
Hands-Free Mast Calipers
Setting up your boat correctly can be the difference between a successful or disappointing day at the lake. This hands-free mast caliper allows you to put the caliper in place and then adjust your rig.
Setting up your boat correctly can be the difference between a successful or disappointing day at the lake. This hands-free mast caliper allows you to put the caliper in place and then adjust your rig.
The last thing to do before you put your boat in the water and after you have set up the rig and verified that it is true side to side is "bench tuning."
My foray into radio-controlled sailboats began only a couple of years ago, but my background includes a good deal of experience in designing, building, and flying radio-controlled sailplanes, where a model can reasonably be expected to have 12–18 servos and computer radios are the norm.
We have tried all types of wind indicators from very fancy to quite simple. This one works pretty darn well and is simple to make.
Most sailors know that a boat must “balance right” to sail correctly and efficiently, but what, exactly, does that mean?
If you wonder how model yachts sailed before the days of radio control, the answer was: quite nicely, thank you.
In the pursuit of sailing fast, Bob Sterne looks at rig selection, mast position, obtaining proper trim to windward, and altering that trim when sailing in non-optimum conditions.
This material is a bit heavy going, but rewarding if you want to learn just how sophisticated self-steering boats were in the days immediately before Radio Control.