This model was built from a model slipway Tamar kit. it was modified substantially.all rails are soldered brass. info was from the website of Peterhead R.N.L.I. Station were there are excellent photos. The models engines are thumper motors 4240' at 900kv and run on three cell lipos @ 5000ma. Which give me at least an hour. With a speed of at least 10 mph, which lifts her bow out of the water,way passed the bow thruster , which is a graupner 400. Radar works through an old servo . Flashing blue light on mast. Running and accommodation lights. These boats are normally red below waterline however Scarborough life boats have always been white below the waterline. The crew are star war figures modified with plastic putty and a sharp knife. Not an easy build but very enjoyable. Eric Plaxton was the chairman of plaxtons coaches, and platoons building services. He left 9 million pounds to the boro of Scarborough, and 3 million to scarborough R.N.L.I., for a new boat .
Many thanks , Yes I like the colour scheme as well. I have several projects I would like to start one being the jet drive boat. as I already have the jet drives in the drawer for the last 12 months,regards Jim clark
My little Hungry Sailor aboard AMELIE ROSE OF POOLE,
Scale model of a Scilly isle pilot cutter from the ITV series
THE HUNGRY SAILORS. She is scratch built 3/4 to 1 ft. The hull is fibre glass on balsa plank with OpepI Oak deck, shes powered by a 700 auxiliary motor and Lipo battery, can be seen at Boundery Water Park.
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
I finally got round to trying the Rapier with the lipos I bought recently. My good friend 'Kalamunda' was on hand to drive whilst I took the video. We noticed a marked Improvement in performance- a much greater 'urgency' with the lipos delivering what the motors asked. Short of going up a prop size I think this will be about it with this boat. Thanks to the chaps on here who have encouraged me into Lipos and given help with various matters- not sure what all the worry was now- famous last words!
This will be one of our last days at Crealy in Exeter as the management have decided to terminate our use of the water- so we will be looking for alternatives from January.
I use a little "plug in" voltage alarm on my lipo's. it simply plugs in to the balance charge plug connector. so give you an initial volt test,usually with a few bleeps and a set of green lights, then as the batteries drain, the led's turn red and an alert buzzer goes of as they approach low volt limit, which is set on these alarms at 3.2v, so no damage done to the batteries.
Its a quick search on ebay, loads of sellers, cost around £2.50 each.
very useful bit of kit poolside as you can check all your lipo batteries, even after being used and left to stand, the batteries do recover a bit and possibly ready again for a further shortened run time too.
Those are the alarms I intend to use but they seem to be taking a while to come. They are so cheap I intend to install them in the boat with velcro and extension leads on the balance connectors. The lipos certainly give a weight saving too.
A freind from a photographic club has kindly forwarded these pics to me. Well, you know what its like when you are at the controls, there is never anyone around to take any decent pics, but think these are superb, especially when considering it was going almost flat out at the time, and plenty of "air" under the forward hull, right up the tha last "step" in the hull at the stern.
11.1v lipo, 3000kv motor and standard 3 blade 32mm plastic prop.
I found after some "trial" that the ORIGINAL plastic prop suited the motor better.
I did try a specialist one from prop shop and it actually ran slower, albeit same diameter, but with bigger pitch.
Ok, thanks for that info. I have hot shot tunnel hull and a 47 insane v-hull. I'm big on the fuel driven, nitro or gas. I've been exsperamenting with perpellor size and I've come to the conclusion that I need to get a GPS or other type of tracking device to determine if their is some tpye significant change happening with the performance. I'm just starting this hobby , so is there any recommend reading you would suggest or general knowledge site I could look on for beginners. Thanks in advance for any more help you can provide.
1959 kit built, restored two years ago,removed the ganette 15cc 4 stroke and replaced it with a bruhless motor which is a EMP 5065 410kv with a 100amp ESC and 4cell 5000 lipo turning a x70 two bladed prop, runs times up to 20 minutes, and a very good but over scale speed, will take a video of her next time a I take her out.
Second decent run with this boat- rather sedate I think. At the moment it's drawing 33amps (stationary, 16.5 amps each motor) with both motors running from a 12v Nimh pack. I want to get each motor running off a separate LiPo and then I could probably increase the prop size- still well within the esc rating and the motors are very cool after a run at the moment. it seems a bit back heavy and I'd like to get it running flatter- so will try moving the batteries more amidships.
HI Ian
See you are making good use of the wattmeter 😀
Like the video and agree the balance could benefit with a bit more weight amidships.
Listening to the video sound suggests your motors are not developing full power so I suspect the NiMh's are not capable of delivering the amps required.
You could try smaller props with the NiMh's to see if the performance Improves, could be your motors are working just below the optimum.
Dave, I found that the Nimh batteries were dropping off to around 9v at full power when measured with the wattmeter and this is why I want to go for Lipos, one on each motor. At the moment I'm taking everything from one pack and I think this is the limiting factor.
When I get my Lipos I will stick them in the middle and try larger props, probably 40mmS types to begin with, having measured what's going on with the wattmeter first. it may be that the existing props will do better if the batteries are delivering up what the motors want. You're right, there is still plenty of headroom with this setup.
Just got to rake up the cash for two largish capacity Lipos!
The wattmeter is a splendid purchase- I'd say essential for this type of thing.
Anyway, glad you liked the video- she still looks quite good toodling around at that speed.
First trial run after purchase off good old Ebay. Running 26kv motor and 11.1v lipo. its a little bit "skippy", but after returning to shore, it looks like it may simply be the height of the prop shaft, so now adjusted, ready for a second trial shortly....more to follow.
They can be very stable and get a higher level of speed over a mono hull. BUT ...... yep, there always has to be one............ I find that a mono hull can sail in any type of water condition, twin hulls, or tunnel hulls are better suited for calmer water. the main risk is for the hull to flip over backwards if thits the crest of a wave and the wind gets under the bows, the centre section then acts as a sail , wind catches it and lifts the hull nose up........... and over !
If you get the chance to sail one.......try it, they are good fun to sail, take a bit of concentration to get the best speed out of them, especially on turns.
Its like any boat, there are good things and bad in all of them to a degree.
First trials after upgrading the hull to brushless motor, instead of original 550 size motor. this test was on a 2 cell 7.4v lipo, I did try a 3 cell, but the stretch of water we use isn't long enough, I run out of water too quickly, so for now, 2 cells power it is. its still a handfull on turns, as the turn fins will take some setting up to get the best out of them to maintain a degree of speed, rather than drag factor off the turn fins.
Mmmm.... turn fins? Perhaps he means a 'dagger plate' a vertical fin that should help prevent the boat from rolling and filpping on turns. Just theorizing I'm not sure though if two would be the answer, I wonder if they might actually hinder. With a single plate of the right size placed centrally the boat would be still be restrained from too much sideways roll yet not lose any directional control being able to pivot on the single plate, where as two plates would tend to act like two fixed rudders and be hinder to turning. I also fly planes and I agree with Dave M about fine control, if using a computerized radio dialing in both rates and expotential helps compensate for over enthusiastic waggling of the sticks and is nearly always required for fast craft particularly first time out. Anyway that sure looks like fun, that's a serious handful and on just 7 volts, well done!
Dagger boards are onl;y used on sail boats, turn fins are a fine edges plate, fitted to the transom, and adjustable in height/depth to the water, so it gives less "bite" when running straight, but digs in on turns to get the hull to bite in to the water.
A rudder is fitted, so there is no way of fitting one of these centrally my freind, they have to fit either side/one side of the transom.
"trimming the radio" does not cater for the movement on a fast boat, thats purely down to the person behind the sticks at the time!
The "end game" on the video was when the rudder dug in too deeply and the boat just spun around due to an "over steer" moment........... thast just what can happen when playing around setting up brushless systems.
Purchased secondhand, upgraded to a proper motor esc rather than the original/factory on/off micro switch for the motor power. Running a graupner 600 race motor and 7.4 lipo, basically just to run the brushes in on the motor before raising the battery voltage,
bit of a shaky video but try holding the transmitter and filming at same time on your own [ha ha].
it does have the capacity to move a ot faster, but would sooner work the motor in fully first
I've had this boat in the shed for years and at last have started to do some mods on it but will it work, will hopefully try it tomorrow at Cwmbran. Has any one tried this before, it will run on a 3800KVa Brushless Outrunner from an Helicopter with a 70 Amp Red Brick Forward only speed controller, first runs on a 7.4 2 Cell Lipo and then 3 cell 11.1 volt Lipo and if I feel brave I have a 4 Cell 14.8 volt Lipo as well, it's prop is 30mm but have 25mm and 35mm two blade bronze ones to try.
Looks like you are in for some serious fun. You may be able to get the best performance if you have or can borrow a wattmeter to see the effect of different battery / prop set ups. Brushless motors and LiPo's don't like it if you exceed their power ratings.
Looking forward to hearing the results, or maybe a video of the boat on the water.
Good luck 😀
HI I am not sure what kit this is or was but I know that its not the Aerokits version. it was bought on Ebay about 2 years ago and it has been restored to what you see attached. it is running on a Johnson 600 and a 35x prop, power is from a 11.1 volt Lipo.
Hi! Fellow modelers, The Vosper kit was matketed by KeilKraft a British agent some time during the 60's, I actually was their agent in South America, but I believe that now they are no longer in business. it is a beautiful model. I did have a good run at my previous home in Guyana, in a cane field then flooded, it worked beautifully with the diesel engine/ screw prop assembly by Graupner. Now I have to look at electric of which I know very little., but I am hoping that the model shop will help when I am ready. Thanks Ray
HI Ray, The sail at Cwmbran today was a success the boat out performed the previous setup. Several members run Vosper fireboats all running electric power, one with a gearbox 2:1 reduction and two models like mine with 700 size electric my run time on 7.2 volt 3600Mah battery is about 30 to 35 minutes with some fast runs, shorter with all fast running. On 9.6 volt 3700Mah (4.8 x 2 in series) runtime is about the same but model is very quick. On 11.1 volt Lipo 2200Mah battery run time is about 15 to 20 minutes but very very quick. I buy most of the Johnson motors that I use on Ebay the prices vary but all are cheap and I have had no problems with any of them. Our Club is all Electric, but that does not mean slow boats. Electric power has evolved in leaps and bounds over the last few years.
Regards Graham
