One of the heroes in developing model sailing as we know it today first made his mark as a sailmaker, full-size. Swede Johnson was a fixture at Baxter & Cicero in Southern California and a fixture on the racing scene as well. Not to overdo it, let's just note that one Lloyd "Swede" Johnson is noted as Balboa Yacht Club's member of the year for 1975, and there were decades when you couldn't go anywhere meaningful on the California sailing scene without bumping into this guy.

Time has caught up with Swede, but that just means that he's found new ways to play. Models. And true to his past, one of his strengths is in making sails. He's generously trained more than one West Coast enthusiast to make model sails, but it's his scratch-built contributions to the schooner fleet that really stand out. The American Model Yacht Association has schooner fleets in Maryland, Florida, and California. There is also a separate group called the Southern California Schooner Fleet sailing there (and in Arizona because, what's in a name?). Schooners got shortchanged in SAIL's in-print model sailing coverage—five pages in the February 2005 issue, and we still couldn't get to everything—but there's a lot going on with schooners. Cutting edge is all in how you define the edge.

Swede's most recent schooner doesn't have hydrofoils, a canting keel, or carbon construction, but it does have a Swede-look-alike helmsman, carved of wood and steering a scratch-built wooden boat. Yes, steering. Check it out in this photo by master modeler Dennis Desprois.

In this boat, Swede geared the steering from the servo inside the hull, upwards through the body of the little "helmsman" and then out through the arm to the tiller. When he toggles the transmitter control arm left or right, what you see is the arm moving, pushing or pulling the tiller and turning the boat. Kids love it, and they don't have to be a young-type kid to get a grin out of it.

Swede also has built forward-looking schooners, such as this one on the right.

The Southern California Schooner Fleet goes its own way, governed by these rules:

The model shall be scratched built, fixed keel, replica of a full size schooner. The length on deck shall not exceed 50 inches. Hull form shall not be modified for better sailing characteristics, except the rudder may be enlarged to no more than 150% of the original. Sails and rigging maybe of modern material and shall be to scale and not out of proportion.

For many modelers, the fascination of modeling is in preserving something beautiful from the past. A boat, a memory, an image. One of the highlights last year at the Museum of Yachting in Newport, Rhode Island was an exhibit of 65 vintage models. On April 16-17, look for the Biennial Woods Hole Model Boat Show on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Overall coordinator is John Snow, Vintage Model Yacht Group President. Contact jsnow@drc.com for details. The show’s AMYA invitational regatta is April 16th at Eel Pond; contact Jim Linville for regatta details and entries @ 781-925-0045 or jimisu@comcast.net.

Many schooners sail under the American Model Yacht Association banner, including these kit-built Mary J. Wards seen at left.

Or, if you're into models in general not just vintage sailing models, check out the RC Model Show at the SeaGate Centre, 401 Jefferson Avenue Toledo, Ohio, April 1-3. Fri/Sat 9am to 5pm and Sunday 9am to 3pm. Admission $7.00 per person per day (kids under 12 free).

Or, if you find yourself near Mission Bay, San Diego, search out the model sailing pond for scenes such as this: