Dave Lilley

I bought a sailboat from Hobby Lobby when they were closing them out of their inventory. I picked up the Tomasek Fully Built: "Exclusive" 1 Meter Competition Sailboat, which was on sale. Even though I have been primarily a plane guy, I wanted to try sailing, and I have been looking at this boat for some time now. At the sale price, it was a deal too good to pass up. Has anyone here had experience with this boat?


I rigged mine up, just to make sure everything fit correctly. It looks nice, and everything went together well, although I will be switching some of the running lines for Spiderwire. The only downside was the ballast weight on mine was a little loose, which is easily remedied. A little more bothersome is that the keel didn't come with the three holes for position adjustment as indicated in the instructions, although I should be able to drill some out if needed.

Other than that, one part of the translated instructions, indicating where to mount the winch servo, was wrong. The original instructions say to mount the winch servo under the hull cover, but the translated instructions seem to indicate that the servo should be mounted to the underside of the cover, which is completely different. The plate does not strong enough to act as a mounting point for a winch servo. Anyway, despite that small translation error, the instructions are a bit sparse, but seem adequate.

In the picture, the keel appears red(ish), but it is brass. I haven’t decided on a paint scheme yet, but her un-Christened name, as of now, is “My Belle”, in honor of my wife. I know that's not very original, but I don't care. My wife has always love the Beatles tune, and her name is Michelle, so it fits.

http://www.woodlawnsailingclub.org/rcsailing.htm

I recently out (after living here for nearby years) that there is a sailing club in San Antonio (Texas), about 15 to 20 minutes from where I live.

My boat it's close to the OD-39 1-meter sailboats that are being sailed at the club. (The OD-39 is not an offical American Model Yachting Association (AMYA) class. http://www.amya.org)

I plan to finish up a review as soon as I put in the radio gear.

Dave

RC-Archer

That's a very cool boat, Dave. When did you get this boat? Does Hobby Lobby have any more?

Dave Lilley

Thanks

I picked it up a few months back on a close-out sale, and last I heard, they don't carry this boat anymore.

Dave Lilley

I finally sent off for the servos and a new radio, and they should be here just in time for this weekend. I hope to be sailing by Sunday.

I was going to buy the 75mHz Spectra for my Hitec Prism, but since it only has three model memory, I opted for the new Laser 6, 75mHZ version of course.

RC-Archer

How many servos do you need to run your boat? Both of my boats only needed two but I may consider running a separate winch on the jib.

RobStagis

A caveat on spyderwire - it tends to wear at turning points after a while. It's obvious when you look at it, though, so it's not a biggy. I've been using kite line - 100 lb. (I think) spectra. It's slippery as hell and a little easier to work since it's a bigger diameter.

You *can* run separate main- and jib-sail servos, but it's not all that common.

That thing has a brass keel? Sheesh!

Dave Lilley

My class of boat is usually set up with a one servo for both sails. I considered using two, but decided to use one large Hitec HS-815BB for both. It sucks down the juice, but it is a strong (high torque) arm servo and provides 140 degrees of throw.

I really wanted the extra throw, but if I find that the HS-815BB is over-kill, I may go with the HS-715, which only provides 90 degrees of throw.

I know there is modification that will allow the Futaba sail arm servo to go from 90 to 180 degrees, but I didn't feel like messing with the guts of an expensive servo.

RobStagis

Heh - you should see my Robbe Atlantis with both a Futaba S5801 and a HiTec drum winch. I've 4000mah NiMH's in it.....not to mention the 6-cell pack for the motor and lights.......

RC-Archer

Any reason you're using an arm servo instead of a winch servo? I had an arm servo (Futaba) on my Soling and sometimes it would stall and I would have to waggle the boat to get the sails to close.

Dave Lilley

Dang! That's a nice looking boat. How well does she sail? Did you get all the extras? (scale fittings, wooden fittings, ballast keel, genoa sail)

Someday I plan to buy or build a model of an old multi-sail ship.

I really like this American Schooner, but I just don't have that much of money laying around.

Dave Lilley

The Exclusive is already set up with exit ports and deck fittings for a sail arm servo. I just couldn't get up the courage to make the holes and modifications needed for the return pulley. I thought about using a non-continuous drum setup, but I had no idea of how I should even tackle the elastic setup.

Dave Lilley

I finally bought the servos, but now I am faced with a problem. The deck opening is not very large, so a tray won't be easy to install. The translated instructions say to mount the servos with servo tape. Is this correct? Can servo tape hold a servo capable of 300+ oz of torque to a fiberglass hull? Would it be better to run stringers inside the hull and mount the servos to those, instead of using a tray? As for the battery, should I mount it to a ply plate on the bottom of the hull, or should it be placed higher up on the stringers.

I also worry that the ply plate, stringers, whatever, will expand if they get wet and spread the hull apart. Should I use something on the ends, such as a rubber gasket or a soft balsa cap, to allow for expansion? Am I worrying too much???

RobStagis

Worrywart.

It sounds like building my old Victoria. You built a plywood box, then screwed the servos into it, then glued the whole thing into the bilge. The box fit through the hatch with nothing to spare.

Huh - servo tape. Huh. I dunno! That stuff is pretty strong, but I've never seen a winch setup like that. (For what it's worth, my Hitec drum just destroyed its rather light plastic mount when a sheet hung up...danged genoa anyway!)

Oh...wait..... I take you're screw-mounting the servos into the tray, then taping the tray into the hull? If you've got enough contact area between the hull/stringers and the tray, I think that would work.

My EC12 - beasty servos. Gigantic custom arm winch, quarter-scale servo for the rudder and another quarter-scale servo for the jib trim - is mounted like this:

Radio board has all the servos screwed into it. Thwarts (side-to-side) pieces made from spruce are held to the hull with what looked like strapping tape (that clear tape with the strings in it?) or fiberglass cloth and CA. The board was then screwed to the thwarts. That lasted only about 20 years or so I say tape or 'glas cloth only cuz it's unidentifiable - the boat's 20 years old and the material, whatever it was, just gave up.

RobStagis

Oh, yeah - for batteries low is good. WAY low is better. As far as expansion goes, cut and trim your wood pieces to fit, then pull 'em out. Epoxy the living h*ll out of 'em to waterproof 'em. That's it. Don't bother with 5-minute (or 6-minute) epoxy for any reason. Use minimum 12 minutes, and I use only 30 minute or JB Weld (12 hour or more).

Question: There's no tray or board in the kit? They just tape the servos in independently? Yeesh!!!!!

Dave Lilley

Nothing against Hobby Lobby, because their translation may be spot on as far as I know, but the instructions say to use servo tape to mount the servos directly to the hull. Considering the heat and humidity down here in Texas, and the power of the servos, that sounds like a bad idea. The hatch in the hull is rather small, so I would have to assemble the tray inside the boat, and even then, getting the parts in may be difficult.

Instead of a tray, I think I will install four 1/4" basswood square rails, one pair for each servo, and then add a thin, lite-ply plate for the battery and receiver, right on the bottom of the hull.

RobStagis

The rails work well - they replaced the box in my Vic after it rotted. On that boat, however, I had a single pair of rails that I mounted both servos to. The rails were apoxied with JBWeld, which I found out later probably wasn't the hot ticket. That taped-on rail idea I mentioned earlier prevents any movement/expansion of the rails from distorting the hull.....

Dave Lilley

Thanks for the info Rob. I will give the tape idea a try. As for the servos, the rudder is about half the size of the winch servo, so they can't fit on the same rail.

RobStagis

I was thinkin' about something. If that's a balanced rudder (some of the blade in front of the shaft) the tape could work. I know what a pain it is re-doing something, but it'll save you some work up front and if it works, you're done. If it doesn't, the only thing it'll cost you is some tape! I know that servo tape is like impossible to get off, so.............

Dave Lilley

I started working on a tray and rails, but I only succeeded in screwing up a few pieces of plywood. I really wanted to sail by Sunday, so I relented and pulled out the servo tape. Both servos held really well and didn’t show any signs of moving, so I took my boat out to the lake. I took it out slowly and it worked great…at first. It was going well until I had a problem with the jib sail. The sails (I think they are Mylar) have folded over tabs at the tops, and they are held on the lines with L shaped hooks. The hooks work fine when the boat is just sitting there, but in the wind, the sails kept slipping off the hooks. When the jib sail failed, of course the line went slack. As I was bringing the boat back in, the jib sail rigging caught on a hook. When I tried to tighten up the sails, there wasn’t enough slack in the line, and the sail-arm servo pulled free. Thankfully, the boat had just pulled up to the dock. In a way, having the servo tape fail saved other parts of my boat.

The first thing I did when I left the lake was to buy an eyelet tool and eyelets, and I fixed the sails. (I saw that tip on a site dedicated to the Victoria and its upgrades.)

Kiwi Cove

The modification seems much more reliable. Now I just need to decide if I want to try the tape or try the plate and rails scheme again.

(If space wasn't so limited in the boat and through the hatch, the rails would be the answer, but I am having a hard time getting my fat hands, the rails, and all the gear in the boat at the same time.)

RobStagis

Did I misunderstand you or di dyou say the 'servo arm pulled off'. Does that mean the servos stayed?

*grin* Congrats! It's a boat! Ask me, sometime, about a fellow clubmember's Cox Tradwind - with the foam hull. NOTHING stayed in place, but it was quite a fast boat.

Dave Lilley

Oops... I should have said that it pulled the servo loose...the one with the arm.

Bob Heisner

I also bought an Exclusive but got one sparse instruction sheet and NO picture. How are you supposed to rig the thing? I have a sailwinch servo mounted inside and another ready to mount when I get the rigging figured out. Can you describe where the lines to the main and jib go from the servo?

Mystified in NY

Dave Lilley

I have a review just about ready, with detailed pictures. I will send you a preview.

Bob Heisner

Great, this thing is driving me nutso. Not familiar with sailboats, model or full size. I'm about to give up on this one in favor of one with instructions and pictures. Maybe your review will re-ignite my interest. Thanks
Bob Heisner

webskipper

Bob,
If you're still having problems rigging the Exclusive, you might take a look at the US1M Building guide on the AMYA site, or how the Victoria or CR-914's are rigged, Though they may not be exact they should all give you some ideas that should help

http://www.amya.org/us1mcons.html
http://www.victoriarc.org