R/C yacht restoration

R/C yacht restoration

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Discussion

laters

Original Poster:

324 posts

121 months

Sunday 5th June 2016
quotequote all
My late father built this yacht from scratch what must be at least 20 years ago now.
I suspect the last time it saw water was around the millennium.
Its been sat in the back of the garage since then as the garage got slowly filled up and it was buried at the back.

After a little tidying and more than a little rooting around it was found and brought out to the light of day.

My dad really did a nice job on the hull as its dirty, scratched but 100% solid and needs no repairs other than a fresh coat of paint.

The sails & rigging plus some of the fixtures haven't done so well. Living by the seaside has its advantages and one of those is the few seawater pools that can be used for model boats.
I need to replace the sails, rigging and hardware to start plus I need to fit a couple of sail winches.
I remember the system he used not working well so may as well do it right this time.

Ive not really bought anything for boats before so need to find a good online shop. The local model shop doesn't stock very much at all for scatchbuilding anymore & not much boat stuff at all.

A few photos.





sgrimshaw

7,414 posts

257 months

Tuesday 7th June 2016
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Looks like it was only R/C on the rudder, might be best to keep to that.

Boatbuoy

1,950 posts

169 months

Tuesday 7th June 2016
quotequote all
I'm guessing the black tubes that the mainsail and forsail sheets (strings!) go into lead to winches below deck?

My suggestion would be to contact Westbourne Model Centre ( http://www.westbourne-model.co.uk/ ). Just looking on their website might be overwhelming so prehaps contact them by phone and direct them to this page, or e-mail them the images so they can see your situation. They are a really helpful and enthusiastic bunch in there and I'm sure they'll be able to atleast advise you, if not supply any parts you need.

laters

Original Poster:

324 posts

121 months

Tuesday 7th June 2016
quotequote all
Thanks.
Most of the rc shops I use or have looked at stock very little for boats.

Yes it had my fathers attempt at sail winches below deck but they are modified servos and not really upto the job as the plastic gears on both are stripped & need changing.
I already have 2.4ghz radio gear so couple of sail winch servos and need to get my wife to make some new sails and its well on its way.

Boatbuoy

1,950 posts

169 months

Tuesday 7th June 2016
quotequote all
If your issue is purely that the old sail winches are shot then many model shops will sell uprated metal geared servos, they won't need to be boat specific. You can then swap your your servos out and re-use the which drums with the new servos.

sgrimshaw

7,414 posts

257 months

Tuesday 7th June 2016
quotequote all
Boatbuoy said:
If your issue is purely that the old sail winches are shot then many model shops will sell uprated metal geared servos, they won't need to be boat specific. You can then swap your your servos out and re-use the which drums with the new servos.
Sail Winch servos typically can rotate up to 6 times, a "normal" servo (metal geared or not) won't.

laters

Original Poster:

324 posts

121 months

Tuesday 7th June 2016
quotequote all
My father had attempted to emulate the top servo on the page linked to below.
He basically put a massive servo horn on the servos and it just didn't work.
http://www.westbourne-model.co.uk/acatalog/Sail_Wh...

Looking like it needs a couple of the drum type servo winches to be on the safe side.
Then I need to remember/relearn how to sail as the last time I went sailing it was in a mirror dinghy my dad owned when I was a teenager (more years ago than I will admit).

Ayahuasca

27,428 posts

286 months

Friday 10th June 2016
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Needs more tension on the foresail halyard. The front of the front sail needs to be tight or else it won't sail very well.

I built a R/C yacht from scratch, rigged the main sheet and foresail sheet to a single winch.

Alex@POD

6,324 posts

222 months

Friday 1st July 2016
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That brings back memories, I used to sail yachts like that with my dad back in the day... IIRC the sail servo had a single long metal arm, and moved about 1/2 turn.