Hi Phil, been wanting to do that for a few years, but haven't found a cheap enough set yet. I've struggled with trying to position one boat with a camera, behind or beside the subject etc, while trying to drive 2 boats at once. One thing I was thinking of, was to put the camera on a 360Deg gimbal so you can rotate it and follow something, rather than have to constantly re-position the whole camera boat to keep the subject in frame.

JB

HI All,

Just calling in to say that I have not finished this little model yet, large due to Christmas and the like. However, I am now back on it and it should not take long now. During the down time on it, I have decided not mount it on a stand but to make a boat trailor for it and have acquired a suitably-sized RangeRover, R/C to launch it into the lake from our slipway. Also, I have decided to use a gearbox, one motor, two screws as space and weight were both getting tight. So it will be fitted with two motors direct drive.

Looks real nice Peter👍- monitor works well and radar looks spot on, - nice job👍 You can always go up a bit in motor size if you find cruising not to your liking. It does let you stay out longer though, and enjoy it more.

JB

Well Peter,
Finally she hit the water and she looks really good.
I bet you are glad to see her in the wet stuff after the time she has taken to make.
Great work.

One down and many more to go or should i say Finnish LOL!!

Martin555.

Hello JB!
Congratulations, also on your idea with the sack truck, which I am taking the liberty of copying. . .
Just awesome your ideas here on this homepage!
Greetings Mike

Hi Mike,- copy away,😁 glad you found something of use.

JB

Hi JB,

I can't use the lack of a wind indicator as an excuse 🤔. I still think the main problem is the nut holding the tiller 🤣😂

It'll come right Graham, practice makes perfect😁🙄 That's a nice pic by the way, quite frameable if enlarged👍

JB

Hi Mike - I really do like that idea ! - I tried a small motor/prop in my "wee nip" but converted it back to standard sail power - interested to know details of your pump though . 👍
Cheers
Phil

Hi Mike, interested to see how you got on with the 'water jet' idea, -should move it on calm days. As long as the sound of running water, after 3 beers doesn't get you going😁!

JB

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 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

Well Colin I can only say thanks for the comment, makes the effort worthwhile.

Not sure how I missed this vid, but the boat looks great👍 I agree with Colin re the bow wave, looks spot on, nice and stable too. Great job

JB

Hi Garth,
She looks good on the water.
I bet your matt is happy with the work you had done for him.

Martin555.

Looks good Roger,
Whilst the comments on paralleling LI-POs are correct. I have never had an issue. I have used two identical cells and fully charge each separately until the charger cuts out.
Would never try two partially discharged cells as then the current might flow from one to the other creating the overcharge rate problem
Recently decided that rather than use two cells, why not use one at once? This reduces weight and eliminates the concern.
Think you need a larger pond! Glad to see the weather is consistent with my memorys.
Rowen

Hi Roger, goes so well on one, you could have left the other two motors out!

JB

Nice video Phil Thank's.

Martin555.