"No matter how old he is every man remains part boy"

At the club pond today I have completed the Orca to my satisfaction. the crew figures are complete and fitted in situ, Matt Hooper at the helm, captain Quint up front with the harpoon gun, chief Brody serving out the smelly chum at the stern. The battery ran for at least 1 hour, it’s a 3s lipo 2200,100c when coupled to the charger it had 70 % left in

All rubbed down ready for primer surfacer and top coats. Interior bulkheads need a bit more flatting.

I decided to risk a salt water trial, as there is no place I can think of with fresh water and a smooth beach or ramp which doesn't involve a 100 mile round trip (most beaches where I am are ocean beaches and others are soft sand/shell. The only lake I can think of is 112km away and I'm not THAT keen. Launching went ok but retrieval was another matter, not helped by an 8mph side wind (looks calm but is windy) Had a number of goes and discovered a few things which need changing, (extra front guide posts and rollers either end of the pads) The rubber resting pads stick like glue so I'll have to make some pop up rollers at the ends.

The pads hold the boat slightly above the centre rollers to avoid damage and stop it sliding off while shifting it. New front guide posts are needed as the boat only draws about 30mm and goes right over the trailer with it underwater 😮(no prop or rudder sticking out,) so it might help locate it when coming in. Jeep had truckloads of power (just fitted a new even lower geared -geared motor -1000rpm/min @ 12v), but unfortunately being only 2x2 (not 4x4) and being half the weight of the boat/trailer combo it couldn't get a grip in the mud, so needed a bit of assistance, (as did the boat getting onto the trailer). Cut out most of the vid with the boat missing the trailer about 10 times, but scored a direct hit once😊. Heaps of fun trying and heaps of washing and CRC when I got home! Going to need some new bearings at some stage, - the ones in it are rubbish and have only lasted for about a few hours running, noisy as anything now, even with gallons of oil. Stainless NMB ones next if I don't change the jet to something else, (another thought on propulsion happening)💡

This boat was pulled up from our local pond by one of the fishermen .No one has a clue how long it has been down there but must have been a very long time .So I was set a challenge to sort it out I got one of the servos working and the speed controller working OK just shows no matter how long something has been under water it can work.
I did get the motor running but as you see not wise to use.So I have put some pics on of my progress up to now to have a look at.

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

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.

the sea rover was bought locally as a wreck with much of the forward section of the cabin missing , however it has been rebuilt in a matter of weeks to sailing condition , its now running a single vision 600 motor on 7.2 volts , & has a reasonable turn of speed and very good rudder response ! the fpl was a double purchase as I bought a pair of hulls , one had a better finish than its sister although this didnt matter as they were both stripped back to bare timber and resprayed with wilkinsons enamel spray . as the cabins were not remaining Ive made both boats into vospers mk2 range safety launches , neither models are fully finished but Ive started to use 1640 , I know 1646 wasnt a number issued by the raf , but as the model is to be operated by my neice it was the number she has chosen !

example of bs631 cellulose grey matt paint, aerosol application, details in the forum on "what colour" posts

These pictures are of a scale model of Captain Joshua Slocum's "Spray". it was sailed around the world, singlehanded between 1895-1898. Slocum re-built a Delaware oysterman hull in Fairhaven, MA and had been a gift to him.

After reading of his exploits in an original copy of his book, 'Sailing Alone Around The World' 1899 The Century Co., John copied the drawings that were in the book, established a scale for each and then converted those scales to just one - 1"=14.6" and proceeded to make a model of the famous boat. At that time [2003-2004] there was a commercial kit available but after much research John concluded that he had enough information from the book to build his own version. Actually the available kit contained some mis-information about the boat and that settled the matter.

The model was built plank-on-frame and then covered with epoxy/glass since it was intended for RC. He sailed her during the summer of 2004 and was quite pleased with her performance. An opportunity to sell the model came to him and he did so in January 2005.