Mark,

He doesn’t eat much, so I don’t think he needs to go on a diet before he goes rowing. In fact he spends most of his time asleep and seems to need an electric shock to get him moving at all LOL🤣

Hi Laurie,

If you search the Gallery area of this website for Crash Tender, there is a video showing my boat in action so you can see the speed.

The ESC is a Turnigy Marine50. Water cooled 50A rating. The motor draws a little under 20A but it is a good idea to have some headroom in case of problems. I have a 30A fuse in the circuit. The motor gets slightly warm in use, but the ESC stays cold.

Happy to try and answer any questions you may have.

Graham93

Martin,

Looking forward to the rest of this blog. Love the name👍😁
Graham93

Hi Laurie,

I refurbished a 34” Crash Tender last year. You can find details of what I did if you search the blogs here for ‘ 34” Crash Tender refit’.

I replaced the original diesel with a Turnigy D3536/6 outrunner. It is powered with a 3S LiPo and fitted with a 30mm prop. It is fast, and planes easily.

Graham93

Martin,

Yes it was a relief to finally get to see the inside. I think it will look OK varnished to show off the timber. (I’m sure Doug will be happy to hear that ! 😆

Thanks JB,

The intention is to fit inwales and cap them with mahogany gunwales - stained and polished, not painted!

The thwarts will need some thought as I need to sort out the geometry for bionic Bill. Have to make sure he is comfortable, otherwise I’ll never get him rowing.😆

The plan gives details of how to mark the waterline. Being concerned about the total weight I decided to pencil the waterline onto the primed hull so that I can check how it floats and what balast it might need (anyone come up with negative balast yet, in case I need to lighten it?)

Two horizontal battens were set up on the building jig at the correct height and a length of string was then used to draw the waterline position onto the hull.

Now the big reveal, time to remove the hull from the building jig. It came off relatively easily with just a couple of screws which were a bit difficult to reach. The inside looks OK, only 3 pins just sticking through out of the 1000 or so that hold all the planks on. Easily fixed with the Dremel and an abrasive wheel.

My priority was to check the weight. The full size plan states that the empty dinghy should weigh in at 400kg. I have built it to 1/6th scale so the target weight should be 400kg divided by 6 cubed or 216 which gives a target of 1.85kg. The hull isn't complete yet, but I needent have worried. It weighs just 1.55kg 😁.

JB,

Looks great. Good job you weren't on the water when the lens fell off. Wouldn't have been so easy to retrieve all the bits that fell off!

Graham93

Thanks JB. Not sure about it being an heirloom, think the family more likely to think it a white elephant🙄

Graham93

Thanks Martin,

Can’t wait to remove it from the build jig to see what it looks like inside, and to check the weight.

Graham93

WARNING: Based on a few of the comments made about my last Update, some members may find a few of the following photos upsetting..😂🤣

The mahogany used to plank the dinghy was sawn to 3mm thickness, but not planed. This meant that the hull needed a lot of sanding to produce a smooth finish ready for glassing.

Once smooth, I used slow setting epoxy resin and 25g/sq m. woven glasscloth to cover the dinghy. I'm a novice when it comes to glassing hulls, hence the use of slow setting resin. Three pieces of glasscloth were used, one either side of the keel to cover the length of the hull, and one for the transom. 24 hours was left between fitting each piece.

The chine rubbing strips, cut from mahogany were then glued and pinned in place, using 5 minute epoxy and the entire hull given a second coat of epoxy resin. This was left for 3 days to fully harden and then rubbed down with 600 grit wet & dry, used wet. Once smooth, which didn't take long when compared with the initial plank sanding, mahogany rails were fitted to the edge of the sheerplank and the transom. These were pinned and glued with epoxy. Having had to race against time when gluing the chine rails using 5 minute epoxy, I bought some regular epoxy to glue these rails. It has a 90 minute working time, and made for a much more relaxing fitting process.

Finally the rails were masked and the hull given two coats of grey etch primer using a rattle can (!!!). I think it will look great once it is finished with a white gloss topcoat (I know not everyone agrees with that ! 🙄)

Hi JB, thanks for the link to Hayes. Brought back memories of our trip to NZ in 2014 ( when tourists were allowed in the country ! - remember those times?). Came across the store quite by chance while in Invercargill.

Graham93

Wow! You have been busy 👍 Looks great. You won’t miss that tail light 😀 Looking forward to the sea trial video.

Graham93

Michael,

Really nice detail.

I said last week that these boats are never really finished 😆 What’s next?

Graham93

Thank you all for the nice comments.

Red, it does sadden me sometimes when I see what is being thrown away at the dump. So many things I could make use of, but no one is allowed to remove anything so it goes for recycling, or more often to landfill.

The plywood was an 8ft x 12” length I spotted in a skip near our postbox. It was there for 3 days, being rained on, and having rubble piled on it before I rescued it. Did get some funny looks carrying it home. I’ve made a box to house a bench power supply made from an adapted PSU from an old PC, a stand for the Crash Tender, and this stand for the rowing boat, and there is still a bit left 👍.

Mark, “ a swing for bionic Bill” .... Don’t give him ideas, I’ll never get any work out of him 😂🤣

Graham93

Thanks Rob, Martin,

The foam isn’t glued so it would be easy to change. It does provide good support when transporting models, but I agree the stand doesn’t look as good as it could for display purposes. There again, if I were going to display the dinghy at a show, I’d probably want to make an oak, or mahogany stand and french polish it.😉

I decided that now was a good time to build the stand for the dinghy, so that it would be ready for use when the hull is removed from the building jig.

I started with the hardboard template I had used to build the frames. This was cut out using the marked frame outlines as a guide. It was then tried on the upturned dinghy to check for the correct shape. The shape was then transferred onto some 9mm ply salvaged last year from a skip - I knew it would come in useful one day!

Once the hull shape was cut out of the two formers they were taped together and pilot holes drilled through both pieces. The two outer holes in each piece were drilled through 12mm, the other three holes were drilled halfway through using a flat bit.

Curves were added by drawing round a suitable sized paint tin and then cut out with the scroll saw. Not really necessary, but they do make the completed stand look more elegant, and they reduce the weight a little.

12mm dowel was cut to provide two long and three short lengths. The long lengths fit through the outer holes and are pinned through the edge of the ply, the shorter lengths are glued and screwed in the three central holes. A couple of coats of quick drying woodstain and a few pieces of pipe insulation and the stand is complete.

The last photo shows the reason for the longer dowels. My launch straps can be looped round the end of the dowels to make stand into a carrying frame.

Andy,

I like the 'mismatched holes' version. What amazes me is someone had gone to the trouble of making all those variations. They were on a display board in a hardware shop in NZ. I wonder if JB finds a use for their bolts? 🤣.

Graham93

In a similar vein, here's a few bolts you could send an apprentice for...

Fleet,

In anticipation of the findings of the Court Martial, I made my best attempt at recreating the Pyramids in Lego. I trust Fleet will find this an acceptable pennance.

Sub//

Martin,

Thanks for pleading with Fleet on my behalf, but I think I might prefer the Lego 😊. After all I could ignore his commands once again and build a boat with it...😆

Graham93

Thanks ALL for the kind comments about the chair. I do indeed hope it becomes an heirloom as the family need to get lots of use from it to cover the cost of the timber, not to mention the scroll saw I ‘had’ to buy so I could cut out the bear.😁 Mind you, the new saw has been so useful for model making since I finished the chair. Don’t know how I ever managed without it...👍😂🤣

Graham93

Thanks Rob,

The nice thing about model boats (apart from all the friends on this fabulous website) is that I can combine my hobby of woodwork with my interest in electronics. Most of my woodwork over the years has been centred around DIY/house repairs etc but occasionally I tackle something more challenging and satisfying. The oak I've used in the dinghy is offcuts left over from my most recent project completed for my new granddaughter, just before lockdown.

Graham93

FLEET Sir,

I beg your forgiveness but the die is cast. The outside of the hull is to be painted white. The external woodwork is not to the standard I would wish to be able to finish it with a clear coat. Paint will cover a multitude of sins, and filler 😀 ( Also the blog is a week or more behind real time 😉) However the intention is to finish the inside with a clear epoxy finish. It is still firmly fixed to the build jig, so I still haven’t seen how it looks internally, but I am hopeful that it will be acceptable to all.

Available for Court Martial at your command.

Regards Sub Graham93

Martin,

I’m glad they didn’t run fore and aft. That would have made them much harder to shape and fit without gaps. Much easier fitting short planks.

Yes, keen to get it off the jig, but also a bit apprehensive. I don’t want to find it looks like a hedgehog inside with all the nails sticking through 🙄

Planking the bottom starts at the transom with a 35mm wide planks fitted either side of the keel at an angle. These were glued and nailed to the hog, transom, battens and chines. Subsequent planks are all 24mm wide and butt up against the previous ones. At the rear of the hull, the bottom planks overlay the side planking. Towards the front, the bottom planks butt up against the side plank. All the planking is mahogany and was cut 3mm thick from a wider board using the table saw. It was sanded smooth to remove the saw marks. Particular attention was paid to sanding the inner surface as it would not be possible to sand this from inside the completed hull.

Once all the planks were in place, the overhanging ends were trimmed flush with the side planking. Oak capping strips were added to the keel and stem to cover the bolt heads holding the structure together. Rather than trying to bend a thick section of oak, the curved section of the stem was capped with multiple thicknesses of oak veneer glued one at a time. These were then trimmed and sanded to shape.

Doug,

Don’t want to give the poor fella a heart attack 😆

Graham93

Martin,

Sound effects, now there’s an idea. Perhaps I could have bionic Bill puffing and panting as he tries to row the boat. I keep telling him he needs to get fit, but still no response! LOL 🤣

I have learnt the hard way that it is important to know the state of charge of the battery in a boat😊

When bionic Bill gets exhausted from lots of rowing (battery low) he starts to panic and look around for the shortest route to the shore! LOL😁

The little RX2A receiver I'm using doesn't support telemetry to feed the receiver battery voltage back to the transmitter, like the bigger FlySky receivers do. I added some software to the microprocessor that controls the rowing motion to monitor the battery level. It reads the battery voltage at intervals, and when the voltage drops below a threshold, the controller takes over control of Bill's head turn servo from the transmitter and gets him to turn left and right, looking for the shore. I hope this will be clear enough to see on the lake so that I can get the dinghy back to shore before Bill gives up completely.

Low battery

▶️

Thanks Martin, I'm going to just paint the hull white. Not decided how to mark the waterline.

Graham93