Hello Folks !

Sailboats are my second largest passion righ now (the largest being helis) and because i wanted to build somethign on a small budget while here in Doha, i decided to build a model of a model

The choice fell on a Razor 3 Footy yacht (for more information on the Footy yacht class look here: http://footy.rcsailing.net/ there is also plans) that i intended to build even smaller (most people consider footys teh smallest practical size of rc sailboats).
I wanted to do exactly 1/2 scale but printing out the templates i got only 55% scale so it`s a tad larger than i initially planned but oh well i am rather happy by now i got it slightly larger.

the specs:
Length overall 180mm (7in)
beam 56mm (2,2 in)
Displacement 75g (2,65oz) and the ballast weight minimum 35g scaled from the original model.

The Hull was made in about 1 hour and is of 0,6mm ply in tape and glue construction. very light no internal formers  the Keel will slots into the a plate that holds the RC. The RC installation is a rather large Spektrum AR6100, 2 x e-sky 4g micro servos and a LOSI micro car 150mAh battery for receiver pack.

it uses the plan suggested swing rig (mcrig), built from some piano wire (thanks Anwar!) skewers from carefour and a pice of carbon rod leftover from a wrecked parkzone vapor. A shopping bag serves as sail material

so far i could only sail it in the compound pool, with very turbulent winds, but it is working well

short video here:

And yes, you have inspired me enough and more to build one soon

It is fun to see the shadows of the waves at the bottom of the pool !

If my build is motivating people to build one themselves i`m very happy But to be truthful there realy isn`t much to it.. i just build from a plan someone else designed and perfected so hats off to the great guys who design models for us and let us have their plans. And boat building wise i stand on the shoulder of giants.. like for example Brooks Martin a friend i have unfortunately never met face to face but a great friend, motivator and mentor nevertheless !

have a look at his boats here:
Aldebaran Tops'l Schooner http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1096365
The Bottle Baltimor Clipper http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1071509  This build made me start building boats

i`d greatly enjoy if you get into sailing Footies Anwar, it`s about the best starter into boats there is as the very credo of the class is to be easy to build, with pretty much any material you can find, cheap and incomplicated They are also very very fun to sail especially in larger groups. The sailing can be learned in a few minutes of practice too. So who knows maybe soon there will be a footy fleet in India and Qatar !

had another nice sailign session at the pool today a bit too windy in teh gusts, for this a smaller B or even C-sail rig would be required. but nevertheless good fun
i never thought a 7in boat would sail this well!

I was also hoping to see some action from the Wakra beach yesterday !