My uncle Peter was a flotilla leader with coastal forces in the Mediterean, in the second half of WW2 . My late father, Douglas, his brother, built the pictured MTB in 1956. it ran with i.c. power until 1962, when it was mothballed.

I recently restored and upgraded the model (brushless motors etc) and thought that it would be great to take the model all the way down a lake in Devon to demonstrate it for him. Not having any local knowledge, I put a request on this excellent site, asking for help from local guys and must say that the site has some wonderful subscribers who came forward with help and support, especially Keystone. He was brilliant and greatly contributed to make the visit a great success. thanks, mate. My uncle and the other members present greatly enjoyed it, though the windy, cold conditions rendered the rum tot most acceptable!! The photos are self explanatory. The tug was there as a rescue boat if required.

Many thanks to all Model Boats' members who responded to my request for help.

This is a 49" Perkasa built from a ply Precedent kit - the build blog is on this site. Videoed from a 46" Fireboat on a lake in Western Australia. Neither boat is running at top speed, which is spectacular but overscale! Both boats have identical brushless motors. Apologies for the video being a bit long, and for the water on the lens, but this is a first attempt and I hope you enjoy the music.

This Higgins PT boat was built and sailed by a good friend of mine. it is scratch-built. it uses a single Turnigy 3639 1100kV brushless motor and LiPo battery. it is pretty new and has not had its number painted on as yet. its performance is excellent.

Zoom 1 (Interceptor) Mono boat.
Built from a Glassfibre hull, brought on Ebay for £35 the hull is a slim mono racing type with a self-righting side cabin it runs a 1400W 14V 2958 4200KV Brushless Motor and 29-S Water Cooling Jacket with additional air cooling fan.
I did not want to use a flexi drive as high maintenance and prone to failure so the shaft runs via two universal joint one at each end. the propeller is a 38mm copper alloy
The ESC is a 200W and water cooled the twin rudders supply separate water one for the motor and one for the ESC.
The rudder are positioned to reduce prop-walk and are hinged to prevent damage if you hit a object in the water and also for ride adjustment.

Turn fins and trim tabs for ride adjustment were provided by a spares kit for another boat. also foamed and added an inner sealed hatch, a rubber bump strip and safety loop.

built from a Vernon plan using lite ply
27" Long x 6.75" Wide
30 amp esc
3 cell 5000mah lipo
1000kv Brushless Motor

This is Brian Clewes Hovercraft on a frozen Boundary Park Lake in Cheshire UK.
Our resident cob swan and his wife were sat on the ice probably hoping we had brought some feed. They don't bother us and we leave them alone. I should have filmed them taking off later, not an easy task on ice for one of our largest birds.
The hovercraft has two brushless motors and uses a LiPo.

An old favourite from my hovercraft phase. Runs really well on land and especially water. Although no reverse, it will auto-rotate on the hover, so when pointing in the desired direction on with the propulsion with the brushless motor and away she flies.
Realistic in operation. Looking a bit work worn now. Could do with up-dating with Lipo batteries which would make it even lighter. Seen here with lift motor running with skirt inflated. Steering
interesting, with twin air rudders. Must get some videos of the action.

A challenging project 10 years ago. Scratch built model of theSRN3 built under licence by the US for use in the Mekong delta against the VC in Vietnam. Very light construction with liteply.
Two ESPs control brushed and brushless motors for lift and propulsion. Motor tube ball-raced at each end with a 9x6 pusher prop. Realistic performance and sounds like a turbo prop. Tricky to control in anything stronger than a light breeze. Best on water.

Vosper 73ft Type 1 MTB - Scratchbuilt. Now running two brushless motors and NiMH batteries. Photos previously posted. 1/24 Scale

Fairmile D MTB623 belongs to a good friend. This boat was also featured in a previous video with my Fairmile D.

The lake was a bit choppy with realistic sea conditions.

1/35 Scale model of the La Combattante IIIB Class Fast Missile Boat of the Hellenic Navy.
The boat is scratchbuilt. it is 1606mm long. it has 2 brushless 720Kv motors and NiMH batteries.
The 76mm guns can traverse and elevate. The 30mm guns can traverse. Both radars rotate and there are LED running lights.

At Ilfracombe pond is Bob Burrows Vintage Model Boat Co kit of the Fast Patrol Boat. Bobs made a nice job of it and has brushless motor with Lipoly batteries. Forward / reverse control was nothing special on maiden voyage and came close to a good sinking !!!

Hi. Just put this back together after the 3rd brushless motor caught fire. Made from a rejected glass fibre hull which I bought cheap at a show. I have now learned how to do glass fibre repairs.