Know what you mean about introducing Germans to British humour!
My sideways look at events often brought the office to a standstill.
My Graucho act was popular, or John Cleese Minister of Silly Walks. My aren't we showing our age??
Recently I made my colleagues some DVDs of the original 'Yes Prime Minister' series, I subtitled it 'or how to use the English language as a weapon', Cast list 'The Prime Minister - who thinks he runs the country', 'Cabinet Secretary - who really does run the country'.
Went down very well, once they listened carefully and thought about it. But by then most of them had been used to me for 20 years or more. All good fun.
I like it here too, so now I'm retired I'm staying here, all my friends are here, I'm a German League Ten Pin Bowler etc etc. Frankly I now feel a stranger in England 🤔
I also have Hood on my ToDo List, have the 350 scale kit already, LoA 75cm, beam 6cm! and have collected mini motors, pico servos, 2S LiPos and Micron RC gear to fit it out. Next step is to float the hull and find out what the max waterline load is.
A fully fitted 9 foot hull would be a bit of a handful 😲 Would be pretty majestic though. 😎

I should point out that if any of my mechanisms involved electrickery I drafted in a lovely guy called Rolf, who would know exactly what I needed and put it together with my mechanical bits. Wish he lived up the road now! I think the Germans always thought we Brits nuts, because they loved our humour, once it was explained to them. I used to have a gaggle of the more intelligent Germans around my desk because they loved my tapes of Flanders and Swann, once I'd explained it to them! I made a somewhat naughty comment about a secretary from upstairs and the German designer laughed so much I really thought he would have a heart attack. I have never seen anyone actually go purple! But he recovered and went upstairs to cook us all a wonderful Roast. I had a great time over there. Good model shops too where I was.

I can appreciate the presence of a capital ship, but I am so anti military that I could never make one, but if I did, it would be Hood, as I think she was actually beautiful. I was once offered a GRP Hood hull, 9 feet long for 45 quid but I lived in a bedsit at that time!

Cheers,
Martin

'Vanity' sounds great, look forward to the pics 👍
Although I'm not into yachts I still appreciate their beauty and the work that goes into them.
Interesting career! My winch wasn't expensive, all plastic except the motor of course, and big and chunky so good job the destroyer is pretty large at 1:72. My nickname at work was 'The Old Sea Dog' or 'Verrückte Engländer' (crazy Englishman). 😎

I have one servo winch, but no idea how to hook it all up. Mind you I haven't had the Tx out of its box yet! I've no idea how to make 2.4giggery work. So expensive sail winches are a no-no. I can make using brass threaded rod, aluminium channel, nylon gears and some little motors I bought years ago as part of a batch. I estimate 5-6 quid a winch. that one winch will do main and foresails. When I worked in Germany in the car design trade, I was suppose to be a clay modeller, but if there was ever a mechanism required they came to me. Called me "Mekanist" (spelling?) or Kunstler, artist. in the end I was just Mechanical Mardin. I am nominated inventor on a VW patent and built things like rotating screens in the dashboard of the Passat, the first headrest screen installations, Palm computer transit systems, dash top oddments bins with powered lids, a new heater grille system for the redesigned Passat dash, etc. So, I guess a simple sail winch shouldn't worry me. But it will go in my model of the Victorian Cutter "Vanity", on which I used to live. I have 2 planks left to add to the hull and then the big fitout.
Cheers,
Martin

I heartily agree about the 'Footies', seems a bit of a waste of time to me, but what do I know?
Only contact I had with model yacht kit was using a sail winch for the paravane winch on my destroyer HMS Hotspur. That's the original in my profile pic BTW. 😎

Yep, seen the business, Doug. Good luck to him but it's not what I was looking for. And now he's all about damned footies, the ugliest little block of crap I ever saw and God knows some modern yachts are plug ugly, but those things take the biscuit. What, I ask, have they to do with scale?

Nope, I shall plod on doing what pleases me, whatever.

Cheers,
Martin

or maybe this guy, a Yorkshireman who emigrated to the US and married. Ah True Love! Seems he continued his model yacht business there.

http://www.scalesailing.com/aboutus.htm

😎

Good man, Doug. Thanks. I heard that the man who "ran" it has died. I'd hate to write to that address and find that he was the man.
I would have thought the number of interested parties would have carried on.
Thanks anyway, Doug. I shall battle on on my own as usual.

Cheers,
Martin

Hi Martin, found on the The Nautical Research Guild site, Ship Model Organizations page.
http://www.thenrg.org/ship-model-organizations.php
No website or e-mail listed.

Scale Sailing Association (R/C)
14 Palace Road, Crouch End
London
England N8 8QJ Under Sail magazine.

hope this helps, cheers Doug 😎