Home»All Photographs»Sailing»1992 and 1993 Little Boats

These are Bellport 1.2 Meter radio controlled sailboats, also called “The little boats" by their owners. Each of them was hand built by its original owner. About 38 were built. Not sure who did the original hull form, but it was loosely based on the old America’s Cup 12 Meter Boats.
A wooden hull had been carved as port and starboard halves. From those Edmund G Laviano made molds at his shop, Bellpat Marine in East Patchogue. Under Ed’s guidance, each original owner did the fiberglass lay-up of the hull halves by hand, and then joined them using fiberglass tape and epoxy resin from the inside. The sails were made the same way as big-boat sails..There were patterns for cutting panels with curved edges, so that when they were taped and sewn together the sail had a wing like shape. The finished sail had to fit within a go/no-go gage for overall size. Most were done by the original owners, although a few were done by professional sailmakers who were part of the group. I had both for my boat, #31.
Sometime after 1993 the molds were borrowed by some Italian friends of Ed so they could build some boats at home. Sad to say the molds never did wind up coming back.