Hello all,

My copy of the MB Winter Special finally arrived yesterday! Due to a recent wild cat strike at the Post Office sorting centers here in Belgium, it took longer than usual to reach me) … but at least it turned up in the end …

Anyway, I noticed with some interest the mention in passing by Richard Simpson, in his So You want To Buy Some Steam Plant article, of plans for a clinker built steam launch called Wide-A-Wake, and more specifically the statement that these plans are supposedly still available.

I have now googled fairly extensively, and also had a thorough look through the websites of my usual suppliers, but, alack and alas!, cannot find anyone beyond eBay that seems to sell these plans.

My question is thus quite simple: does anyone here on the forum know where (other than eBay) one could get hold of these plans?

Many thanks in advance!

/Mattias

Edited By Banjoman on 11/11/2015 07:36:20

Thank you very much indeed, Tony; those two issues have now been snapped up by yours truly!

I'm thus still looking for the plans, so will add what I should perhaps have written above, namely that if anyone here has them in at least decentish nick, and would be willing to part with them, I'd be happy to buy them that way, too.

/Mattias

I forgot to say that my research yesterday dug up one more intersting piece of information, namely that "H. Croker of South Australia" was called Herbert Croker, and that at least part of his model collection ended up at the South Australian Maritime Museum (**LINK**) on whose website one also finds this short biography:

"Herbert Croker (1900-1980) was born in Waterford, Ireland. He spent 25 years at sea serving on whalers, tankers, tramps, cargo and passenger ships. Croker migrated to Australia with his wife in 1940 and began model making in 1961. In 1963 he won two gold medals and a bronze at the Royal Adelaide Industrial exhibition. Croker carefully researched all his models which were based on boats he had sailed or knew well. Almost all of them were working models – powered by steam, electricity or wind."

If the Canadian CD mentioned above doesn't turn out useful it might thus be worth one's while to get in touch with the SAMM to see if they happen to have not only Herbert Croker's models but also his papers …

/Mattias

Edited By Banjoman on 12/11/2015 08:54:08

Well, yesterday the CD with the plans arrived from Canada, and I'm delighted to report that the contents were just as advertised, including full size tif images that I will be able to get printed out in A0 format by a professional photo copy firm.

As for steam or no steam, for my part and if (when) I get around to trying my hand at this model, it would most definitely be built for steam propulsion; any adverse long term effects on the woodwork would in my eyes be only so much patina and added authenticity …

And in any case, even if I were to build a River Queen instead (for reasons of size perhaps), I would not wish to do so with a GRP hull, as one of the main attractions for me with the Wide-A-Wake is the practically-the-same-as-full-size-practice clinker construction of the hull.

But we'll see about that when I get there, probably some four or five years down the road …

/Mattias

Edited By Banjoman on 25/11/2015 09:42:17

Edited By Banjoman on 25/11/2015 09:42:59

Hello Ian,

Warmest thanks for your tips on further reading! I managed to find and have ordered copies of both books — one new, one second hand!

And please don't get me wrong — I have no objections as such to (ready-made) GRP hulls; on the contrary I like them very much! It is more a matter of this specific build, where part of the challenge (and thus the fun) would be the clinker build. To be precise, this is very much how I like to approach my projects, namely for each to be sufficiently different from previous ones that there will be a (not-too-high) number of new aspects to attempt to master. And for Wide-A-wake, those would be steam and the clinker build.

Well, we'll hopefully see what happens, eventually …

Again, many thanks for the tips and for the very interesting discussion!

/Mattias

Edited By Banjoman on 27/11/2015 13:31:51

Hi Ian,

One of my other passions/hobbies is playing traditional jazz (hence the moniker!), and of course also listening to early jazz and related forms of music. This has, unsurprisingly, led me to build up a reasonable record collection over the years, and I learnt early on in my record buying career that if I saw summat that I wanted, I'd better snap it up there and then, as it might well be gone the next day and be very difficult to find again as both LP and CD reissues of these kind of recordings tend to be produced in quite small runs.

In other words, when I saw that both these books – that I wanted to buy – were available right now, well …

And yes: I had also realized that getting the timber stock will not be a question of just popping down to the local hobby store! A very good friend of mine, though, is a professional luthier in Paris, and I've been thinking that it might do worse than to ask her where she would usually buy her wood from … But that's a matter for later!

Interestingly enough, Herbert Croker in his build articles actually suggests 1/8" marine plywood for the planking!

/Mattias

Edited By Banjoman on 27/11/2015 19:52:43

Hello Ian,

Well, whaddaya know!

Yes, I do indeed play with a pick: my weapon of choice is, as is common in the trad jazz camp, the tenor banjo.

Now, if you ask me, discussions of all things banjo are always appropiate, no matter when, where, how or why … For instance it always surprises me when these in equal measure weighty and lofty matters are left out, say, PMQ …

However: yes. This is, after all a model boat forum, so I will not take it further, except to put that most classic of questions: how many banjo players does it take to change a lightbulb? Well, five! One to change the lightbulb, and four to complain that its electric! Or, alternative answer, five! One to change the lightbulb, and four to stand around and say that that's not how Earl would have done it …

/Mattias

Hello Ian,

Who doesn't love banjo jokes?! The one about the smashed car window is one of my favourites, too, as is this one:

You are driving down a narrow country lane, early one morning. At a certain point you come to a fork in the road, with one branch going off to the left, the other one to the right. In the middle of the left-hand branch stands an accordioníst; in the middle of the right-hand one there is a banjoist. You suddenly realise that your brakes no longer work. Which way do you turn?

Answer: Left. Business before pleasure.

Oh dear. And I who said that I'd desist and stick to the boats … Oh well, at least it is my own thread …

/Mattias