Hello John,

I have to agree with Gareth – that is a Braine steered yacht and looks very much like an early Marblehead. And it all looks to be present and what luck to also have the name of the restorer and sailmaker under the cap. I just write on the underside of the deck or on the hull itself (nicely of course).

I'm sure Martin will assist, even get Russell to help, you never know, they might even know the chap who did the work, Lewis Shubrook, though I've not come across his work or name before..

Aye, Kim

Hello again,

your measurement means that this yacht is not a Marblehead Class, as all such yachts are 50 inches [class rule]. There are, however, several old pond yachts built at 48 inches, the Isle of Man was quite a centre for them in the 50/60's.

Let us know what the VMYG think.

Aye Kim

John,

if Russell says it's a marblehead then so be it, he is the expert.

I would restore it to near sailing condition even if you only intend having it on static view. It'll keep the sails fresh and force you to replace any unwanted rigging with new. You'll be bound to be asked how things work, what's this for, what does that do etc so restoring it will answer the questions. There's a lot of info about and Braine gear and was the second simplest invented auto steering method at the time, though various additions have been made through the years, till it was virtually lost with the advent of vane steering gear.

I'm currently re-fitting to sailing trim a 36R for a lady in Wales. I've had to make several pieces of deck items and, I thought, invented the reverse Braine quadrant due to lack of deck at the stern behind the rudder post, when I found a picture of a 1930's yacht with the same conversion done.

Here's that picture with the quadrant elastic engaging beam foreword instead of aft the rudder stock due to limited deck space.

And here's my version of the quadrant, using the one supplied, I soldered a foreword beam to engage the elastic ahead of the rudder stock.

Aye, Kim

I'm Isle of Man, that one in the Irish Sea.

Kim

Here is the link to the Pond Princess album. **LINK**

Unfortunately it does not show the rudder servo installation but I will post some pictures later tonight when I am back at home.

Gareth

Attached are a couple of photos showing the rudder servo installation on Pond Princess. Its a reasonably simple way of allowing the yacht to be sailed under basic radio control if you don't have a pond suitable for free sailing.

The control wires are brought over the edge of the hatch area through a couple of small pieces of plastic tube which act as a seal and are trapped under the hatch when it is screwed down

Note the corrosion on the threads at the clevis adjusters is due to the nasty salt water Kim uses in his lake in Ramsey.

In the past we have used a piece of pine dowel from B and Q as a material for a wooden mast. It might not be so easy to aquire where you are. I don't think the type of wood is that critical as long as it is straight grained and free from knots

Gareth

Edited By Gareth Jones on 29/01/2015 21:39:16

What a heathen somebody was, painting over that nice lined and varnished deck.

Gareth

Absolutely glorious to discover that under the paint. Perhaps an owner wanted to disguise the model?

A thorough clean up, then a decent varnish coat. Now I'm wondering what the hull will be like.

And before you ask, not heard of a J Roach, yet, can you post the wording, can'y quite make it out from your photograph, thanks.

Kim

This is a very interesting old model yacht and definitely not a Marblehead, in fact I would suspect that it is much older than the formation of the Marblehead Class. If the model was built to a particular National Class it is more likely to be the first 'Metre Rule' of 1907/08 that was rescinded immediately following World War 1, but there was a very active Model Yacht Club at Littlehampton that is also known to have sailed local classes.

A man by the name of J.Roach manned the Littlehampton lifeboat in the 1890's, as you are probably aware the town has along tradition of boat building and I would guess that he belonged to one of the families involved in the business. This yacht has a raked sternpost and I would guess that she dates from the period prior to World War 1, some further photos of her would be interesting.

Gareth Morgan