Well eventually the day came when the conditions allowed the maiden voyage, so all systems checked and a dry run at home before we set off for the 1hr 30mins round trip to my clubs lake. I only joined this club in January after visiting a few in my area (50 mile Radius)and finally having talked to these clubs at boat shows and assessing the “warmth”of the welcome I decide to join The York Model Boat Club. They sail at Lathem on a lake owned by a nearby caravan site and the site is really nice with a club house and toilet facilities, landing stage,two rescue rowing boats in fact all that you could wish for. There seems to be an even split between power and sail and the lake is big enough to allow both to sail at either ends of the lake.
This is the first opportunity to sail with the virus issues. We arrived at the lake and the first job was to get my grandsons Freeman 22 on the water to keep him occupied whilst my son and myself prepare the Crash Tender. Again a final check of all systems however we noticed that there wasn’t any reverse, OH NO! we set about checking the ESC settings but with no change (more on this in the forum later).We decided having driven all this way to at least put it in the water and “Go Forward” as it were. The club has a launching cradle which allows the older generation to put the boat in the water with a minimum of effort, place said boat in the cradle and lower it via the rope until it floats, and float it did, so that’s a plus.
The smoke generator worked well to simulate engine starting (but we failed to capture this effect on film) sorry. We sailed the boat around the lake at various speeds and turning both to Port and Starboard and I’m pleased to say it seemed to perform as expected. So in general I’m pleased with the performance. I am going to post in the forum about the issues with reverse and battery life, I'm sure that something simple is wrong as Robbob has exactly the same set-up in his Crash Tender and his seems to work well so I’m hoping for some help and a solution.

The final craft 😜 I thought I'd just post some final pictures that I sent to the manufactures of the kit. The build has taken nearly 3 years to complete and I have to say its been an absolute pleasure to build. Although it was a "kit" and very comprehensive it is, with all the parts to build a complete structure and of course you need to add all the power system and control equipment I found that it allowed the individual to add as much or as little personal touches as you want whilst still being able to produce a sailing model with a minimum addition of personal touches
You will, if you have read the full blog realised that I have taken full advantage of adding all the additional personal touches I can. There is an awful amount of credit to be given to the members of this site who have contributed to my build in the form of advise, comments both truthful/cryptic but mostly very helpful, and also in the form of electronic devises custom built to my specification.
I finally finished the "Display stand" and the transport box and thought people may appreciate some pictures of the boat in "display mode" showing all the internal detail, I often visit shows and want to be looking inside models to look at the construction methods and individual details that I can use in my future builds.
Anyway I hope you have enjoyed the blog as much as I have writing it but most of all all building it. This is a fantastic site and my thanks also go to Stephen who is the creator of this facility and has given so much pleasure to so many modellers.
Keep an eye out for the next build

Whilst putting some finishing touches to the boat, like raising the ensign, I find ,as I thought that the cleats to which the ropes that hold the mast and flag in position are really not up to the job, white metal fittings not my favourite. Solution get on the lathe and manufacture some replacements. Using some 16 mm brass bar I first machined flats along a length long enough to make 4 cleats (40 mm)to a thickness of 6.5 mm. This was done to make it easier rather than trying to hold each individual piece in the miller and put two flats on.
Back in the lathe the diameters were machine and threaded 8 BA, then each one was parted off. Then back on the bench and the profile was filed and the top radius-ed followed by polishing, all done holding each one in a split jig and toolmakers clamp, and finally a coat of lacquer

And some more
Back to front cabin windows, the two side windows are opening on the real boat so I thought I’d give it a go since there’s time to be used up. I actually made 3 attempts at the windows, the first two were OK but not to the standard I envisaged at the start of the job, so I’ll just detail the final ones which are fitted.
The first attempts had ill-defined frames made from ply so I wanted to make these better, I used brass wire to form the outer edge which was bent around a former, a left and right hand version being port and starboard, these were silver soldered together at the joint. These wire frames were epoxied onto a ply backing and then the ply was shaped to the form of the wire frame, the centre aperture was marked out using a "pencil and washer" to give an exact width and form following the outside profile this was then taken out with the scroll saw. A final trim and sanding followed by a coat of etch primer they were then put aside whilst I made the Plexiglas window. After final painting the window “glass” was secured in place using canopy glue. Since the windows are opening there had to be a hinge system, and for this I used some brass piano hinge that was only 2.5mm when closed. I used some 0.5mm pins to secure the hinge to the frame along with a careful dab of cyno. Now final fix to the cabin again 0.5mm pins were used. The window needs some sort of “hold open” system so I bent a piece of brass wire and drilled a hole in the lower front frame through the cabin structure, this formed a sliding action capable of keeping the window open. As the window opening is effectively double-glazed there’s no chance of any water ingress,🤞 hopefully

Securing straps for foam hoses
(This was done some weeks earlier)
The hoses in the rear cockpit need to be secured to the foam tanks so I decided to make some leather straps with brass buckles. I used some 2mm brass plate and drilled a 6mm hole, then filed it to a square and then a radius was put around all the edges and then it was finally polished. I fitted a brass pin that swivelled to lock the leather strap to complete the buckle. The leather straps was cut to 6mm and then drilled with holes to secure it around the buckle then at the other end a number of holes were drilled.

The Crash tender is all but finished now so I thought I’d use the lockdown time to make some of the nice to have/non-essential bits.
The rescue ladders are made from brass brazing rod using the supplied picture to scale the item to the boat. all pieces were cut to size and bent to shape, each piece was then pinned into position and then soft soldered. After a final dressing the ladders were etch primed and the sprayed with a white gloss. I then made some brass clips to hold them in position which match the boat hook clips.

At last the water pump has arrived, I had a cancelled order, then after ordering again from another supplier they managed to lose the order, finally someone managed to sell me a pump and deliver it, just two months wasted
The pump is a 6V Dosing pump Peristaltic Head which gives an interrupted flow as if the boat is just ticking over at a standstill. The water supply is taken from the main feed to the ESC just as it enters the boat, however this water only flows when the prop is forcing water through it and as the smoker will only operate when the boat is stationary the pump had to be a self-priming type.
Both the air and water pump needed a mounting device which could secure them in the hull, I decide to mount these in the same bulkhead as the main drive motor so as to not make it stern heavy, however a final “bath test” may change the location so they are only Velcroed in position. The piping made for interesting routing as I really don’t like to see loads of pipes criss-crossing all over the place so I routed it through the same holes as the wiring which is just below the deck level and goes through each bulkhead with a 12mm hole, with hindsight I wish I’d made this hole something in the order of 20mm, however I managed to get the tubes through each bulkhead using my treading wire which has been resident in the holes since wiring commenced. On the bench trial all worked as planned and the increased length of pipe didn’t make any difference, I just need to “bath test” the system now

This job has been hanging around like a bad smell, when I finished the hoses the clip to secure then seemed a bit of a let-down. I decide since I had time on my hands I would make an over engineered solution to the “clip”. A piece of brass plate was guillotined to overall dimensions, then two 16mm holes were machined to form the radius of the hoses. This was then cut along the centreline to give the two halves. I made a centre locking bar which will hold the hoses in place. The three pieces were then soft soldered together and cleaned up before getting a coat of clear lacquer, finally this was fitted into the inside of the transom wall.

The Perspex laser cut windows are a surprisingly good fit requiring only minor trimming to make a good fit. I secured them into the frames using propriety canopy glue. First putting a light bead of glue around the hole and then holding a piece of ply on one side, then pressing the glazing panel into its hole ensured it was flush with the outer cabin faces. Any excess glue was gently removed with dampened cotton buds before it dried. The kit supplies window frames which I wanted to add a rain lip on the top edge which I made from pieces of plasticard and glued them on prior to painting with aluminium paint. These were then positioned against each window and secured again using canopy glue.
The front cabin side windows on the real boat are opening windows albeit only to ventilate the cabin so they don’t open a full 90 degrees. I wanted to try and include this feature in my model so I made a ply outline the same size as the windows and then cut the window area out and fitted a Perspex piece, this then required a hinge mechanism, a simple dolls hose hinge, a 150mm length from the model shop. The hinge was pinned to the frame using 0.5 mm brass pins with a touch of epoxy.
The centre window has a Kent Clear View unit fitted so this has to be made using some black Perspex bar and some flat sheet, the outer ring was machined with a recess to accommodate the supplied Perspex circle and a diameter on the reverse to fit into the hole on the supplied screen, these were then glued in position using canopy glue. A small triangular piece was made with an arm extending to the centre of the unit; again this was fixed in position with canopy glue. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of the manufacture and just remembered when it was fitted
The two front side cockpit windows on the real boat are opening, so I’ll be tackling that a bit later.

The boat has 2 types of boat hook one is a hook and the other looks like the window pole we had at school to open the top windows in the hall. Both these were first identified by Rob who got some from EBay and did a transformation job on them, so I’m really just copying his. I decided because we are now in lockdown the maiden voyage may well be a long way off so I have plenty of time to take more time over some of the fittings not yet made. The hook and I’ll call it a “sash” window hook are made from brass tube with the hook tapered then bent and the sash was bent then soldered together, both were then etch primed and painted with gun metal paint. The ends of the poles were wound with red silk thread to simulate a rope handle this was then treated with a coat of lacquer.
Hooks to hold the poles to the cabin sides were made with some 0.75mm brass sheet and bent round a small jig to ensure they were all the same. Holes were drilled in the cabin side making sure they only went 5mm deep they were then treated with wood hardener followed by an 8BA thread, the hooks were lacquered and left to dry overnight and fitted the following day.
Just as an aside you will see a number of abrasive sticks in the pictures; I make these from coffee stirrers using double sided tape and sticking various grades of wet and dry to them. I find them so useful for cleaning up my brass fittings prior to polishing, you can snip off the used ends when used and reshape as required to get into difficult areas.