Blog created to satisfy a request for more detail from a member who spotted it in the photo gallery.
Unfortunately this moulding is no longer available to my knowledge. Was a George Turner garden railway scenic hull and moulded top for static display and cost around £10. Length 260mm.
Converted to full operaton on a 2CH RC she has proven to be a good sailor, simple to operate and maintain and very inexpensive to build.
There are a couple of challenges to the conversion but nothing overly complicated and it all fits neatly into a food storage container!

The styrene hull has to have a prop tube inserted which needs care. Being styrene it is possible to fill holes and gaps easily. The angle and length of the prop tube is only concern to ensure room and alighment for motor shaft plus clearance for rudder Immediately after prop. 25 mm 3 bladed plastic prop chosen on 2mm shaft.

To get it to fit it was necessary to cut a small aperture in the transom for the rudder tube gear to rotatr freely. The motor was mounted just forward of the CofG so that 4xAA rechargeable batteries could be laid two each side of the tube close to the CofG.

An extra keel strip was added to provide better steering and Improve stability/reduce roll. This also helped to Improve the prop clearance when the hull grounded.

The rudder is operated via a nylon gear secured by the normal servo arm spline and screw. The idler gear is free to rotate but secured from working off by a screw. The thread on the rudder shaft is used to fix the gear to the shaft and so rotate the rudder itself. This in operation provide the same movement as a normal arm but takes much less space. The key to its working it that the servo and rudder shaft screws do not slip.

The micro servo is has plenty of torque for this job and is secured in a built up styrene box that also has the idler gear shaft plastic welded to its outside. The finished servo housing is covered by the stern seat giving the whole assembly easy access.

The top deck and cabin have been extensively cut out to provide several points o access. Combing was added to the forward hatch openin. The various holes are covered later by a made up forward hatch, cockpit floor (forward) and the stern seat with a cover over the transom.

The next job was to weigh all components and do a float/ballast test. This proved OK with good freeboard. A temporary battery was also added to ceck the drive and probable speed (without RC). All was satisfactory (as it was never meant to be a speed boat) so the build continued. if I was doing it again I'd probably use a brushless motor and LiPo batteries.. rather than the make do units I had to hand.

The windows have been cut out for appearance an given acetate 'glass'.

The topsides were finished off prior to fixing to the hull. All running and radio gear was also put Into position and Its operation and placement confirmed before the hull and topside were welded together. The charging point and on/off switch can be clearly seen along with the motor, ESC and the top of the sealed bag containin the battery pack (which Is just accessible through the cabin floor).

The rudder and prop arrangement can be seen - Improved by the addition of the extra keel strip mentioned previously.

The colour scheme tries to acknowledge the colours of the bird Dabchick which was also the name of a small day cruiser my uncle had when I was a child In Devon.