SemI Kit, I.e fibreglass hull and superstructure and wooden rubbing strake all the rest is scratch built. A very good sailer and very stable. Quick to build only a month and powered by 540motor and 35mm prop. Lasted for hours on one charge.
Hi!
I got it from "Boats and Bits" in Newton le Willows who closed down over 10 years ago.
Try Steve at Scale Hobbies in Skelmersdale.
Google--- Scalehobbies Skemersdale.
Good Luck
Max.
Thanks for the info, I'll give it a go. trouble is I've had the hull since 1982 so it's a bit out of date as Cygnus then started to produce the GM 33 Continental like yours. But I'm not beat yet, even if I have to end up making the wheelhouse from scratch ! 😰
I made a wooden barge for my tugs to pull but found this too heavy so I asked my old firm to make me one in 4mm aluminium it has been fully seem welded and is water tight .I got them to powder coat the whole barge in black matt and I just added the red paint. The top just slides off so I can change the cargo I just wish that I had not made this so deep as it sits high in the water unless I add a load of ballast am using a 10 ltr water container at the min and its still work in progress
Built out of house guttering to a scale equivalent to model railways HO the layout is approx. 4 x 3 ft. Mounted in a wooden frame and provided with a protective see through cover it fits into the car and can go anywhere. it has been an on-going project to build RC boats to suit. Those used at present are commercial products (loa 5" (125mm)) with simple two channel two prop drives - not proportional but with forward and reverse and by operating one or both props plus reverse steering is OK. Battery life limited to 6-8 minutes with similar recharge time. Built largely from scrap and odds and ends the project cost well under £80. The idea is/was to have several units and link them together to make a large layout!
Two Wavemasters, both refurbished ebay rescues, sailing at Crealy, near Exeter (one of the last times as the club can no longer use the water).
The first, rebuilt by Kalamunda, is brushless with NiMh cells and the second, having it's first sail since being rebuilt by Ian Gardner, has a Graupner 700 with 3s Lipo's (in parallel) on a 37.5mm X type prop- Electronize 30amp esc.
I think these are lovely looking old boats designed by Les Rowell of Aerokits fame, and obviously based on traditional cruisers from the Norfolk Broads- see Martham Boats, where you can still hire a wooden craft like these, although you'd definitely have the river inspector after you if you sailed up the Thurne at these speeds!
HI Graham,
Glad you liked the video. They are smashing boats aren't they? I really fancy a new IP Engineering one but have too many other projects on the go to make it a sane decision!
I have to say my WM is the best running of my faster boats, which include a Lesro Sportsman and a Rapier. She seems to hug the water in turns rather than bounce around, so a great design I think. I'd be interested to hear how you arranged you gearing on your WM. Did you make it up or but a ready made unit?
Ian
HI I bought them on Ebay, from Hongkong, they were about £9 plus some small amount of postage they have a brass motor gear, and an aluminium gear for the propshaft I use the system on three boats the Wavemaster a Sea Commander and a Fire Boat. On the water with 7.2 volts but will also run on 9.6 volts and 11.1 volts 3 cell lipo's. I will try and get a photo of the motor and gearbox. Regards Graham
This is a 40" long model of a gas powered Berkley Company kit of a US Air Force crash boat from 1955. The plank on frame kit was in production for about 10 years and was meant to be powered by a model airplane gas motor with a single shaft. it depicts an experimental 50 knot rescue boat (painted in a peace time color scheme) during service with the USAF. if successfull it would have been put into production designed to be a replacement rescue craft for all Air Force 65' crash boats. Unfortunately for the crash boat program the Air Force lost interest as helicopters were become a reliable way of rescueing downed pilots along the coast. The prototype and a sister boat were scrapped, as was the entire program.
The model was given to me to be restored(top picture) for the son of a retired USAF veteran that was a crash boat crewman. The model was built in 1957 and had been run a few times on a tether line, R/C was pretty expensive back in the day. I stripped the hull, filled in all the cracks and rebuilt the mast. I added a small boat, davit, liferaft, coxswain station, spray shield and deck hardware among other things. Actually all the owner wanted was a paint job, he was very happy with it's new appearencep! Although I fiberglassed the wooden hull and made it watertight, the owner doesn't plan to run it, just a memorial to his dad's service. I really enjoyed working on this "rare bird".
Not Strictly Aerokits!!! Bought this and a Sea Breeze at the Warwick Show. Sea Breeze is in the cupboard for Xmas. Sea Nymph is Ivory and Brunswick Green. it has a JP 400 motor with an Mtroniks 15 amp esc powered by a 7.2v nicad. Currently it has a 35mm S prop. Haven't had a chance to try it out on the water yet. Maybe this weekend. its the first wooden boat I've ever built so am quite pleased with the outcome. Looking forward to the Sea Breeze as that's going to be my first brushless model.
Hi, I'm sorry if these pictures are on here already, I did search through and couldn't see any.... I'm after a few peoples opinion on colours etc 💭 As the pictures are all black and white (grey scale) it is difficult to get the colours correct. A lot of model boats seem to be grey on the deck with white roofs, some with wooden decking, some just white and any number of variations. I'm trying to rebuild mine to be as close to the real thing as possible. in my opinion it looks like the top is all in white (as it matches the shade of the "FIRE" sign). The handrails appear to be brass ends with wooden rails?? Most of the other fittings seem to be either white to match the boat or silver for the tie-offs. The spot light seems to be darker than the monitors so I'm not sure if that is a dark silver or maybe black? Any thoughts??? 😉
I was sailing my 34" fireboat at Portsmouth's Canoe Lake a couple of weekends ago when someone came up to me and said he had been a member of the crew on one of the two actual Vosper Fireboats, and that the cabin sides should be a light blue colour and not grey as on my model - ( I still like the look of the grey though! )
Regards
Chris
There is much talk about colours on these old craft,some say Grey, others say Light Blue, and again White also comes into play, These craft were only in service for between 5 and 6 years, during their time in service they underwent maintainance and modification, I have spoken to guys who served on them and on one occasion they had not got enough paint to repaint the mast white, so it got painted Brown, how many of you out there have ever seen one of these craft with a Brown mast?, also you will see that 93 had no breeches connector behind the main cabin, 94 did, most photo's avilable of 93 show no suction hoses on the aft well foam boxes, 94 did, look closely at the photo's and you will clearly see two different types of monitors fitted and in one photo you can clearly see one of each, for what its worth my opinion is Pick a date Pick a colour, I know what we painted ours as taken from V/T drawings.
Best of luck, kind regards,
Pete D.
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
Thames fireboat gamma,stationed in london cherry tree dock about WW2 used in blitz raids.
Fibreglass hull,wooden deck,twin 550 motors,single working fire monitor,twin working spot lights,and nav lights.
Was a older display model now fully working but steam generator is a bit temperamental.only used at shows has been at Twyford water works open day recently.
COMPLETED THIS ONE ABOUT A YEAR AGO,
LOVE THIS BOAT AND SHE LOOKS GREAT ON THE WATER,
REALLY LOVE THE STYLE OF THE OLD WOODEN BOATS, THEY HAVE A CERTAIN CHARM!!!
WORKING MY WAY THRU THE AEROKITS COLLECTION,
LOOKING FOR A SEA NYMPH IF ANYBODY SEES ONE LET ME KNOW,
Just got my Sea Rover today as well as an Aerokits MTB with a lovely Taycol Double Special in it. I'd forgotten how twisted the Sea Rover is!!
It'll need some serious cutting and regluing aft. I need to remake the screen area and canopy. it has an original MFA Humming Bird 15 motor complete with the label.
Westquay
COMPLETED THIS ONE ABOUT A YEAR AGO,
LOVE THIS BOAT AND SHE LOOKS GREAT ON THE WATER,
REALLY LOVE THE STYLE OF THE OLD WOODEN BOATS, THEY HAVE A CERTAIN CHARM!!!
WORKING MY WAY THRU THE AEROKITS COLLECTION,
LOOKING FOR A SEA NYMPH IF ANYBODY SEES ONE LET ME KNOW,
I got it from "Boats and Bits" in Newton le Willows who closed down over 10 years ago.
Try Steve at Scale Hobbies in Skelmersdale.
Google--- Scalehobbies Skemersdale.
Good Luck
Max.