My thoughts, like Rick's, were that it would be a lot of surgery to fit a false keel and fin box but if you did deck her in- which is a great idea I think- then it would not be so critical. You could bring the fin box up to, and braced by, the deck beams. The hull does have the look of a pilot cutter or fishing boat about her. You might also want to do something about the headsails, as overlapping sails bring more complication with control. Perhaps one head sail on a jib boom to more closely match the sheet position on the main boom.

I do agree with Nerys that an open boat will always be a bit fraught when sailing! Don't forget that any keel extension should have its centre of lateral resistance coinciding with that of the hull. There is some really good information in 'An Introduction to Scale Sailing Models' by Phillip Vaughan Williams. It's a book (remember those?) and Sarik Hobbies still sell it at £9.99- brilliant value.

We watch with interest!

Ian

She does look good as an open working boat, but it will be essential to deck her if you are going to sail her. I don't think a carefully thought out coachroof or hatch cover will be detrimental. It will give her a slightly different character but she will still be a nice looking boat.

Cheers, Nerys

The thing I see is the work you will need to do.Do you want to break into the boat and how do you make it look right when done.The boat looks great as a show piece . Only my thoughts good luck going foreword .
Rick

"The author of this proverb is unknown. Plato's Republic says "our need will be the real creator",[5] which Jowett's 1894 translation rendered loosely as "The true creator is necessity, who is the mother of our invention."

The connection of mother and necessity is documented in Latin and in English in the 16th century: William Horman quoted the Latin phrase Mater artium necessitas ("The mother of invention is necessity") in 1519;[7][page needed] Roger Ascham said "Necessitie, the inventour of all goodnesse" in 1545.[8][page needed]
In 1608, George Chapman, in his two-part play The Conspiracy and Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron, used a very similar phrase: "The great Mother / Of all productions, grave Necessity." And the exact phrase is used by Richard Franck in 1658.[9][1]

The phrase was also used in medieval French. It is found in a collection of proverbs dating to 1485-1490, and is included with another saying, "Hunger makes people resourceful," and an illustration of one man eating a carrot and another man eating grass.[10] "
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necessity_is_the_mother_of_invention
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Thanks for comments and considerations guys ! If she needs more weight and a keel - she shall have one ! - who was it who said " necessity is the mother of invention? ".
cheers

Spot on Doug! That's a good size isn't it? I suppose the first thing to do would be to put her in the water and ballast her down to her marks and see what she weighs and get some sense of stability - and whether or not she leaks! You would still have the problem of possible swamping but on a closer look, she does seem to have some sort of compartments each end.

I mentioned Harold Underhill in another post and he said he refused to put outside ballast in a scale model as if she wouldn't stand up, the wind was greater than scale strength. I think the genreral consensus is that if you want to sail in anything other than dead calm you will need a fin keel or at least a deepened keel with weight on the bottom. It'll be interesting to see what you decide.

Have fun!

Ian

Almost 30 inches ! - she is 75cm stern to bowsprit.
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Hi Ian - she is 75cm stern to bowsprit - Think I wil try to establish rudder size / design and weigh up a keel mod before going down the RC conversion route -- Mmmm ?
Mni tnx fer comments.👍⛵

Judging by the flagstones Ian I would guesstimate somewhere between 27 and 36".
I tend towards the 36" end😉
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Many tnx for comments Nerys - Not decided what to do yet as I do like looking at her in my shack BUT I do want to see her sailing ! - decisions !!.⛵

Phil, you don't say how big the model is but it seems unlikely that you will be able to incorporate enough internal ballast to make her stand up in anything but the slightest wind, so a false keel will be necessary. And as Nerys points out, an rc open boat will always be susceptible to filling up when heeling to the wind, unless you can find a way of including some enclosed buoyancy chambers and somewhere to hide the radio. Quite a few challenges, but I'm sure if you solved them it would make a nice model. At least you can determine the weight required to bring her to her waterline as you already have the boat, so no guesswork there.

Ian

Lovely model, imagine she will need some external and possibly internal ballast if you intend sailing her. If I was going to fit her for RC, I'd want to have some sort of hatch covering to hide all the electrics etc. Leave her open and there's always the risk of getting things wet or on a lake like ours, swamping in a breeze.

Cheers, Nerys

Phil,

No details, but will look great on the lake once fitted with RC.

Graham93