And just so she doesn't feel left out, here's the Marblehead, still without a name.
Given to me by a lovely guy called Ken Cooper, who made the very nice deck. She came with her Braine steering gear in a jar and I am tempted to put that back on her rather than R/C.
https://model-boats.com/media/np/s/200/1494181368
https://model-boats.com/media/np/s/200/1494181376

Cheers,
Martin

"Oh no, Martin", said my old chum, Peter. "The Uffa Fox connection was that he was a favourite of Prince Philip and Philip and the Queen owned Bloodhound. That's Bloodhound, not Dorade". Well blow me down with a Bosun's whistle. I'm deeeelighted. No offence to our Colonial cousins, but I was a bit miffed that I had to replicate an American boat. But now, I have it from the horse's mouth that the students who he taught way back in the 60s at college had made a model hull in GRP of The Royal Yacht Bloodhound, which had only then become Royal, following on from Bluebottle the famous Dragon.
Now I have a very different kettle of fish to model. And they did it in 1/16th scale, so it fits well with my model of "Vanity".

Here she is after a clean and just before going up in the loft earlier today.
https://model-boats.com/media/np/s/200/1494181134
https://model-boats.com/media/np/s/200/1494181161

Cheers,
Martin

Oh, Lightning for me is forever English Electric. I've seen them climb like rats up drainpipes, break the sound barrier over Gt. Yarmouth, do sub sonic ground level passes. My son took me to a place nearish here where they have 3, 2 still with engines and they do ground run ups on re-heat! One of them went down the runway so fast it actually lifted! But the very ground shook. in the dusk, it was very impressive.

Martin

Small world ain't it? 😉
Gyroscopic force, and a sense of balance, holds 'em up!
I regret selling my GS160 when I left KL. Would be worth a small fortune now 🤔
For me 'Lightning' means P38J or English Electric 😎

Doug,
RAF Marham is our local base. Constantly being enlarged. Next insult will be those damned F35 POS from the Yanks. Overpriced, over time and, no doubt, capable of 60% of what they promise. Political BS at work. Then they have the temerity to call the ugly blob a Lightning!

But you'll know how everywhere there is water. The Kings Lynn club used to run at the Leisure Centre, but allowed themselves to be bullied by the hook dangling retards and moved to Leziate, which is miles away and hard to reach on a huge lake and at some cost. Not for me.

I rode a scooter once. Front wheel went down a pothole I thought was a little puddle and I went over the top. it had been lent to me by Mike Karslake, who started and ran the Lambretta Club of Great Britain. At one point he had 300,000 members in this country alone! I used to work for him from time to time when he had a new model to make, but preferred to play scooters. His daughter was called Jo. You'd know her as Jo Wood now, glamorous granny who married Ronnie Wood of the Stones. I remember her as a rather tasty 14 year old starting out on her career as a model! Anyway, I left the scooter at the house I was visiting and told Mike to collect it, Struck me as a death trap. I have never been into riding 2 wheels. Can't see what hold them up!

Martin

A sad (or poignant) tale! Can fully understand why you are so determined to preserve her at least as a detail true working model! Respect, as our German colleagues would say 👍
Left in that state she would have destroyed herself by now 😭
such a shame, NaJa, the throw away society seems to be very slowly learning some lessons, there's hope yet!
German ship modellers have a reputation for collecting and saving ANYTHING that won't start to stink within two weeks!
I build as much as I can but when I want some 'quick fun' on the lake I might resort to opening the wallet. An ex Pat I met here around 30 years ago (ex RN Captain!) had an expression for that
'spending too much time bait digging (sic - building) and not enough fishing (sic - sailing)!'
I half agreed with him, part of the fun for me is solving the problems and squeezing everything in. I look forward to the videos of 'Vanity' afloat.

BTW I also lived a while in your neck of the woods, a long long time ago.
Dad was stationed at RAF Marham, on the Victor Tankers, and I went to Kings Lynn Grammar and Tech College and then down to the smoke to Twickenham college.

While in Norfolk I whizzed around the fens on a Vespa GS 160, 13HP went pretty well. Night driving in the fens is fun 😉 with all those right angled bends. Miss one and ................. SPLOSH!
We used to play 'Chicken' - driving without lights!!!!!
Trips to the coast with 'the ladies' on the pillion, Boston for concerts; Bananarama?, Hot Chocolate👍, The Animals, The Yardbirds (with Eric Clapton!) 👍 .... Happy days 😉 Cheers 😎

Yes, I got that one short mention in "in the boat shed" on my search. I provided those pictures to him and most of the history, as I did to Alex Laird when he was trying to sell her through his boat brokerage in Classic Boat magazine in the 90s. She was towed by a fishing boat from Burnham round to Canvey where an ex Police mechanic and his girlfriend were living on her, then the next I know she's out at Dauntless's yard on Canvey, then gets transported by road to Bristol. By now she was in the ownership of a John Ord, an antique print and book seller. She has remained there ever since. I visited her when she was in a creek at Canvey and spookily, as I looked into the water, a piece of her interior floated past me! The Police mechanic guy said they'd stripped her interior for safe keeps and it was in his mother's garage in Leigh-on-Sea. Well this piece wasn't, was it? I tried to get it with a stick but couldn't. I'd have kept it if I could have got it! That was the last I saw of her. I imagine by now she'll have been destroyed. Mark Rolt, who was in charge of her where she lay in Bristol, is a nephew of the great Tom Rolt, who started the inland Waterways Association, the Talyllyn Railway Preservation Society and the Vintage Sports Car Club. All major interests of mine over the years. He will be revolving in his grave like one of his beloved Alvis engines.

Doug, she was one of a class called C-Class and fitted the then rules for only a few years. She was built in Dan Hatcher's yard in 1885/6. The chap I bought her from, Steve Bowen, gave me the picture of her afloat and rigged. I stayed friends with Steve for years. He then got picked up by a rich lady and went touring around the chateaux of Europe, most of which seemed to be owned by her friends. Nobody could have deserved such a fate more than Steve, one of nature's true gentlemen. it is thanks to raggy arsed enthusiasts like Steve and me that these old boats were preserved as long as they have been for rich gits to take advantage as they now do.

Martin

So Sad what a thing to happen to such a Vessel....😭

Hi Martin, sad but true🤔 All I found was this
http://intheboatshed.net/2015/09/02/1885-classic-mary-ex-vanity-needs-someone-to-save-her/
a report on her threatening demise.
The first pic is the one in your profile! interesting (for me) it was once owned by a Mr Bell, my own family name! Seem to have been 3 Vanities.
The rest of the photos are terrible! How did she get into such a state, or is it a totally different boat from yours? When did you live on her?
Is there a class name to look for?
Good hunting, will assist if I can cos I know the problem from when I was trying to find info on HMS Hotspur and U26. I also have shelves full of books, several from the Deutsches Museum here in Munich, mostly quicker to thumb through than firing up the 'haunted fish-tank Mk II' 😉
Cheers 😎