but i am kind of obsessed with this thing, i would like to try everything to make it sail better, i realize for your comments that is better to convert it a static display model right?.

Money is not a problem because im not going to spend much, just 5 to 10 bucks, and it´s only to take out of my mind the idea to make this sailboat better.

I already have a paradise sailboat from hobbico, this is not the best but its a real rc sailboat.

Next week i´ll post some pics..

Thanks for your comments

LtDoc

...I like the boat stand! The boat too, but the stand is certainly differnet.
- 'Doc

atwinda

I'll tell you what. I will measure the flat sails I made, and post a design giving you all the details you'll need to make them. I can't promise that it will be here right away, but I'll get to it around this weekend.

atwinda

Update:
So I took the boat sailing both yesterday and today. The pictures are from yesterday when there was little to absolutely no breeze. But that was good, I got to make sure she didn't sink, and that my replacement of the servos all worked. Which they did. So there was moderate breeze (for a rc boat) today, and she did much better! This was the exact breeze that it would get knocked over and round up in before, and I had no such occurances today. So it would apear that the modification was successful.

Next on the list of mods is to replace the plastic mast!

Midget

what are you going to use as the mast???
im think of useing this steel for my northwind, as ive used it as the boom
for the jib and main.

atwinda

I was just going to go with some alloy round tube of ~ the same diameter of the plastic mast.

Midget

ahh ok,
good luck

pompebled

If you can get hold of it, try an arrow shaft, you've just lowered the CoG, don't spoil it with a heavy mast...

Regards, Jan.

atwinda

thanks for the tip

harrier81

How the sails doing? What you think about the sails change?.

Im glad your mods worked out, i´ll start the mods to my sealite...

Please keep posting your pics... I´ll post mine when i get a digital camera.

Would you post pics from your radio gear instalation?

Thanks....

psychomikex

Dude, that is hilarious. I just did the exact same thing! Except I put a huge mast and boom on it in a cat rig. I'm testing it today for the first time. I'll be racing a Sanibel 36. I'll let you know how it works.