About Dave Mainwaring

I sailed my first model sailboat tethered by a string off the floats at the Wollaston Yacht Club, Quincy,MA, in grade school.
Then I built model airplanes. For several years I built U-Control planes and free flight sail-planes.
In junior high school I started racing real sailboats and my model airplane building stopped.
I served a tour of duty in the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG Evergreen WAGL295, Captain Of Port Boston). Later, after college, my hobbies involved building fiberglass dinghies and molding fiberglass Friendship Sloop models.
My involvement dates back to 1976: www.daveifm.wordpress.com/ ... designers and builders of models began working in parallel with Dumas. Beginning with the Dumas design, the early practice was to cut the high freeboard down, to cause the hull to more closely resemble the appearance of the International Star, and to lighten the hull. This had the effect of shortening the hull’s overall length.
The beam of the hull varied from builder to builder. Sails in the early days mainly came from Rod Carr’s model racing sail loft in Springfield, VA. Dave Mainwaring, in Needham, Mass., used an old, abandoned street sign for the material to fashion a keel of a design he found pleasing, being significantly narrower than the Dumas original and having a slight aftward rake, from top to bottom, in the aft edge (the Dumas keel’s aft edge was vertical.) Dave also designed a semi-balanced spade rudder, abandoning the International Star’s skeg. Dave drew sketches for his Star 45 design, having lines scaled from the 1946 edition and then from the 1976 revision of the ISCYRA’s official plans. Dave’s friend Jack Sullivan, a design draftsman, rendered the sketches on mylar, and both Dave’s and Dumas’ keel designs were shown. These drawings have undergone three revisions. Revision 3, the current official version which governs the dimensions of Star 45 boats built from scratch, signed by John W. Mayers, clearly shows the profiles of the Mainwaring and Dumas keels.
The idea of using fiberglass reinforced plastic for hull construction was inside many a cranium by the mid 1970s. In January of 1976 Dave Mainwaring borrowed a wooden hull from Dave Holmes and made what is probably the first female mold for making fiberglass Star 45 hulls. By July 1976 Dave had advertised for sale his “Sirius 45, Star 45 Class model radio control sailboat” – the short kit consisted of fiberglass hull, fiberglass deck, fiberglass aerodynamic keel shells, sail plan, construction drawing, and model builders guide, all for $65.00.
Sure enough, the rumor was true, and in 1976 Dumas also began making its hull design in fiberglass. The Mainwaring mold was then passed to John Reynolds in Orlando, FL, and John made many fiberglass hulls. His wife Mary became a highly-reputed maker of precision-built Star 45 sails.
“In winter of 1970-71, the AMYA President designated Ralph Newman of Clarence, NY to head up the effort for the Star 45. By spring 1971, the position was transferred to H. Whitney (Pete) Cutler of Brookside, NJ.
“Model Yachting Magazine Issue #5 (Fall 1971) featured the first technical contribution in an article titled “Improving the Dumas Star 45” authored by Ben Hogensen.
the 20 boat minimum reported as being reached in Fall of 1972,
In Model Yachting #18 (Winter 1974), AMYA’s Bob Harris appointed Rod Carr as Class Secretary, and Rod immediately scheduled the first Divisional Class Championship Regatta (DCCR) and first Annual Class Championship Regatta (ACCR) for the 1975 sailing season. Star 45 Column also began to appear regularly in Model Yachting.
“By the summer of 1975, the emphasis placed on class publicity was beginning to pay off.The Eastern Divisional Championship was held in Savannah
“Class population had grown to 44 boats by spring of 1975, and the 1976 ACCR was scheduled for July 18, 1976 at Lake Alcyon,
“After his year as Class Secretary, David Holmes turned the reins over to Al Hemmalin of Middletown, RI. By fall of 1976 Model Yachting #25 reported 66 Stars registered, and a successful completion of the 1976 ACCR at Lake Alcyon.he fleet was made up of returning skippers as well as new skippers who were drawn to the rapid growth of the class.
To continue the encouragement of new skippers, Rod Carr donated an engraved, spun aluminum dog dish trophy entitled “Spot’s Dish”, named for Rod’s Star 45 which had won the first three Annual Class Championship Regattas.
Model Yachting #31 (Spring 1978) Class Secretary Bill Weiss reports that the 143rd Star was registered.
“Published class records are sketchy until Model Yachting #41 (Fall 1980) reports a 9 boat ACCR won by Bill Rader who was to become Class Secretary a year later.In Model Yachting #44 (Fall 1981)the Class Secretary reported that 200 StarS had been registered since 1970, but the number of current active skippers on the AMYA roles was not given.“
== From Rod Carr:
{Spot}“The hull was made of 3/32” aircraft ply over 1/8” frames copied from Dumas kit parts with the ¾” of extra freeboard removed (Figure 1 at the end of this Newsletter).A balanced Vortex aluminum rudder was fitted as was the fiberglass keel and bulb from a Model Masters Yankee 50/800 model. Molten lead was poured down the fin into the bulb, and the fin length adjusted to match the draft of the kit boat. Decking was 1/16” aircraft plywood with a very large hatch.
“The standing rigging was typical EC-12 configuration with one set of spreaders, jumpers, and upper and lower shrouds.No topping lift was fitted.Early testing showed that boat balance could be well controlled by mainsail set and trim, so a single mounting hole for the pegged-base mast was provided in the deck.he mast sat upon an aluminum plate which provided the bottom mounting point for the mainsail boom vang.his arrangement coupled with loose standing rigging tensions in light air, encouraged the mast to rotate a bit on each tack giving some aerodynamic advantage over a fixed arrangement.he masthead crane was extended substantially to allow the backstay to clear the mainsail roach.
“Running rigging consisted of a mainsheet which began on a cleat on the boat transom just to port of the “S” in Spot. It went forward to a double purchase blocking system on the single arm Harris L’il Herc bang-bang winch, and then out the sheet exit guide aft of the mast step to the main boom and down to a manually adjusted travelerThe traveler was a curved piece of curtain track with a well greased plastic slide as a traveler car.This item was well worth the effort in construction and adjustment as it provided the control necessary to keep mainsail twist under very fine control from the transmitter, even though proportional servo response was yet to become common.If the skipper kept his wits about him, it was rare for the boat to fail to be first at the weather mark.
“Sails were of 2 oz dacron, and featured what was termed California Cut in honor of some early experiments carried out in the Golden State where broadseams were placed in the luff area of the sails extending back only about half way to the leech.The result was a quite nicely cambered sail that had a smooth leech.he result was quite remarkable acceleration which paid off, given the relatively low displacement of the hull.
“With no Star fleet nearby, Spot was sailed as much as possible with the Potomac MYC EC-12 fleet.She held her own in light air as having essentially the same sail area and less wetted surface she generally did well, out-accelerating the heavier full-keeled boats.ut in medium to heavy air she really came into her own.Pressed to weather, the leeward bow of the hull did a good job of encouraging the boat to round up, and she routinely out pointed the 12s, much to the dismay of the locals.er hydrodynamically shaped keel fin assisted in windward performance, especially when facing kit boats that were using the flat plate fin. Her downwind performance in light air was not sparkling, but if trimmed bow up, she was quite a sight in heavier air, almost planing in gusts.o doubt that the experience gained in racing in the competitive EC-12 Fleet was a strong contributor to the boat’s success in ’75 – ’76 – ’77.
“The boat’s configuration was retained without changes except for a repainting from the original blue topsides and white bottom in 1975 to an all yellow hull, keel, rudder for the ’76 and ’77 season.eclining winning margins showed that, as a benchmark, she was being rapidly overtaken by the developing construction and sailing skills of the rest of the class. So she was gracefully retired after her third win.
A history of model yachtingby Norman Hatfield is available on line. “The I.M.Y.R.U., particularly by its then Chairman, Norman Hatfield, to get Model Yachting accepted into membership of the full-size governing body, the International Yacht Racing Union (IYRU). This work culminated on 1st May, 1990 when the I.M.Y.R.U. became the Model Yacht Racing Division of the IYRU (IYRU- MYRD). In its turn, in August, 1996, the IYRU changed its name to the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) and MYRD is now the Radio Sailing Division (RSD).”