At the club pond today I have completed the Orca to my satisfaction. the crew figures are complete and fitted in situ, Matt Hooper at the helm, captain Quint up front with the harpoon gun, chief Brody serving out the smelly chum at the stern. The battery ran for at least 1 hour, it’s a 3s lipo 2200,100c when coupled to the charger it had 70 % left in

Managed to capture some video of Brian Clewes' live steam TID tug on the lake this Wednesday 19 October. First chance for a proper sail and a bit more ballast needed.

Nice sunny day yesterday and we had a good turnout of models on the lake.

Here's a few pics of the Lumba. It is ready for fiberglass and the superstructure is here just test fit. I need suggestions on how to power it; I want it to move scale, about 20 knots and it is going to be twin screw. I have a pair of 800 motors that are great but might be too much, even though I would rather this be over-powered than under. She has very cool lines, like an airplane. Lots of curves and twists all over her. She's a big girl, ready to carry quite a few angry oil rig employees on a dark and stormy night.

Information from Nerys -

In the 1940s and 50s, many traditional Thames Sailing barges were converted into motor barges. This is a model, based on photos and my memory of the 'Nellie'. The sailing barge 'Nellie' was built by Cremers at Hollowshore, Faversham in 1901,. She traded under sail carrying about 90 tons of cargo around the Thames, Medway and Swale until about 1952 and then had the gear taken out, a Chrysler Crown petrol/paraffin motor installed and carried on trading for some years owned by R.Lapthorne & Co of Hoo on the River Medway.. She was eventually sold out of trade and is now privately owned. She has been rerigged with a reduced sailing barge rig without a topsail. My model is based on a 30" barge hull from Dave Watts Mastman.

NOTE More information from Nerys - read on ........

Hi Phil,
I'll just add a little more information to that. I was Nellie's skipper in the mid 50's for a few years. We were based at Hoo on the Medway and carried cargoes around the Medway, Swale, Thames and Colne. Regular trips were such as ballast from Fingringhoe on the Colne to Hoo, sand from Upnor on the Medway to the Ford works at Dagenham, fertilizers from London to Faversham and Queenborough, wheat from London docks to Whitstable and more or less anything that could be carried between ships in the London docks to anywhere in the Estuary. We were paid by the freight. Half the value of the carriage charges going to the owners and the other half to the crew, shared 2/3 for the skipper, 1/3 for the mate, Then fuel and other expenses were divided up similarly.
Nellie, of all the barges I served on was the one I liked best. She was the smallest, but there was just something about her. However as a footnote, in the 1970's I built a forty three foot schooner rigged barge yacht in the same yard as Nellie was built.

I am posting this video as it shows more of our Hovercraft in action from about 1:01 on.
dave976

In the last few seconds of the video you can see her jerk a couple times. Took a big fish strike. Bent the rudder pushrod bad. Lost a crew member figure lol. Not the best maiden voyage.Took about 15 minutes to retrieve her. Now have a fiberglass reinforced pushrod. Just part of the fun in this fantastic hobby!

We had a good selection of models sailing on the lake at Boundary Park on Monday.

This is a model not often seen and was sailed on Monday 2 May at Boundary Park.

The Odessa is fitted with a action camera to record her journeys. This video was produced as a trial. The Odessa has recently been resprayed in metallic red and the little dingy was removed.
She now also has a crew of three.
1:20 scale - Lindberg kit built.

Perhaps not a boat, but no pond is complete without one of these gems.
This lighthouse is fully remote controlled.
The lamp rotates at 12 rpm allowing a flash of light every 5 seconds.
A 5kg weight is mounted under the island and winched down to the bottom of the dam to anchor the island. The winch is powered by a 6V Ryobi Cordless Screw Driver's gearbox and motor.
The Fog Horn is operated by a 9V motor with a counterbalance causing a vibration inside the tower, amplifying the sound effect of a steam horn.
It's built at 1:35 scale and stands 80cm tall.

Shakedown trials commenced over the weekend, she was launched with very little fanfare.....crew performance exemplary....however some minor technical issues to be explored further....

Bravo Zulu