Good cartoon Garth! What did you get??

Hello Things have been looking like this in Stade since yesterday. And it should continue like this all week.

Hi Bob. Well, it's decision made for me I think. Amongst my original Fairey Marine drawings I found (forgotten about) those for the first Spearfish builds with the wooden top as Fairey referred to it. I shall have to shorten the fibreglass hull a bit to suit my scale 1:12 builds but whatever I build was going to need some alteration. The wooden top versions were around 2 grand more expensive than the all fibreglass boats. The Spearfish hulls used a plug from a rejected Huntsman 31 hull (timber was waxy) with the length reduced by a couple of feet, for what reason no-one knows. Another reason for building one is that it is very similar to the Huntsman 31 Sport which I was building before converting to the aft cabin version. I know it's very similar to the classic Fairey Marine models rather than pushing the boat out with one of the sleeker fibreglass revivals but it's an itch that's got to be scratched I think! Though it does mean doing another planked deck! Drawings won't be too difficult for the Swordsman 37 as I have a drawing for the model showing the plan and side views. As you say modifying the hull from the Aerokits kit should do the job. It will be awhile before I can make a start on the drawings though as I'm having a break from drawing now and getting on with my existing builds. Also I've got to finish a drawing I've started of an aircraft for a neighbour who's writing a book. Looking through the Fairey drawings was a bit of a mistake! I've got them for the Super Swordsman - which has a proper aft cabin like the Huntsman 31, and for the naval version of the Huntress which I always fancied building! But I've got 3 Huntresses at the moment! Chris

Since I've had two weeks holiday over the Christmas period for the first time in several years, I've managed to complete this project (at least for the time being - I may add a few more details in the future as and when they occur to me...) more quickly than I previously thought. So this will be my last entry into this build log; 42)The main emphasis here was to finish some details to the superstructure/hatch, starting with soldering up several LEDs for the navigation lights, red(port), green(starboard) two white for the front mast and one white for a stern facing light. The masts were to be from 5mm aluminium tube. A windlass and the port/starboard light mountings were fabricated from scrap balsa/ply/wire etc. General internal cabin lighting was to be provided by a 'cutting' from cheap set of LED christmas lights. 43-45)To ensure some level of neatness, I had to come up with a way to clamp the wiring inside the hatch. I used U-hooks fashioned from old dressmakers/modelling pins. These could be fairly easily pushed into the inside walls of the hatch and secured with a drop of thin cyano. The outside LEDs had their wires threaded through holes to the inside of the hatch, then their respective +ve and -ve wires bunched together and soldered so they could be secured in a standard 'choc-bloc' screw contact fitting. The other side had the 2 x AAA Nimh battery box connections attached, together with the Xmas lights in parallel, allowing everything to be activated by the same built-in battery box switch. The battery box sits in the rear compartment next to the rudder servo and can be easily activated prior to sailing. Note, the inside of the hatch had been already painted gloss white to help reflect the internal LED lights. Glazing material had also been glued to the inside of the hatch windows/portholes prior to the fitting of the lights. 46-50) Here are a few close-ups of the fittings including port/starboard lights, forward mast with white light (single one at top of mast - wanted two pointing forward at different heights, but struggled to get this to work with the aluminium tube, so went with single lamp at top option; may come up with a small enclosure in the future to focus the light more forward), rear light behind funnel, protective metal bars over engine room skylights. DISCLAIMER....I acknowledge that close-up these all look a little 'rough', however from only a short distance away when sailing, they certainly add sufficient character to the model to justify the effort making them. 51-52)Knocker White complete for a trial twilight sailing session, lights on! 53)Video clip of later evening sailing session (around 8-30pm, I think) - actually there was still a little too much light to get the best effect from the LEDs, but they are just about visible, so you should get a fairly good idea of their potential effect. Apologies for the abrupt sneeze a short way into the video, and as you can see, our cocker spaniel Molly was as mesmerized as we were. 54-57)Since reading Glynn Guest's 'Box Clever' article, I have started to build protective cases for any new boats I build. These are usually constructed from thin MDF/ply scraps left over from other projects, with rope handles and covers that can easily be removed/opened for access, but secured with velcro straps. I usually waterproof them with a couple of coats of slightly thinned polyurethane varnish. I try to source clear plastic sheet to include on one side of the case, so the models can be viewed while in storage. As GG suggests, the extra time and effort to complete one of these is a fraction of the effort spent on the model itself, yet it provides long term protection during transport/storage/display - I thoroughly recommend this. 58)Knocker White takes her place in the expanding 'dockyard' in our house... Well, that's it. Thanks to all who have followed this build, hopefully you have found something useful from it. Best regards for 2026 and beyond. Nick

I thought about larger diameter wheels. Balloon tires have too much floatation and the launcher is close to neutral floatation. Also considered removable wheels. When lowering the boat and retrieval, it is dragged over the edge of the dock, that's why it has those guides on top of the wheels. Just wanted to keep it simple. Lew

The hand pump is awesome, Mike! Is it cold in Rothenburg?

Great! The next project will be 1:1 scale, awesome Jbkiwi!

Happy New Project Year Chris ! A Swordsman 37 joint project sounds like it could be one of the best ideas that we have considered...so far..... Working at your favourite scale, a 37" long Swordsman would be a very handy size and I would love to see how it runs alongside the 39" Rapier. I think the longer Swordsman will perform very well, and built with integrated cabin sides it should be a very weather-proof model that would be able to perform in any of our UK water conditions, 12 months of the year. Bob.

Looked at a few but being I have about 40 of the same switches "in stock" I tend to use what I have, especially on cheap items. Lew Added: Plus ordering, shipping, and doing this sometime in the future (maybe) also needs to be considered. It is now done.

Thanks Roy See the revisions to my original post. Roy, it appears that the sprit is moveable and is extended or retracted depending upon the sailing conditions. In some if these video clips, it is sailing with only one jib and the sprit retracted. Then in other clips, it is extended and two sails are seen. If, I am going to go this route, a lead keel will need to be installed. I will also build it for harbour purposes with sails furled and using the onboard motor which is already installed.

Hi Ronald Love those little boats, and the snow blower is just the ticket for those who have proper snow. Colin

Nobody has mentioned RadioLink on this thread yet, but I have used them for several years since they became available in the UK when they were first imported and distributed by Rossendale Models. Sadly Rossendale Models is another of our UK model shops that have disappeared but RadioLink is now distributed in the UK by J.Perkins. RadioLink first became known for their use with drones and were always considered to have really good performance with reliability at a fair price. I use RadioLink radios for all of my model boats and in all of my race cars. When Horizon Hobby distributed Spectrum in the UK I always used their radios in my large scale racing cars, helicopters (of all sizes) and almost every thing else except my 1/16 scale Wedico model trucks that mostly run on various types of Futaba F14 radio sets. Horizon Hobbies closed their UK distribution at about the time that RadioLink became available in the UK, and fortunately RadioLink proved to be a really good replacement for Spectrum of at least similar quality, high levels of innovation - and at a much better price! Since changing to RadioLink I have never looked back, but some of my 1/16 scale tanks came with the budget priced FlySky radio systems and they work very well too - well enough for all my r/c tanks to run with FlySky to keep some commonality between them. Bob.

I think this thread has enabled us to build a useful reference source that suggests that many of the Aerokits model boats that have a large keel on them would benefit from having them cut-off (or at least reduced in depth) to improve their steering performance when used with radio control. The deep keels can be helpful when the models are being used as "free runners" when they have no radio control and are set to run "straight" in the traditional pond model tradition. As a "straight runner" model the deep keel can be a benefit as it will help to keep the model running "straight" and this may be why this feature was included in the design at the time? This same "resistance to deflection" that the deep keel provides is the reason that we have experienced "strange handling" problems when running our Aerokits models under radio control. The Aerokits range was drawn-up many years ago - probably at some time during the 1950's when few of us could afford to buy a radio control system, so most of them would have been run as traditional "straight runners" across the local model boating lakes. When the early 'galloping ghost" type radios first became affordable to some devout model boat enthusiasts, they merely clicked the rudder to the left or the right and back to the neutral position again to cause a non-proportional deflection of the models progress across the pond......and so the stability that the deep keel provided could still be regarded as an asset rather than a problem. It was only much later when proportional radio control was fitted to almost every Aerokits model boat that was being run under IC or electric power that these "strange handling" problems were noticed as the rudder and the deep keel came into conflict with each other. The intended action of the deep keel was trying to keep the models direction nice and straight and the rudder (now under proportional control) was fighting against it to produce a nice proportional turn to the left or right. With more power being so easy to add to these early model boat kits they began to run faster and this is when the conflict between the deep keel designs and the proportional rudder control began to generate "strange handling" problems such as the nose wanting to dive when the rudder was turned to the RIGHT - this being especially noticeable if the model was being turned into choppy water or another boats wake. Removing (or at least reducing) the deep keel from these models will improve the performance and help (at least) to remove any of the problems that I experienced with my own Sea Commander before the "penny dropped" and the true reason for the problems was realised. I have spent many hours and made lots of changes to my Sea Commander to try to find the reason and the cure for the nose diving actions that it suffered. Removing the deep keep is such an easy "fix" that does not have to be done when the model is being built. It is so easy to cut off the area of the keel along the line of the hull where it meets the prop shaft, and this simple modification can vastly improved the performance of the model when it is being run under radio control. Bob.

The original Miami at 1/32 nd scale , i think.. One of the quickest builds i have know and easy. Just a note, all my GG models were direct drive single and twin screw.. ATB Muddy..

What a great meeting you have there, some beautiful boats, are they smd lights around the cabin cruiser? looks chilly though where you are, we are the same here in Manchester UK, cold and crisp but due for some snow they say. Cheers, Pete