South Devon Crabber :- Cygnus GM 32' 1/12 Scale. Donor hull 32" fitted out/scratch built. Replica of actual vessel that floundered off Weymouth in 1983. Model build started in 1981 and completed in 2018 !!!

I know this is not one of my boats, but belongs to one of our club members. It is a 1/48 scale model of a "whaleback" freighter. The real George Washburn was built in 1885 had a length of 320 feet. What is unique about this is it had a almost tubular cross-section hull. Many times I heard visitors call it a submarine.

Jim's model includes horn sound, lights, homemade smoke generator and a ballast fill/empty system to reduce transportation weight. Video Link (this is not on YouTube, you have to copy this link to your browser to see the video): http://ssmbc-fl.org/Videos/Video-03-30-2014-01.mp4 (😮The link icon below WILL NOT WORK!😮)

I though some of you might enjoy this wonderful scratch built model!

Lew

Built from old kit. I built one before and the Bluefin one too from Dumas. I cut the hull separation so a space is there. In general it was fun. I had to buy an older Rc as only 72 MHz works under water for maybe 3 ft. The ghz signal works surface only. I cut out all the hull flooding holes as per pictures I gathered. Basically built as per blueprints inside except used newer motor controller that can take LiPo batteries. Excuse the messy background.

Primer applied to Hull today

Have painted the bulkheads and inner Hull.

Bow all shaped wooden hull and upper structure is sealed. Hull has been covered with glass fibre. Ready for sanding and primer.

Information from Nerys -

In the 1940s and 50s, many traditional Thames Sailing barges were converted into motor barges. This is a model, based on photos and my memory of the 'Nellie'. The sailing barge 'Nellie' was built by Cremers at Hollowshore, Faversham in 1901,. She traded under sail carrying about 90 tons of cargo around the Thames, Medway and Swale until about 1952 and then had the gear taken out, a Chrysler Crown petrol/paraffin motor installed and carried on trading for some years owned by R.Lapthorne & Co of Hoo on the River Medway.. She was eventually sold out of trade and is now privately owned. She has been rerigged with a reduced sailing barge rig without a topsail. My model is based on a 30" barge hull from Dave Watts Mastman.

NOTE More information from Nerys - read on ........

Hi Phil,
I'll just add a little more information to that. I was Nellie's skipper in the mid 50's for a few years. We were based at Hoo on the Medway and carried cargoes around the Medway, Swale, Thames and Colne. Regular trips were such as ballast from Fingringhoe on the Colne to Hoo, sand from Upnor on the Medway to the Ford works at Dagenham, fertilizers from London to Faversham and Queenborough, wheat from London docks to Whitstable and more or less anything that could be carried between ships in the London docks to anywhere in the Estuary. We were paid by the freight. Half the value of the carriage charges going to the owners and the other half to the crew, shared 2/3 for the skipper, 1/3 for the mate, Then fuel and other expenses were divided up similarly.
Nellie, of all the barges I served on was the one I liked best. She was the smallest, but there was just something about her. However as a footnote, in the 1970's I built a forty three foot schooner rigged barge yacht in the same yard as Nellie was built.

This was my first boat build, which was 10 years ago, it was a Model Boat Magazine plan of HMS Paladine! The hull red was a bit bright, she sailed weli!

Here is pitcure of both my boats sailing on a boating lake not far from my home, the larger of the two was commandeered by my 8 year old son for a trainning mission he had in mind, which gave me an excuse to build another one, which is the smaller boat the picture, as the young captain needed escorting while getting use to his new command!
They are both made from balsa wood, which the material for the hull, it is sealed with a acrylic varnish,painted over the top with enammel paint with clear varnish on top of the paint! The superstructure on the larger destoyer is made from thin plywood, and on the smaller frigate its made of plasticard!
I got the lynx helicoptors on Ebay from "The Dorest Print Man" I think it was, which are 3D printed by him!

Many years ago I bought a scale(not sure what scale) outboard motor. Have been looking for a suitable hull for the motor. Rather recently this cabin cruiser showed up.
First two photos of the as found.Previously found outboard attached.

A short video to celebrate sailing 3 x 1/24 scale Fairmile D's as well as a Vosper 73' Type 1 at the same time.
Graham's boats are scratch-built onto fibreglass hulls.
My boats are totally scratch-built.
it is best viewed on a larger screen in HD.

This is s short video of the first trial of the Police Launch. I was very happy with the performance. After 30 minutes of running in fairly rough conditions, I was pleased to note that not even a drip of water entered the hull.
She performed very well but I will wait for a calmer day before deciding on any changes needed to the ballast.
I stopped the run after 30 minutes only because it was very cold. The LiPo battery, 2 cell 2200 mAh, performed faultlessly. Even after being in storage charge for more that 2 years, it still was only reading 3.78 volts per cell after the 30 minutes. My estimate is that it will run for 40 minutes or more before getting close to the lower limit. I was running at full speed for most of the test. My only negative from the test is that Krick have settled for a motor which is at the bottom of the power range. A pity as I am sure that an increase in motor speed would be of benefit to the model.
Peter.😊