You can just see her gliding across the water with all of the grace and speed that you can ever imagine, simply beautiful. That is all you're going to get if you don't make a decision to purchase and start building that Victoria that you want. This article is the first in a series on where to purchase a Victoria, the parts you need, and how to build a performance sailboat.
Nearly all hobby stores sell the Victoria kit for around one hundred dollars. The kit gives everything you need to build a stock Victoria, except the electronics. In the Phoenix Metro Area there are several hobby stores that carry the Victoria kit. Below is a list of known hobby stores (in alphabetical order) that sell the Victoria kits.
Adventure Hobbies 1949 W. Ray Rd. #31
Chandler, AZ 85224
(480) 722-9365
D & D Hobbies 6247 E. Main
Mesa, AZ
(480) 981-7709
Hobby Town USA Gilbert & Baseline Rd.
Gilbert, AZ 85234
(480) 892-0405
Hobby Town USA 4825 E. Warner Rd.
Phoenix, AZ 85044
(480) 598-5282
One of the nice things about model yachting is all you need for electronics is a 2-channel radio. One channel for the rudder and one channel for the sail winch. When you purchase a radio, make sure it is a surface type two-channel in the 75-MHz band. The two most popular brands are the Futaba and Airtronics. The last electronic item you'll need is a sail winch. The most popular brand is the Cirrus CS-80 Super-Torque servo. It gives good torque for handling sails and is small in size. The price for a radio is around $60 dollars and the price for the Cirrus is around $26 dollars, (the only known hobby store is the metro area that caries both radio and the Cirrus CS-80 is Adventure Hobbies).
One of the good things about the Victoria is it is easy to build. The kit comes with all of the parts to get it in the water. When constructing the Victoria, use the kit's instruction manual as a guide with the understanding that there will be some differences to do to produce a modified boat. These articles are to guide you through the construction with the added performance steps. Not following the steps outlined in these articles can cause more unnecessary work and problems you don't want.
To start, most model yachters want as much speed as they can get out of their Victoria, to do so it means building a modified sail rig. For any sail rig you'll need side stay lines to keep the mast upright. To anchor the stay lines to the deck, you can use your own metal eyebolts or plastic eyelets from the kit. If you choose to install your own eyebolts, you will need to put in support under the deck. Support can either be a piece of wood, thin threaded aluminum, or washers/nuts.
To place eyebolts or eyelets, choose two holes on either side of the mast that are already pre-placed on the deck. The first two holes are directly across from the mast and the second two holes will be back from the first. If you choose to use the kit's eyelets, glue them in using epoxy. If you use metal eyebolts, drill the holes at the pre-placed indents and screw the eyebolts into the support wood, threaded aluminum, or washers/nuts.
With the side stay eyebolts or eyelets in place, you need to install an eyebolt or eyelet up at the forward part of the deck towards the bow. This is eyebolt/eyelet is used to attach the jib boom to the deck. The important point here is the stock pre-placed indent is not in the right place. To get better performance, the placement hole needs to be located farther forward - 2 ½ inches back from the tip of the bow. If you decide to use an eyebolt that is threaded, you will need to be able to get your hand/arm up into the hull to place the washer and nut.
The next item to fabricate is a bulkhead which goes inside the hull right under the location of the mast. The reason for the bulkhead is with a modified sail rig, more downward stress will be in the area where the mast mounts on the deck. The bulkhead will prevent the mast from bowing down on the hull. Currently there are two bulkhead plans to use, one from Craig Mackey in which the bulkhead follows the inside shape of the hull, and the other is shaped as a triangle. Either design will work for the desired purpose.
To begin construction on the bulkhead, obtain a 1/6 inch three-ply plywood (you can use carbon fiber board if the cost does not bother you). Draw out the outline of either plan you use on the plywood and cut it out using a scroll saw. Please note, it is very hard to provide a bulkhead plan that will be exact fit to the inside of your hull, so some sanding and shaping will be needed. When you shape your bulkhead make sure it does not bulge out the hull or deck. It should fit into place easily but yet smug so that it will stay in place while it is being glued in. When you use a swing arm sail winch, you will need to provide a sheet line exit hole through the bulkhead. The best way to do this is to drill a hole and glue in a bead. The bead will provide a large enough hole to allow the line to pass through the bulkhead without fraying.
Once the bulkhead is sanded to fix right under the mast and forward to the keel mounting tube hole, you need to waterproof the bulkhead with paint or varnish. When waterproofed, glue it in place with epoxy. Please remember to make sure the bulkhead is straight and forward of the keel mounting tube hole. If not, you will not be able to glue in the keel mounting tube. Check and test fit before you glue!
That is all for now, next month we'll go over the keel mounting and rudder tubes and attaching the lead keel bulb to the keel fin for maximum performance. See you then.