This is my first boat, Club500, with the very cold temp of late and our local water frozen I had to wait till this week to have my first go and I am very happy with it, roll on summer 😉

I have had my Paula III for quite a few years and she was beginning to look a bit jaded, so having just completed my Northlight Clyde Puffer and looking for something to do, thought that I might give Paula a makeover. Nearly all the additions I made to her were from spare parts left over from making other boats. A good strip and rub down and a couple of cans of aerosol (colours chosen by my wife when in Halfords) and 2 weeks later - makeover complete.

It is wooden boat.

It is 85 cm long, RC fishing boat. Engine is 0.15 cc nitro. it is not a kit, hundred percent hand made.

Please note that this kit includes Motors and couplings from Deans. All you need are the servos, speed controller and radio to complete this kit.

Since one grandson had a boat with his name on, his brother wanted on too! This shrimp boat became Timothy's with a guiding hand from grandpa when at the lake. Tim is four years old.

My grandson Michael helped me build this kit last winter. We had fun researching existing tug boats of the era, and upgrading some of the details. After the bath tub test, I changed from direct drive to a 3:1 ratio motor to keep it running at a scale speed.

a sense of peace

New crew member on board yesterday - caught him having a sit down!

Captain Haddock out for a hover earlier today.... with thanks to Jerry for the video!

A nice still shot of the Tug on the lake today, towing a small barge with sand

I have just completed my Puffer and am quite pleased with the outcome. The components are quite good but do need a bit of fettling but this is what our hobby is about. This is my third Caldercraft build so I am used to their quality and sparse instructions.   As usual for Caldercraft you need to have your thinking cap on as the A0 plan and the 'instruction book' do not match up but of course they do expect you to have a little bit of experience in model building. it has taken me about 6 months to build working on and off over this time. it has a large hull which is easy to house the motor, ESC, RC and batteries, etc. (I installed 2 lead acid 6 volt batteries, one on each side amidships) which gives stability and ballast. Being a large deep hull it needs a lot of ballast, even in its short length.I have only tested her in the big white nautical test facility at home so do not know how it will perform on our lake but hope to try it out on Sunday if the weather is set fair. Tried her out Wednesday and she sailed really well - maybe a little more ballast in the bow but not too concerned.