J Class Shamrock V
...where few have gone before...
The Project is the building of a J Class Shamrock V 1/16 model. This is a first time building project from plug hull contruction to a fabrication mold to a model racing yacht. The project began with planning in late Fall 2001 with wood cut in January 2002 and ran non-stop till completed. The Master Plug Hull was completed in April and the mold a month later. The first two boats were on the water in July 2002 and the number three hull, in this build here, was produced the end of that month.
This was big deal in model building. Coordinators were David Brawner of New Jersey and Bob Kjellberg in eastern Maryland. The rig was designed by Rick West in San Francisco, author of this website and the EC12 Class Building Site. Bob engineered the developement, conversion of drawings into a scratch hull plug suitable for mold making. David and Bob created the mold from the plug and David frabricated the hulls for use.
Information in this large section documents the effort and begins with scratch building the hull structure, planking and preparing the hull into a plug to form the mold. The sailing boat construction from a production mold here is the #3 hull. The crate was built for shipping via ground freight and found to be safe and economical.
The 94 boat was named Wings and joined the racing circuit in 2003 with two sister yachts. There are about a dozen in operation by the end of 2011.