building a 1m sailing vessel

During the past 2 weeks I build a sailing vessel of PVC. at this moment the sailing vessel is almost finished. All parts are build and the actuators are placed, but at this moment the boat needs to be remote controlled which isn't implemented yet.

Below i show the building process of the sailing vessel:

I started building with a PVC pipe of 125 mm and heated this with a hot gun to shape it in the shape of a sailing vessel

Instant succes not guaranteed  

After some time you will get this shape by cutting of half you will get a better shape

Me cutting of half of the pvc

Not instant good result as well a little adjustment to make it better.

 

After heating the PVC again it comes close together but pvc is made based on a chemical reaction so the parts will never glue together by heating. Therefore use PVC glue to glue the parts together.

 

Close up of the glued parts

Time to make the sails:

the sails are made of old sails from a optimist (small sailboat for children).

this sail is cut in to the right shape. 

The shape which I chose is Gaff rig (see wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaff_rig)

with zeil ogen (dutch word and untranslatable by google translate.. but those are the metal rings in the sail)

you can attach the sail to the mast. The mast is made from aluminium pipes see pictures. The measurements of the sail will follow later on.

Height mast:

width:

angle gaff rig:

length gaff rig:

attached gaff rig to the mast.

time to attach the keel as well. to attach it as good as possible I decided to put them inside the hull of the boat and attach them to pieces of plywood which are glued to the hull itself. This resulted in a very strong and rigid connection. 

 

after attaching the keel everything is sealed with silicone to make the connection also water tight. 

 

after the connection of the keel, the rudder could be connected as well. In this case the servo is mounted upside down in the hull and a wooden stick is attached to the turning mechanism of the servo.  the wooden stick is connected to the rudder (see below: left keel, right the rudder) and connected to the keel to share the weight of the rudder and to keep it more stable. 

 

 

after closing the back side of the sailing vessel you have a water tight boat.

good luck with building one yourself!

more pictures and explanation will follow soon.