Fully parametric sailboat ornament / pendant

Elegant sailboat model for use as a Christmas ornament or a pendant. Fully parametric hull design.
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updated December 22, 2024

Description

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This is an elegant little sailboat model, suitable for decorating a Christmas tree, wearing as a pendant on a necklace, or even an earring if printed really small.

I am quite proud of the parametric sailboat hull design I developed. All hull dimensions and shaping parameters are derived from parametric ratios of hull length. Bezier curves are calculated from those parameters for a smooth hull shape.

If you want a different size boat, don't scale it in the slicer, use OpenSCAD to generate a new STL.

In the OpenSCAD code, the parameter hull_loa (hull length overall) is the primary parameter that controls the size of the boat.

Many other parameters are multiples of hull_loa and can be adjusted to control the shape of the hull: depth of the keel, width of the stern, width of the beam, location of the deepest depth and widest width, location of the hull transitioning from V-shape to round. You can get some strange but plausible hull shapes from playing with these parameters.

The eyelet at the top of the mast can be set to a hook, a ring, or nothing (just a mast top), and you can set the size of the inside of the eyelet hole.

Print settings

Printer: Prusa i3 MK3S MMU2S

Supports: Yes

Resolution: 0.20 mm adaptive, 0.4 mm nozzle

Infill: 15% triangle (or anything)

Filament: FilaCube ivory PLA+, Lee Fung orange silk PLA

Notes:

  • Recommend 0.20 layer height, with adaptive optimization.
  • If possible, use your slicer to put a solid infill modifier on the hull in front of the mast, for better balance. Otherwise, the eyelet is slightly forward of the center of gravity, causing the boat to tilt up a bit when suspended from the eyelet.
  • Supports are needed for the sail.
    • Disable bridge support.
    • PrusaSlicer / Slic3r generates the supports just around the edges, which is fine.
    • The "snug" support setting works well.
  • Bridge angle should be set so that the bridging in the first layer of the sail is roughly parallel to the sail boom.
  • To get multiple colors for the mast and sail (as well as a racing stripe on the hull), set your slicer to pause the printer at the first sail layer to change colors, and then pause again after the last sail layer to change colors again. The STL file provided here uses 5 layers for the sail.
    • If you use a MMU to change colors, enable the wipe tower to prevent the mast+hull color from contaminating the sail color.

Post-printing

The sail may be delicate. Gently remove the support material from around the edges.

The mast should be pushed all the way into the hole of the hull. It should be snug, but if it's loose, put a drop of glue on the bottom end of the mast before inserting into the hole.

Make a Christmas tree hook from a small paper clip (that is what the boats hang from in the photograph).

How I designed this

Everything here is original and authored by me in OpenSCAD, although I got inspiration from two other designs:

  • Boat hull construction inspired by an OpenSCAD hull model by Guillaume Fougnies at https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3707731 - this showed me what control parameters are useful for defining a boat hull. My implementation creates bezier curves for the gunwales and keel, creating non-planar cross-sections with an interpolated transition from a V-hull to a round hull. This results in a smooth hull for any desired resolution.
  • Sail design inspired by 3D Printing Club's model at https://www.printables.com/model/284721-sailboat-design-120 - this showed me that it's possible to print a flat sail that doesn't contact the buildplate with minimal supports.

 

 

Category: Decor

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Model origin

The author marked this model as their own original creation. Imported from Thingiverse.

License