Thirty plus years ago I built a British Power Boats co. Motor Gun Boat from the Dean's Marine kit, and sailed it all around the south of England at various shows. I sadly sold it when I was moving abroad, but never forgot the great little boat.

Last December, I was shown a Dean's 63ft ASR (same hull as the MGB both in model and full size versions) which the oxford model boat club was selling as it had been donated in order to help the club raise funds.

The motor (540), ESC and rudder servo plus Tx & Rx were removed by another member of the club and a little money changed hands.

Got it home, and started working on it. Obviously, I needed to replace the drive and radio components, as the prop shaft and stern tube simply fell out when I picked it up - I think it was held in mainly by the motor coupling!

The coaming around the deck edge had definitely seen better days and was held together but patches of plasticard. I moved the entire coaming and replaced it, with a light wooden strip to help it sit against the edge of the deck.

I then turned my attention to the stern tube. I had a spare of the same size (bought a while ago from Steve at Model Boat Bits) and set about removing the mass of filler that was intended to hold it in place. Once the filler was removed, a rather large hole was revealed.

At this point, I visited Dean's Marine for their Christmas open day and bought a second MGB kit, as I still wanted to replace my old one and also because the dimensions for mounting the prop shaft, etc. were the same for both the MGB & the ASR.

I have followed Ron Dean's advice and added an inner stern tube support as a precaution. Just a piece of 1/8th ply held in place with microballons and cyano.

Two months or so later, I now have the ASR hull ready for the final placement of the battery tray & radio gear, which shouldn't take long. I will then make a start on its sibling the MGB.