Hi
My first boat is a Southamton tug, being converted and upgraded with various mods.

Hi,

Ah, those good old days!
1. An Eze-build harbour tug, balsa boat as I was migrating from balsa aircraft and fed up with either limited flights or crash and burn with the first three outings... 😟
2. Sea Urchin - and I still hanker after this. I see the plans are available through this site and will definitely be a future project. Problem at the time I recall was inability to secure rudder pintles properly but with cycle lamp battery (4.5v 'flat' battery) and mitsibushI motor went well enough as a free runner in my local river to get me hooked.
After that I can't remember, but now some 50 years later am still hooked...

Cap'n Jim.

HI Jezza
Pretty Impressive for all your own design. Model helicopters have good motors it's the plastic and pilots what's the weak point. My son acquired several that met with various accidents. Kept all the bits just in case and can now see they can be reused.
How did you couple the motor and prop? Custom prop as in home made?
Well done and please keep us posted with your model details 😀

HI I am a 15 year old teenager so my first boat is my current one! it is a homemade one designed out of my head with a plastic hull (the white thing in the picture) and uses a Spektrum AR-6400 module with a 1 cell lipo 160 mah battery, running on one of those tiny motors from a rc helicopter, driving a custom 3 bladed propeller. is quite fast for its size, faster than walking pace. it is about 3.9 inches long and weights 30 grams.

dbninja, I bet that was a Birkenhead made white star yatch, cant remember the name, but my sister had one, and I had a larger cream hull with gold keel "Pacific Star".

On a recent visit to New Brighton lake, I got talking to a guyt that had worked at the factory, the hulls came in complete as a log, and then scooped them out, it took 6 months to make one, whilst regarded as "toys" he said they where not intended as that and where very nice yatchs

That was my first boat, its now in the loft, last sailed 2 yrs ago

Westquay what area of the UK are you in and I may be able to tell you where you can sail your Ic boats.

as for using the likes of single channel REP radio you would have to go where no one else sails 27mhz radio as you could not sail at the same time as any 27mhz users.

I built my first sea commander with an ed racer in about 48 years ago it had single Chanel Hills receiver and Mac Gregor single valve tx with a ed escapement, it was not working more that it was, I then went right up market to a OS Pixie with a minI mac and a Kinematic in an electric sea scout, I also tried to run my Gannet with a 6 channel reed set , waist of a gannet but I did win a straight running comp twice.my first fire boat was about 47 years ago by the way , OS pixie ed escapement OS max 19 ran all summer long without a glitch even though it got wet twice.

Peter

My Dad's friend gave me a Sea Urchin all finished when I was 7. That was 52 years ago. This week I just repainted it in its original colours of deep red and off-white.
It has its original tiny Kako motor and KK shaft and tin prop and its original Mersey Marine fittings. My grandson is looking forward to it going on our local pond. So that's four generations now!

Then my Dad bought me a Crash Tender and part built it. it still has its original Taycol Supermarine Special, but some klutz stole the REP single channel R/C, so it'll get my old Digimac. in 48 years I've never finished it, though I used it most weekends at Paglesham oysterbeds as a kid.

I've made many highly expensive one-offs fr customers since, but none come close to my old Aerokits.
I have a good few original motors and old R/C and that's how they'll stay. I have no interest in ruining social documents with modern gear.

Westquay

I still have mine - a Wave Princess from about 1971. it has only been in the water a couple of times and the engine in it - an Enya glow plug one I think - has never been started can you believe that?

One of these days I should finish the old girl off and get her water worthy I guess........

mmm
the memory dims.. had a wee solid wooden pond yacht.. cream hull with a green pinstripe and keel, and a clockwork cabin cruiser by "marx?" around 1965?
oh thats only nearly 50 years ago 😛

was always an airplane fan first! built and crashed most of the Keilkraft/Mercury/Frog control line and free flight models of the 60/70's... radio control was only for the very wealthy

first "proper" boat was given to me by a school mate, his dad had died a few years earlier and his mum was having a clear out

my mate Ian gave me a loverly Aerokits 40" patrol boat with a Frog 349 diesel... cos I knew about models and engines!

ran it free running for several very happy summers before the diesel fuel did its worst to the wooden hull and it got binned..

happy to say I now have two of them in my collection, one is ready for a straight forward restoration, the other needs a lot more!

David

My first boat was a 46' FIREBOAT which I sold about 10 years ago. I have regretted the decision ever since so have just acquired another as a rebuild project. Not selling this one.

Vigilant II by Caldercraft, still got it somewhere awaiting a refit

hI all
My first kit boat was a Billing Mercantic followed by the Hjellen paddler. I currently have a shed full of boats which I sail on a rotational basis. Recently restored an Aerokits Fire Tender and also finished the Aerokits Solent lifeboat. I build from kits or hull and plans and enjoy seeing the finished boats on the water looking something like the real thing.
Dave

hI all, my first boat was back in 1955 which was a small sailing boat that my grandfather made, it has been passed around my brothers and there sons over the years, now uncertain who or where it is. (must find out) in 1960 built my first boat a aerokits sea urchin, had been given a small diesel engine which once running was great. 1966 built the aerokits crash tender.(see pictures) which I still have.
since then I have made from kits a flower class corvette (matchbox) tug think graupner, then from scratch I have built a morecombe bay prawner semI scale, arun class life boat (mabel alice) from RNLI plans, thought then to try something more ambitious so aquired set of plans from france of the famous sailing pilot cutter, JOLIE BRISE this took about 2000 hours to complete but very rewarding as it is a stunning looking boat. I have made it so as to be able to fit radio and a false keel to eventually get it on the water.
chiffs

Hi
My 1st boat in the late 70s was a Norstar Wave Princess. The build was o.k. but that o.s.20 engine wouldn't seal its silencer and at times had to run with the cabin top off. Again like many of us (or was it I was in the Scottish countryside) I didn't know anybody to help me out,even the areo club had a about 15 members. But did I learn at lot from it. I also finished building an RAF tender for my mate and the minute he seen it painted he wanted it back. Only to lie in the cupboard for years then give it away

My first boat, was when I was 11, it was a block of wood with foam attatched to the sides to keep it afloat and a hairdryer fan on the back to make it move. it was slow and I used it twice before getting the seaplane tender then building the police boat. 🚤

That is magic 3 generations with one boat well done. 🚤

Hi
my first boat was the fire boat that I've still got today ,my dad built it in the garden shed when my mun was carrying me because she didn't want him smoking in the house. I've had the boat for 43 years now, and as I work on it my own boy (aged 6) keeps telling me that it will be his boat one day. so the boat will have been in the family for 3 generations. 😊 😊 😊

my first boat was billings
sea king then a paul denker from graupner
then a plank on frame le madigan from new marquettes

My first boats:

(1) 1950s Star Yacht, very small, slowing rotting away at present

(2) 1950s Aerokits Sea Scout built when in my early teens; it had an IC engine which I never got around to fitting - didnt know anyone who could help 1950s.

(3) 2007 Aerokit RAF Launch purchased from e-bay
still trying out different props; has a 900 motor running off 12 V; two in series 6 V lead acid batteries.

(4) 2008 Built the Skimmer from Model Boat Magazine plan; 400 motor and a 9.2 V NiMH 1400 mAh battery.

(5) 2008 purchased a remote controlled Yacht to see if I could master sailing in the wind etc - not easy.

(6) 2008 building a Maime lobster boat - not sure about prop, motor, battery yet as work in progress.

The first boat I got was an airsea rescue boat. I knew nothing about them but my mates had various boats. as I began to find out more about rescue boats I purchased more as and when I spotted them at boot sales. 🚤