The original shape LesRo Sportsman is a model that had eluded me for many years, but I always liked the look of it, so when one came up on eBay, I matched the opening price with my first bid, and ended up winning it as nobody else placed a bid.

It could well be that everyone else was a lot wiser than me, but I have ended-up with it and it will be a long-term restoration project that will have to be fitted in-between a lot of other build/repair work that I already have stacked-up waiting for my attention.

This boat came with a fitted glow-plug engine of unknown size or type, so the first job was to remove the engine, fuel tank and silencer etc to see just how bad and fuel soaked the inside of the hull was, and then try to work-out how to dry it out and make any repairs that may be needed.

Bob.

No Rot!

For no good reason that I can think of, I took this (red) Sportsman out of the workshop(shed) and put in the sun on a folding go-kart table that I have had outside for years.

I had already stripped-out the other (blue) Sportsman and found it to be nice and clean inside (ex-electric powered - so no glow fuel in that hull) and that would have been the easiest one to work on, but I couldn't resist the challenge so.....I had to take a look inside this one too!

Suddenly I found some tools in my hand, and the fixed front cabin roof had been removed!

This gave me direct access into the area of the bows that would usually be hidden from sight once the boat had been built, but I wanted to take a good look inside this area to see how badly fuel soaked it was.....and to check why I thought it could have some "soft" wood in the keel at the bows end.

The "reveal" showed that there was no rot in the keel at all, and just goes to show the benefit of opening up any enclosed areas that are not readily in plain site before starting any restoration work on an unknown Classic Model Power Boat hull.

Many a happy hour was spent scraping away the dried-on fuel - or was it some sort of varnish? - I am not sure, but this section is starting to look quiet good, so I will move on the engine room (motor compartment) next to and start cleaning that up too...well for as long as the sun keeps shining....

This will make a super model to add to my Classic Model Power Boat fleet and I am already thinking about how I am going to rebuild it.

A fixed cabin would be nice (with a removable cabin roof) to increase its water-tightness by removing any chance of any water ingress due any " creeping " down into the hull between the deck surface and the original designs lift-off cabin.

I need to be certain that I will still have enough space available to access the motor mount with a lift-off cabin roof if I convert this to a fixed cabin model.

This is very important as I will be using my favourite water-cooled cast alloy motor mount that will allow a fast motor change if I should ever need more (or less) power than the out-runner (or in-runner) motor that I start with.

I need to leave myself enough space to work with Allen keys to be able to release and install a change of motor at the lakeside using only the onboard tools that will be stored on magnets under the rear deck.

Onwards and upwards................

Bob.