Hello to all, I have just got hold of a Deans Firefloat mk11 it was a seconds hull and needed a bit of repair but is nice and light, I have had one of my plans reduced to the right size and at present I am making the running gear I will post a picture of it soon.
it's going to be twin screw and I have got hold of some small brush-less motors.
I have noticed that on fire boats all the cambers seem the same, deck, rooftops,etc so I usually make couple of good templates out of card, before I start a build.And I usually get a copy or two of the plan and put the original away and cut one up so its easy to look at, and that way you are not fighting with a big plan when taking measurements.

The hull was trimmed to the correct height and some spacers to get the correct width. I decided to fit two bulkheads in the boat the front to form a watertight compartment for buoyancy.
Also to enable me to fit the side decks the rear one is required for the well deck it also helps align the side decks as there is a straight line between the two.
The running gear was adapted from some I got hold of, but it would have been quicker if I had started from scratch, the skeg bracket was silver soldered on, then a plate was soft soldered on. I tend to make a template out of wood or styrene to give an idea on where the prop which is a prop shop 25mm will finish and then a hole can be cut in the hull. I am going to strengthen the inside of the hull to enable me fit the rudder and motor in one, and I have found that this shape of hull with flat panels tend to move and as I am hoping to put a lot of power in the boat, and it may not be a good idea if it beds, the placement of the bulkhead will also help.

31% is the amount the plan had to be reduced from the 34" boat.

The running gear is test fitted so I can work out the length required. A ball race will be fitted on the inside end and oilier.

The two pictures show the test fitting ready for the strengthening strip to be fitted and the way the skeg is going to be held on the inside but with brass pins.

Finished the shafts, you know when you get it all finished and you think "well that's that done" and you look again to find the oilier pipes are on the bottom... drat and a few other words. Anyway on the motor end there is a 7mm x 4mm Teflon shielded ball-race. So its back to stiffener on my 34" I did as per the picture of the 34" tender so it will be a light weight version.

Next step was to make sure that the shaft sat level and parallel
and that there are no lumps in the bottom of the hull a block of wood with some self adhesive sand paper also make sure that the hull cannot flex when doing it,
the small blocks of wood on the side and bottom of the the hull are so that when the bulkheads are bonded in they are in the correct place.

The next step was to draw the supports for the bottom of the hull. I used 1/4 ply for this and milled it out after a rough cut. I use a router cutter for this and the drills sticking out are on the centre line to enable me to place them in the same place, this makes the parts nice and neat and you can also put grooves in it to lighten if required, the ply will end up about half the thickness when finished as it has to be shaped to the hull. it will probably loose over half of its weight but still stay stiff.
A tip I have found when working with ply is to keep it flat and with weights or G-clamps holding it to the bench till its ready to be fitted.
so just a bit of shaping and probably a coat of sanding seal on the top and sides, but not on any areas where epoxy will be used.
I may fit a few captive bolts in the area where the motor will be mounted.

Time to do a bit more work on the motor stiffeners, these take a lot of time (well it does me) to get right, but once they are done a lot of the build falls together. Because they will hold the motor ,prop shaft, rudder and servo and as its only a small boat they have to be right or it wont perform. When I build a boat I like to think the inside is as good as the outside and with a bit of thought it can be, you will see the small blocks of wood have multiplied. These help when it comes to get the epoxy out when they are all fitted all the blocks will come of.
One of the things I tend to do is have a selection of wood blocks with self adhesive sand paper on these help make parts all the same.
Its time for the final check that all is in the right place and lined up, it seems like I spend a lot of time doing this but it pays in the end.

This part requires a lot of fitting and trying and planing a bit more they have to fit when placed as some hulls can be a bit flexible, they look a bit like propellers and are handed, when finished they will be epoxied in. The picture show the motor in the position it will be mounted.
I have tried to get it nice and low in the hull. The motor is a cheap out-runner that I will try, it has the same hole space and size as a 380 so it will be easy to change if the idea fails. The pictures show the amount that comes of so they are not that heavy and when it gets further on you will see the advantages of it all fixed together.

This picture shows a fix I have had to do after forgetting how deep the ply would end up the bit on the skeg with the blue arrow is a brass bolt I had to slot and solder on, I had made them long enough but chopped em off short anyway I did not feel like starting again so this is the fix.
The next picture shows a quick mock up all the red dots are pieces of wood that are only temp and will come of after the epoxy is hard, but they enable you to precisely position the parts each time you try them and when there is epoxy running down your sleeve it helps. The next pictures show the size of the opening that I will have and gives an idea why I went for the bulk heads to hang the deck of and help position it. I am going to try and get some nice up-stands to keep water out, it looks like the opening will be a lot bigger than I thought so I may go down the Aerokits route and have just lids removable. I'll mock it up first (yes I did say Mock) I am also looking at having the batteries between the shafts if there is room I fancy trying Li-Poly to keep it light but it may end up with nim's.

Back to the decking I don't want any timber that can get wet so I may go down the route I've used on my other boat that is to use Fiberglass sheet. They use this to skin wings on model planes and is very light, but tricky to use. I am waiting for a couple of ally motor mounts (hate working ally you get rotten dirty) so they will arrive this week and I can then fix some bits in.