If Professor Pat can do it...so can I...lol.. The history of boating spans millennia, evolving from dugout canoes and rafts in prehistory to sophisticated vessels powered by steam and advanced engines. Early boats, appearing around 10,000 years ago, were used for fishing and coastal travel, with Egyptians developing reed and wooden boats for transport and trade by 4000 BCE. Over centuries, innovations like the Viking longboat, the Chinese junk with its rudder, and the Dutch yacht transformed seafaring, eventually leading to the Age of Exploration and the flourishing of yachting as a recreational pursuit in the 17th century. Modern boating integrates electronic systems, computer-aided design, and emerging eco-friendly propulsion, reflecting its continuous adaptation.

Just a simple model I built for my son about 14yrs ago. He wasn't interested (more into computers) so I use it for the salt water. Just a brass shaft and 12v high speed 380 motor, runs quite well. Ran it to try out the new 4K camera, (set on 1920x1080) but had to convert the vid from MOV to MP4 to edit it, so it reduced the clarity a bit. At least it doesn't have a blurry bit in the middle of the lens like my 10yr old one. have to figure out a better way, (or get a better editor)

This might be clearer

Sun was out, wind was down, so took the boat for swimming lessons. Went very well, no problems other than the silicone couplings trying to screw themselves off as usual, (too much bite and torque) and bunching up to the motor causing friction), (have a possible fix I'm working on for that today) Heaps of power from the 2 - 540 HV brushed motors only running on 3s. Never went much more than a tad past 1/2 throttle which was spot on scale wise.

Very quiet as well, - mind you, couldn't hear much anyhow with a road milling machine working at the end of the pond about 150m away, at around 80db where I was!!😠😠😠😭 Of course it would have to be there today,! something like this always stuffs my plans up, cars, trucks, screeching seagulls, people talking to you while you are trying to make a nice quiet video etc etc. Can't seem to get away from noise. Added to that, the video's crap,- as soon as it uploads to YT it turns to rubbish,- was quite acceptable till then.

Must be the wide format they use, as it's fine in a small screen (ie YT preview) and my computer. Worst thing is, it took an hour to load this rubbish on a fibre connection!! Not loading any more till I get a better camera, "Santa, did you hear that ?"😁

I might de-power it a bit, as it has too much power really,- might put 2 540 45T motors in which will run on 2s nicely with 30mm props (has 35s at the moment) and not be as touchy on the throttle. You can steer this just using the throttles it's so bitey. Spins on the spot like a jet boat as well. Stereo worked well, but the IR remote doesn't like working too far away in bright sunlight, (have a separate vid, but YT would give a copyright warning, so I won't put that up) The vid is garbage, but you'll get the idea😁

I purchased a small BT player which has a number of features including recording. It can output using BT to a BT speaker, so I recorded an engine sound (Detroit 4-53 for the seaplane tender) I found, and copied it a number of times using the player and the vid on the computer (paused the recording, ran the video back, started recording again, etc etc) worked reasonably well. Very hard to find a sound which is continuous for a decent length of time, especially sounds of older engines which may not exist or are in museums. Used the BT feature to send the sound to a small BT speaker sitting in the boat.

Now I need to find out how to get the sound to accelerate and somehow get it into my 'GT Power' engine sound unit files, (the sounds on that are in lots of small WAV files linked to the TX throttle movement (I think they are on an SD card and they just loop where you stop the throttle, and advance or retard to the next file as you move it) A bit of investigation is in order.😀

This is my scratch built 36" RNZAF British Power Boat 64' HSL (arrived in NZ 1940). I actually went on board this vessel in 1968 when it was still in original form (the RNZAF having disposed of it in the 50s) This vessel is still around and has been recently re modelled (2nd time since early 70s) and I was lucky last year to have met the present owner and go on board (2nd time in 49yrs!)and take a few photos. The vessel was modified a number of times by the RNZAF over the years (air intakes, removal of the fore deck machine guns, wheelhouse turret etc so I sort of went in the middle. I found a few drawings of the type in an old mag which had side and top views plus the bulkheads and their positions, so I took them along to a copying shop and kept enlarging them until I had the desired proportions. This worked out quite well and using a few methods from other models I had built, managed to frame (ply) the hull and then fully strip plank it in balsa. it was then fiber glassed. The deck is ply, lined and varnish stained. The wheelhouse is varnished balsa with the top removable for access. The wheelhouse interior has detail such as controls, instrument panels, skipper, steps to wardroom etc but is not too detailed as it is not seen. The boat has full lighting by remote switch, lights are all LED.
The propulsion side has dual everything (motors, ESCs, sound units), would have had 3x but ran out of space! Motors are 28mm 2200Kv water jacketed in-runners (cooled by remotely switched pump) using 30A Chinese ESCs (have 5A BEC, Fwd and Rev). Twin sound units are 'GT Power' car units which have around 40 different sound selections, from Cosworths to diesels and are computer programmable (as well as manually on the unit ) for various functions. I am using one of the v8 sounds (8 cyls short in my application) which I think is as near as you are going to get to 3 Napier Sea Lions (for which there is obviously no sound available) They 'start' 'Idle' and are fully proportional in fwd and rev and can sound quite realistic (will attempt to put up a vid later).
Batteries are 2x 2200mah 2s 20c LiPos which will last around 2hrs at least of sailing (they also run the sound units) Still have a few small things left to do (have just made wheelhouse air intakes) but don't want to get too fiddly. Just want to keep it a practical model.

Acquired as an empty hull a year ago. it measures 5'6" from stem to stern and was steam powered. it is carved out of one piece of timber. Now electric powered and using 12v invalid battery. if I can extract the picture from the computer I will include it !! if I can't you can do your own research.

Fighting Cock was one of the fleet of North West Tugs (Liverpool Screw Towing and Lighterage Company) steam tugs, built by Cammell Laird in 1953. The model is built on a Kingston Mouldings Sun tug hull, the superstructure is scratchbuilt from styrene, with many fittings from Mobile Marine Models. The motor was 'rescued' from a mainframe computer data drive, and is direct drive to the propeller. Power is from 12V gell cell batteries with a speed control by EA Electronics. Both hull and motor were given to my father many many years ago, and the model was completed approx 7 years ago.

I have found that a parallel ribbon cable from an old desktop computer (80 way type) are ideal for mast lights or working Radar etc. and can be glued down neatly.

The end connectors are easily removed without damaging the cable. it is possible to separate two or three insulated wires or however many wires or pairs you need to run to different areas of the hull or the superstructure.

For mast lights or radar etc, I found that wires in pairs are the best way to feed multiple pairs of wires up a mast tube etc. (It helps to feed wires through tubes with a dab of talcum powder to ease the wires through). I was able to run 4 pairs of these fine cables up a 3mm mast tube.

The wires are single strand insulated and easy to solder onto led's or bulbs with very fine heatshrink tubing to insulate. Because these wires are very fine the lights or radar supply should be fused at a low amperage rate. 250mA in my Tug.

East coast Dory powered by oars controlled by 4 servos and a computer chip.
A kit about 8yrs old from Harbor Models.

A quick ( 3 weeks) rough 35" balsa MaiamI powered by Turrnigy 28/30 outrunner , 3cell LiPo and 30A ESC made for my son who wasn't that interested so I am adding a bit more to it and 'playing' with it myself .
Vic Smeed plan Thornycroft took about 20yrs (on and off) to complete and has an Electronize 43HX 24v 15A controller, 2x 400 sized 6-12v brushed motors 4cell 3000MAh LiPo for main power with seperate 3 cell LiPo running a computer fan for cooling (fan is linear and sucks air through the boat from the front hatches and blows it out through the rear hatches) There are also seperate 3 and 4 cell AA NmH packs for nav and interior lighting.
Boat runs 28mm 3 blade props and runs at a realistic scale speed and attitude. Radio gear is 2.4 and I have modified one TX for twin throttles and at present am running both these boats simultaniously on the one TX.
Have bought twin car ESCs, batts, RXs and BECs for the PT and the (36") British Power Boat 64ft HSL I am building (modelled on the RNZAFs 64ft HSL- the only one sold in the southern hemisphere - in 1940) Went on board as a teenager before she was ruined by being turned into a pleasure launch so it was a help with the building. Still remember the wonderful alloy 'Power Boat' stair treads down to the ward room. Will get some pics up of the HSL as well.

Steam launch designed and built by me. I used a computer program called Plyboats to design it and it is a double chine ply hull. The power plant is a twin cylinder Cheddar engine, the Pelican I believe, which was a vee twin. The boiler was designed and built by me being a 3'' dia vertical firetube, gas fired.
This video was taken at Crealy in Exeter one summer evening in 2003 as a fairly new boat. She is now in need of a little TLC.