Seem to have found some time to work on the RTTL.

Decided to tackle the fiddly bits first - the chine rails, gunwhale and toe rail. The gunwhale was required as the previous builder hadn't adhered to the instructions of leaving 1/8" of the deck to overlap the hull.

At this point I decided to go off plan and work on a better method of fixing the two cabin sections in place. The plans suggest using 12 pieces of dowel as deck latches, representing air vents. The two sections sit on a recessed lip on the main deck.

Having been fortunate to receive a number of photos on 2748 from the daughter of the person who bought the boat in the early 1970s I've been able to see that the original boat didn't have this many vents. I think it detracts from the model to have so much unnecessary detail so will be fitting the 3 each side that the original boat had fitted. These can now go in the correct place rather than be used as deck latches.

I realised that the rear deckhouse section (with the towing cabin) could be adapted to hook under the rear deck and be held in place with two turnbuckles locking under the deck beam. This can be fitted with front section removed. Fitting the front section uses the same approach, it hooks under the foredeck and the rear section uses to turnbuckles to lock under the side deck. In order to gain access to the front section turnbuckles I adapted the engine room hatch (behind the main cabin) to be removable.

With the two cabin sections now able to be held firmly in place I needed to look at the aesthetics of the cabins in the deck recess. The previous builder had done a decent job in cutting out the deck parts, but there was a gap between the edges of the cabin sections and the deck, this gap ranged between 0.5mm and 2mm. I wanted to minimise the gap and have a tighter fit between the cabin sections and deck so the cabin sections were wrapped in clingfilm (to prevent any filler adhering to them)and fitted in place using the hooks and turnbuckles.

With the wrapped cabin sections in place I worked some ultra fine filler in the gaps. Once this had cured the clingfilm wrapped cabin sections were removed and the filler sanded back to the deck, leaving an infill that now provides a neat and snug fit for the cabin sections.

The window frames have been fitted, they still need a bit of fettling and the cabin roof now has the various roof strips added to it and the cockpit been lined and edged. I'll need to finish the sanding and fairing of the window frames and get them painted before fitting the windows. Once the windows are fitted the cabin roof can be fitted and faired in to the rest of the cabin top.

It is looking a little rough at this stage, the boat has now received the first coat of primer to find the lumps, bumps, open grain and dings that need attention.

The boat came with a waterjet fitted to a brushed motor. The intake of the water jet was recessed into the hull and sat on a large pad of polyester filler.

As I’ve decided to fit a brushless motor, prop shaft and rudder I needed to make good the holes caused by the water jet. The filler took a while to remove, I have a dislike for polyester filler, it absorbs water, pinpricks easily, is heavy, brittle and provides little structural support.

To fit the waterjet the last 150mm of the keel had been removed and also noticed the transom skin had come away from the rest of the structure, caused by the cutting of the hole for the outlet nozzle.

With part of the keel missing the polyester had spread under the balsa floor, filling the gap between the balsa and outer skin. I made the decision to remove the balsa, it had broken up in many places so out it came. The polyester filler hadn’t adhered to the hull skin.

With all the filler and balsa removed I scarfed in a new keel using 3 pieces of Obeche and epoxied them in place. Hole in the bottom was squared off and a piece of 2mm ply epoxied in place. The nozzle hole was also neatened up and piece of 0.8mm ply epoxied to the end of the keel. I’d already fitted a new inner transom piece from the same ply.

Decided not to replace the balsa in the bottom of the hull and fitted a panel of 0.8 mm ply epoxied to the keel and fixed in place with an epoxy fillet.

Although there’s some heavier duty timber on the keel, needed as I’ll be drilling holes for the prop shaft and rudder, the back end of the boat is considerably lighter with the polyester filler removed. The epoxy and used for gluing, fillets and fairing weighed in at 10 grams as also used to fair the bow, some will removed with later sanding and tidying up.

I was going to put this on the project shelf and look at it later in the year, but it has proven difficult not to pick it up, plot and scheme so it looks like this one will join the Eventide and Crash Tender on the bench.

I found this advertised on a Facebook group for sale as a project and liked the look of it and thought the waterjet might be something different to play with.

Also there is a bit of a family connection as my father served in RAF Gan where the sister ship 2748 was based, so at one point was thinking this one would be model of 2748 in the white tropical paint scheme.

The hull has been built well, and most of the superstructure is complete, there’s a box full of bits and pieces so I think everything is there to finish the boat, if not I have now have a load of timber in stock left over from other projects.

Turns out that the original RTTL 2748 has been restored, though currently has no interior and is about 4 miles away from me. She was also based at RAF Mount Batten (not far from where is is currently in Plymouth) in the 1950s, so a both local and family connection

As the Kitshack 28" RTTL was very similar, if not identical to the Veron kit so I made contact with Phil Smith's son who has the archive of the Phil Smith designs including the boats he produced for Veron. I now have the full set of plans, templates and build instructions.

So, the plan is to now build the model to be 2748 from the mid 1950s before the addition of the centre roof, as she would have been when towing targets from Plymouth.

Many thanks to those responding to my thread on the forum about the boat, particularly to RichardH and dave976 for letting me have lots of information on RTTLs. Having spent the last few days immersed in the research phase I can't wait to get started. The first job has to be to remove the waterjet and make good the hull so I can fit the propshaft, rudder and keel.