Wahine was a car passenger ferry of the Union Steamship Co. of New Zealand, and completed by Fairfields in 1966. She was lost in a major storm in the Cook Strait in 1968 with the death of 53 people. The model is substantially scratch-built with some fittings purchased. it is driven by two Graupner Speed 500 motors powered from two 6.6V 3200mAh LiFe batteries. it is fitted with twin stern and a single bow rudders, and bow and stern thrusters as on the original. The smoke effect is provided by a Steam Master Unit.

SS (RMS) Empress Queen was a steel paddle steamer, which was the last of its type ordered by the isle of Man Steam Packet Company She was chartered by the Admiralty in 1915 and used for trooping duties until she ran aground off Bembridge, isle of Wight, England, and was subsequently abandoned.
The model was scratch built on a modified fibreglass hull. The plans were obtained from Glasgow University and the model was nearly 7ft long with an overall beam including paddles of about 14 inches. She was independently powered with two geared motors from Wulitzer juke box components. I hope to do a build blog in the near future.
She was purchased from me by the Beale Park, part of the Child Beale Trust Reading.

A scratch built model of a Gloucester USA fishing schooner 1900 era. Pine plank on frame, 2 channel radio with a Lego 9volt drive unit as sail winch controlled each way by servo and micro switches, the deck is planked on a thin ply sub-deck and deck openings are sealed with Vaseline. The deep keel slides up into a box through the keel and secured with a bolt.

A WWII British S-class submarine by Darnell. it is being restored at present and will be sailed at the Hayling island Model Boat Club lake.

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 .

Not your typical submarine but certainly an unusual semI submersible. Scratch built by fellow club member Brian Clewes this is a most striking looking vessel. Fiberglass hull and moulded perspex window. Home built waterjet uses a large 900 (I think) brushed motor, water cooled speed controller and 14.4v LiPo. Looks really spectacular on the water and Brian is working on the ballast to enable the model to remain just submerged. Video to follow in due course.

This is an Arowana 22.2" mono EP hull, allegedly self righting, however, on it's maiden run I turned it too fast and flipped it, sadly the self righting didn't, and a hatch clip failed, the end result was that after about 40 seconds of being upside down, the back end dissapeared, and it ended up 70% submerged with about 6" of bow pointing towards the sky. I have since had a play in the bath, and cannot get it to self right, also it leaks water from the factory fitted divider for the flood chamber, so not the quality that I thought it was, don't quite know how to rectify that one.

HI shipmates, here,s a few shpts of the "Port ".
She,s a 1/80 scale scratch built cargo ship of the Port line company from around the 1950,
A ship this size requieres quite a bit of balast, I use water, it takes around 40 lds to get her sitting right, this is pumped in and out with a submersible caravan water pump.
Most of the fittings are resin castings.
there are a few more bits to finnish off but could not resist the chance to try her out on the Chasewater pool.

Ahoy
Here is something you dont see everyday, I built this from scratch made from pinewood. This consolidateds PB-2Y5 Coronado flyingboat, used as a trnaport and submarine patrol bomber.scale 1/72
Franklyn Day aka Boats

HI all, I was given this model in a rather sad state as it had been in a junk box in a farm out-building and had been subjected to the weather from time to time . it had been there for about 20 yrs or more and the balsa hull was 60% rotten . I think it was originally IC powered but had been fitted with a Graupner Jumbo 6v motor and an old style rheostatic sc, ( I did try using the sc but it sucked so much power I gave it a miss - also had no reverse)
Amazingly the motor and sc still worked and with a bit of oil and cleaning the motor is still running well ! I'm using a 1975 Futaba 24v 10A sc and 3cell LiPo which pushes it along nicely. I stripped everything and replaced large bits of the hull, (which was fun as every time you picked it up you would poke another hole in it it was so fragile !) I got it to the stage where it would hang together fairly well and glassed the hull which has made it like the proverbial "brick one". The rest was very careful sanding of the deck and cabin, (they were ply so fared a bit better) and a lot of little filling bits to get it right.
Nav lights and cabin lights all work from the micro switch board, the curtains are left over Graupner Commodore (1975), I've added a mast, new windows,flag pole, cleats, ladder and handrails. Any ideas as to its manufacturer would be great. I have seen another one on our local "Trade Me" web site recently.

This is a video clip of my Fireboat at Southport boating lake in June this year.

The idea of an on board cam was thanks to another member who submitted a video last year of their Sea Queen (see video gallery), I liked the effect so thought I'd give it a go myself. it seems to have worked?

See forum thread: http://modelfireboats.com/forum/thread.php?thread=428

Fireboat

This is a video of my re-make of the Aerokits Sea Queen. Build commenced in the autumn of 2006 and it was to be a winter build project for when the weather was too bad to fly R/C elec planes. The boat was finished mid 2007 and was launched in May.

My closest water to sail on is Lake St Clair, but one slip up and the boat's next stop would be Canada. its seen here sailing in the confines on an ornamental pond in Wahby Park, St Clair Shores, Mi, USA. The music has been added to cover up the sound of fountain just out of picture to the right.

The supplied motor has been replaced with an MFA Torpedo 850 which has substantially more power and 3x the RPM.

A week before the video was taken I lost the prop and its seen here running on a temporary prop while I awaited a replacement. The performance on the video is a little more sedate than normal.

More info & pics in the photo gallery