Bit of fun with a video camera on my restored 1960's fireboat at my home club St. Helens MBC. had to be really carefull with the throttle and rudder sticks so the whole lot didnt end up upside down due to the camera position...

34" fireboat built 1965 restored late 2009 by me
running graupner 8.4v speed 600 on 8 cells (9.6v).

love the way the boat is in and out of shadow and sunlight throughout the video

I had always admired the lines of 1950s American wooden runabouts and built this Aerokits model when I was an apprentice at Jaguar Cars and it had stayed in my loft since completion nearly 40 years ago. Recently dusted off and upgraded with a Graupner Speed 500 and Mtroniks 40Amp controller and P35 prop. Seen here at Knightcote Boat Club on 25 October

HI Everybody,
Went to an autojumble looking for car bits an ended up with these instead.
Sea urchin in need of total refit,sea nymph has 380 motor and prop already in it minor refurb required.
Will keep you posted on progress.
Just finished Sea urchin,yet to do sea trials.

I've been tidying this beauty up for a while now, no major work because it's almost all original. I've repaired her bottom and replaced the old bobs boards with modern RC gear from Action Electronics. She looked scruffy at first but much of the problem was smoke discolouration, after careful use of T cut it still seems to have a slightly aged look (like me) which I'm OK with.
Hoping to trial in the next couple of weeks if I can lift it once the lead ballast is in. I'd like to get her to the Funday in September - fingers crossed.

Ahoy
here is a few pictures underway and display of my 1978 issue Lindberg PT-109. I had this old boat for 32 years for power nothing to get excited about. not to much into speed but she goes fast enought not enough to raise the bow out of the water. I didn,t use the kit motor it was to much of a toy its design was primarley used for pool opperation. there for I replaced it with dumas 6 volt electric motor useing the kits reduction gearbox they give you. at the time of the build I had no forsight discard it, perhaps in the near future Iwill scuttle it and use 2 direct 6 volt motors the gear reduction slows down the speed pretty much if you use scale speed it is good for cruiseing at 6 knotts. the gear reduction has been coated with grifite grease as long as I had this old relic there are no wear on the gear teeth so she is good to go untill I decide to scuttle this old gear box. Here are a few attachments of this ols sailor

This is my second attempt at scratch building using a a grp hull. My first boat was an MTB/MGB built on a Perkasa hull as a semi-scale model. (see All things Rc - Power setups).
This time I have concentrated on keeping things lighter but it still weighs in at 2.5kg!
I have built without plans, relying on internet photos scaled etc using "Photo deluxe" and "Photo Express".
Virtually everything is built from plasticard apart from a 3mm liteply deck.
The dinghy is epoxy resin and microballoons, ths scramble nets are Lego!
Power is again courtesy of Graupner -2, Speed 600 8.4v using lh. and r.h 35mm props. Esc is one of those 50amp ones from the far east. These are far cheaper than the Viper Marine 40 used in my MGB, but slightly heavier and less sensitive at low speeds. Current drain (in the bath!) is up to 30A but this gives a superb on the water pace of an, estimated,8mph. Battery is a 4,600 mAhr NiMh.
(A true scale speed approaching 150mph plus).
I sail it on Ullswater in the Lake district and the Vosper Perkasa type hull shape is superb in the real waves that we get there, flying over the crests and taking aboard No water!
It really looks the part as my photos would show if I could learn how to load more than one! Can anybody help with this?

two more photos of my fire boat as I said before the crew are not right but ok all scratched built except hull payed A£35 for it the pump is from a astra car A£2 works a treat gordon very good site was told the hull is 30 odd years old

this is my aerokit fire boat 46 inch fitted with a 600 motor 3 bladed prop 55 mm and a 12v 12 amp battery was fitted with a petrol motor when I got her for A£35.. all the top has been rebuilt the 2fire hygents work very good 2 mrtrs of water either side all lights work a good turn of speed but I can get 2 1/2 hrs on the lake the two men are not right but look ok for 10 p each at car boot gordon

I have rebuilt this from a damaged ex IC model. Borrowed a plan from a club member and managed to reconstruct the missing bits. Originally used a fast electric car type brush motor with 7.2 v nicads. Worked ok but nothing spectacular. Recently ventured into brushless and LiPo. Tried an inrunner but ran far to hot and not veryt fast. Changed to an Outrunner (mork torky apparently) and nearly took off! (it is a seaplane tender but should stay on the water!) The LiPo is 11.1v 2800MaH. I use a Graupner Ultramat 16 charger, don't use other than a dedicated LiPo charger and ESC. Battery misuse can result in pyrotechnics, so beware. initialyy tried a two blade racing prop but have changed this to a 29mm 3 blade brass prop to slow down the speed. I have also added more lead and will advise the final weight once I have tried the model on water. I sail with Crewe and District MBC at Boundary Park, Nr Knutsford in Cheshire.

This boat was scratch built from Harold Underhill plans, available still from Brown,Son and Ferguson. The hull was mahogany on 6mm ply frames. The engine was a Caton from Maxwell Hemmens supplied bya gas-fired Cheddar Puffin boiler. The propeller was a two inch four bladed brass job from Rivabo I think. The displacement of the boat is 25lb- a bit of a lump to carry to the water but it does work well once in the water. She has now been converted to electric using a MFA geared 540 type motor witha 7.5ah lead acid gel cell. Looking again at this video I begin to wish I had left it as steam but there is something to be said for 'switch on and go'.
I started building the boat in the mid nineties and it has now had a repaint- it always been a favourite. This video was taken in the early noughties at Crealy in Exeter.

46 inch Crash Tender rescued from E-bay. Currently in the process of total restoration and have had to scratch build the entire super structure. Have fitted a Merco 61 engine with tuned pipe (the noise is awesome).

Have gone for it with the radio control- - employing a Robbe F14 plus an extra 8 channel module with decoder. So far extra controls are : each monitor (scratch built using brass pipe & sheet) left & right (using Robbe pulley set to give me 270 degrees travel), two Irvine water pumps, (real car) hooter, winch (using gearbox from Maplins) and movement for jib and search light.

The boat is scratch built,designed by Hal Harrison,contruction plan in Marine Modeling mag.whitch was designed as a freelance coastguard patrol boat .made from balsa/cardboard sise 18" aprox.weight 2.5kg.
Our model is 36"twin motors and all moving parts and weight is 10kg.
This is the latest pictures of Vigilant Star on the lake at NewBrighton Wirral