It certainly could, Dave. I tend to think a residual wake from his own craft is as good a cause as any as you say he didn't refuel as he was keen to get his second, return, run in for the record, which he would definitely have achieved as he had already gone much quicker on the first. it's reckoned he was doing around 340mph when the accident happened. A great loss.

Colin, not sure why your thread is on this one, but in a helicopter the only engine you would find, would be a glow engine, not a diesel. So I think we're still looking into an easy way to make our own model diesel fuel. The only reason our little engines are called diesel is because, like a big diesel in a car or lorry, ours are compression ignition. A glow engine is merely a 2 stroke with the glow plug taking the place of the sparks system on a petrol powered engine. And of course, as if to prove that is the proliferation of 4 stroke glow (and now petrol) engines. Or gas engines as the Americans call them. And they have shot into use because petrol is comparatively cheap and there are small electronic ignition systems of great reliability now available.

Martin

Martin, I am amazed at your knowledge and skills.
I like your reference to the possibility that wake from the Dowty was the possible cause of Donald Campbell's crash. I had heard before about wake being a factor as he turned around after his first run without refuelling. This led to the theory that it could have been his own wake as the cause . So many theories about the crash and all are valid as it could have been a combination of many.

Boaty😊

Thanks Col as this has really put a bee in my bonnet. Talking of which ---

As I have never seen one up close I don't know. They only fly inside the camp, but some of the pilots fish in my local lake which is behind the camp, and we chat about models in general and they will sometimes offer help in getting my boat down to the water. They offer advice on my radio systems as the old vintage stuff I have can cause interference. So they advised me to use 2.4ghz here. Next time I meet with one of them I will ask about the engine details.
Cheers Colin.

Well Col tell us about these choppers. What engines are they using. Ignition type etc . Because if you can reproduce this fuel you could make a fortune flogging it.😁👍 No names no pack drill we don't need to know that just the blend of the fuel.🤔 This secret has been sought after for years.😤

It only came my way by an interested fellow modeller who can't be named or location given away. Hush hush job and all that.
Cheers Colin.

Westie You got that right but find me a chemist you can get it from now.🤔👍

No just regular diesel with a few drops of methanol, as its a diesel engine it's compression ignition and the methanol is just an additive to clean up the combustion, it's basically a sports mixture used by the fly boys for their helicopters.
Cheers Colin.

I al;ways had to go to the chemist and buy ether and amyl nitrate for my Uncle to mix his own diesel. No methanol.

Martin

Well Colin I'm amazed Because even alcohol fuels need an ignition source .Usually in model engines a Glow plug sometimes a spark plug.Is there anything else in the mix? BTW see my modified post above. We are all fascinated to know how it was done.👍

Shhhh, hush hush, musn't divulge my source.
But the skills of the team are the best in the world.
Cheers Colin

Aha! 'Fell off the back of a chopper' Eh Colin ? 😁

Definitely methanol, I have just checked with the flight engineer who it came from on the camp. He said any type of ethanol would have been okay but that's what they use.
Cheers Colin.

If he didn't nod off as soon as he opened it it was probably methanol 😁😁

Colin Re the diesel without ether Are you sure it was Methanol you were 👍given and not ether? Further to this a mate has tried various combinations of diesel and Methanol without success and was using a NEW Mills 1:3 . Over the years various people have tried to run diesels without ether but without much joy. Even if they got them to run they had to have ether to start them off.👍

Re the Dowty at Southport. For a fee you could ride in it. Scary!!👍

Dowty Turbocraft was smiled upon by Donald Campbell as a service vessel after he'd used Albatrosses. it's thought it was a bit of wash from the Dowty that caused his final crash.
i
I used to have a Mk 1 Albatross, Hull 137, but nI couldn't use it anywhere fast due to river speed limits, so I flogged it. it was all riveted aluminium, made by ex Spitfire makers. The countersunk rivets, after over 50 years were so well applied you just couldn't see them. Amazing craftsmanship, but when they were first on sale, they were the price of a small house! I paid rather less, rebuilt the engine, repainted it and flogged it for a lot more, then made a 1/6th scale model of it and sold that to a man who owns most of the boathouses round Windermere. A Ford 1172 sidevalve engined boat would tow 2 water skiers amazingly.
There's a website called Old Speed Boats that deals with Dowty Turbocraft well.

Cheers,
Martin

Hear hear Boaty👍,
The memories my ships try to keep alive are perhaps not quite the same , but the principle is! Cheers, Doug 👍

Very true, there isint a lot of interest in speedboats today. I remember some great ones when I was a child in the late 1950s and early 60s. I once saw an Albatross on a lake in Scarborough that was towing a water skier in 1959. I believe that is was made of aluminium instead of wood but it did have an inboard engine. . Another one I remember was the Dowty Turbocraft powered by a water jet driven by an inboard petrol engine . This was on the Southport Marine lake in 1961 and attracted a lot of spectators. it is up to us as model makers to keep the memories alive by what we build and sail.

Boaty😎

Dave , I made it. I found plans in a 1954 copy of the Motor Boat Annual I borrowed from the National Powerboat Museum at Pitsea, before the stupid bastards on the council threw it away in preference for mud huts for snotty nosed brats to go mad in. Only today I finally got some pictures from the Oulton Broad club with pics of the Darby boasts I hadn't seen, which show that the top cowling was always built a little higher than the plans show, so I shall be making some slight changes to the fixed portions. The photos show the fixed sections to be done with stringers and fabric, a la aeroplane fuselage. You can't buy decent older powerboats as kits or ready mades. Nobody gives a toss about speedboat models in this country, alas. Even though we had a very busy world of inboard race boats at one time. Now, all is boring outboards. The 1500 cc inboard classes gave us a lot of great racing just pre and post-War.
Here are three in one race. "WHO'S DARBY?", Dawn, a Whippet class and Miss Windermere, another One design, like the Oulton Broad One design, all three are 1500 cc class boats. There wqere also boats of under 950cc and even a Singer Cadet class with a Singer Le Mans 1100 cc engine. The Singer Commodore had a 6 cylinder 1500, a gorgeous engine. Both Singers were designed by Percy See at Shoreham and had diagonal reverse clinker construction. I have plans if anyone is interested.

Cheers,
Martin

Westquay- Where did you get that hull. it looks great. I also have a spare brushless plus esc from a recently deceased surface drive hydro and I do prefer the submerged drive like yours. I have been searching second hand shops, the local flea market and car boot sales but found nothing.

Boaty😊

Just got a first colour coat on the under side of the hull. Rustoleum from a rattle can. Thin, but highly pigmented, so be careful of runs. Only £5-25 a tin. Excellent value.

Martin