Ignorant beginner questions - which electronics?

[grahamcameronhimself]

Please be patient with my ignorance!

I am attempting to build an IOM. I fear my endeavour will seem futile to the experts on this forum. I live in the Highlands of Scotland with no opportunity to race and little enthusiasm to do so. My starting point was a desire build a pretty boat that sails nicely. The logic was to source plans for a respectable class. I have done this before ("Ragtime"), 25 years ago, and had a lot of fun. The boat sailed nicely, but would probably never have measured and certainly would not have been competitive. Now, retired, I'm having another go. This time "Zigzag". I haven't actually had a chance to look at proper boats, and am feeling my way forward. I have consulted many books on the subject, but there are few recent publications, and the sport seems to have moved on. I have managed to unearth a number of really helpful photos here and here. My hull material is mahogany - prettiness wins over weight. I have chopped up a lump of an old table.

I am about to set up the internal machinery - winch, steering servo and radio. I'd really appreciate any advice on which equipment to use. I need to buy the whole caboodle including radio transmitter and receiver.

Any help appreciated. While I accept that advice of the form: "Don't be an idiot. Give up. Buy a boat. you'll never get it right!" may be what I deserve, I probably won't take it.

(Warning, if the forum exhibits any patience with me I may well be back with more stupid questions.)

Some pictures below.

Graham.

The story of my other boat is here

[ianrmcdonald]

I fall into the same " ignorant beginner" group.

hull looks great! and you are clearly going to make a lovely boat.

have you thought about buying a complete used boat? easy way of buying all the required parts at a good price and after transfer to your hull, you may well to get something for the glass hull you have left.

[grahamcameronhimself]

That's a very good idea - why didn't I think of that?

[ericatcse]

looks really good what glue did you use whilst planking? I hope to start building an Ellipsis IOM soon , have bought the planks just staring to get the other stuff together. I have already bought another boat with good rigs etc which I will transfer in due course. Do you have any more pictures to illustrate the planking process?

Cheers Steve

[grahamcameronhimself]

This is all glued with West System Epoxy. I hacked up a lump of an old mahogany table to make the planks. Had to restart after putting a couple of planks on too carelessly. My innovation (probably thought of by many before) was to cut out the building board so that I could get inside as I was building.

I suspect the boat will be too heavy to be competitive. The most difficult bit was the fitting of the planks around the foot of the stem/bow. I planed the planks to shape in pairs clipped together and then planed the bevels to get them to fit.

Have now bought a second hand boat to learn from and for organ transplants.

 

[ericatcse]

Thanks that's really helpful, good luck with the transplant!

[grahamcameronhimself]

Other tips - though as a beginner I have a nerve giving tips. (1) Before mounting the shadows I cut a tiny sawcut in the bottom of each at the centre. I then strung a bit of fishing nylon along the notches so that I could sight along it for straightness. (2) In the first two pictures you'll see protruding bits of plank that I fixed to the shadows at deck level. This meant that I had no difficulty in positioning the top plank, and also gave options for hooking my elastic bands to hold planks with drying glue. NB you can haul the planks down pretty tight at the shadows, but be careful between the shadows that you don't pull them out of shape if you bind them there. (3) Once you have planed the planks to fit you bevel the edges to accommodate the curvature. If you take too much off you can spoil the overall shape you carefully created. Cross hatch the edge being bevelled with pencil strokes. You can then bevel but ensure that you never quite remove the pencil marks - there should be a dot from the line left at the outside edge.

By the way, in the picture which includes my plane, a casual observer might not notice that there are two planes. A tiny one and a big one. The tiny one was well used in my method (and cost three times as much as the big one!)