Fila #87 ready for sailing season

Today i took some time to check and update Fila for 2014 F5g season.
No major changes, just a wash, polish and cosmetics

The old rudder had a gap and a steel shaft

leaving rust behind

This was the prototype rudder, but it stayed with the boat for the whole season.

The 3d printed rudder(which has a refined shape) will be used on fila

The paint match is not good at all, but makes me think about doing a blue-white boat one day

The kicker

3mm thick 3d printed tensioners are used on all lines
a new hook design holds them in place

the hooks are 2mm aluminum bicycle spokes

new jib weight, 20g lighter, hopefully i won't catch something on it

The super simple telescopic boom is making adjustments easy

The rudder looks bigger, and does not fit in the red-white-black color scheme, but it's functional.

I am not sure what boat i will sail this year. Maybe Fila or evolution. But hopefully a canting keel boat.
The goal for this year is to experiment with different boats, incorporating movable ballasts. Offcourse the competition spirit remains and winning another national championship would be nice.

Fila #2

The past week a guy hit me up, via our national forum saying that he would like to have a F5g sailboat i was selling one from a friend, he also said that he has a fila hull, in original condition.
For about a year i've been trying to find such a hull/mould, so i could copy and build another fila, as good as it could be.

This was the boat from the friend, a competitive narrow design(hull same as  #93, second in championship)
I have sailed this boat before, it sailed well

It was sitting for about 3 years, so i gave it a clean and brought the rigg up to specs(new lines if damaged, seams checked/corrected etc.)
It went with a b-rigg and another big jib, servos included

i got the fila hull, as it came out of the mould about 10-11 years ago

it's weight is 429g, battleship kind of weight

If it's designer agrees i will do a copy, the goal for glassfibre version is 300g(hull and deck)
and 250 for carbon version(both nonvacumed)

It is not perfect

some original defects

The gelcoat was brushed into the mould and is uneven

I can imagne that this was really the best possible boat to start your model sailing career, it had lots of volume, easy to sail, plenty of material not to sand through and relatively easy to build.
The plan now is to finish the evolution project. Then make a light 2piece mould(so this hull does not get damaged) and go from there.

2014 kicker

For 2014 i will be running a new kicker system on all my F5g boats.
It's a 3d printed design, simple 5g of weght, one screw adjustable.

this is it, black, stealthy and clean

cunningham is the green wire, simple, and releases the tension when the boom is out

i will sell a kit for 10€

Rwd is what real rc drifting is.

During busy school days i get my relief by driving my sakura d3 rc car.
The car is getting better and better, and soare my driving skills.
Over the pas month some new parts where designed and build for the car, mostly steering components to improve handling.

here is the right steering arm, which is 3d printed in green, and enables the wheel to get more lock, but there is still room for iprovement

a green "achslenkel", stering hub, is a heavy duty design, shock clearance is les than a mm at full lock

Ackermann isn't bad at all.

This is the type of wheels i use, 5mm offset, "gangster steelies" with a 15mm lip

Deepdish is my style

The car runs superbly, looks ok, and is fast, now running hpi t drifts allround. these tyres give me enough grip to keep up with awd guys on all surfaces.
Hopefully this will become the first competitive rwd drift car, and even with no gyro.

Some indoor clips below: