Quite fancy this down the line once other projects completed, shall follow with interest. One question if I may, what wood and thickness are you using and how did you transfer outlines to the wood, looks like a kit! 👍👍👍

This is going to look great, keep us posted!

Nice bit of plan work Red,👍 How did you get the plan pieces onto the wood, have you a laser cutter?

Cheers, Pete

looking forward to updates!

Hi Red,
I will be following this little build.
Good luck.

Martin555.

Haven't you twigged it yet Sky?
THAT IS the plan😉
Unless you want the Corel Draw versions!
I note that red has updated the parts drwg👍
Cheers, Doug😎

Can you please send me a link to the plan, love this little beauty!

Problem is good ones size, power & software wise are very expensive and unless one is very wealthy cost is simply not justified for hobby use only. There are small desktop ones made in Seattle in the US which are quite good but the biggest will be about A3 size cutting bed and quite low powered. The cheap Chinese ones are very dangerous - and very under powered - software is puerile - and would probably only cut balsa or (surprisingly ) ply up to 4mm. Not Perspex or any other hard materials without multiple cuts which lead to inaccuracy/burning.
Our current one is 900x600mm nominal but has a removeable panel front & rear so you can cut any length you want as long as its not wider than 845mm - 890 if its less than 12mm thick. There are larger ones available - but would take up most of the space in a large single garage - and all of it in the one we had in Bournemouth. Even my Midget had a hard time squeezing in

Oh the dream of owning a laser cutter! I have tape, glue, access to a photocopier, various cutting tools and hands, that's my laser cutter 😂😂😂😂

Hi Red,

Shame about the supply problems. I sourced my 2/3 AAA battery from Component Shop here in the UK as they are still open, and the postal service is still running, if a little slower than usual.

Another thought I had when building my micro tug was to use a voltage step up converter to allow the use of a smaller battery. This should allow the use of, for example, a 2 cell battery to step up the voltage to 4.8v and hence save weight. The one pictured has a minimum input voltage of only 2v and costs less than £2. Of course, 'you don't get owt for nowt' so doubling the output voltage using one of these will (more than) double the current drawn from the battery hence reducing the battery duration.

Graham93

Hi Graham - different size batteries are difficult to obtain here - there is one specialist battery shop in Cape Town that might be able to help - don't even know if they are open again yet - and in any event it would be almost impossible to get them delivered until lockdown eases a bit .
Will try 3x AAA as I have an old Hitec 27mhz miniature receiver that works on 3.6v and have to hope the Robbe 2amp ESC does too . Have a early Action Pico 68 ESC complete with motor but says 4.8v . Will have to check with Dave M before trying it. Thought about using a helicopter motor - not sure it would work - dont think the little lipo would last long . Will have to test & see with sons old broken one - but a bit ham fisted with electronics..............

There are smaller batteries available. I had to reduce the battery in my micro tug from 4x AAA to 4 x 2/3 AAA. Not a lot of capacity 400mAh, but then you don't need a lot for these micro boats. After all, how long are you going to sail them for in a bath 😂🤣

Graham93

The Battery size is the problem with the micro boats.
Perhaps we should of stated that the batteries had to be 4 x AA as the standard.

Martin555.

Redpmg,
Thanks for the great photos and posts, well done. Your comment on undecided about the battery is the problem I faced on my little river tug build. I ended up designing the hull dimensions on the weight of 4 AAA batteries. It would be nice to find a smaller battery to do a smaller boat.

Keep up the good work. 👍👍
Joe😎

Aha! Willy the 'more than curious' had a bike did he!?😉
😎

MB - there appears to be a 2nd cat here - somewhat smaller as you can see
Martin - decided i would try it anyway - have a tiny motor & prop - not sure what to use as a battery !
To All - thanks for the kind comments

land of the giants😏
Cheers marky👍

They look to be progressing very well. Do you have two sizes of Cat as well?😁

This looks great. I like the small size and with the beam, the boat should be very stable.

Hi Red,
That was a bit of a shock, I did not realise you were making both the 10" and the 7".

Looking good so far.
Well done.

Martin555.

Really coming along nicely

see:
pocketship in the small boats monthly website

PocketShip Particulars
Length 14′ 10″
Beam 75″
Draft, board up 16″
Draft, board down 36"
Sail area 148 sq ft

If you reduced these in half it comes out to almost the same as your little cabin cruiser.

https://smallboatsmonthly.com/article/pocketship/

Even using 2 x 3mm strips they did not bend easily - hot water soaking works but not really worth while time wise on these small models Ron . Going to plank in 2mm balsa after making ' card templates . Have to work out how to link the very small servo's used - the one for the 7" is minute to say the least
Sailboat idea is a good one too..........

Did you try cutting the balsa into small strips and glue diagonal? Or straight up & down at the bow. How about soaking it in water or steaming?

I am tempted to try one of these too or make up a small sailboat as the hull is almost identical, but adds a keel and rudder.

Ron