Made a start on fitting the nav lights I've just made, (light boards and LEDs) They are mounted near the bow, and the wiring is run to the stern through flexible 3mm PVC garden irrigation tubing, to keep it from being damaged. The wiring will enter the rear of the aux cabinet via a slot like the ramp cables, and be powered by a 3v battery. A stern light will be added also.

I'm also in the process of making a transport stand for carrying the towboat any great distance, (have to carry things around 200m to the small estuary I use). I have just painted it with preservative resin, and when it's dry, I'll throw some paint at it. The 2 arms will have an aluminium tube between them for a handle (already have the 25mm holes bored for the tube) I tried it out before I made the holes, using a broom handle, and it works well. The arms can be folded down to make it easy to stand it on end for storage if needed.

JB

I've added a stern light and powered the the lights with a 900mah 2.7v NimH battery housed in the aux cabinet, with the servo battery, RX and ramp servo.

The transport stand is finished. Coated with preservative resin and painted, and a 25mm ally tube handle fitted (dowel a was a lot dearer and heavier) and wrapped with macramé cord for a grip (wound it on with the lathe).

Just have to work out a plan of how to carry this pile😐 (plus maybe 2 TXs and a camera) all in one go.

JB

Solved the problem yesterday, of how to carry 2 TXs. I hung them by their handles on the stand handle, and held them in place with a bungee cord, with a clip on the end to clip onto the TX handle. The bungee cord/s go down to the frame behind the TX/s.

I would only usually be using one TX for the barge and boat, but would need another TX for a vehicle. I can now carry the boat, TXs and barge (with left hand) quite easily, without the risk of anything breaking.

JB

Received the cheap sound unit from Ali Expr a couple of days ago, and have managed to squeeze it into what space was left. Had to play with the throttle end points to stop it sounding like a formula 1 car instead of the diesel I was aiming for and ended up with a reasonable sound. Throttle is on the left (centering elevator stick) not the throttle stick, as the siamesed throttle and sound into the throttle channel in the RX caused feedback for some reason.

Tried making a gentle throttle curve in the program, but it made no difference, as the sound unit is not very proportional (sound files aren't blended nicely,- big steps) The sound is only used at about 18% of its' scale. I wasn't expecting much for the price, and I wasn't disappointed, but it will give the boat a bit extra for a video.

The unit has 10 sound choices, a few of which might be ok for tugs etc with a bit of a play.

JB

Haven't done much lately. as there has been storm after storm with huge seas and floods, followed by the most destructive cyclone in the countrys' history, with 9 people dead so far, plus a 6.1 earthquake to top it off !. My favourite little estuary for sailing at Hatfields' Beach was completely stripped of sand, down to bedrock and has yet to recover. A bit of sand has come back after the cyclones' winds turned offshore, but it could take months to recover. (pics 1-5)

Pic 6/7, main beach at Orewa (or what's left of it) sand beach was almost to the top originally last year. They are trying to drag some sand back and build it up, but thousands of tons of sand over 3km of beach have disappeared, so not a lot to use. All due to councils' dithering for years, over putting in rock protection walls like the rest of the beach. -(which came off reasonably ok) Believe it or not, the sea was breaking over the top during the cyclone,(8ft above the normal king tide level.

Pics 8/9 Waiwera river/estuary (2nd beach nth of Orewa) before/after- there was a huge dune area (about the size of 2 football fields) with protected rare seabird nesting areas, but now it's a wasteland.

This is nothing compared to most of the countrys' inland areas. A couple of vids for perspective.-

But I did manage to find some nice sized rubber tyres for the workboat from Ali Expr, which are hard to find in that scale (bare tyres). they will be better than the wooden ones I made, which could damage the hull with a bit of banging around towing the barge.

JB

Re cyclone - repairs to the local beach (Orewa.) 3 Scrapers and a tractor have been working for a week so far, (about 8 hrs a day) to drag sand back from the southern end of the beach, and are making some decent progress,- vid was from 23/02/23

You can see that the 'cliff' next to the trees (prev pics) is almost gone now.
Rain event has started again, which may cause more damage to already devastated areas. Hope it won't be too bad for those poor buggers this time.

Re moving to Turkey we've had our share of earthquake disasters and floods here thanks, don't need anyone elses 😁 (Napier, Christchurch etc) Only a small country and population here, so these things affect us more than most.

https://my.christchurchcitylibraries.com/hawkes-bay-earthquake/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Christchurch_earthquake

JB

Finally got round to trying the boat/barge combo. I had to try it in an area next to a boat ramp which was not the best (rocks everywhere), as my favourite site has not recovered from the cyclone. Tried towing alongside which wasn't the best, as the style of jet in the boat doesn't have a lot of steering at the best of times. Ended up wanting to go in circles and having to use partial reverse on one of the side reversing ducts to try and keep it straight.

I'll need to add some small keels to the barge (20x10 or similar over the length) to give it some bite and change the tow position with the barge more forward. Took a lot of juggling to get it anywhere right, and wasn't helped by trying to avoid rocks. Loading the jeep went really well, so at least one thing worked ok. The bilge pump unfortunately stopped due to the servo arm over-running the M/S arm, and it ended up with a load of salt water all round the motor and servos.

The motor had spun water everywhere and the sound unit had a run-away (hear in vid) and couldn't be controlled, so everything had to be washed out and sprayed with CRC. All working ok now. Found the wire had broken inside one of the speaker boxes, which had to be cut apart to be repaired. Hopefully next time out will be better. Vid's a bit rough, and the second camera on the TX didn't start (couldn't see due to the blazing sun) thought it had -we know what thought thought😁 Hopefully find a better place for another go.

JB

Have now added 12x12mm ally channel strakes for 3/4 of the length of the barges bum (from bow back) to see if it will make a difference to handling. If the barge is angled slightly to the right when towing alongside, (vice versa for the r/hand) side it should help. Will also protect the bottom a bit when run up to a beach. Just have to wait for another good day to test the theory.

JB

Had a crack at running the rock gauntlet,- miss the 2ft of sand which used to cover it all before the cyclone. Tricky manoeuvring with wind, rocks and current. Pity some tourist had to come and start yelling into his phone,- hard to find a quiet place for a video (sound works good on the camera though !) too good😁

JB

Another addition to spaghetti junction. Bought a couple of water level sensors from Ali Expr and fitted one to the boat. Runs on 12v and has 2 stainless level prongs (from windscreen wiper inserts) which will sit in the bilge. Now will be automatic so I won't have any mishaps like on a previous run, (servo operated M/S overrode the M/S arm and didn't turn the pump on,- salt water everywhere).

JB