After a week of threading, knotting, whipping and a bit of cursing I've managed to rig all the sails.

The rigging cord is 1mm diameter, 12 strand braided 'Dynema'. This is very strong, and doesn't stretch. The loops at the ends of the lines are glued with CA and then whipped with cotton thread which is also secured with CA. I hope this will be sufficiently secure. The pins in the shackles and blocks are screwed in and then seized with a fine stainless wire so that they will not come apart on the lake.

Instead of tying off the downhauls on the belaying pins on the Fife rail I have chosen to loop them round the belaying pins and use a bowsie to tension the lines. This is to speed up rigging of the sails at the lake side. The last photo shows one of the bowsies, disguised as a block. Thanks to 'hammer' for this suggestion.

There is a rudder servo and two winches to control the sails.

The sheet to control the main sail is routed from one of the winches through a fairlead in the deck just behind the mast. It then passes through two blocks attached to the boom and terminates on a traveller just abaft the main cabin.

The three fore sails each have two sheets attached. One sheet from each sail runs down the port side of the deck, through a fairlead in the deck and is then tied off on a loop driven by the second winch. The three remaining sheets from these sails are routed in the same way, but along the starboard side of the deck. These are tied off on the other side of the loop below deck. Running this winch from one end to the other tacks the foresails by pulling the sheets in on one side and letting them out on the other.

The plans suggest that the fore sail winch is controlled from a rotary knob on the transmitter so that the sails can be tacked. I have put together a custom electronic mixer that has two operating states. In one state, it allows direct control of the winch from a rotary knob on the transmitter as suggested in the plans. In the other operating state, the fore sheet winch is controlled in tandem with the main sheet winch from the same stick on the transmitter. A switched channel on the Tx reverses and offsets the signal to the winch thus tacking the fore sails at the flick of a switch! It will be interesting to see if this works as intended.

The electronics is installed in two wooden boxes which slide into runners below the deck. The construction and mounting of these was shown earlier in this blog. I've used magnetic reed switches to turn the power on/off as in my other models. This allows the power to be turned on and off using a magnet above the deck and avoids the need to find somewhere to hide a toggle switch.

Unlike traditional Pilot Cutters, this plan calls for the model to be fitted with a fin and weighted lead keel.

I left this part of the build to the end for two reasons. I needed to know the weight of the model before the keel could be cast, and I didn't like the idea of messing about with 4+kgs of molten lead😮.

The plans give a target weight for the completed model of 8.2kgs (18lbs) including a keel weighing 4.5kgs. With all the extra details I've added to the hull it has turned out heavier than the design weight (No surprise there then 😉) so to keep the total weight of the model on target, the keel weight needed to be reduced to 4kgs. To compensate for the lighter keel, I decided to extend the fin length by 50mm.

The fin is made from 3mm aluminium sheet. This was cut out using a jigsaw fitted with a metal cutting blade. The large hole at the top of the fin reduces the weight a little, and provides a convenient hand hold. The three holes at the bottom are to provide a key for the lead keel.

A wooden mold was made from scrap timber and the fin clamped in place. 4.5kgs of lead was melted and poured in - very carefully! Once cooled, the mold was removed and the keel was then shaped using a 'surform' tool bringing the completed weight of the keel down to 4ks.

Thin balsa sheet was glued to both sides of the fin with contact adhesive and then sanded to give a streamlined cross section to the fin. The completed fin slides into the keel box below the hull and is held in place with two steel cross pins fitted through one of the deck hatches.

The completed assembly was finished with two part epoxy, glass cloth, and several coats of navy blue paint from a rattle can.

At last, the day arrived! The weather this morning for the Buxton area looked to be ideal with 10mph winds forecast.

I don't have access to a Transit van or similar 😊 so the boat has to be transported in bits and assembled at the lake side. It is a bit of a squeeze to fit it all into the car.

The large, yellow sided case keeps the mast and sails safe during transit. It is a simple pair of wooden frames hinged together and covered with twinwall plastic sheeting which I just happened to have in the shed. Also in the car is a folding stand for use at the side of the lake, and a launch cradle made from copper pipe.

At he lakeside, assembly involves fitting the keel, rudder, mast and sails. It takes around 15 minutes to complete - possibly less in future with a bit of practice.

Once launched, she was away ⛵👍. The wind was a lot less than forecast, maybe 5mph with some gusts. She did struggle a bit on such a gentle breeze. When it did blow, she was fast and responsive, outrunning the video chase boat on occasions.

She is named 'Ellen' after my grandmother. Oh, and the helmsman? The designer, Gary Webb (bearospaceindustries.com) has started a bit of tradition of having a bear as helmsman 😀