At the risk of being stoned to death……We don`t want no kids on `ere!

There would completely ruin the peace and tranquility that we enjoy at present!

Model boaters start their hobby after finishing their twenty five year apprenticeship playing with trains, cars and aero`s……Also kite flying, fishing, chasing the ladies, decorating and last but not least Eddie Stobart spotting….lol

About the age of fifty seems a sensible age to start the noble art of model boat building???

Bob……..This is only my personal opinion of course

After serving my apprenticeship, including 3 1/2" and 5" gauge locos, I got into model boats at the ripe old age of about 54 years

As for kids on the club landing stage, we have a list of rules and regulations as long as your arm!

We do get the occasional youngster, but they only last about three weeks!

What about you?

Bob

By and large Brengar does not come to the pond any more, being 14 1/2, but for 3 or more years he was down, and more than a few of the oddities in my collection were made specifically for him to keep his interest up. he still enjoys it when he comes down.

I think there is a hole around . ooo 13 or so to possibly 18 when they dont know what they want to do, or are discovering boys/girls.

I hope that laying a good foundation for him, he will have something to come backk to. I make lots of other things for him as well, so again he might be a "can-do2 boy later on rather than "dont k ow what to do as I have never done anythink like that" sort.

Clubs… and the attraction for young people at a club is??? The question is…do clubs cater for the younger boater adequately?? (this is a question, not a criticism, as I have no club experience). I can say thet the informal meeting at Bushy Park does have a lot going for it for youngsters, with a wide variety of craft and outgoing personalities (most under 50!!!!) <but not all!> and a burger van across the car park.

Ashley

What, collectively, we need is to have one or more boats that youngsters can try out, with nice rubber bumpers on etc, to give them a taste of the hobby, or at least have something for them to do while they look on in awe and admiration at the herculean creations on the water.

It`s what I made the landing craft for berengar for, quick and easy to build, interesting and fairly child proof.

I may consider making something else along those lines specifically to bring down on a Sunday….or just make some foam fenders for the LCT?

Ashley

When most of us were younger you literally had to make your own entertainment rather than buy it and modelling was a major leisure interest for younsters growing up in the 50s & 60s. As Dave says, there was a huge club and association infrastructure to encourage and support various branches of modelling and lots of opportunities for competition, even for scale boats once proportional R/C became widely available.

Youngsters naturally gravitate towards fast noisy things and probably get most of what they want these days from video games. What is lost however is the satisfaction and pride that comes from being able to say 'I made that' as opposed to literally dancing to somebody else's tune.

I have always been interested in boats of the scale variety myself since primary school although, like most people of my generation I dabbled in other branches of the hobby. With aeromodelling I quickly discovered that what goes up will inevitably come down and frequently either in bits; over the horizon and never to be found or, on one notable occasion, in flames due to an incorrectly mounted Jetex motor. I found that boats, which usually stayed in one piece after you had made them, to be a more satisfying option.

So, these days, model boaters are largely comprised of retirees returning to the hobby or refugees from other areas of modelling looking for a quieter life and of course age does tend to bring patience with it although, for some obscure reason, this never seems to apply to painting!

Colin

The situation regarding younger members is much the same in my part of the world. Our club has had several young people as members but, mainly for the reasons stated above, they have drifted off. It appears that scale model boats are either not fast or noisy enough, and also have trouble competing with high tech video games. We do our best to attract young people, and we always have some boats available for them, or their parents, to have a try at sailing. However, when we are asked "how much did it cost?" or "how long did it take to build?", the answers seem to put them off.

Peter.

I don't think that we should throw to many stones at Bob, he does have a very dry sense of humour and has put forward a valid point of view (if a little bluntly)

In a way I can appreciate that some unsupervised youngsters can be a handful especially when they are not related to you or if you are not used to dealing with younger people.

We live in a far different society these days where children are told to avoid strangers and adults are very wary of going near unaccompanied children.

After all you cant cuff them about the ears any more or explain your point of view with a kick up the jacksey (like we used to get all those years ago)

Some say that the world has changed for the better but I think that we are building invisible walls between the generations that are getting increasingly difficult to breach.

Paul

Cor, little tinker.. I have not seen Bob called that before!! TINKERER perhaps!

Kids need to be supervised by their parents when boating perhaps, and for safeties sake, no fast electrics when there are slow models about on the pond!! On the other hand, a bit of common sense can prevail, and when there are fast things on our pond, the slow ones move to one end and the fast ones zoom about the middle.

Variety has to be the thing for kids, speed is ok but it will be a 5 minute wonder.

Ashley

Bob

I know what you mean……..my kids are in their 30s and they use this shorthand text language and I haven't got a clue what it means.

Mind you I also struggled with your slang and use of the double negative

I don't have any stones to throw but I have got some 8in whitworth nuts………..will they do?

Paul

In answer to your question some posts ago my first model boat would have been when I was 6 or 7.

I hope you are not referring to anyone on this forum !

The "slow corner" of the pond gets a bit crowded at times, still it means that any collisions are minor.

I try to get my daughter down as often as possible with her little Police boat, she likes chasing the ducks with the siren blaring out.