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JUNE 1972 15p U.S.A. & Canada Seventy-five cents | ‘ | #55 7, he om ad iced Seen I HOBBY MAGAZINE el merchantman ¢ “B-Liner” straight runner + Paddle steamer “Juno” JUNE 1972 In the Tideway Some of the R/C yachts at Hove towards the end of the day, when the spectator crush had thinned. Most of the remaining small boats are racing. BECAUSE we happen to be a day or two later than usual in preparing this issue, we can report on the ‘R/C sail-in’ held by the M.Y.A. at Hove Lagoon on May 7th. This must be regarded as very successful, with some 30 boats of all shapes and sizes coming along, plus an encouraging number of spectators and enthusiasts who had travelled quite long distances, in many cases, to see what it was all about. Several M.Y.A. members with no experience of R/C went home with a new outlook, and everyone had an op- portunity of seeing all the various sizes of R/C yacht at the same time in one place. The course laid out was perhaps a shade keen, virtually the entire length of the lagoon, or each leg about three times as long as normal. Races were run all day between groups of approximately similarsized boats, in a fresh reaching wind, and with the lengths of the two main legs, speed counted perhaps more than manoeuvrability, and eyesight was involved, especially with the smaller boats. Our Star-C only got involved in one race, and bore out our conviction that sailing without a mechanical two Starlets, one on super-regen and unable to sail, but the other sailed remarkably well and seemed to be on the water most of the day. : All in all, it was a most enjoyable and informal gathering with something going on all the time and plenty of discussion and even friendly argument. A thoroughly worthwhile effort which must have advanced the cause of yachting generally and R/C in particular. Star-C Regatta We are pleased to announce that Poole M.Y.C. have kindly agreed to be hosts for the first Star-C One-Design R/C regatta at Poole on July 16th. All Star-C owners are cordially invited to participate provided their radio equipment is superhet; at least for this occasion rudder-only boats are welcome to compete against the sheet-and-rudder boats, to ensure a good turn-out of boats. You don’t have to be expert and there is no entry fee, but we would like intending entrants to notify us by July 3rd please, so that we have some idea of the numbers involved. on the sheets in anything other than light There will be a trophy for the winner and prizes happens is that movement of the servo by pull on club members will race Q class on the same day, ‘lock’ winds would flatten the power supply quickly. What according to entry. As a spot of light relief(!) Poole the sheets moves the feed-back pot and switches on the motor to return the servo to its intended posi- unless the Star-C entry is really heavy; there should be at least 80 Star-Cs completed by then, so what about it? More details next month. our race and bowled along on a free reach for the first leg. Response slowed as we approached the buoy because in reaching we were in effect sailing with the servo motor stalled and the poor Deacs were virtually flattened in that first stretch. We sheeted out for the shorter run to the second buoy, having a little Du Teillay tion. By dint of sharp practice we were away first in visibility trouble, and then had insufficient power to sheet back in for the long close reach home, not to mention insufficient rudder power to hold the course with the sails fully out. Ah, well, we shall just have to change back to orthodox sheeting! Cyril Gould and the merry Medway men were there in force and, to our surprise, mostly sailed rudder only, but with asymmetric sheeting, which enabled them to give a very good account against even the several Q boats present. There were only two or three Ms, but several non-class boats only slightly smaller than Ms. Smallest R/C yachts were 231 You may remember an appeal in our pages about three years ago for an enthusiast to complete a model of the French frigate Du Teillay (which brought Bonnie Prince Charlie to Scotland in 1745) for the National Trust of Scotland. The model has now been completed, by Mr. W. H. Cochrane of Aberdeen, and was unveiled at the end of March at the Trust’s Glenfinnan centre, where, if you’re in the neighbourhood, you can see it. Club Notes Guildford Model Yacht Club is undoubtedly among the liveliest in the south, though a relatively small club as numbers go. More members would be most welcome; from our own contacts we know the club is friendly and copes for all degrees of experi(Continued on page 254) MODEL BOATS National M Class Team Championship Witton, April 1-2. Reported by Fred Shepherd Birmingham M.Y.C. were again host club for this the second National Team Championships for the M Class pe on April ist and 2nd at Witton ake. Ten clubs entered, four more than for the 1971 event. The holders, Birkenhead, had entered the same skippers, Walter Jones and Ken Roberts, both past Marblehead Championship winners, but for this event sailing quite new boats, Floreana, Walter’s boat, having only been sailed once before the race. Up from the south came Chris Dicks and Dick Seager from Clapham, twice winners of the Southern and Metropolitan District M Class Championship and on this score alone hot contenders for the National title. A team entering for the first time was Norwich as _was Poole, Cleethorpes had Harry Briggs and Gordon Griffin again with new boats. The host club had entered Dave Knowles and John Beattie, both sailing boats built during the Winter of ‘71. About half the fleet arrived on Friday to make the most of the time available and tune their boats. A good westerly wind blew eke things ideal. These conditions seemed quite settled so it looked like a good race in store. During Friday night and early Saturday morning the heavens opened up and the level of Witton Lake, which takes flood water from the Erdington area, rose by something like 15 inches, completely covering the concrete paths around the lake. Not only did water come, but rubbish galore. When Ae ea began to arrive at the lake around 8 a.m. things looked grim, but John Beattie, the race secretary, assured everyone that all would be well by the start time, then himself set about removing the penstock from the lake to lower the water. A steady wind blew the floating rubbish to the edge where it was a removed. At 11 a.m., only 30 minutes late, the race got under way after a very short speech by Mr. John Lewis, President of the M.Y.A., and the usual instructions by the OOD. The whole fleet were sailing in tall rigs with the wind around 4 m.p.h. Several top boats clashed in heat one, Chris Dicks lost his run as did Ken Roberts, both Bournville boats lost. On the heat back Pterodacty! was going great guns, pointing high and sailing very fast, her opponent, Pointer (!!), was way off wind, but sailing as high as Chris was proved to be his undoing; on the second leg the boat was caught in a calm patch caused by the high bank to weather, and Pointer out to lee and in clean wind sailed over to win. Only one club scored maximum points in heat one, YM6MOA. Sailing went on at a brisk rate until the midday break, and by the restart the wind had freshened a little and 236 quitea number of boats were in No. 1 working rig. At this stage the pattern was beginning to emerge, the battle was between Clapham and Poole. Scores after 5 heats were, Poole 38, Clapham 37, YM6MOA 30, Bournville 27. In heat 8, with the boats sailing the leg to weather, a sudden increase in the wind strength caught a number of boats in 85 in. rigs. Pterodacty! was sailing Floreana and though pressed way beyond the limit, the southern boat proved to be much the better. When racing finished at about 5 p.m., and with outstanding resails completed, the scoreboard read Poole 66, Clapham 63, YM6MOA 52, Birkenhead 48, Hove and Brighton 47, Birmingham 46, Bournville 45, Guildford 30, Cleethorpes 18. A very pleasant evening was had by almost 50 skippers, mates and families at a hotel in Tamworth on Saturday and everyone tried hard not to talk about boats! Day 2. Heat 1 brought together the two leading teams. Black Rabbit v Pterodactyl, Pointer v Lizanne; both runs were won by the Clapham boats by narrow margins, but on the beat back, Chris and Dick hammered home their advantage, winning in convincing style. With the wind still increasing some fine runs were being made by the _ boats just mentioned, plus Dennis Lippett, Desmond Daly and Walter Jones, but “ Left, top, the end of Pterodactyl which few people saw! She lost oniy two beats to windward. Bottom, flared bow and very fine waterlines of Floreana. Above, lightest in the fleet was Pointer, at 15} 1b. Balsa planked with mahogany veneer overlay. Bottom, design or accident? Mike Harris used this interesting fin on Tokolashiman and came in for his quota of ribbing. JUNE just to prove that it is not only the top boats that can shine in a blow, Brand sailed by M. Haines from Norwich was probably going faster off wind than anyone. Gordon Griffin was also going very well though a look at his Pos. 1 score suggests otherwise. On day one there had been little difference between top and bottom boats in the light to moderate winds, but now with the wind around 20 m.p.h. gusting 25 the top boats were really showing the way up the lake. At around 4 p.m. heat 18 was completed. Poole were in the lead with one windward resail outstanding. Clapham, though, had resails which if they won would give them the title; this they did, and so become 1972 M Class Team Champions for the first time. The Boats. More skippers are now going for the lightweight yacht—half the fleet were 17 pounds or under, two being under 16. A few years ago one would have considered this weight incapable of sailing well to windward in any weight of wind. As mentioned in the race re- the boats of a Marblehead Team Race at Birmingham could only partly explain the total absence of entries from Fleetwood and Birkenhead, the premier ‘A’ boat clubs of the North of England. The only ‘out- sider’ was Pandora, from Newcastle, recently refurbished by Frank Craker and Arthur Tait after an absence from the competitive ‘A’ boat scene of at least 15 years. The local entry of seven boats was, however, full of interest and included three new models to the John Lewis Challenge design, two in G.R.P. from a mould by Keith Armour and a beautifully planked version by Harry Atkinson. : : The race was fortunate in having strong winds during the day, but the direction, West to South West, gave the usual freak winds along the factory side of the lake and made a real test of sailing skill. Racing commenced at 11.30 a.m. and almost immediately the pattern for the day emerged, Pandora (A. Tait) having 17 points, closely followed by Mandator (P. Maskell) 15 points, and Endeavour (M. Rawnsley) 13 points, after four heats. During the afternoon these Draft Sat. Final R. Seager Seager O.D. 16.0 10.6 14.9 78 61 1775 Pteredactyl C. Dicks Dicks 17.5 10.25 14.0 35 74 1 1736 Black Rabbit C. Edmondson Mod. Stollery W. Rabbit 18.75 9.5 55 31 60 5 1795 Pointer J. Stokes Shepherd Pointer 15.25 10.25 15.0 35 68 2 1801 Torolashiman M. Harris Harris/ Gill 18.25 9.0 15.0 32 55 6 3. YMém0A 106 4. Hove & Prewony Ol) 3% Birkenhead 100 6. Birmingham 86 1804 1803 Guildford 82 Bournville 72 Norfolk& Nraveicly 10. Cleethorpes 61 28 Skipper O.D. Stalker E. Carter Mod. Witty Hustler 20.0 10.0 13.0 20 51 8 C. Colsell Shepherd Slip-Up 16.0 10.0 15.0 1) gs; 38 15 tipcter D. Daly Daly O.D. 16.Ge 10.25 140° 36. 64 3 1796 Blue Peter 4 K, Roberts Mod. Adams Fax trot 18.0 11.0 12.0 24 46 10 Floreana W. Jones Mod. Nersworthy 18.0 10 25 14.5 24 54 Capella II J. Beattie Shepherd Step Two 16.25 10.25 16.0 31 47 9 Road Runner D. Knowles Shepherd Step Two 16.25 10 25 14.0 15 39 13 Sweet Sixteen A. Austin Shepherd Slip-up 16.0 10.0 16.0 18 43 11 R. Cole Shepherd Afterthought 16.75 10.25 14.012 1692 Andromeda 13928 1755 Scoobedo D. Lippett Mod. Gretal 19.5 11.0 14.5 20 31 17 1800 Shazan H. Dovey Lewis 18.5 10.0 14.0 25 41 12 M. Haines Witty Skippy 1793 Brand X 1592 Blue Slipper 1794 Lady Goldberry H.Briggs Go J. Harrod —Stollery March Hare G. Griffin double luff mainsails, and whether this type is better than the conventional hook up type is at the moment impossible to say, but they look good. One set made commercially by ‘Nylet’ of Fordingbridge was a superb example of 18.0 10.5 20.0 14.0 22 10.25 36 16 12.2513 25 18 Briggs O.D. 15.5 9.25 13:0°’8 “12 — 20 Witty Bambi 17.0 9.6 13.0 16 sailmaking. 10 i) Of the twenty boats sailing only one used the moving carriage vane, quite surprising as the Midlands has always been the home of this type of steering. Is it that the moving carriage generally needs machine tools to manufacture its parts, whereas hand tools which almost all model yachtsmen possess are all one needs to make a breakback type vane? To sum up. The winter of 71-72 has produced its crop of boats, all good and capable of winning the highest honours in the right hands, but where are the new skippers who are likely to break the stranglehold the few have on Championship Marblehead racing? : Finally congratulations to the Birmingham M.Y.C. on their organising of a fine race. A’ Class boats at Rawdon. Report by Gordon Keeley ’ three yachts continued to make steady ably, and there were general commisprogress, with Endeavour improving her erations for Harry Atkinson with Playposition all the time. The crucial race tex who, after winning an open race occurred in the sixth heat when on the — at Fleetwood, first time out, could not beat to windward, Pandora, sailing find his touch on his home waters, Mandator in an exciting race, lost her and finished in last place. The Chaljib in a sudden gust of wind, and, lenge designs look most promising, but after hurried repairs proceeded to lose Endeavour, a Highlander, again showed the run, thus dropping the ‘double’ what a fine all-round design this is, five points involved when leading boats while Pandora’s performance was quite sail one another. remarkable. Older model yachtsmen will . : remember her tremendous performance At the conclusion of the final heat, in second place in the National Mike Rawnsley, as a result of his skilChampionships at Fleetwood in the ful sailing, had won the ‘Little Portugal’ _—early fifties, and she again looked a Cup by the narrow margin of one point very good boat in the strong winds at from Peter Maskell and Mandator. Rawdon. The wind was, however, also Pandora had 24 points with an outher undoing, with two rigging failures standing re-sail for three points against at vital moments, and after so long out Keith Armour and Kraken, but lost of the competitive arena this was these and finished in third place with hardly surprising, but is a_ pertinent 24 points. Sally Armour, the only lady , skipper, sailed Blue Falcon very credit(continued on page 251) 27 24 17 16 13 11 7 Placing 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 4 Foxtrot Uncle down and forward to get the lead ballast under the CB. Though the mast was a long way back, the change from the conventional fin and bulb seemed to have made little or no difference. — Probably the most important thing the rule has done from a building point is to remove the bore of having to mould a garboard, completely unnecessary with such thin fins nowadays. Rigs seem to be much as in the past few years; it seemed that all boats had gone up to the 85 in. hoist allowed by the new rule. Three boats used Points 28 Ind. Pos 1590 station 6-73 and from there it projected 4 Design 1661 1792 Up. A limited entry of eight yachts was a big disappointment to the host club after a great deal of hard work by officials in staging this M.Y.A, event, and the unfortunate clash with the Beam Lizanne 128 S:. Glassfibre construction accounted for twelve of the yachts, the remainder being timber. Two fine examples were Dick Seager’s Lizanne and Joe Stoke’s Pointer, both finished in diagonal veneer. A point noted was that while Dick had taken the final layer from the deck down to the bows forward, Joe had taken Pointer’s toward the stern. B Boat Poole 8. few Little Portu ga Disp. 1711 1764 years back whose full bows made spray fly everywhere. {t would be interesting to hear why each builder chose his particular method. The amended M Class rule seems to have produced very little new. The boats sailed by Harold Dovey and Mick Harris were the only ones with any noticeable change, this being to the keel in both cases. Harold’s Shazan had a very shallow leading edge to the fin with the lead bulb projecting forward some 3 or 4 inches. Tokolashiman had its fin root set roughly between 135 ys Ts good as the 20 pounders boat for boat. Downwind their performance was outstanding, though to the spectator not spectacular as Score 564 port, the wind was at times 20 m.p.h. plus, in this the lightweights were as as Club Clapham 1972 Yacht Endeavour Mandator Skipper M. Rawnsley P. Maskell Club Design Leeds and Bradford Highlander Designer Priest Andrews Leeds and Bradford Challenge Pandora A. Tait Newcastle Blue Falcon Playtex Mrs.S.Armour H. Atkinson Leeds and Bradford Mod. Jill Leeds and Bradford Challenge Kraken Tessa Rashien 237 K. Armour G. Hill R. Spencer Pandora Leeds and Bradford Challenge Leeds and Bradford Moonshine Leeds and Bradford Mod. Jill Lewis Lewis Lewis Daniels Daniels Lewis 19 MODEL BOATS For those building away — COMET 42 in. R/C sailing Part Two By E. F. Amiss catamaran, M.M. Plan number 1139, price 75p post free SLATTING This the 51 lengths of gluing between the evenly; time spent brings us to the long job of trimming 3/8 in. x 1/8 in. slatting to size and hull joiners. Carefully space these out on this will be well rewarded for the neat appearance it gives the model. MESH_ The same applies to the nylon mesh, which is the next job. Attach screw eyes where shown and run a length of cord around the outer edge of the net. Heat seal the end; I used an old electrical screwdriver, (heated) for this job. Mark out positions of mesh and do all the cross pieces first. The long lengths are first sealed to outer rear piece, then threaded under and over (alternating) towards the bow, and finally sealed. Heat seal all the joints where the cord crosses to prevent any creep. Cord left over is used to form a small coil of “rope’’, and glued to foredeck. Shape the mast heel plate, 6 in. x 2 in. x 4 in. mahogany, and turn a | in. length of 4 in. diam. rod, to 3/8 in.diam,. leaving a 1/8 in. thick shoulder at its base. Drill and countersink mast heel plate to accept this fitting and epoxy to it. Glue the 6 in. plate in position as shown on plan, with the 3/8 in. diam. protruding from top rear, to receive mast. This rod is later cross drilled and tapped 6 BA, when the mast is in place. RUDDER & SKEGS Cut the rudder to shape from the two 3 in. x 7 in. x 4} in. mahogany pieces, using the offcuts for skegs. The rudders below the waterline mark are tapered towards the rear, running off to 1/8 in. thickness and having a small radius. The leading edges are left in. thick, with a small radius on each edge only. Skegs are left 4 in. thickness all over, remember the keel is left 4 in. thick and flat bottomed. RUDDER TUBES Mark decks 14 in. in from extreme stern and drill in. diam. down through deck, and out at stern keel. Epoxy a 4in. diam. brass tube in place, 1/8 in. above deck level and 1/16in. below keel exit. Form a generous epoxy “washer” around these points, also scoring the tubes for a good key. Holding a rudder in place 1/8 in. away from hull for clearance, drop a scriber into tube and mark rudders. Drill rudders to accept 3/16 in. diam. brass rod for a depth of 4+ in. approx. Epoxy a 44 in. length of rod to each rudder and when set, put rudders in position and mark the 3/16 in. rod where it leaves the stern tube at top. Remove and allow another 7/16 in. on length. Cut to size. Tap the rods 2BA almost to the marks that were made. Reassemble rudders and lock in place with 2BA nuts. Test for free movement. Remove rudders. Cut a 1/8 in. x din. slot near top of each rudder and glue in place the two 104 in. x 1/8 in. x 4 in. rudder bars. Reassemble rudders and centralize. Cut the 14 in. x 1/8 in. x fin. rudder linkage to suit, and drill 6BA clearance hole through rudder bars and linkage bar. Bolt together with washers between and locking nuts to ensure free movement. Glue the skegs in place, holding with sellotape. CABINS The two cabins are now made (handed) using 1/8 in. x 1/16 in. resin bonded ply. Note the sloping roofs. Points to watch are, when the roof is placed on, it must be necessary to press down, to insert roof retaining pins, thus compressing the rubber tube and making a waterproof joint. It follows the holes to receive these pins are drilled when the roofs are held down (sellotaped). The cabin front shaped sections are carved from balsa or obeche. Windows are thin sheet acetate, secured with an impact adhesive and finally, window frames are made in 1/8 in. perspex or Oroglas. Cut out the holes in the perspex first, then grind to shape, there is far less chance of breaking them in construction if done this way. Fix with animpact adhesive. An epoxy resin is not suitable for perspex. Place the cabins in position on decks (minus roofs) and scribe around insides of cabins, on the deck. Cut out decks where scribed and glue cabins in place. Next construct the two front hatches from 1/8 in. and 1/16 in. ply offcuts and glue in place. Small strips of aluminium or brass offcuts are glued to tops representing strengthening bands and hinges. Immediately to rear of cabins, cut out a deck section on each hull to form a cockpit. Line the underside of the cut-out with 4 in. x }in. mah. glued and allowed to set. 1/16 in. ply walls are now glued to the din. x din. and followed by fin. x fin. to base of these walls. Drop a 1/16 in. floor in place and glue. Form a small seat from balsa for each cockpit and fix. Finally a duckboard from 1/16 in. ply for each floor and each seat covered with Rexine completes the cockpits. MAST The lower section of mast is a 13 in. length of + in. diam. alum. tube. The top section is a length of 314 in. x 3/8 in, diam. x 22 gauge alum. tube. File to fit one into the other to give an overall height of 434 in. Epoxy the joint and when hard file a taper so the two sections blend into one another. Locate the mast on its seating and $in. up from its base drill a 6BA tapping hole (cross drilled). Remove mast and tap seating 6BA. Open out hole in mast to 6BA clearance. 314 in. up the mast, drill a small hole to take a screw eye for foresail fixing, making sure it is 90° to 6BA hole at base and facing front. The mast cap and collar are now made from alum. Two small holes (clearance for rigging wire) are drilled opposite each other in the collar (port and starboard) and a third hole at rear at 90° to the others. Make the collar a tight fit and glue in position, flush to top of mast. Silver solder a bead on port and starboard wire and pass through holes in collar, from top. A third wire is beaded and passed through the rear hole and down the mast. This is later attached to gooseneck fitting to provide fixing for mainsails. Leave the three wires dangling. Turn and shape the mast cap to a press fit over the collar. Press in position. (To be continued) 252
