Are there any free plans for marbleheads out there?

[rcminiman]

Hi Guys,

I would like to build myself another radio marblehead, and im looking for something that will be competitive. My last one was built to an early design, and is now outdated in our local club. :(
It doesnt have to be a mega new design, as our club used to sail free sail yachts(yep, no radio, vane, braine or weighted rudder, just a fixed skeg!!), or vane steered.
A lot of the guys are getting older now, and as such arent fit enough to run round our mile long loch anymore, so I suggested radio control, and sailed all last year with a rudder only marblehead to prove its worth to them. Naturally, I won every single race, but was excluded from the cups because of the radio being illegal to our local rules. This coming season though, it has been introduced legally, and this is the reason for wanting to build another boat.
It will be built using 12mmx4mm planks of cedar and yellow pine for strength. As I said before, we dont sail on a wee pond, this is a serious Scottish Loch, a mile long by a half a mile wide, and the course is from one end to the other and back again.
All I need is a set of lines that I can print off and start building asap please, as the season starts in February. My old converted free sailing marblehead is a bit on the heavy side, and the keel was made to our old rules, and is way too shallow.
We use 1200sq" of sail as a top rig on light wind days, and our marbleheads can handle this without trouble. After all, there is a natural limit to sail area!!

So, could one of you kind gents help me out please before I miss the start of the season??

Thanks to all for looking.

Barry :)

[slotracer577]

Not sure on any free plans for M's running around. The Bantock Cumulus and Monarch are both available from trapplett publications. They both are good designs. I have a set of plans for a really narrow hard chine M from the 80's that I could send to you if you like. Not sure if it is any good. Might be for light air, but probably not for anything over about 5 knots.

John

Hi Guys,

I would like to build myself another radio marblehead, and im looking for something that will be competitive. My last one was built to an early design, and is now outdated in our local club. :(
It doesnt have to be a mega new design, as our club used to sail free sail yachts(yep, no radio, vane, braine or weighted rudder, just a fixed skeg!!), or vane steered.
A lot of the guys are getting older now, and as such arent fit enough to run round our mile long loch anymore, so I suggested radio control, and sailed all last year with a rudder only marblehead to prove its worth to them. Naturally, I won every single race, but was excluded from the cups because of the radio being illegal to our local rules. This coming season though, it has been introduced legally, and this is the reason for wanting to build another boat.
It will be built using 12mmx4mm planks of cedar and yellow pine for strength. As I said before, we dont sail on a wee pond, this is a serious Scottish Loch, a mile long by a half a mile wide, and the course is from one end to the other and back again.
All I need is a set of lines that I can print off and start building asap please, as the season starts in February. My old converted free sailing marblehead is a bit on the heavy side, and the keel was made to our old rules, and is way too shallow.
We use 1200sq" of sail as a top rig on light wind days, and our marbleheads can handle this without trouble. After all, there is a natural limit to sail area!!

So, could one of you kind gents help me out please before I miss the start of the season??

Thanks to all for looking.

Barry :)

[rcminiman]

Hi there John. Thanks for replying.
I could do with something that will handle decent wind really. Im way up in the very north of Scotland, and the wind here doesnt get much under 10-15mph. I usually use my No3 rig-800Sq" short mast most of the time, and thats on my M that weighs more than two of the regular radio M's!
I will search around the plans services and see what there is, and maybe even contact nylet and bantock to see what they have.
I dont have any other paymet methods except from good old hard currency, hence the looking for a downloadable plan.I will sort something out though.
Cheers,
Barry

[mr. fix-it]

I don't have M'head plans , but I have others if you are interested.

[rcminiman]

Hi Mr fix it, I could always use plans for a one meter etc and scale them up a wee bit.
Im now going to make a foam plug up and make a fiberglass hull or two. They will be a lot lighter.
Thanks for the offer, and I will definately take you up on it.
Merry X-mas,
Barry

[validol]

HI Guys,
I finished my speed boat and i decided to make yacht, but i haven't any Plans. If someone possess plans, please to send me.
Thank you in advance.

[CaptainBit]

Hey Barry, If you are still after a Marblehead plan I can help you with that.
I have copies of the plan for RM1000. It`s from the early ninties and is a good heavy weather design by englishman Geoff Draper who used to live in France.
I have a solid wooden plug and also a fibreglass mould but these would cost the earth to send to Scotland.
I am happy to send the plan free of charge if you are interested.
email me with your postal address, I am ( sailing at goldenhorn.co.nz )

[isisagoodun]

Hi Barry
Didn't realise the far north had any RC yachties! Can I encourage you to enter the Scottish District MYA fold? If you look up :-www.mya-uk.org.uk/Scotland/home.htm you will find some addresses and phone numbers of the contacts at the six affiliated Scottish clubs. The Peterhead club sail fixed steering 'Fifies', take offs from the old fishing boat styles with a mass of sails. Their contact, Ali Law, used to sail Marbleheads competitively and has a mass of information in his head which he will no doubt gladly pass on if only you can understand the NE dialect - only jokin' You mentioned that your compatriots are now getting on a bit and are not now able to run the line down a mile of loch. What about getting into short course RC sailing, using only a short length of the loch. Saves a bit in shoe leather. I am at the moment refurbishing a Marblehead (circa mid 80's) - a 'Challenger' designed by the late Tony Able. Only have one rig for it, No1, but hope to have fun with it after the IOM racing at Brechin. It is a relatively shallow draft, 430mm, and is half way between the old and new styles.
Please get in touch. ralphgknowles@yahoo.com
Cheers

Ralph Knowles
MYA Scottish District Senior Measurer

[rcminiman]

Captain Bit, I sent you an e-mail with my address. Thanks very much for the offer!

Hi Ralph, Aye, weve had a club at Wick for well over 100 years now. The earliest dated cup is from 1903. Theres also big clubs in Orkeney and Shetland, but these are free sail, using braine gear. Theres a club on the island of Yell in Shetland that keenly sails radio M's, but I cant remember their club name.

Barry

[Angus R]

This may seem very impertinent but we'll try it. I've never designed a Marblehead but I have designed a moderate number of reasobably successful full size boats.

It seems that with your very large sailing water (=relatively big waves) and presumably high average windspeeds an M that is good in Bourneville is not necessarily the right thing in Wick.

If you would like, I would be prepared to design you a custom M to try to fit your local conditions. No charge: I've got a well-paid day job and this is for fun only. We can produce accurate computer faired lines. If you can extract the necessary facilities from your local college/favourite light engineeriing firm, we can produce driver files to CNC mill the plug or laser cut shadows to +/- 0.1 mm accuracy.

If you're interested, my phone number is 01492 534 356 and e-mail is translate@enterprise.net.

Nothing venture, nothing gain!

Angus Richardsoin

[mr. fix-it]

[QUOTE=rcminiman]Hi Mr fix it, I could always use plans for a one meter etc and scale them up a wee bit.
Im now going to make a foam plug up and make a fiberglass hull or two. They will be a lot lighter.
Thanks for the offer, and I will definately take you up on it.
Merry X-mas,
Barry[/QUOTLet me know if I can help you. I am working on a new boat I seen in a Woodenboat magazine, It is a full keel design of a 21 footer. I scaled it to 40". You could scale it to what ever you want, I like to use 40" because it can fit in my car ok and it has good size impact when you go to the lake ( dosen't look like a toy ). People take good notice.

[Gregg28]

I have collected a bunch of plans over the years. I have attached a couple that I could dig up quickly and that have been published.

The Bee is an older Graham Bantock boat. (Actually it is Roger Stollery. Thanks CaptainBit)

The Skinney is, I beleive Swede Johnson's work

The Roar Edge is by Roger Stollery, and is my favorite. I built a mold and pulled a hull out of it. It was fast! This plane is actually modified for a flat deck.

[CaptainBit]

Gregg, the BEE design is in fact by Roger Stollery.
I have the 10 rater sister to Bee it is called "Chicken" and they share a fin, rudder and some rigs.

[Gregg28]

Gregg, the BEE design is in fact by Roger Stollery.
I have the 10 rater sister to Bee it is called "Chicken" and they share a fin, rudder and some rigs.

Sorry. I got it out of an old issue of Model Yachting, and have not looked at it in years. It does have the "Stolery-esque" foredeck. Thanks for correcting that.

[slotracer577]

Gregg, do you have any side views to go with the lines? I have the lines for the crazy tube, but no side view although I do know it exists.

John

I have collected a bunch of plans over the years. I have attached a couple that I could dig up quickly and that have been published.

[Gregg28]

Gregg, do you have any side views to go with the lines?

John,
I will check when I get home. If not, I can draw them for you.
Gregg

[breakwater]

man, i'm glad i stumbled upon this thread.

I too am looking for marblehead plans. I have an older model from bob's boat yard, and i'm looking to build one similar.

The marblehead plans are either non-existant or difficult to find on the internet.

I'd love if somehow we could come up with some good plans for a hull that was top of the line in say, 1981.


funny thing is, i live the next-town over from marblehead.

[mr. fix-it]

HI Guys,
I finished my speed boat and i decided to make yacht, but i haven't any Plans. If someone possess plans, please to send me.
Thank you in advance.
Hi buddy , looks like you got swept under the rug on this one.

[CaptainBit]

Validol & breakwater, if you are interested in partaking of my offer made to rcminiman then refer to my earlier post and let me know your snail mail address. :confused:

[Gregg28]

Unfortunately, M designers tend to hold thier designs close to the chest. I will dig out the rest of the lines that I can find.
Gregg

[Gregg28]

Here are the lines for the Roger Stollery Roar Edge. It is still a good boat. I would move the mast and the keel back about 2" and drop the keel straight down. The squares are 3/4"

[Gregg28]

Here are the lines for Swede Johnson's Skinny as published in Winter 1990 Model Yachting. I never saw the boat sail, but it caused a stir.

[mr. fix-it]

What about a sail plan?

[Gregg28]

What about a sail plan?

Anything that meets the M rule.

[420sailor]

wow, do those boats have the prismatic coefficient of a pencil, or what?

[Gregg28]

Actually, There is a fair amount of rocker in these boats. They are so light (relative to length) that wave drag is smaller than most. Surface drag is ussually much larger, so minimizing wetted surface is a priority. That is why thes boats are so narrow with round sections.

[slotracer577]

I have seen one skinny in person and it is skinny. I think it is a close relative to the hot dog except for a conventional deck. The hot dog is a top boat at our pond which rewards light low drag boats. I have also sailed against a roars edge. Nice boat as well.

John

[rcminiman]

Hi Guys,
Thanks to all that have helped me out in my quest for lines. I have chosen the RM1000.
I have begun building it now, and am making up a foam plug, from which I will make a fiberglass mould. She has all the right lines for the weather we have here, and hopefully will become a winner.
I will post pics in a seperate build thread as I go along.
Thanks again,
Barry

[Angus R]

Beast of luck with the build

Angus

[rcminiman]

Beast of luck with the build

Angus

Hi Angus, I hope all goes to plan! Should do, unless the build gets interupted by something else. Im hoping to have her ready for the start of the season, around April. Fingers crossed!!
Barry