Your ship is a beautiful inspiration to any shipwright. Well Done! (not that any scale model is ever "done"). :-)

Here are a couple of videos of the Fore and Main Course sails with the Music Wire Clew stiffener installed. Electric wind blowing. I think it works pretty good. I have had it done for few weeks, I had to wait on my sail maker to get it into her schedule, and I just now got everything uploaded.

Rod

IMG 3376 (0 min 21 sec)

IMG 3379 (0 min 16 sec)

I think you will need the windward tack of each course to be farther forward. Otherwise the course will backwind, which will stop forward progress.

Perhaps an additional line running forward from each clew , then through screw eyes on the forward side of the sail would do the trick. If getting the tension on these lines is difficult, make a part of them out of bungie cord.

The courses on a real ship have lines running forward and aft at the clews, just for the reason I stated in the 1st sentence. Line names: Sheet runs aft, tack runs forward.

On my courses, I just put a 1/8" dowel "yard" across the bottom. (this was called a Bentinck boom on real ships; I think it was more common on the very deep course used by topsail schooners). The wind would flip the dowel forward as the course tacked, holding the sail in position to (usually) prevent backwinding.

http://navalmarinearchive.com/resear...inck_boom.html

Brooks,
I have seen some examples of the "Bentinck" boom, it wasn't indicated in the rigging plan, but I did briefly consider it.
I agree that the sheet loops are probably a bit short, I just took a SWAG at it. I haven't actually sailed this setup yet. The tack lines forward (another loop) would be easy to implement. I may try that.
Thanks for advice.

With your sail-arm control, you should be able to handle the tacks on your courses pretty easily, compared to a winch system. On loose-footed sails, the tacks are more important to control than the sheets.

Off the wind the sheets merely keep the sail from blowing out too far, but on the wind (reach on around to close-hauled) the tacks hold the windward luff taught, so you can get upwind without backing, just like the spanker has it's mast it's hooped or laced to, and the sails with lower yards are kept taught.

My winch system on Constellation makes controlling the tacks very difficult unless I put in a separate system just for that (the discussion's in the build log). I resorted to the "Bentinck boom" solution in the form of a wire in the foot of the sail and even then, it really needs working tacks in order to perform properly.

The problem with the winch system in my case is there's not constant tension on the tacks to keep the line from falling off the winch-drum. Using an arm system as you are, that isn't an issue.

About Sheets and Tacks ? And their tension?

I have been been experimenting with this mod as discussed above.

What is the proper tension. for best performance? I increased the length on the sheets to move the clew on the courses more forward. (yes they were much too short) I also installed the tacks for the Fore and Main sails. It seems to be working, more or less. However I am getting some drag on the tacks. I have identified some of the causes, lines warped around each other . I still have one area, starboard side Foresail I haven't identified the cause yet.

If I unhook the tacks everything works fine, no drag.

I installed both the sheets and tacks fairly loose. That may be part of my problem and therefor the question. Does the length of the run make any difference?

I'm not done yet!
Rod,

I returned to the scene of the problem today after a long interval. Too many Honey Do's and real life stuff.

Anyway I got out the fan and started testing again. Almost immediately found the problem. The sheet for the main sail, starboard side was caught in the back stay rigging. and dragging on a screw eye. It took me all of about 5 minutes to trace it out and correct it. It seems to be working as it should now.

Short video below. I can just barely see the tacks working.

IMG 3487 (0 min 19 sec)

Rod

Well done!

Fascinating work, good sir. Greetings from northeast Arkansas.

Gammon and Crawf56, Thanks for the kind words!

I'm going to try not to get too wordy here. I have a couplie of things to communicate. I think it will require two messages?

First, in doing some clean up in the shop today I ran across and old sketch of mine. Those who are old fogies like me may remember these blue canvas 3 ring notebooks we used to buy for school work. Back before plastic notebooks and computers. They always managed to acquire some kind art work. Mine usually got some sort of a ship. This one is my sole surviving example, all freehand except for a straight edge for some of the rigging.

I think I was reading Hornblower at the time?

I thought you might enjoy this,
Rod.

very nice ship the Brig and the sketch !

OK, back to the Brig.
I have mentioned before about my one person Kayak for rescue. It works, but is awkward and hard to carry and handle all by my lonesome.

I have returned to my first idea of building a Tug/Tow boat. I bought a Kit from the same Mfg. that I got my Schooner from. This model has an option to add a tow float to encircle the stranded boat and tow it, as well as an option to deploy a pivoting hook and arm to grab the forestay for a straight tow.

I was concerned about my ability to see across the lake well enough to perform the hook up maneuvers; so In addition I decided to add a small RC airplane "FPV" camera and a 7" monitor mounted on a tripod on shore. That means "First Person View", as In Cockpit View.

I set up a couple of backyard simulations to illustrate the options.

I have only tested the towed float option so far. It is not exactly easy, but I got it to work after a few tries, in a backward sort of way. But I learned that It needs a floating tow line too. Don't Ask. On a very calm day I took my Schooner, as the Damsel in Distress and the Tug , as the Hero, out the lake for some testing. It did work but requires a soft hand and practice.

I will report back on further testing,
Rod

The stars aligned for another tugboat/ schooner/ attempted Rescue Yesterday. This is the Hook Arm Rescue. I drafted my 10 almost 11 year old granddaughter, as cinematographer. She used her cell phone. I'm afraid she had problems keeping her attention on the drama on the water. The video she took bounces all over the lake and the sandy shore.

I also had the cabin mounted camera on the tug transmitting to a small monitor tripod mounted onshore.

I had some successes and a lot of misses. I had more wind than I wanted and the schooner kept trying to escape from the tug. But I guess that is a realistic scenario. I learned that the hook arm was much too flimsy and flexible for the purpose. I am going to have to make another out of some heavier rod. I have some welding rod I'm going to use this time. The arm kept bouncing up and down and the hook slipped off on most of my few successful catches. I usually caught the fore staysail itself rather than the fore stay itself.

For the few actual catches I learned that I had to approach at an angle across the starboard bow of the schooner, very slowly, then power away keeping tension on the hook.

Anyway, I used a screen scraper program to catch a few of the better still frames. They may give you a better idea of the problems I still think it's a good idea, but it needs a lot of work.

More later, if the weather holds?

Hi' i'm currently building 3-1/96 scale RC Cutty Sark's Revell kits converted to RC SAILING SHIPS, I bought 3 for this project, they will each have and be built together exactly the same in every aspect///

carbon mast and yard arms, Deneemen/cuban cloth 0.50 oz yrd sails, 3 6-turn top quality sail winches, 1 digital rudder servo, 3000 mah lipo 7.4 volt battery, 2lbs lead bulb ballast on a 18" deep thin carbon fin keel, micro thin lines and sheets, All as close to scale and sailing appearance as possible. any pointers appreciated.
I am also constructing the FIBERGLASS model molds to cast in fiberglass the following ships from hull line plans:

4ft, and 6ft, and 9ft, sailing ship hulls from fiberglass molds:
Cutty Sark
1850's Yacht America
2000's (modern hull lines) America 2.
48 inch Sailing square rigger ( i have 1st completed hull)
Sailing schooner Lion Heart 68 inch LOA 20 in draft with improved internal ballast keel.

I'm just starting my new ship building- giant scale RC business and have been laying up the mold plugs from cedar and plywood former's as the plugs to construct molds to reproduce these above ships. I will be focusing on 6 vessels for sale as custom orders only.
SPREAD THE WORD,,,, we are taking RC sailing to a whole new level,
these are for the most advanced RC Model builders, with average build time of 500 hours ea. at $1,000 to $5,000 cost each depending on the builders.
i also construct 2mm-4mm and 6mm working pulleys and blocks and tackle for realistic yard and sheet functioning.
I can be contacted here,,, cptnbobhawaii@yahoo.com
Fiberglas RC ship hulls will become available 1/1/2022

Ahoy there, captain bob! This is probably best discussed in a dedicated thread, but I am interested in your conversion process. I have done several plastic R/C conversions myself, including a Revell 1:96 USS Constitution and a Heller 1:100 HMS Victory. I recently sold both ships to a fellow in California, and I documented the controls and rigging of both ships so he could reassemble them when they arrived. You can find photos and description in the link below:
https://rcwarshipcombat.com/threads/...tution.446834/
Of particular note is the second post, with the Lessons Learned. While my conversions worked decently, please don't repeat my mistakes and you'll have a better experience.
Do you have any experience with square-rigged R/C models? The people in this part of the forum are very knowledgeable and experienced, both with models and with full-scale.

I have a Revell Cutty Sark kit sitting in its box, waiting for conversion. I am also very curious about your other hulls. Do you have any pictures?