I was trying to think of a way of getting the power to the lights from the hull without a long plug in lead. I spent an hour in the electronics shop looking at all types of plugs and fittings, and finally found something I thought might work. 3.5mm stereo plugs were the smallest and had the least required unplugging force and would be able to be glued in place. I couldn't use anything too hard to separate as the cabin is more a delicate shell rather than a strong box.

After many hours of doing and undoing, I finally got them to work. I needed the 2 systems as I wanted to be able to switch the nav lights or cabin or both. Haven't glued the brackets in place yet but may end up screwing them in if I can get in to drill a few holes. It's a pretty precise fit and the plugs are still a bit tight, so I have made a simple wedge tool to slide in and pry them up so I don't break the cabin, (already had to re-glue a few minor bits during experimentation, as the force required to pull 2 plugs was a bit much for it).

The plugs can't be seen from the rear, but I might make some covers and paint any visible wires and Bob will be your aunty. Wires in the roof can't be seen, but I may make a cover for them also, although not really necessary. I usually use masking tape for the wires on hidden flat surfaces, and paint everything to match, this makes it easy to service lamps or add bits and is almost invisible from outside.

Now the hard part's done, I can hook everything up under the floors with electronic switches and add the stern light and that will be the lights done.

It's all Grahams fault!😁 couldn't resist a purchase on sale today at the electronics store. Boat now has BT radio, (well a small BT speaker linked to my phone for 'Boat FM' 😁) $10 and it works! has a supposed range of 30ft which will be plenty to impress the natives with😂. A little heavy, but the boat needs some weight to get the jet unit down in the water to make sure it sucks. (and it may yet well do if things don't go to plan😀)

Vid is of the 'radio' in the boat,- not as clever as Grahams but I have the room to hide the speaker. Might buy an SD card for the phone and download some Pink Floyd, talking heads etc😁 (fewer signal problems than radio - my phone's a cheapy) So now it's almost time to partay🎈🎉🔥😎

Getting to the fun stuff now and the brain is hurting already😀,- so many wires going so many places ! As I need different voltages for cabin lights, nav lights, air pump, water pump, and hopefully the smoker (if I don't run out of room first), there will be 4 different voltage regs so each can be fine tuned (starting at min V and working up till it's all running spot on.) I am in the process of sorting Grahams fancy timer gizzmo for the smoker/air/water delay and have been sorting the TGY 9x for a few more channels.

I tried a few of the FlySky RXs I bought from Ali Express (same as TGY, just different stickers) but had to pair them a few times and set the auxiliary channels for the different functions (using the Helicopter settings for the rotary switches plus the flap or throttle cut setting) these don't automatically happen, and you find that channels 5,6,7,8 will do nothing until you designate them I had complete brain fade for a while till I eventually had some brain cells link up and remembered, but everything is now working on all 8 channels.

I have cabin lights on one top rotary, nav lights on another, reverse bucket on the front rotary, throttle, steering on the aileron channel, and will have smoke control on the rudder channel which leaves a few spare for something else which may occur to me (possibly switching on the cooling fans for the motor if it needs them,)- have ordered some temp sensitive switches to try, which would make it automatic. I made 2 power switches for the lights, by using Micro switches stuck to the sides of the micro servos, as I didn't want to wait a month or more for some ready made switches (the ones I have been buying (GT Power) have now doubled in price plus $6 odd shipping +++ from Ali Express.

There is almost no free shipping any more and I think they have cottoned on to us being an easy touch and wacked all the prices up. Sometimes I buy things, go back a week later to buy some more from the same store, and the price has gone up by $1 or so😐😴 veeeery interesting ! No wonder they make billions in profits, - one of the biggest companies in the world now.

Added smoke/water/air timer (by Graham) and e-cig smoker. leads from the timer go to air pump V reg, water pump V reg, smoker V reg, RX, and power. Still waiting for more V regs for smoker and air pump (leads are done) and that will be the wiring done (except maybe later, thermal switches on the motor fans)

Went shopping today and found some nice pre-painted button head cabinet making screws for holding the floors down and some brass tube to use for making the exhausts. Fitted the screws tonight in places where they are not visible, or are unseen once the once the carpet is in.

Decided to get on with the exhausts for the air/water/smoke system today. managed to get them done and fitted, with the exception of the water inlet hose, which comes from the top of the jet unit outside the transom. I'll be fitting that once the jet unit is finally installed. The exhausts are a tube within a tube with smoke coming in around the outside of the inner tube and air/water coming through the inner tube.

Tested the electrics yesterday but had a dud voltage reg on the water pump which decided to start smoking (bad habit smoking😁) I have 5 more on order so will have to wait till they come to continue testing.

Bent the balsa toe rails (boiling water) yesterday and applied a coat of stain today. I'll be getting on to the deck fittings next.

Got a bit enthusiastic yesterday and fitted the jet unit and some of the remaining plumbing. lot of fiddling to get everything in as the inner transom is extremely 'Busy' with the jet, servos, brackets steering and bucket arms, and exhausts. I had pre set everything a while back, but found when it came to the final assembly, a few things had to be 'adjusted'. All went together in the end and worked.

Will have to waterproof the pushrod holes as a small amount of water gets in in reverse if you give it a bit of stick. The small bellows I bought are no good for this application as they are too short one way and too long the other, causing binding. A slit cloth should do the trick once the holes are refined (too large due to pushrod fitting experiments)

Then I got more enthusiastic and decided to utilise the big white test tank (see vid) Everything worked spot on (with a small addition of 300g stern weight to get the jet low enough,) I knew it might be a problem, but easily fixed with weight. Reverse bucket movement was adjusted on the TX endpoint settings so it cleared the steering nozzle by 1mm and didn't bind pulling up . Reversing worked better than expected with quite accurate steering and slow speed control (as much as you can have in a bath😁) Not sure how wind will affect it out in the wild, but at least it works, which is a bonus.

A few more deck bits, front bunk 'squabs' a seat for the skipper (and maybe a skipper) and she'll be ready for her 'close-up' 😁

A storm happening at the moment so thought I'd get on with a bit more interior finishing. The forward bunk boxes needed 'squabs', so managed to make the balsa backs and cover them. They are a friction fit with pull tabs so I can get at the front floor hold-down screws. Could be a handy space for more future goodies. Waiting for more staining to dry so I can finish some bunk trimming.

Managed to get the pushrod holes sorted. I found that one of the boot fitted after all once I'd cut both ends off!. The bucket pushrod ply cover has a rounded V cut out of it ( the pushrod travels in an arc) and has a felt 'wiper' which will be greased after the ply cover has been painted.

The sound unit can be seen crammed into the last big space left where it would be out of sight (much re-arranging of the deckchairs was required to fit it!) Everything is now hidden beneath the floors, with batteries in the rear seat boxes for easy removal.

Water inlet hose was re routed and will be trimmed

Made the bow roller from aluminium channel,- roller is a shaved down plastic jewellery bead, (painted.) Made the helm seat from balsa and covered it with the same felt as squabs, and with a dowel upstand. A washer was epoxied to the bottom, before painting with chrome paint. Upstand fits into a hole in the bunk and the seat is removable. Fitted the last front bunk stained trims, and they are almost complete. A bit more trimming inside to do yet.

Fitted the stbd toe rail, but decided to make another port toe rail due to the difference in balsa hardness, which left it square, as it expanded back into shape after rounding it over with a former. I have also fitted a hidden on/off switch, which can be accessed by either unclipping the rear deck or from underneath it (removing the engine cover first)