I ve been interested in building a rc sailboat but i dont have a ton of $$(none at the moment) so the footy designs seemed ideal to me. The only thing, they dont look like high performance sail boats. I was looking around on towerhobbies and found the ace sloop made by dumas. Its a free sailing design but i think it wouldnt be too hard to convert to rc. Any info, tips or comments welcome[sm=bananahead.gif]

[link=http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXE375&P=0]link to it on tower hobbies[/link]

hi id say almost any boat can be converted to rc,however for the price that boat costs im sure you could make a good start on scratch building your own boat.ive just about finnished a boat and so far its cost me £40 ,prices been much higher over here id say about $40 to you maybe.i used a carbon fishing rod for the masts and booms,perfect fit and dimensions for the job.i used rip stop kite material off ebay hardly cost anything fo 3 mtrs of the stuff 2 mtres wide .enough for 6 sets of sails.what im saying is my boat has cost me a third of what id have to pay for a kit or a rtf boat.i was looking at the victoria which would cost me between £100 and £150 to buy so i think ive got a great boat (better than most rtf boats if you ask me for a fraction of the cost.if you make everything yourselfincluding bowsies and turning blocks you wont need to buy anything apart from your radio gear(maybe you have some?) .my advice is shop arround for your materials and you can do a great boat on the cheap.heres a pic of mine so far!!.[img][/img] try ebay for sail materials .you dont need much balsa to build a hull i only used 4 sheets of 1/8 balsa that i stripped into planks,then i glassed over the whole thing using the lightests cloth i could find.for masts you can also use arrow shafts which are also cheap.hers a few sites to look at to get ideas.[link]http://www.myrc.org/[/link] [link]http://www.amya.org/[/link] the last link has some great instructions on how to build the us 1metre boat i used those to help with mine.if you want the plans for mine heres the link i downsized mine ,my hull is 34" mast is 44" from the deck i only did this so it fits easier in the car.[link]http://www.velarc.it/eng/plans/luna.htm[/link].by the way its easy to build a boat if you have an ounce of modeling skills.hope this helps.oh i also have a thread on my build on here its called new sailboat build

http://www.victor-model.com/blackhawk24.html

MINI BLACKHAWK Kit Price: $64.95

did i scare you off?

Looks like it I am still studying your plans. Hard to translate those cross sections to actual 3D model locations.[]

Doomas sloop looks great and inexpensive. I could convert any free flying plane to RC so boats can't be any different!

Victor models America 3 and Blackhawk is definitely value for money. Since they are made of hi-impact plastic should last for long time.

Finally, Footys are definitely performing (may be not high) sailboats you can learn to sail. I am having fun with mine [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_4713712/tm.htm]My Footy[/link] .

the cross sections are easy all you do is trace them out one at a time then place them on a peice of 1/8 ply and glue them on and cut round them with a jigsaw.then you put them onto a board where they are shown on the plans,get a board to build on any scrap mdf or ply say 1/2 inch thick will do .formica covered chipboard is good the glue doesnt stick to this much.draw a line down centre then lay hull plan alongside and mark your fram positions on it then fasten the frames in place i used small peice of scrap 1/2 x 1/2 pine softwood fastened to the board and then glue or pin the frames to this..once you start drawing the frames out you will see how easy it is !!.