John from Perth - Launch day
Greetings, after a delayed build process brought on by moving house, my RS750 was launched on the weekend after much anticipation and many nerves about whether it would sink. I have uploaded some photos of the finished build and am happy to report that it sailed beautifully without issue.
I made some minor modifications to the build which included building the deck in western red cedar, adding some additional rigging components for greater luff control on the sails, using a Futaba 2.4 GHz FASST RC controller and receiver, and upgrading the size and rating of the sail servo and battery compartment. Everything worked really well and I had no issue controlling the sails in fairly strong winds.
For those of you who have not sailed RC yachts before and are nervous about launching the result of all your hard effort then don't be as the Sparrow is extremely easy to sail ... I had no previous sailing experience and within 30 minutes I was able to navigate accurately tacking back and forth. Very quickly I found the balance between the amount of sail and the ballast in the keel and then suddenly everything you have been reading about RC yachts starts to click ... if only I had put extra lead into the keel it would hold a tack better in stronger wind ... and that second smaller sail rig now makes sense as it would give me a smaller sail area to avoid being battered about as much!
Thanks Bryn for introducing me to RC yacht building - I am now thinking about building an RS375 for my 7 year old daughter as she has become hooked ... plus I have the experience of having built one in cardboard and sticky tape previously!
Cheers,
John
Perth, Western Australia 
