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I built one, too, a few years ago.  Mine would have been wind powered but, having completed the hull, I got stalled on the masts and rig as well as the scale detail. I was some what daunted by having to make 5 sails, 2 masts and a sprit for my Thames barge 🙂

 

Here's the hull part completed. It is just about complete now, decked and with sail winches and rudder servo installed but no rig.  I couldn't cast the (non-scale but necessary) lead bulb keel until the rest was finished and I knew its weight to work out how much more was needed to get it to float on its waterline.  Unlike aeroplanes, boats have to have weight 🙂   The hull is sheathed in 3mm balsa and glass coated except for the planked bow ans stern.  Perhaps, now I'm in my dotage I should get it out again.

 

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and here's the one piece lightply deck being added.  It took ages to score the planking.

 

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I went back to aeroplanes, though I'm not doing much of that these days - raining again!

 

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That's the beauty of boats, your always gunna get wet.  The question is, how wet, as in "a swim or not !? ".. .I take an old fishing rod to hopefully cast over the stationery model, to retrieve.....

 

Not had a titanic yet, all unused hull "air" is foam filled.....

 

Sail powered boats ( yachts ) are best, a bit like sloper soarers...  🤓  

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Hello Geoff

Your Veronica is at about the same level of mine.  It is from the same plan (with all the mistakes) but Ray Wood drew in the corrections.  Mine is called Kimberley after a real TSB I was once involved with.  I have come to a grinding halt but recently I have a new ambition to finish it.

 

I am not proposing a race but it would be nice to have some company, perhaps on this Forum to gently finish the boat off.  

 

Levanter

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Well, I got a full refund for the plan, the CNC cut parts, and DVD (about £100 IIRC  - it was a year or three back) and I managed to 'bodge' the CNC cutting errors effectively so I can't complain.  My old sailing club in Sutton-in-Ashfield has been closed down (the council wouldn't renew the lease) but there's still a model club active at King's Mill res so there will be somewhere to sail it.  I've got 4 models as yet unflown, mostly because of poor weather, - perhaps I'll drag it out. I don't have much time left.  I was going to call mine  Acinorev, as it was all backwards 🙂  

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It's good to have feet in both camps, as it were. Particularly with the weather we get these days !

As well as my aeroplane plan collection I have quite a large collection of boat plans, if anybody is looking for something to build. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have 4 models I've built but not yet flown. The weather this year so far has been both wet and windy as well as quite chilly so much that it makes spending a day standing still just not enjoyable.  Perhaps it's my age.  I've braved the weather all my life but, at 84, it just doesn't appeal any longer.  I was contemplating building the BE2 kit I bought at the Buckminster swapmeet but it would be yet another model aeroplane.  I had been intending to go flying tomorrow but the forecast is now for light rain and wind gusting to over 20mph, so that 's off.  I think I've flown 3 times this year and the 35/40 minute drive each way doesn't help.

 

So I've decided to continue the build of my Thames Barge I started nearly 10 years ago.  I've made a mast step and made a top mast and studied the very complicated rigging system (it's very sophisticated - mainly because these large vessels were designed to be sailed by a man and a boy with a dog to protect them when left).  It's a model. It's radio controlled.  Does it meet the criteria here if I start a thread with occasional updates/photos etc?  The Model Boat forum has cobwebs and echos 🙂

 

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The hull so far.  I'm quite pleased with it and it would be a shame to abandon it after all the work so far, even if it was nearly 10 years ago.

 

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Inside, showing the sail winch and (to the left) the attachment for the 'cheat' keel.  That's necessary despite that the full size had a flat bottom because  wind and water don't scale down to 1/24th.  The rudder has an extension for the same reason.  The is a photo of a barge in the top picture part hidden by my charger power supply.

 

So, should I start a thread or is there no interest?

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Hi Geoff

You are right about the Model Boat Forum.  It didn't take well to the change.  One big problem is that you can't see how many views you have had and without actual responses, it is impossible to know if anyone has the foggiest interest in what you are posting. Shame!

Following with interest because your is more advanced than mine.  I have not done anything with it for over a year but you deciding to post on Veronica has prodded me to get going again.  It makes a lovely model and there are great similarities between sailing and flying, especially gliding.  

 

Levanter

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Keep on going Geoff it's going to be a great model.

My flying just about stops in the winter but I sail my boats all the year round. My DF65 yacht will sail in the strongest of winds and come back for more. I can wear gloves for sailing but not flying so I can stay reasonably warm. No problems with flooded fields either 😂

I agree about the Model boat forum it's now just about dead in the water. The Model Boat Mayhem forum is quite lively though 

Hopefully you will get your barge finished soon, it looks great.

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  • 2 weeks later...

A very long time ago about 1959 (I was 13) after my Dad built a round 10ft diameter pond in the garden I built this electric RTP "jet" boat.

 RTPboat1.JPG.a6349a83814de90f1ff12885d5793213.JPG

Small and very light 1/16 balsa it used a 6V can motor with the prop in a duct.

RTPboat2.JPG.bb45499fba4b937b9dfca81de607fd8f.JPG 

The wires to the centre pole carried the current

In 1962 I built my first RC boat using the motor. speed controller, servos and the 7.2 V NiCd battery from a Tamiya Dune Buggy.

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All 1/16 balsa skin over 1/8 by 1/4 frames.

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Worked well but being so light and relatively bulky is was seriously effected by any wind.

The next was was based on a Cigarette racing hull.

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 Again of all balsa construction It went some what faster than the Cabin Cruiser.

Cigarette3.JPG

Used a few times on the local boating pond I was always concerned that with the weight of the all the electrics in it if I hit anything it would shatter & sink in quick order. 

Edited by Simon Chaddock
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Yes do . Anything to do with building is interesting to many of us . Ive sold  my last boat now but who knows , IC power is my interest in any model . I have a couple of old Laser 75's and was going to convert one to marine some time back . Not difficult but the cost of the Piece of brass for a flywheel put me off 😶.

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I made a number of model boats from Keil Kraft kits when I was a kid and had great success with them - more than I can say for Mr. Keil's aeroplane kits that I laboured over until I got much older. Loved the models at the Victoria Park (E.London) model boat club as a kid and was fascinated by  all the different power plants, types and disciplines. Not a very friendly crowd unfortunately at that time, and the old geezers in nautical head dress weren't interested in a young chaps eager questions and interests. So that was that. As an old geezer myself now I always make a point of chatting to young folks who might be over our field as visitors - you never know you might be setting them off on a life long hobby.

Still have a soft spot for R/C boats but the places where they can be operated from seem to be even more difficult to find as with aircraft.

I suppose the nearest to me is the salt water lake in Maldon (Essex) where I've chatted to the boaters there a few times and one chap gave me a go on his lovely sail yacht - very interesting experience and needed a great deal of attention to the wind and positioning - a bit like thermal and slope gliding, well sort of.

The big snag with the Maldon lake is car parking - it's run by the council and is expensive (as they all are now) and can be crowded at times. There is a club that uses the lake at Brightlingsea, but that's quite a distance from me and doesn't seem to get much use from what I've seen anyway.

Edited by Cuban8
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