Launch at last of Coromandel at Cleevedon last week with the help of a passing Portishead/Cleevedon club member who steered the ship, whilst I somewhat did my best with a video camera, I will have to get in a bit more practice.
With the noise from the meccano step down gears it gave a satisfying Impression. I do not expect that it will get sailed much, as it has ended up much more of a display model than something to expose to the sort of water we have around here.
This is a scratch built 1;16 fishing/motor sailor from a free plan by james pottinger, made from old teak furniture with mahogany wheelhouse, technobots sound system, 12 volt power shower motor, the original was built by james adams at gourock in 1946 and is still sailing in the western isles of scotland.
I have the 46inch fibre glass hull version I use a brush motor direct drive onto an x45 prop powered by a 12volt 7ah jelly cell battery with 15amp series fuse using relay switch for fwd rev, runs really fast planing until battery power falls but cant get any where near the 40 mins jelly_baby gets using lipo cells my visits to the lakes when I lived in Bedford consisted of getting the boat to the lake then 6 12v 7ah charged batteries being carried from the car.
HI DeltaTango01 using the same motor and Prop (45mm 3 Blade Brass) with a direct drive I found that the amp draw was excessive and this made the run time very short. but by fitting a 3:1 reduction gearbox I retained the speed and dropped the amps used by the motor it was running much more efficiently. Thats why I think the run time Improved. I sail on a sunday morning from about 10.30 to 12.30 on 2 x 11.1 5100mAh lipo's and 2 x 4.8v 3700 mAh NiMh in series (9.6V). Hope that this helps DeltaTango01.
Amelie is a 1:24 scale pilot cutter from the TV series the hungry sailors, scratch built from photographs of internet, lovely evening sail on bala lake.
HI Dave, The first one is the Lipo (5100mAh), it ran slightly longer than the NiMh (3700mAh) but caused the speed controller some problems so have now changed that to a better one and will try again on the weeked at Portishead near Bristol. 😊
Here are a few pics of my Scout which wwas originally built in 1958, but left in my parents loft when I left home in 1966, but thankfully still there when my Mum asked me to clear the attic for insulation installers last year.
So far have cleaned it and fitted a MabuchI Brushed motor of unknown power, but appears to work well at 6Volts running a 2 blade plastic prop 30mm 'S' type.
Havent got round to fitting radio gear yet, so have done tests as a free sailer, setting rudder on a slow arc and watching as I walk round pond.Will update as soon as next stage is complete.
Thanks and no restoration work yet, but may have to coat hull as some seepage at joints.Will hopefully be able to keep model integraty without too much trouble.
Have been resurrecting this old 34 1/2" FIREBOAT which was originally built in 1958 from an aerokits kit, for the last 12 months. Went for first sail at Cwmbran on Wednesday, and I am pleased to say it performed very well, But needs a little tweeking to get balance right as she sits a little low at the bow. Having been given some great advice by the local club members, I will be moving the motor and mount further back, and reducing size of prop as it used too much power. But still I'm happy with the performance and the fact it didn't leek. Will update as soon as I've done the mods.
HI Dave thanks for comment, Cwmbran are certainly a friendlyand helpfull bunch and I'll be joining their club along with my wife, as she's now got a boat restoration of her own to do.(FAIREY HUNTSMAN 1/12th scale)
Ill update as soon as I've had chance to do mods,
trouble is an86 mile round trip to do testing runs on safe water at Cwmbran.
HI Colin, This is a big thank you for your families help at Cwmbran last wednesday, if it had not been for your sons help my Sea Commander on its first run would probably be at the bottom of the lake. it's dry now but will need major work on it as some of the plywood has delaminated slightly. The motor, Receiver and servo work but the speed controller I think has died. I look forward to your next visit, on Sunday I sailed my 40 year old 34 inch Fairey Huntsman and think that I have at last got it to run reasonably well. Graham J from Cwmbran Club
Bill finally launched his boat. 😀 The weather was kind for some of the time so I was able to take some pictures and a short (not very good) video on the water.
This slide show shows the build and final result of my scratch built Seaplane Tender. it is 1/12th scale and powered by 2 x 250 watt brushless motors. Built in 2011, it sails at Knightcote in Warwickshire and Tynemouth in the NE.
Model Slipways 1/32 scale harbour tug kit built late summer/autumn 2011. Powered by MFA 2.5:1 geared motors running on 6 volts and powered through an Action P94 Mixer/speed controller to provide great steering performance -- easily turns on it own axis. Sails mostly at Knightcote Model Boat club
HI Yes we used the plans from Dr Robert Haan at 100 scale for the RMS Titanic. They are very detailed plans and will enable you to build a very realistic model. You will need to make certain modifications to model Olympic but really the external differences are few, most notably the missing enclosed fore part of the quarter deck.
The plans are on six sheets of about 18ft by 3ft so an email would not be possible, and are copyright protected.
As far as I know the plans are still available, we paid about £200, and I will email you the address if you send me a personal message.
I am still researching details on the Olympic as she had many modifications over the years, particularily to the lifeboats and I am still not convinced my version is correct at present. I am modelling around 1912/13 and good pictures are hard to come by.