New Projects for 2019 ??

Hi Chris

Go with the flow, I'm happy to run several projects together, once you have finished one your power boats do you have a local club ??

Regards Ray

Edited By Ray Wood 2 on 10/03/2019 21:35:45

First project for 2019 is to put the finishing touches to Vic Smeed's cabin cruiser design 'Lorena'. This is half size balsa 'kitchen table' build which needs about two or three months more work. The model had successful bath test and now needs the cabin finishing, mast, deck/cabin fittings and a stand.

That's nice Tony.

Colin

Hello Ray,

And thank you very much for asking! I'm still around in the general sense of the term, and (other than a couple of colds recently) in excellent health and state of mind, but have been otherwise much occupied in various ways since last autumn. Among other things, my wife and I went to Australia over the end-of-year holidays and for most of January, but more detrimental to model boating has been me going off on a woodworking tangent of late.

It all started with a need in our kitchen for something that would facilitate consistently placing the kitchen table in the desired spot under the lamp (as we're renting, moving the fixture was not an option) while also providing some storage space for the odds and sods that would otherwise tend to clutter up said table; the result was a made-to-measure set of shelves of my own design that one can see here between the table and the half wall:

I then got it into my head to sort out a (non-)problem which I've wanted to address for quite some time, namely to have a Stephenson screen in the garden to house the outdoor temperature/humidity sensors and rain gauge for our two (one older Oregon-type one, and a more recent Netatmo on-line capable system) weather stations:

I am not in any way, shape or form an amateur meteorologist, but I have been getting more and more fed up with having to guesstimate the temperature measuring error that one inevitably gets when the sensors are set up too close to a building. I don't care if it is currently 6.4 degrees in our garden, as the Netatmo app tells me it is, or actually 6.2 or 6.7, but I don't want to have to deduct +/- so many degrees from a reading of somewhere between 8 and 10, which is what I would probably have gotten before, when the sensor was strapped to a drainpipe next to the house ...

Both these projects are now finished, but while working on them last autumn I also took a ten week (and 30 hour total, I should perhaps add; not ten weeks full time) course on hand tool woodworking (the bench in the foreground with a plank being edge-planed was mine) ...

... and got bitten pretty badly by that particular bug; so badly, in fact, that on Saturday, my wife and I will be driving up to Arnhem in The Netherlands where I shall spend a small fortune on hand planes and suchlike at a place called Baptist, and also visit the Arnhemse Fijnhouthandel ("Arnhem Fine Woods Shop" ) for a first recce. We will then spend the rest of the weekend plus the Monday doing more touristy stuff, including going on to see respectively the David Hockney (at the Van Gogh museum) and the All the Rembrandts (at the Rijksmuseum) exhibitions in Amsterdam; just the tool and wood stores would not likely have lured my wife along ... 

This does most emphatically not mean that I have abandoned model boating! It is just that I have given short term priority to spending available time and money getting properly started on full size woodworking. Once that dust has settled, though, my next model boat project will be a 1/16 Fairey Huntsman from Dave Milbourn's plans! Oh, and I shall also have to do some minor restoration work to the hull paint work of my Moonbeam, which got a bit scratched against the pond shoreline when I took it out in an a tad too strong wind back in autumn ...

Again, many thanks for asking after me, and all the very best!

Cheers,

Mattias

Edited By Banjoman on 11/03/2019 11:06:28

Edited By Banjoman on 11/03/2019 11:09:37

Edited By Banjoman on 11/03/2019 11:13:16

Edited By Banjoman on 11/03/2019 11:14:34

Mattias

A word of warning - if you see David Hockney getting into a lift while you're in Amsterdam then best take the stairs... **LINK**

Dave M

Hi Ray - yes, I've been a member of Knightcote, near Southam, about 30 mins away for a couple of years. Only been a handful of times though and when I do I sail my HydroPro Affinity 650mm yacht. Good job I only had to rig it and not build it! That was the reason for going down that route. Neighbour has one as do some of the guys at the club along with Dragonforce 65s. I miss the racing as it's on a Thursday when I'm working.

Whilst generally I'm fine having a number of things on the go once I start on the DIY it takes over and has to get done. I've got some breathing space at the moment as the youngest son is back from China for a little longer yet and he's using the room that needs doing - skirting boards, architraves and decorating etc.

Chris

Dave,

Oops! Well, forewarned is forearmed, eh wot wot … ?!

Mattias

Hi Mattias

Are these planes of any use to you? Made in the 1920's by my wife's grandfather whilst a shipwright at Chatham Dockyard. They are 450 mm & 530 long I will never use them, if you would like them PM me your address.

Regards Ray

Hello Ray,

That is so kind and generous an offer that I hardly know what to say! I am of course sorely tempted to just say yes, please, thank you very much, and PM you my address, but before I could square with my conscience taking what in essence are family mementoes, if not heirlooms, from you and yours, I would want to be sure of a complete mutual understanding and agreement betwen us on what sort of new life they would be likely to lead in my hands.

In other words, I will PM you my e-mail address, so that we can talk things through properly first

Again, my warmest thanks for your very, very kind and generous offer!

Mattias

Hi. Ray, As you know I am building Cambria, I have got the frame work finished, waiting to be planked, I am making all the metal fittings needed at the moment before I start the planking, some of these fittings can only be fitted at this early stage and the others will then be ready when required.

I am also making a speed boat for my grandson, it's in the paint shop at the moment.

I have also come to realise you need a boat for every set of weather conditions, ie. no wind, medium wind speed and near gale force wind! so have started on the James P. Woods tug. for the latter.

As I am at Broadstairs this week I have already called in at MFA Como Drills at Worth for the geared drive unit,and have started to order electronic parts to make a steam generator for it.

I like the look of those planes, I bet the blades are excellent at maintaining a razor sharp edge.

I have had a few sailing sessions with Susie May and am now getting used to her, making a couple of minor adjustments to the sails and sheeting, club members are telling me she is fast, time will tell!

Only ships a drop of water even when it's over the rails and halfway up the hatch sides, I am really pleased with her.

Regards.

Eddie.

Edited By Eddie Lancaster on 13/03/2019 16:10:55