John Fisher writes: "Well, the first hull came off the board this morning and it was 17 oz with all the frames. So with 1/16 oz balsa planking and 2 layers of 3.2 oz satin weave glass I came out pretty close to the 16 oz. I would have liked to be slightly lighter, but this is pretty good. The second boat should be lighter since I used lighter balsa. If you are going to build a star in this manner take a scale to the store when you buy your balsa and weigh it. The bottom planking sheets I used varied from 14g to 32g for 1/16 X 3 X 48. I didnt use any of the 32 g sheets. The first boat sheets were about 22g each and the 2nd boat was 14 to 15 g per sheet and there are 3 sheets for the bottom. So that should be a 1/2 oz difference between hulls."
"I am sure that I could make the frames lighter. On my 10R's I used .150" wide frames and on the star I used the 3/8 wide per the plans. I am sure I can thin them down to 1/4" or .200 without loosing much strength and it should drop the weight by another oz or two."
John FIsher
I am planning on using thinned west epoxy to coat the inside. I will do it one the keel trunk and radio tray are installed. Radio tray will be a sheet of ply with holes for the servo's.
I will use a carbon rod for a push rod for the rudder.
Deck will be thin ply or fiberglass.
2006 Augst 13, BTW:
The planking was 3/8" wide strips of 1/16 balsa. {John}
sprayed the frames with kicker, then put the planks on, then hit with a drop of 1 sec CA. Might not have to use the kicker in houston, but here in CO there is just no humidity to kick off the CA. {John} did not taper the planks and any gaps were filled by epoxy when the bottom was glassed. Took about 1 hour to plank each boat.
