Star 45 Racing Yacht Build

Started by Joe727

29 updates 221 likes 105 comments
Joe727 #21 of 30 1

Glassing rudder and fin, sail arm mockup, ready for deck design

I used my drilled stick to mock up the sail arm in order to determine the length and distance to the required holes (2). I will be able to design and build the arm once my carbon fiber plate arrives in a few days.

Glassing the rudder and keel fin, doing it all day trying to get each additional step done while the resin is still green. I purchased the pumps that are available for the West System epoxy resin. This makes it very easy to get the resin / hardener proportions correct. Just one pump from each at a time.

I have located my servos and positioned anchors for all of my deck aattachments. Next I will finalize my deck design, mainly the hatch sizes and locations. I will build the deck using 1/16" plywood, the same material that the boat sides were made out of.

Anxious to get the deck on but always a bit hesitant... more to come.
Joe 😎
Liked by nasraf and MouldBuilder and
2 comments

Sign in to comment on this update.

Joe727 #22 of 30 1

Again with the Rubber Bands....

Time to glue the 1 /16" thick plywood deck in place. My plan is to glue the sheet in place without any hatch opening made. I took detailed dimensions of all openings and anchor locations as I want to do any deck cutting after it is glued in place. My hope is that this will result in a nice curved deck without any dips.

I cut the sheet to be 1/2" larger around the perimeter, then placed glue on the hull perimeter and all bulkheads and put the deck in place. I had set up my building board again, this time with the cradle set on top of it.

Back with the rubber bands and time to quit for the day. Will let cure overnight.

One of the fiberglass shops down by the harbor opened up again so I was able to get some supplies. They had 1.4oz glass cloth that I am looking forward to using - will do the deck with this.

More tomorrow,
Joe 😴😴😴
Liked by mturpin013 and ianed57 and

Sign in to comment on this update.

Joe727 #23 of 30 1

Sail Arm for Servo - Design

First photo shows the stick that helped me determine the correct dimensions of the required servo arm. This is placed next to an older arm I made for a smaller boat. The goal here is to make a larger arm for this build out of carbon fiber sheet, much the same as the older arm design.

Next step was to sketch out the design for the longer arm using the large servo hub and hole spacing required. Drawing shows outline of arm which I will cut from 3mm Carbon Fiber Plate which I ordered on ebay. The shipping by the vendor has been slower than promised so it looks like I won't see it until next week, so there will be a delay getting to the actual build.

I will use ceramic rings at the holes where the line will pass through the arm ends. This is to provide a very smooth passage of the lines thus avoiding snags and unnecessary wear to the sheets. The next photo shows fishing rod tips that I buy for about $5. I carefully cut the metal holding the ceramic ring by just barely touching it with my dremel cutting disc. Ceramic ring is now separated and shown on sketch. That's about it for the design, when I receive the plate I will photograph how I drill mounting bolt locations, etc.
Joe😎
Liked by mturpin013 and MouldBuilder and
4 comments
  1. Joe727
    Commander
    Martin,
    Thanks, it's looking bigger and bigger everyday. With a 12" beam and a 45" length it's pretty sturdy. She floats very well too. These sailboats can be lengthy builds trying to keep this one going daily with the lockdowns still on (at least my lockdown!)
    Joe
    Liked by mturpin013 and Martin555

Sign in to comment on this update.

Joe727 #24 of 30 1

Deck Trimming, Openings and fiberglass.

Right now I have a number of items under different stages of construction. I like to have things to work on while glues are drying, resins curing and waiting for deliveries. You have seen bits of these, but they include keel fin, rudder, mast, booms, hardware bits, sail arms and so on. Back to progress today:

Rubber band clamps removed and I am happy with the deck, nice curvature and thumps like a drum. First trimmed the excess material around the edges to about 1/8" using a razor saw. Then, again the small plane worked well to quickly remove the rest of the material to the hull edge.

Found my opening locations using my saved sketches and started first with the mast opening, rigging points and finally the two hatches. Trimmed each opening and now ready for glass.

Used my newly received 1.4 oz glass cloth. I like it. First coat of resin placed. I will trim all edges and openings in about 3 hours while it is still in the green cure stage. Break time!😉
Joe
Liked by ianed57 and philcaretaker and

Sign in to comment on this update.

Joe727 #25 of 30 1

Start of Rigging / Sail Mock-up

The deck's 2nd coat of resin will be allowed to cure for several days so I'll get a start on laying out the sail design & dimensions.

Set the mast roughly in place along with the main and jib boom. Tied some temp lines (white ) in place to allow for sail dimensions to be taken. Once I had these dimensions I cut a sail rough shape out of some scrap brown paper. This is to verify my dimensions and the boom angle. The main sail is big with a height of about 65" and a foot of about 23". Roach at Leech and at the Foot will be added.

Next, I'll layout the Jib.

Then on to actual building of "paneled" sails using my sail block - that comes next. I will show detail of the sail block and how it is used to build the sails.

The sail material, a .75oz fabric arrived in red and in white. More to come.

Joe😎
Liked by peterd and Ronald and
6 comments
  1. MouldBuilder
    Admiral
    Looking good Joe.
    I think I will have to give a Yacht a go one day. It would look great sailing on the river. Better finish my current projects first though. Roll on retirement so I have some time.😊
    Peter.
    Liked by Joe727 and Martin555

Sign in to comment on this update.

Joe727 #26 of 30 1

Getting back to the Sail Servo Arm Build

Back to my Sail Arm post 11 days ago.....that's how long it took to get the carbon fiber sheet delivered. Shipping services here are backed up a bit. Its 2mm thick material which will be very strong and resistant to twisting. There will be a lot of force on this arm when it is hauling 1000 square inches of sail at the pond.

I put some painter's tape down so I could draw the layout image per my sketch. Forgot to take a photo but it is partially seen in my test hole shot. I wanted to see how well Forstner bits worked on carbon fiber and found they work very well. I cut the arm out on my band saw and within an hour I was just about there.

Next to mount to servo hub. Because of tight clearance in the boat, I attaching this arm to the underside of the hub. Eight holes drill for SS screws used to attach the hub to the arm.

Photo show the arm set on the servo. This shows where it will be necessary to trim bolts flush with nut at the arm underside, part of the plan. Will trim and clean up the arm next. Last photo is of the ceramic rings that I pull out of the fishing rod eyelets. They are very prone to shattering if manhandled so I carefully cut the metal ring with a file.

Will show the Arm setup once in the boat along with rigging.

In addition, I am watching paint dry on the mast, boom and deck.

Joe 😎
Liked by Rookysailor and mturpin013 and
4 comments
  1. Joe727
    Commander
    Martin555,
    Funny you should ask..... Its been a while since I last cut this carbon plate and I forgot to wear a long sleeve shirt, the result some irritating slivers. So it's not the same itch that you get from tiny glass particles cutting your skin, its tiny slivers of black fiber sticking you.

    I did remember to wear my eye protection and mask. Cuts in CF are done more by abrasive action rather than by a blade or saw tooth type action. As a result a fine black dust gets in the air which you don't want to breath or get in your eyes. A file or a rotary dremel cut off disk cuts it well. I did find that it drills well and my bandsaw with a coarse wood blade did a good job too. It's easy to damage the edges as it splinters a bit. It's an odd material to work with, you just have to see what works best for you. Extremely strong in some directions yet can be twisted and splintered if not carefull. I usually lightly coat the edges with ca cement to keep from splintering. Still learning myself with each use.
    Joe 🤕
    Liked by Rookysailor and nasraf and
  2. Martin555
    Fleet Admiral
    Thank's Joe,
    I have never used Carbon Fibre before but have definitely used fibre glass.
    After dealing with fibre glass i was always told to wash using cold waste first, as hot water opened the skin more and drove the glass in deeper.

    Martin555.
    Liked by MouldBuilder

Sign in to comment on this update.

Joe727 #27 of 30 1

Deck openings, deck paint, keel fin, rudder, paint

Haven't posted in a while. I have been working on the deck which was glassed, primed and painted. Framing out the hatch openings and will be building some hatch covers shortly.

Rudder and keel find were glassed and sanded smoothed. Followed with primer and a coat of navy blue paint. Also in the photos are the booms that were masked, primed and painted as well.

Joe
Liked by RNinMunich and figtree7nts and

Sign in to comment on this update.

Joe727 #28 of 30 1

Yes, still building....

Been busy on other things but it's letting my paints and varnish get a better cure. I like to let the hull cure at least 4-5 days before handling. It avoids marring and chipping the paint.

Did the third or fourth full paint coat on the deck and hull sides. Then I masked and did clear Marine Spar varnish over the hull bottom. Originally, I planned to paint the entire boat but the planked cedar bottom turned out good, so I left clear. It was fiberglassed so I varnished it to provide UV protection.

Secured the 6lbs lead bulb to the keel, then filled, primed and finished painting. I put the rudder and keel in place for the photos.

Hatch covers built and painted, nothing fancy, just utilitarian to keep the water out. Visible focus will be on the sails and rigging.

Getting close to do a complete assembly of all servos, mast, booms, keel, rudder, etc. Should be fun! Then on to fabricating the sails. Also, I have been making some rigging fittings.....

Joe 😎
Liked by mturpin013 and MouldBuilder and
8 comments
  1. Nerys
    Fleet Admiral
    Hi Joe.

    Flexible spars, are what they say, mast and boom flexible enough to put a bend in them when sailing. The idea being that one can flatten or make the sail fuller as one is sailing. Bending the middle of the boom downwards would flatten the sail and enhance performance to windward. Likewise the mast. It really started with a Professor Ljundstrom, I think that was how his name was spelt.in the 20's and 30's who developed curved masts to give a better aerofoil shape. Several classes, particularly in Scandinavia adopted this style of mast, the 22sq.mtr. and 30 sq.mtr were two examples. They were long lean boats and there was one, a 30 called Tre Sang competed in Royal Ocean Racing Club events for a few years in the late 40s and 50s with considerable success. Back to bendy rigs, I think the Star was the class in which most experimenting was done, but several dinghy classes also had a go. I sailed Snipes in the 1950s which were almost a mini Star but with centreboard rather than fin keel, there was a lot of playing around with their rig. The mast for example was stepped on the kelson, but had a large hole for it in the deck and with very loose shrouds it bent about all over the place when sailing. The whole rig looked as if it was leaning forwards on a run. A number of single handed dinghies have unstayed masts that bend considerably. Think Finn, OK, Contender, Laser and many others.
    Hope that explains a little.

    Cheers, Nerys
    Liked by Joe727
  2. Joe727
    Commander
    Nerys,
    I continue to be impressed by your sailing knowledge, particularly as my only experience is with model sailing boats, so thank you very much for the lengthy explaination.

    I will have to study this issue further before I can give you an answer as to the Star45 yacht.

    Regards, Joe

Sign in to comment on this update.

Joe727 #29 of 30 1

Putting boat on hold pending safe access to the pond...

My Star 45 build continues, however, I have reached a point where I would normally have done several float tests to check the Center of Lateral Resistance of the hull. I would rather not design and make my sails without this, it's a big gamble. For this reason I have started my new build the US1Meter to occupy my lock down time.

Photos show close to completion on rigging. Will complete the electronics soon and stow the boat waiting for safe access to the pond.

Joe 😎
Liked by Skydive130 and MouldBuilder and

Sign in to comment on this update.

Joe727 #30 of 30 1

Sails for Star 45

I decided to go ahead with fabricating the sails despite not having been able to check the Center of Lateral Resistance. Just hope all of my calculations are good.

Using a very light spinnaker fabric that I purchased from a sail supply company, panels were cut and joined over a curved sail block. I use the sailmakers 1/4" wide double adhesive tape.

For reinforcement at the corners, I use 5mil Duralar, a clear self adhesive clear film. Small 5/16" grommets installed.

Will be mocking up on boat soon.
Joe😎
Liked by Nerys and Martin555
3 comments
  1. Joe727
    Commander
    Nerys,
    Yes, I agree, should be good based on plan.

    I'm just accustomed to always checking my hull builds in the water for lateral resistance, hard to break old habits!

    Thank you for your interest.
    Joe 😎
  2. Nerys
    Fleet Admiral
    Looking at classic boats on Youtube this evening, I found two videos of Stars racing in the 2012 Olympics. They were ' Sailing Stars Sailing Race 2 London 2012' and 'Sailing Stars Mens Medal Race full replay London 2012. You might be interested to see some hard racing and how they looked in racing trim.

    Later on. Since writing the above, have found loads more videos of Stars. Well worth looking at. You can see what I meant about bendy masts.

    Cheers, Nerys
    Liked by Joe727

Sign in to comment on this update.

Delete this post?

It will be removed from the site.

Discard this draft?

Your draft will be deleted and cannot be recovered.

You have an unfinished draft

What would you like to do with it?