Here we are using the kit-supplied rudder push-rod and clevis. Thread on the supplied metal clevis onto the end of the push-rod allowing 1/8" of thread to be visible inside the clevis. Measuring from the pin of the threaded clevis, the unthreaded end of the rod will be cut off at a length of 7 and 3/16 inches which will allow for a 1/4" 90 degree bend which is enough to engage the servo arm. When completed, the "end to end" length of this rudder push-rod assembly should be 6 7/8" long measured between the 90 degree bend and the locking pin in the clevis. This length assumes the use of the Du-Bro rubber 3108 push-rod seal. Note that the clevis that will engage the tiller-arm will allow the overall length of the push-rod to be adjusted after installation to center the rudder.

A very nice carbon-fibre and brass rudder push-rod is also available from LONGBOW Racing Yachts and is can be seen on the LONGBOW catalogue on this web site.

addendum: April 4, 2005
The secret to making a small and light mounting plate is to make a plain wooden plate much larger than shown here, perhaps 3" square. Position it in place as per step B3, then drill one mounting hole through the deck and installing one #2 brass screw to hold it in place while the 2 remaining holes are drilled. Once the position of the 3 mounting holes are known, the wooden plate is removed, cut down to minimum size, and drilled out to remove excess material and weight. Then remount it in place...

Do not glue the plate to the hull; allow it to be removable for servo replacement if required in the future.

Note that the Futaba 3003 rudder servo has 4 arms. All but 1 arm will be removed with a saw or side-cutter prior to installation. Also note that in this photo we have made up a couple of small fiberglass plates that act as "washers" to mount the servo to the plywood plate as the #2 brass wood screws we were using here have a fairly small head. The use of #4 sheet metal screws would work too as they have a larger head.

Note that the excess plywood pieces that are left over from the making of your boat-stand may be used to make this rudder servo-mount but the lower plywood piece here really should be a piece of stronger 1/8" model-grade plywood material as there isn't much supporting material in the two "arms" that go under the rudder servo.

Note the Du-Bro rubber push-rod seal (part # 3108), used here rather than the Victoria factory exit guide.

The large diameter of this seal makes it easy to align the rudder servo with the exit hole. Enlarge the exit hole with a round file to fit the rubber seal. The seal is used without the associated mount or O-ring and is inserted through the exit hole from the inside.

 Now we are ready to mount our rudder servo plate on the underside of the cockpit of your Victoria. To properly align the servo with the rudder push-rod exit hole in the cockpit we need to exercise the rudder with a working radio. So assemble a receiver, battery pack and plug in the rudder servo to the receiver. Install a set of batteries in the radio transmitter as well.

Right-handed skippers control the rudder with their right thumb on the controller.

Left-handed skippers are left to their own resources.

Now, with the radio on and working , you should be able to exercise the rudder servo. Ensure that the "trim" controls on the radio transmitter are set to the "center" of their range. At this point you will likely have to remove and re-install the plastic arm on the rudder servo so that it is positioned at a 90 degree right angle to the center line of the boat. There is a small screw holding the plastic arm in place for this purpose. The three unused arms should be cut off now to ensure they can't interfere later with the control lines to the boom.

 Insert the push-rod through the Du-Bro 3108 rubber push-rod seal and insert the clevis pin into the rudder tiller using the middle hole in the tiller. This should be a smooth fit with no excessive friction. Insert the rudder push-rod into the servo arm's outermost hole. This seems to produce the correct amount of rudder authority.

 Next, while exercising the radio transmitter rudder-control back and forth, position the entire servo mounting plate on the underside of the cockpit deck so that the push-rod moves without interference as well as seeing that the rudder is roughly centered. You might need a third set of hands for this step.. When all is working well, hold it steady and drill one 1/16" hole right through the cockpit and mounting plate. Change to a 3/32" drill bit and enlarge just the cockpit surface to accept the shank of the #2 screw. Temporarily install 1 #2 wood screw to pin it in place, check the alignment again, then drill the 2 remaining mounting holes.

Do not glue the rudder mounting plate to the hull. There may be a time when you wish to remove the rudder servo in the future.

Now remove the servo plate, drill and cut to make it as light as possible, and then remount it back in the boat.

Note that since the sail servo will be mounted crossways in the box, the base piece and the side rails can be shortened to 4 1/4" in length. As well, before glueing the pieces together with c/a glue, the two sides and the two end pieces are reduced in height by 3/8". This allows the sail servo to sit lower in the box.

The stock plywood piece that was intended to be used for the top of the radio box is not used; instead a new piece is cut from 1/8" light plywood.

The correct size hole is cut into the top piece to suit your particular sail servo and then mounted across the box so that the sail servo can be positioned toward the left or port side of the box. A couple of small supports should be glued along the sides to ensure this top piece doesn't ever come loose from the force of the sail-servo.

The position of this support piece allows room for the battery pack to fit either ahead or aft of the servo and the radio receiver can be placed in the unused end of the box.

With a 1/2" drill, have fun making a large number of holes in all four sides and the box bottom, which removes a significant amount of unneccessary weight. There are 33 holes in this particular radio box counting a couple of smaller holes in the cross member.  

This version has a removable servo plate to allow the sail servo to be readily exchanged with a different model if desired.

Either the Futaba S3802 sail servo or a HiTec HS-645MG sail servo will work well for you and will do a decent job controlling the sails even in quite difficult conditions.  Note that the sail servo shaft is quite well centered side-to-side in the radio/servo box. The Futaba S3802 servo is somewhat heavier (17 grams heavier) and and is also stronger than the HiTEC HS-645MG.

With a few small pieces of scrap plywood from your kit, add the three tabs shown here to both level and support the box in the Victoria hull. The two front corner tabs are 1/4" thick and the central rear tab is 1/8" thick. The tabs are glued in place with a few of drops of c/a glue which works amazingly well on wood/plastic surfaces.

Before installing the radio box, it receives a coat of clear Verathane to waterproof the box. Unprotected bare wood is hard to keep from absorbing moisture. This added 2-3 grams of weight but was worth it.

The three tabs installed on the radio box allow the box to be positioned above the keel molding in a level attitude. The stock radio box should be positioned about 1/2" rearward of the brass keel tube or placed further aft if the shorter box is used.

If you choose to make the recommended shorter radio box of 4 1/4" as previously described, then the box can be positioned about 1" to 1 1/8" aft of the brass keel tube. This still leaves enough clearance between the box and the rudder servo.

The three tabs on the underside of the servo box now need to be shaped to match the compound curvature of the Victoria hull. This is real easy..

Place some coarse grit sandpaper in the Victoria and rub the box back and forth over the sandpaper. The tabs assume the correct curvature in no time at all and guarantees that the c/a glue will bond the tabs perfectly to the hull. Remove the sandpaper when done of course.

Test fit your radio box into your Victoria hull and mark its final installation position with a few pencil marks. The aim is to have the box centered side to side in the bottom of the hull and ensuring that the box is stable side-to side.

The final product of your efforts is now ready to be dropped into position in the Victoria hull with a few drops of c/a glue under each tab then pressing firmly into place for 1 minute.

(dont jiggle now).

The sail servo arm is made of .032" (about 1/32") type 2024-T3 aircraft grade aluminum alloy sheet or is available ready-made in the LONGBOW Victoria hardware kit.

The five center holes in the arm are drilled out to 21/64" while the two outer holes have to be carefully filed out to the diameter of the bead that you are using. The beads will be glued into the outer holes with C/A glue and will guide the lines running to both the jib and the main booms. If you want to get fancy, instead of the beads, you could install a couple of small pulleys that are available at a hobby store that will further reduce the running friction of the lines (sheets) as the sails are pulled in or let out. The control line layout is decribed later in section E3.

As we sail here in fresh water, we have not had the slightest problem to date with moisture affecting the on-off switch. Salt water sailors could waterproof the switch with a protective cover.

The inside of the hull is dried out after every day's sailing with the use of a small fan as described in Chapter "H".

This is very important to do, as the servos and the electronics do not appreciate any moisture in them. A thorough drying-out between sailing sessions will keep your Victoria dry and light.

 Here is an example of our newest radio/battery layout using the revolutionary radio DX6 radio system from SpektrumRC.
The very light dual-link receiver and rudder servo allowed no less than 2 oz of lead to be placed underneath the radio box, immediately above the keel. Note the very short 4" dual antennaes on this 2.4 Ghz system.

Total all-up weight ready to sail: 4.50 lbs or 2042 grams.

Using the same 1/4" brass angle material as above cut off a piece 1 1/8" long to be made into a jib chain plate. Drill a couple of 3/32 " mounting holes as per the next photo..

Also drill five 1/16" holes into the vertical surface that will be used to fasten the jib swivel.
Mount this jib chain-plate to the deck centered over the stock location on the foredeck with 2 small (size #2) stainless metal screws into 1/16" diameter drilled holes. These stainless screws need to have threads right up to the head and are included in the LONGBOW hardware kit.

The Victoria deck is very thick at this location and will easily take small sheet metal screws without the use of a backing plate.

It uses a stock plastic insert from your kit.

We do, however, redrill the hole (5/64") in the transom so that the insert fits as shown. C/A glue in place while pressing very firmly.

The tapered plug on the transom allows a quick check for water between races. This one was made from a piece of plastic wire insulation supported by a short length of 1/16" aluminum rod from one of the "pop" rivets. A cribbage peg should work just as well.

1: The stock mast step can be installed as shown below or you may wish to install a custom LONGBOW 4 position mast step.

2: The two lines controlling the sails can be secured under the supplied plastic cleats or else brought back to the aft end of the Victoria to a pair of quick adjusting sail sheets as shown in Chapter I-4 of this guide.

.

Mount the plastic mast step on top surface of the deck using the OMSA supplied #2 by 3/8" brass wood screws or the stock kit screws.

Mount two of the supplied plastic cleats at the stock position on either side of the mast step.


The starboard cleat will anchor the end of the jib sheet while the port cleat will anchor the short down-haul line attached to the main sail. The lines pass under the cleat and are securely held in place.

This was just as simple as installing the stock plastic mast step but it allowed the mast to be repositioned, and with the matching mast stub from LONGBOW the mast is prevented from rotating. Four #2 stainless screws were used here without a backing plate.

A stock plastic cleat was installed on the port location to tension the downhaul line attached to the foot of the main sail. The arms of the cleat were cut off and the line will pass underneath to be pinched to the deck. Assuming that you are mounting this cleat with the #2 by 3/8" brass wood screws from LONGBOW Yachts, then pre-drill the deck holes with 1/16" drill. If using the stock kit steel screws which are shorter, no pre-drilling is necessary.