Hi JB,

I'm afraid my days of building real boats are long past. I have difficulty in finding enough strength to perform even the simplest tasks, Alice has to come to my aid for almost everything these days. I was very pleased that I managed to finish the rigging of my latest barge project a few days ago with only the slightest intervention from her -and that's a model!. Actually the only time I ever built a boat from a plan was when someone gave me a part built Wharram cat. The rest of the time I built on the old adage of if it looks right, it probably is. And, blowing my own trumpet, it always seemed to work for me.

Cheers, Nerys

Hi Nerys, you're doing well to do what you are doing still under the circumstances, and you are not just sitting in a wicker chair staring out the window. Your models are great and a credit to you, and you are obviously enjoying them. I'm the same (re - if it looks right.......) as most of my models, (boats and planes) are scratch built or highly modified kits or resurrected and improved bin jobs from other modellers.

The only model boat I've built from a proper plan, was my Vic Smeed MTB, the rest have been from drawings from model magazines. I built a 15ft delta hulled racer in the late 70s using the 'looks right' method, and powered it with a 75hp outboard. Managed to get 50mph out of it, and it handled quite well. Blew the motor up before I could refine it unfortunately. As kid we built 8ft skimmers, powered with a 10hp outboard which were a lot of fun as well.

I've enjoyed restoring 5 small boats (plus a f/glass clinker sailing dinghy for my son) and completely fitting out my Hartley from a shell, but the price of materials is getting prohibitive these days, and approaching the price of a small new car to build anything around 20ft. My 15ft day sailer for example (built 1986) would probably cost around $12,000 to build today complete. Not a lot of home building these days unfortunately due to the cost,- cheaper to buy a second hand boat ready to sail or motor.

I think we are lucky to be able to build from an idea without a plan and have it work, as many people are not as fortunate. Perhaps boating experience gives you an idea of how things should work. We have a top boatbuilding company here who started building fantastic launches, starting with a 'looks right' half model,- taking measurements from it and scaling them up. Has worked well for them since the 50s

Stay Safe.
JB

Hi Cash,
Interesting to see what you guys are putting on the water. Now as an old fashioned sailor girl, I must admit to having a liking for that lovely wishbone schooner. She was gorgeous. I wish we could have seen more of the other sailing craft too, there was another smaller schooner that looked interesting as well as a couple of sloops.

Cheers, Nerys.

Hi Nerys!! How you doing? The schooner is a customized Robbe “Atlantis”. The owner, Stephen, mad a few mods to make it look more realistic. The other large sailing craft is a racing boat in the Canterbury J class, the two smaller sloops are Micro Magics. Our little club is starting to grow a bit😀

Hi Ed,

The link is fixed. The space in the URL is deliberately added to avoid some web browsers trying to stretch the page width. The gallery works a bit differently to the rest of the site (different code), but I've just enabled the displaying of links.

Thanks
Stephen

Thank you Stephen and Doug for helping to get the video fixed. It makes a big difference to the post! Ed

Must be pretty solid Nick, mine weighs 2.8kg with a 3s 3000mAh LiPo. Ply from memory was only about 1.5mm. Nothing wrong with a bit of weight, makes them run a bit more realistically. The originals looked like they were sinking with the weight of the fuel and 4 big heavy Thornycroft v12s in the back.

JB

yes i was a bit taken aback when i weighed her, but to my untrained eye she seemed to sit ok in the water and i didn't really want her skipping over the ripples 😂

'Naiad' is an interesting concept of a very traditional design. I like her lines and it's good to see a good old gaff rigged boat being built today.
Likewise 'Emma', lovely old Bristol Pilot cutter, sailing well. You have some good boats at Buxton.

Nerys

'Baltic Trader' really good looking ship, I do like these small traditional cargo ships. Strikes me that the Buxton club has some extremely good model builders.

Cheers, Nerys

That's a great looking model for your first scratch build - especially as you changed the size . Good planking job on the hull as well as the superstructure & detailing. You should post a build blog for your next project - would follow that

Brilliant job for a first build, particularly as she's a scratch build. I look forward to seeing what you build next with great interest.

Cheers, Nerys

Hi Graham.
I have noticed you have not put her in your Harbour with information about her.

What do you have planned next ?

Martin555.

Hi Martin,

Thanks for the reminder. I’ll do that later today.

As for ‘what’s next?’ That’s a good question. I’m taking a break from model building for the next few months. I need a break from it and there’s lots to do around the house and garden. I’ll be sailing when I can, but not building. Doesn’t stop me thinking about what’s next though. I have a few ideas 🤔

Graham93