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[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Hello Amy Jane

You are doing some very interesting, if not quirky, lateral thinking with this build!

How will you decide the longitudinal position for the paddle drive?

Half way would not be correct……..I would suggest about 40% from the bows, so that the paddles drag the ship along

Bob

[LARRY WHETTONParticipant @larrywhetton68737]

Hi Amy,

As Bob says very quirky, and good use of scratch building and thinking out of the box .

where do y0u do your boating ..?…

whould like to see launch,

as for a yacht buid have a look at a JENNY nice little build .

cheers Larry…….

[Amy jane SeptemberParticipant @amyjaneseptember49770]

Thank you for your input, always welcome!

Bob. Oh. I can see that I'm going to need to do a bit of a re-think on the paddle position. I had planned on putting the drive shaft just aft of the cabin, which would put them slightly aft of amidships! Thanks for the heads up.

Larry. I do most of my boating on the Waitamata Habour. (although a little lake and river work too). The Jenny looks like she would slip along very nicely with a modest rig. Let me know if I can help when you get to the rigging stage, whilst I know nothing about paddle wheelers, I'm well versed in full sized yacht rigging and sail making! The model yacht I have in mind is a scale tancook whaler. These are a very elegant schooner rigged double ender from Tancook Island, off the cost of Maine, USA. (I will post some lines for her next week) She'll be a wee way down the track yet!

Thanks again

Amy jane

[Amy jane SeptemberParticipant @amyjaneseptember49770]

Hello again. Here are some photos of a Tancook Whaler. My memory tripped me up, Tancook Island is off the coast of Nova Scotia, S.W. of Halifax, not off the coast of Maine as stated in my last post. Information from Howard Chapple's American Small Sailing Craft.

This example is about 40'x 10'. I will build her on a 1" to 1' scale. She'll need a fair few modifications to translate into a model, but I'll worry about that later.

Right, back to the current project.

The paddle wheels are made, ready for final sanding and painting. They were a pain to make, mainly due to the wood I used. It was a drift wood log that I put to the saw. Other than being a semi tropical hard wood I cant tell you what it is. I used it because it is very light, but it is also rather brittle, and I broke the wheels on more than one occasion whilst building them.

The mechanicals and radio installed

At this point I ran into a snag. I decided to put her in the briney, just to see. She floated to her lines ok, but stability was indeed inadaquate.I mulled it over for a while, and decided rather than adding a ballest keel I would remodel her hull some what. My logic(?) for doing this was, due to fact that she would spend most of her time on a large estuary, which (from the models point of veiw), almost always has a short steep chop, a ballest keel would cause her to develop a pendulum roll. I cant imagine a side wheeler much liking that! So polystyrene was glued to the hull and re shaped. She now has another 1/4" over all beam, 3/4" more waterline beam, flatter floors and a harder bilge and a few more onces of displacement. Should result in a much stiffer hull, with very little drag penality. A lead deadwood will take care of the extra displacement.

This is the modified hull, with a bit of stocking stretched over, ready for a coat of epoxy.

Rudder sorted.

Untill later

Amy jane

[Ken BonsorParticipant @kenbonsor39890]

I have just purchased the plan for the 1.24 scale model MM2068 A James Pottinger design for a luxury pleasure cruiser.- there was an issue of Model Boats 2011 with some information and photo's of this model No 61/733 _ would like to purchase the back copy of this – but can not find the link on this site to purchase — Any help would help ?? –Ken

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Ken,

Link to back issues is here: **LINK**

Colin

[Amy jane SeptemberParticipant @amyjaneseptember49770]

Well, scant progress,I'm afraid. Not much free time this week. Still, got a coat of epoxy on the remodeled hull, faired up and sanded down. One paddle box built. I have decided to stick with the aft of amidships location for the paddles. If it doesnt work out ,Bob, I'll eat humble pie and take to the cabin with the hack saw!

The solar panel in place and the rudder linkage conected.

Hopefully a little more progress next week.

[Amy jane SeptemberParticipant @amyjaneseptember49770]

Well, scant progress,I'm afraid. Not much free time this week. Still, got a coat of epoxy on the remodeled hull, faired up and sanded down. One paddle box built. I have decided to stick with the aft of amidships location for the paddles. If it doesnt work out ,Bob, I'll eat humble pie and take to the cabin with the hack saw!

The solar panel in place and the rudder linkage conected.

Hopefully a little more progress next week.

[Amy jane SeptemberParticipant @amyjaneseptember49770]

Well, scant progress,I'm afraid. Not much free time this week. Still, got a coat of epoxy on the remodeled hull, faired up and sanded down. One paddle box built. I have decided to stick with the aft of amidships location for the paddles. If it doesnt work out ,Bob, I'll eat humble pie and take to the cabin with the hack saw!

The solar panel in place and the rudder linkage conected.

Hopefully a little more progress next week.

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Hello Amy

It will probably work ok, where you`ve positioned the paddles

You may need a larger rudder though?

Afterall, I`ve got no room to talk……I built a paddler with the paddles at the back!………

It was rather unstable…..Hence the sponsons

This is the Wilton Castle…….

One of our club members, Capt William Goodall, was the actual skipper of the full size boat in Gloucester docks. He said the full size craft was frightfully unstable and passengers often declined the return trip!

Bob

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Hello Amy

It will probably work ok, where you`ve positioned the paddles

You may need a larger rudder though?

Afterall, I`ve got no room to talk……I built a paddler with the paddles at the back!………

It was rather unstable…..Hence the sponsons

This is the Wilton Castle…….

One of our club members, Capt William Goodall, was the actual skipper of the full size boat in Gloucester docks. He said the full size craft was frightfully unstable and passengers often declined the return trip!

Bob

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Hello Amy

It will probably work ok, where you`ve positioned the paddles

You may need a larger rudder though?

Afterall, I`ve got no room to talk……I built a paddler with the paddles at the back!………

It was rather unstable…..Hence the sponsons

This is the Wilton Castle…….

One of our club members, Capt William Goodall, was the actual skipper of the full size boat in Gloucester docks. He said the full size craft was frightfully unstable and passengers often declined the return trip!

Bob

[Amy jane SeptemberParticipant @amyjaneseptember49770]

Hello again

Thanks Bob, Sounds like the full size one could have done with the sponsons as well!

Fortunatly, my modifications have paid off, I refloated her and she's now nice and stable. Nearly there now, a bit more painting, temporarily install the paddles, and see how she goes. (I've ground the paddle shaft to a long square taper, and will press fit them, if it works out well I'll install them properly)

In order to keep the weight down I've made the paddle boxes and deck from light card, which once fabricated, is impregnated with thin liquid plastic, which stiffens and water proofs it.

[Amy jane SeptemberParticipant @amyjaneseptember49770]

Well, she's finnished.

..and she's been tried, and she works. A beautifull sunny morn, flat calm, so in she went. Fairly slow,a scale speed of about four knots, judging from the wake. But she trundled along happily, responding to the helm just fine. Should do a little better mid day, with the sun higher and stronger. I shall get some photos next time, and see how she goes.

[Ian GardnerParticipant @iangardner62867]

Amy, I've been following your build with interest and I'm sure we'd all like to see some photos of your paddler in action. It's always good to see someone ploughing a different furrow.

What with wind, waves and weed to contend with, I'm glad I don't have to depend too much on the sun for model boating- although it's nice!

Ian

[LARRY WHETTONParticipant @larrywhetton68737]

Hello Amy,

Great little model,

glad to here of sucesfull launch , but ware is the smoke stack ….. after all it is a paddle steamer

hope to see further pictures cheers ,

haveyou add a look at paddleducks site..?..all types of paddlers there…..

cheers Larry……

[Mike PrenticeParticipant @mikeprentice83334]

Hi Amy. I have been folowing this with great interest. You have done very well, well done. Yes the paddleducks.co.uk web site is for paddlers everywhere. have a look at it. Prentice.

[Amy jane SeptemberParticipant @amyjaneseptember49770]

Thankyou for the kind coments, gentlemen.

I'm the first to admit that there is no great practicality in having her solar powered, in fact it will greatly limit her usefulness, but I just had to answer the question 'can I make it work?'. Now of course the question is 'can I make it work better?' I don't think much better. I maybe could have geared the wheels up just a little, she has enough torque to turn the wheels, whilst being held still, but is not chucking any water around when running, so blade area seems about right. The fact that she will run off that tiny solar panel quite intriques me! Any way,as soon as I get the right combination of tide, sun and no wind, I'll get some photos posted.

We'll see about the smoke stack, Larry!

I shall vist Puddleducks forthwith….

Thanks again

Amy jane

[Amy jane SeptemberParticipant @amyjaneseptember49770]

Here are some photos. I'm sorry about the poor quality, I found my self with out my camera, so resorted to my phone. I then had to photograph my phone to get them on the computer…. any way, you get the idea…

[Amy jane SeptemberParticipant @amyjaneseptember49770]

[Amy jane SeptemberParticipant @amyjaneseptember49770]

Hello again.

Well the model has undergone a wee bit of a transformation. As it turned out, getting the right combination of calm, slack water and sun proved too difficult, so I repowered her with a toy car motor and gear box and batteries. I geared the car gear box down a further 3:1, but even so she took off like a scalded cat, so I ended up dropping a cell out of the battery pack. (now five cell ni cad). photos soon.

[Amy jane SeptemberParticipant @amyjaneseptember49770]

One of the side effects of the increased power was the appearance of side wheelers delightful habit of one wheel grabbing and rolling the boat down hard on one side . I got around this by pulsing the motor on and off (the car radio dosn't have a progresive throttle, just on and off), untill the boat got up to speed, then she is fine.

Amy jane

[Ian GardnerParticipant @iangardner62867]

I like the photos Amy- she really motors now! I think you should be pleased with this one.

[Mike PrenticeParticipant @mikeprentice83334]

Hi Amy. It looks very impressive, Will you make another paddler ? Prentice.

[Amy jane SeptemberParticipant @amyjaneseptember49770]

Thanks for the kind words gents.

Yes, I'm quite happy with her now. In hind sight, I think a light cat, with a single paddle between the hulls, would have been a better option for the solar powered boat, But that wouldn't solve the sun problem! No, I probably wont build another paddler, (it would be a stern wheeler, if I did). Compared to a prop, it seems to be taking the long way home..( There is , however, a live steamer brewing away some where in the back of my mind…)

Amy jane

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