If you use the US favoured closed face reel type its very easy to place a small lightweight "sinker" accurately (ie: a rubber off a pencil or one can use a medium hook with a piece of an artificial worm) which does not do much harm to any sized boat . Takes very light line and a small rod to cast at least 30ft with one - even light line can haul in a big boat.

If you have reasonable access around the lake, and if it is not too large, it might be possible to string a line between two people and have them walk apart until the line crosses the lake - at which point it can be used to nudge the boat in.

Such a line would need to be light and long - say, 500 ft - but the kite flyers have just such lines ready-wrapped on convenient spools and available cheaply...

We had a very similar system, but used a tennis ball on the end of the line. It works very well. We found that the fishermen amongst us were called in at this point as they were usually more accurate. I’m not sure about doing it for a delicate scale model though!

Balloon tyres could be the answer there Nerys😊

Yeah, tis a bit annoying Doug, people use sisters, brothers, friends accounts to buy things and it gets quite confusing as you are not sure who you are dealing with unless they offer the info. Same with email accounts, 'talking'to a guy up north recently using his girlfriends email acct but at least he told me. Nothing like the old face to face I reckon.
I saw a TV article where media techies can come up with virtually undetectable fake people such a actors to make totally fake news etc, which is pretty scary stuff. All they need is one pic of the person and they can place them in any scenario (not just stills either). Once they perfect it you won't be able to trust any media! (not that you can now even without this new stuff!)

That sounds really weird John.🤔
Like Identity Hijacking 😠
Cheers, Doug 😎
PS "good handy women are few and far between"
True, nevertheless I always like to keep a good woman handy!😉

Apologies Nerys, my mistake, used to people using other peoples accounts/names on our local 'Trade Me' site. You never Know who you are talking to, so it's a bit of a lottery on the internet. Not expecting a lady model boat enthusiast I suppose, and didn't even cross my mind to check the profile. Great that you're interested!
John B

John, Nerys is a 'lucky Lady' and seems to be pretty handy in her own right👍
Doug 😎

You're a lucky man, good handy women are few and far between these days!
John B

Certainly something to think about Doug.

Martin.

Welcome to the 'Dog Watch' Nerys 👍
Cheers, Down the hatch!

Interesting thought. There's always the bedside cranes they have for lifting patients around in hospitals, There is a hydraulic version, so doesn't need electrics, but I don't rate one of those (yet). They would be very heavy and awkward to lug around though.

I take most of the night watches on this ship!
Need another drink and a snack before I turn in.

No doubt, speak tomorrow, I mean today.

Cheers,
Nerys

"If I could manage to get into it ..."
Nerys, I believe Colin H is working on the design of a small crane for launching large model boats. If it's not too undignified ......
Might get you afloat again, just a thought.
I get one now and again, when the weather changes😉
Now nearly 3am here so time to furl my sails methinks.
C U on the morrow, G'night, Doug 😴💤💤

Thank you Doug, we will repair it one day, It's a Teifi coracle and I've had it the best part of fifty years. If I could manage to get into it, I'd be perfectly happy paddling it around.

Cheers,
Nerys

Mornin' nerys,
Herewith your Round Tuit 😁
Pass it on to Alice to fix up the coracle 😉
Look forward to the pics of Alice coracleing you about!

No more news on 'Peking' at the moment. I'm still monitoring.
All the best to you both, Doug 😎

Some years ago, I would have used my coracle for any retrievals, but as said in another post, I'm no longer up to it and in any case it needs a minor repair in the 'roundtoit' category.

Cheers,
Nerys

jbkiwi. Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to don the waders and do a retrieval myself, but unfortunately, I am 86 and mobility is of the wheelchair variety and I am lucky enough to have a younger, more agile partner. As regards tool kit, Alice is a very competent DIYer and we have a good selection of tools in the household.

cheers,
Nerys

After my swimming experience, fortunately our lake is fed via a stream so it's not too murky and no industrial waste etc, I've been pondering fitting all my boats and ships with a steel plate on the foredeck and my Southampton tug with a crane and electro or neodymium magnet on the end.
Several years ago I modified one of the minesweeping cranes on the stern of my destroyer with a winch and a grappling hook, 3 prongs cast into a lead block.
Two snags☹️:-
1 The stern of a destroyer is very low, not much freeboard, and most larger scale boats towered above it,
2 Winching the line in worked fine. But to run it out you needed something with the weight of a can of beans to pull it out 🤔 Anyone out there got a small Black Hole to spare?😁
Back to the drawing board!
😎

"I have a small blow up row boat..."

and he huffed and he puffed and blew the ...... 😉😁

"Interesting how does that work. ?
How is it fitted in the submarine. ?"

I just knowed you wuz gonna ask that Martin🤔
I'll have to dig through my archives to find the articles I saw it in.
May have to resort to my hard copy archive😐
Model Boats, Modellwerft, Schiff's Propeller etc.
The essence of it was an unsecured hatch in the flooded hull under which was the buoy and a coil of small gauge light fishing line.
How they stopped it releasing during normal diving I can't remember, was years ago I saw it.
On reflection; maybe the hatch was secured and released by the Failsafe module?
😎

I have a small blow up row boat to collect strays. I have not had to use it yet but it is ready when needed.😀

Nice to see you're an equal opportunity employer Nerys, no discrimination there.! 😂 she's got to be a keeper! (have you bought her a tool kit yet??)

The powerboat guys in our club years ago, used to use the same method but with a small sinker wrapped with foam, cast it out into the pond and well over the boat and slowly reel it in. Sometimes took a few casts but they always got them in, (was quite a wide pond - around 80m.) Saved a lot of swimming in nasty water. There was a guy in the club who did scuba diving who would rescue sunken boats occasionally if he had the gear with him, (good washdown afterwards required just to be safe !-Ex sewage ponds and later storm-water drainage control pond) It had a sluice gate to an estuary branch so could be drained at low tide and refilled at high, (still had a lot of nasty stuff coming in though!
John B

There are a number of commercial 'missing signal' units available. Fly boys use them to set controls to default safety, or sound a beeper for finding a lost aircraft. I believe that there are some specific ones for subs.

Washing machines and boilers both have pressure detection units inside. This is what a typical one looks like. They are mechanical microswitches operated by a diaphragm. The blue screw sets the pressure at which it operates.

They could form the basis for an independent safety system - emergency blow with a Sparklets cylinder, for instance, or releasing a 'sub down' tethered buoy.....

Interesting how does that work. ?
How is it fitted in the submarine. ?

Martin.

Sub drivers especially often use an orange ping pong ball on a line that releases if the boat loses signal or exceeds maximum depth.

Good job that it wasn't winter.

I have been thinking again! No not again I hear you say.
Well I have been toying with the idea of fitting a reel of fine fishing line inside HMS Cottesmore and having a deck fitting that will float if the worst should happen.
At least I would know where she is lying on the bottom.

Martin.

... and some of the er 'ladies' present!
Heard some 'intriguing' suggestions / offers from them as I came out!🤗😉
After that it was a case of-
I don't know where the wind is coming from but I sure as hell know where it's going! 😮❄️

Well Doug it was a bit of entertainment for your fellow members.

Martin.

Luckily, our lake is only three feet deep with a concrete floor, therefore, I bought my partner, Alice, a pair of fishermen's waders and she has used them to excellent purpose to rescue a friend's Dragon Force 65 that had sunk.

When my destroyer conked out some years ago I went swimming in me knickers☹️
Had to, she was drifting towards the lake fountains and she wasn't designed as a Flying Boat!
Since then I take a beach towel with me 😉
😎