Highflight

My Feedback: (4)

Never "done" boats at all (lots of airplanes), but my wife and I just bought a lot on a small lake where we'll be building a new home in about a year or so.

I'd like to find plans for a sailboat of almost any design (America's Cup or Schooner, anything, no matter) where the hull length is about 6' or even longer.
Most sailboats I see are about half that size, but being in giant scale aircraft, I'd like to do the same with a sailboat.
I haven't come across much in googling, so I'm wondering if any the guys who have been into boats a while can point me in the right direction for a "big" sailboat.
And I would prefer plans rather than a kit, but I'm open to whatever's out there.

TIA

Islander51

Here are some photos of the big ones.....

http://cmnc.hippocampe.free.fr/page....d_page=ph_mery

mfr02

You might want to consider something rather smaller to start with. I have seen three people struggle with launching and retrieving radio "A" class boats (admittedly in weather where I doubted my good sense in being there) but a big boat is a heavy boat, and a big sailboat has big sails. Effectively it is powered up while you are carrying it. Having said that, Radio A's, R10R's, R6M's and AC12's are all addictive, and look good on a big enough lake.
A "small" lake - how small? Importantly, how deep?

Islander51

Ya gotta remember-he's in Texas, and everything is bigger there!

Highflight

My Feedback: (4)

I'm not too worried about handling it out of water because it will be stored in my garage, about 100 feet from the water's edge. Besides, all my model aircraft are giant scale and I'd hate to do boats any different.

The "lake" is man-made and is about 15 acres, but the average depth is only around five feet deep. For retrieval if necessary, I'm building a 17' Thames rowing scull (no gas motors are allowed on the lake).
My intent is to be able to sit under an awning on the edge of the water with a cooler of beer on a cool, lazy afternoon.

After I opened this thread, I did some more googling and came across the link below that looked pretty interesting. The guy cuts molds in various scales, and he's just answered me that he can cut an IOD class sailboat to an overall length of 66", just a few inches shy of a six foot hull, and would be a good looking giant on the lake.


I'm still looking around, but leaning heavily in this direction:

From: http://www.angelfire.com/fl4/mft/

mfr02

Any of the classes I mentioned would do it for you. For a radio yacht, vintage designs have a weakness - they were designed to run straight, the rudder was really a trimming device. A radio yacht is intended to steer, so changes have to be made. On your link, look at the difference between the IODs and the vintage "A" boat near the bottom of the page.
The difference between a boat and big plane is that you probably wheel the plane to where you want it, then set it off. With a boat, you have to lift it in and out of the water, preferably without joining it. The heavier the boat, the more counterbalancing involved. The bigger the sails, the more interesting the proposition.
The awning and beer seem an excellent idea. Trouble is, sailboats demand attention when on the water. They dont stop, and, like any object of beauty, if they sense that attention s lacking, will wander off. The other odd thing is, if they lack a driver slowing them down, they invariably go faster than you ever thought possible.

michaele69

Don't forget these beautiful boats

[link]http://www.officialjclass.org/[/link]

ME. EC-12 1969

jaelon

In addition to the ~8ft J class boats, info for other 6+ ft boats is available at http://modelyacht.org/ (whenever it's available)
Boats such as Newport 12 Meter, AC, Wheeler.

Microyacht

If there's a design that you like that's only 3ft LOA, just scale up all the measurements X 2? I've just scaled down a 20ft boat by ÷ 6.7 to give me a 36" boat. Works both ways! Only took a few hours to re-do all the figures. Worked for me:



Steve
http://www.microcat.co.uk

larrykin

Hi Highflight_RCU,

you want a big boat.... good on ya! I have an AU Class boat which is 5'-7" hull length. Mast is 7'-6". (AU Class because sail area is too big for A Class.) The boat is fantastic to sail. I used to sail real yachts.

My 2 cents worth. Scaling plans up is not a good idea. Scaling down from real yachts seems to work. But scaling up from small boats gives odd height to length ratio. Handling the boat out of the water can be interesting. I built myself a buggy with a handle and two wheels. Carries hull, ballast and tools. Even room for a beer cooler. The ballast (bulb weight hanging off keel fin) on my boat weighs 20lbs. Hence the buggy. You'll need to find a good sailmaker too.

An idea might be to look at the new IACC120 Class boats. They're 4' long. Build one to learn how then go up to the 6' boat. Here's a link to a forum that has complete plans and step by step build details

[link=http://www.rcsailing.net/forum1/showthread.php?t=5335]IACC120 Build Thread[/link]

Pics of my boat below.

Larry L.

Michaelj2k

http://www.ec12.org. Well supported class with lots of building information and racing (if you desire).

thorsail

OK , if we are all gonna promote our big class sailboats , I'll jump in with the Santa Barbara , 70" LOA . here is mine............

Allan

1967250s

For a large, 6' +, you should go with a J class, well over 6'. Newport 12 are 6' long exactly, but they're fiberglass and kind of hard to find, though there is a new manufacturer, kinda tough to get in touch with him. EC 12 are 48" with 6' mast, readily available, but you must buy from either approved( read- expensive class approved) or if you don't care for racing, used older ones that may , or may not, not be registered with AMYA to race. Lots of people are building IACC boats, usually glass, sometimes carbon or kevlar laminates. A class is an older class over 6' usually that you can easily find designs for Check the build logs for links, here and on rcgroups. 10 raters are also becoming more popular, nice large fast, can be built from woodor glass. For more info, go to modelyacht.org , they will link you to the vintage group, too and some plans are available from their store. Traplet has plans and so do lots of others, hope this helps . Best of luck

kzimmerman

Go J. I'm working on building a mold for a J soon, hoping to stimulate some interest. They are shallow draft, you could build a launching dolly, wheel her out the garage, put up the rigging, and then weel her straight into the water. Plus, there is something very beutifull about those boats.

RodCarr

The length overall of the EC-12 is 58". Likely a typo.

Rod Carr
AMYA #002
EC-12 #2

1967250s

Mea Culpa!

larrykin

Speaking of big boats,

is this a good price for a 1.7m boat?

[link=http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130341891587&_trkparms=tab%3DSelling]1.7m Boat on ebay[/link]

- my avatar [sm=cry_smile.gif].

sunworksco

Be sure to check out the Infinity-54.
You can find these at reasonable prices on the second hand market.

cbinfl

I am a big fan of International A boats.  Check out this site.  www.pondyachts.net

DMYC 42

Since everyone else is putting in there 2 cents here goes. There are several members of our club that sail nothing under 50 inches. They just like how the bigger boats handle. Over the past 10 years these are the classes we sail. Marblehead (with one design rigs), America's Cup (no longer sailed), 1.7 meter (new class, 16 boats built), J-boat (two in process), Newport 12 (two planed for a matchrace series). As far as the AC class, I have a Tech one hull, fin, rudder and deck unassembled. I also have a wood replica of Oricle that needs to be finished with radio gear and hardware. I can also supply any of the other kits for you. Send me a note [email protected] Also, go to YouTube and search greatlakesrcsailing to see video of the 1.7 Meter and Marbleheads.