RC-Hangout

Getting my 1st boat this century in the water spurred me into getting moving on this one...The Sea Maid.
The plans for this boat, the Sea Maid, are extremely OLD, as were the plans for the SNAPPER I built with little issue. The SNAPPER is the white boat with the blue top I had already posted pictures of. That being said I fear these plans had been copied and resized and copied so many times they are nearly unusable aside for as reference. Not knowing this yet, I started building the ribs to the plans and assembling them into sub-assemblies. There were 8 sets of these required as well as the rear transom. None of which were reusable.
After several hours of cutting, planing and milling in the notches required I managed to have glued up 80% of the needed ribs. It was then that I placed them against the keel only to find that the notches for the sheer rails and the chine rails were not lining up. Major issue. Not wanting to try to work backward and rebuild all the ribs from scratch, I opted to try to salvage any of this by building it more as the Snapper was with sheet bulkheads. SEE BELOW.
(I had already pulled the keel and removed the rear bulkhead at this point.)

It was still a lot of working backward to establish chine/sheer locations but seemed worth a try. Several days later I had a nice looking frame but felt it would still be far too much work to get a skin applied. Salvaging again only the keel this time, I started again taking measurements from this nearly completed, but unusable, frame to produce another approach. Building the center section ONLY using bulkheads again with a top and bottom silhouette and then skinning it.
The rectangular box will hold the electronics and the large cutout to the left of this is the cockpit. The ribs you see across the cockpit will be removed once the top and bottom of this section are applied and the skin is applied to the hull. I expect it to be extremely durable at this stage.


Awaiting the transom and keel.
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Keel and transom are installed and I’m dry fitting one side of the hull.
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Now with one side glued, screwed and clamped in place…we wait.
Once this thoroughly dries (the waiting is killing me but I am not going to rush this as that side is under tremendous strain) I will get the other side installed…then wait some more. The two pan head screws in the bow will be removed also and flat head screws will take their place.
The next installment of this build will be the fabrication and installation of the very bottom bulkheads, the final fitting of the stuffing tube for the prop as well as the rudder and the application of the bottom skin. And then finally flipping it over to add the bulkheads to the top and skinning it as well.
I only hope this is of some interest to someone. As I told Derek, I am not used to others being this interested in my efforts. My VERY tolerant wife is normally the one who has to contend with any “Come see what I did.” requests.

Is it your own design? It reminds me of those Italian motor launches. Very nice build, is there going to be another bimbo?

Alas no. It is not my own design...though it is MY own approach to this build as the bulk of the plans are flawed. These pictures are what I am going for and they seem to be the same as those in the one Indiana Jones movie.
Very dated but classy design. I have no issue with (sexy)women drivers so I am sure I will find a volunteer for this boat as well.
And there is a sub-project involving this build that will come to light in the near future...I hope.

Hey guys...you may wanna follow this build thread, lol. The "sub project" that Dad is talking about is pretty cool!!!

Well, yesterday I trimmed the excess off the two sides and fabricated the bulkheads for the bottom, glueing them in place.
I made a template from cardboard then cut out one side for the bottom. As the plywood I have is only 24 inches long this meant splicing on a section as shown in the pictures below.
Since the bottom is to be painted, this seemed not an issue. Along with the clamps and glue, this side is held in place with 11 #4 flat head wood screws that will just be filled over.
Tomorrow I will clean up the joints and start cutting out the other side. The areas at the bow will be solid balsa as I cannot imagine bending 1/8 inch plywood to this extreme. More on that soon.

That's a really cool build so far, certainly a craftsman at work here... Nice one..

Tony...Thanks for the compliment. I am not used to compliments or even anyone showing interest in what I do as my world normally seems so far outside the box that many comments over the years had not been positive. Hence, I am not used to this show-n-tell. This takes some getting used to.
This morning I just finished screwing, gluing and clamping the other side of the hull bottom in place. Once this dries adequately I'll trim off any excess material around the edge and get the two bow blocks installed.
So far this is seemingly very promising considering the "adjustments" I had to make to the original plans. It should still more than resemble the Sea Maid. I hope to start ordering the electronics soon. The problem there is they are not all currently available from the same HobbyKing warehouse..unless I go to the international. Bummer.

loads of nice work, I like it, will look fantastic once finished I'm sure.

Very nice! That some detail custom work your doing there. I don't think that I have the patience to do something like that. Keep up the good work and more pics please.

I was over at my Dad's house the other day and I saw the boat. It sure does look great!

Very cool, Dad!

Nowadays with the availability of plastic, foam and fibreglass ready made stuff it's refreshing to see the craftsmanship of old is not yet lost. I have neither the talent nor patience to do things like this but I certainly appreciate the chance to witness and admire this build.
Looking forward to further progress.

Thanks for the interest and compliments. I am also a fan of fiberglass, as Derek can a test to. More on that another day when I get back to finishing the RC controls to my life-size K9 from Doctor Who.(all Fiberglass)
For now an update to my latest boat. I really wanted to make the bow blocks out of pine but once I had them roughed down and set in place I was confident that finishing them down to the size of the balsa blocks I am using now would be more work than even I was willing to invest. So I chucked them to the side (for reference) and started over with a 12" x 3" x 3" block of balsa and reproduced their equivalent and glued them in place.
I let this dry overnight as the glue I used was a slow setting mix to give more assembly time. This morning, with the help of a belt sander to get it closer then a palm sander to finish it out...Taa Daa. I filled some open seams and screw head holes with plastic wood and now I wait...again.
I hope to have the stuffing box installed as well as the rudder tube today or tomorrow. I nearly finished soldering up the stuffing box yesterday. Then comes the top.
Thanks for your interest and comments. This is my world..."Enjoy the build and enjoy the use of the end result." Rarely when I finish a project can anyone say "I have one of those." Thanks for the encouragement.

That's cool, Dad! It looks great!!!

Thanks. It looks even better right side up. I'm at the point where I will be fabricating the bulkheads for the top and installing some of the electronics and linkage to the rudder so it was time to knock out a temporary stand to hold it properly...and relatively level.
Unfortunately, most of the components are on order from HobbyKing's international warehouse as some of the parts are not currently available in the US warehouses and I did not want to place multiple orders. Shipping would be ridiculous. There is still a lot to do on the top side so you will see progress.

ha ha ha, that really looks great!!!

After a couple more days I did get the framing fabricated and installed on the top of my boat...and the dech assembled. Because of it's size I could not use a single sheet so I do not yet know how this patchwork will effect the final finish/paint job. We'll just have to wait and see,
I saw as I was resizing these that there are a few more ribs now than are pictured. But I have already dry-fitted the top and have it clamped in place.
With four screws down the center of the deck for alignment to the hull I was shocked to find that, with the two extra boards to equal out the force, I only needed four clamps to get an incredible fit down 3/4 of the hull. With the sharp angle on the bottom of the bow the only way I could see to get the deck to follow the curvature of the ribs was to add four more screws. This will stay this way until I get help with the gluing as I need the capable hands of Derek on one side while I work on the other to get it glued, screwed and clamped in record time. More later.

Thats a beautiful looking build there.
Look forward to seeing the finished model.

That's really looking good, Dad! I should be able to come down either Monday or Tuesday and help you with what you need help with.

Leaps and bounds...that is how this boat feels like it is going together... Derek stopped over yesterday for moral support as much as anything to help glue, screw and clamp the deck in place. We even worked on a project of his. This morning I removed the clamps and felt comfortable that I did not need to add any extra screws where the boards and clamps were. Here it is ready to have the excess removed from the edges. This also gives a good idea of the size. It is right at 36 1/4" long.
With my wife Sandy's help, I managed to trim off the excess with a multi-tool Derek bought me for Father's Day a few years back. It cut so smoothly and closely it was a small matter to use a palm sander to finish it up. Bless be to plastic wood for filling over the screw heads and any other blemishes.
I don't like dragging Sandy out into the garage unnecessarily so I managed single handedly to cut out the top of the servo/rudder compartment as well as the electronics compartment with little troubles as they are rectangular.
The cockpit is another matter. It was a matter of cutting out a smaller center section and then measuring from this cut edge to the opening in the inner bulkhead...repeatedly...as mistakes here would not be very forgiving. Once I got it cut out to the full length and width (with ample materiel still in the corners for the 2" radius corners, I laid them out to the sides by tracing around a roll of masking tape that just happened to be 4" in diameter. I cut to about a heavy 1/16" from this line with the multi-tool and, again with the help of my very tolerant and supportive wife, used a 2" sanding drum in my electric drill to bring the corners out to the line...more or less. It looks good to us.
If you look behind me you will see a 1/6th scale ROW BOAT that I made in between projects that will be used as well at the ponds to race around. It should aggravate the scale fisher person on board. Even the ores are custom made. Derek was amused.
It went way easier than I had expected. But again, close counts on this opening. And it is VERY close.

The openings are now done and making the doors for over the electronics will be challenging to make them "curved" to match the deck, properly hinged with a strong magnetic latch and, above all, as water-tight as possible. Not that all that much water should ever get on the deck(I hope...I hope).

I'm still fussing over small flaws, filling them with wood filler and sanding.
At least now I can get the rudder tube installed and sealed as well as the stuffing box for the propeller shaft. The stuffing box will most likely be a posting of it's own as I am rather proud of how I got that worked out to be installed. I can start sealing the inner compartments as well. As I said, "Leaps and Bounds." I just hope the electronics from China will not be any later than need be.

Great looking work there. Hat's off, sir.