Pond Princess

[Gareth JonesParticipant @garethjones79649]

Restoration of a vintage Marblehead pond yacht

[Gareth JonesParticipant @garethjones79649]

My wife Elizabeth spotted a vintage yacht in our neighbours garage. They had planned to restore it but it had languished there for a few years. We were told it had originally been built by a Welsh politician but we never found out whether this was true. After a few measurements were taken and research done we decided it was a Marblehead, probably about 50-60 years old. Elizabeth had built a Victoria kit as a starter, this was to be her first major restoration project.

 

It came complete with original varnished terylene sails and a vane steering gear. The hull was fibreglass with a distinctive flipper shaped keel. However it was in poor condition and very dirty.

 

The first job was to strip off and save all the fittings

 

Remove the deck edge strip nails

 

Next job was to remove the keel which was loose and twisted.

 

There was a lot of rubbing down required plus a bit of chiselling to get the deck edge strip off

 

The internal keel supports were a poor shape and did not fit properly. They needed replacing with new items – a chance to play with the boss’s power tools.

 

Now the dreaded poxy resin to fit the new keel supports

 

Next after rubbing down and filling and rubbing down and filling and ….., masking prior to spraying

 

Now into the shed for spraying the primer. Health and safety specialists shut your eyes here.

 

Finished with the primer

 

After more masking, on with the gloss top coats.

 

Back outside now, in a healthier environment, starting to add the deck fitings which all needed to be cleaned and polished.

 

 

 

[Gareth JonesParticipant @garethjones79649]

Next job was fitting the mast. The mast, booms, sails etc were purchased from Nylet. The old sails were too perished to be used.

 

Rigging the shrouds

 

Connecting the vane gear to the rudder. Elizabeth made a conscious decision to retain the vane gear. However since we dont have anywhere to sail it locally with just vane control, radio control of the rudder and sails would also be fitted.

 

Cutting the booms to size.

 

At last the sails, although only as a trial fit but its starting to look like a yacht again.

 

Fitting the trimline and name printed on vinyl sheet

 

Next the radio gear. A bit tricky this as the whole thing had to fit through a 4 inch square hole in the deck. Needed the help of a systems engineer husband for the design and construction of this bit and the hands of a small daughter to feed the sail control lines through the deck pulleys.

 

Even Kelpie lent a hand/paw at this stage.

 

Big boss’s power tool again to drill the main boom

 

Now ready for its first voyage in many years. Fellow club member suggests Elizabeth has got the rudder on upside down.

 

Finally a couple of pictures of Pond Princess on the water. She has since sailed at Fleetwood and South Shields. Elizabeth has joined the Vintage Model Yacht Group and tried to research the origins of her yacht but without success. The expert opinion is that it probably originated in the USA, based on the keel shape, but beyond that we have no idea.

 

All Elizabeth needs to do now is work out how to set up the vane gear and use it in its original free sailing mode.

 

 

 

[LARRY WHETTONParticipant @larrywhetton68737]

hi ELIZABETH, what a great refurb, wish my wife would be so keen on modeling ,

how do you get in volded ? ,….

tell my other half the secrect ….LARRY..

[The Long BuildParticipant @thelongbuild]

Great Re-Build.

 

The Keel , is that all lead ?

 

Larry R.

[Gareth JonesParticipant @garethjones79649]

Larry W – Elizabeth’s reason for getting involved was that she has an ‘I can do that’ attitude and if she wanted to see me she had to come out to the shed. Her interest in boats developed from that and from when we decided to join a model boat club together.
I used to build and fly model aircraft but whenever she came and watched me flying I seemed to crash something so boats seemed a safer bet.

 

Long build Larry – The lead is about 90% of the depth and 75% of the chord of the keel, the rest was solid wood. The picture below shows the extent of the lead reasonably clearly.

 

[geoff jonesParticipant @geoffjones74507]

Hi,

Well done Elizabeth, a fine example of restoration and shows that not all good Yachts need to come ready to sail out of the box from a shop.

I am posting some photos of the restoration of my first Yacht, it was made for me by my Dad (the woody bits) and my Mum (the cloth bits) when I was 10 years old.

Over the next 4/5 years it went through a number of changes, A Braine gear with the Gaff rig then a Vane gear with a Bermudian sail untill it was replaced by other things that interested a 15 year old and it went into the attic.

The restoration started when my Wife suggested that I rebuilt it when I was looking for a new project, this was easier said than done as I only had the hull and an old photo to work from, but an appeal for help on Mayhem supplied the missing sail plan and mast position information.

It sails so well that the position of my R36 as my best Yacht is under threat.

Regards,

Geoff.

[Tony BurtonParticipant @tonyburton83970]

Hello Gareth

Well done to Elizabeth…My wife has no interest at all in helping me or building boats or any hobby at all, so its great to see a lady who is not only interested in our hobby, but can build them as well

 

Tony

 

[Gareth JonesParticipant @garethjones79649]

Hi Geoff,

Thanks for your appreciative comments about my yacht Pond Princess. She is a dream to sail, although on R/C she is often difficult to turn in a confined space. I took her to a Vintage Model Yacht Group meet in Hull today and sailed her with vane gear for the first time. Don’t think I am ready to compete against the chaps at Fleetwood yet but am grateful for their advice about restoring the vane gear and how to use it.

Your restoration project looks lovely. Have you kept it a free sailer or converted it to radio control? It seems to have been sailed with every type of rig and steering mechanism in its life. I have a Sharpie which appears to be of similar size to your yacht and I sail that with Braine gear. In a gusty, changeable wind it is possible to have hours of fun and exercise whilst the radio guys look on and avoid!

Regards

Elizabeth

[Gareth JonesParticipant @garethjones79649]

Hi Tony

Its a case of if you can’t beat ’em then join ’em. Only now I am starting to beat ’em as well which gives me a great deal of satisfaction. Husband and wife having the same hobby does have its drawbacks though. We have had to move out of the R/C shed and into a newly converted R/C garage/workshop but often there is conflict over bench space and tools.

You just can’t have it all ways.

Elizabeth

[geoff jonesParticipant @geoffjones74507]

Hi Elizabeth,

Thanks for your comments.

No, I am sorry to say that it is not a free sailer but is controlled by the dark forces of R/C.

This is partly to justify my investment in some fancy gear, but it is more to do with an age thing, knees and fingers nolonger appreciate getting wet and cold when adjusting one of the old type of control systems.

Regards,

Geoff.

[Gareth JonesParticipant @garethjones79649]

Hi Geoff

I think it is quite fitting that your yacht is now radio controlled. It has been sailed using the various steering methods of its day (self-steering, Braine and Vane) and different rigs, so now it is quite right that it should be radio controlled. It is a lovely looking yacht with plenty of history and a future on the water. What more could a yacht want?

Elizabeth

[geoff jonesParticipant @geoffjones74507]

Hi Elizabeth,

What more could a yacht want ?. Well after talking to my last new build ( see photos) about where it’s full size brothers live, it has hinted at warmer water.

Keep in touch,

Geoff.

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Geoff, I like that. I like that a lot. How effective, and a good turn of speed by the looks of things.

 

There is always something different out there to build.

 

Vive la difference!

 

Ashley

[geoff jonesParticipant @geoffjones74507]

Hi Ashley,

Pleased to hear that you like my Thai Long Tail. Not bad for a scratch built hull made from corn flake boxes and a nylon stocking.

Requests for plans and build information are only accepted if on the back of a £20 note.

I have looked at your builds, and they are cases of Vive la difference in spades.

Geoff.

 

[SteamcoalnzParticipant @steamcoalnz]

Gareth.

The Pond Princess vintage marblehead might be a design called the Sun-Kiss.

I have three fibreglass hulls and they bear a close resemblence to this model. I ordered a plan from the US Vintage yachting group for the Sun-Kiss as I too like the older M-Class sailboats. That is the model they believe to be.

Your wife made a nice restoration.

I am not saying I am 100% correct but it looks like what I have. Hope it might help.

Regards

Hayden Brown

New Zealand

[Gareth JonesParticipant @garethjones79649]

Hi Hayden,

Thanks for your interest in Pond Princess. We have never been able to positively identify the design of Pond Princess but it has been suggested that it may have American origins and we looked at the lines of SunKiss some years ago. However the rudder and skeg of Pond Princess are different to the lines of SunKiss and the keel is not quite so 'flipperish' I dont suppose we will ever know for certain what it is and you never know whether somebody started to build to a particular design but then just modified it a bit along the way. We would be interested to see some photos of your hulls to see how they compare to Pond Princess, could you post some on this site?

We have the same problems with Elizabeth's last restoration LaSwan, which looks like a Vic Smeed Genie until you start to measure things up and then find all sorts of deviations from the Genie drawing. However it all adds to life's rich tapestry and as long as the model looks good and sails well it doesn't really matter what its called. At least we know with her current project its definitely a Daniels Razorbill as the hull came with a set of plans tucked inside and they match up with the model.

Regards

Gareth Jones

[SteamcoalnzParticipant @steamcoalnz]

Gareth,

Well no matter what design it is the Vintage M's are all nice models and look lovely out on the water where they should be. I think that there is much joy to return a neglected model to the watewr and your wife obviously has that spirit too.

I will post some photos of the unbuilt hulls and I would very much like to get these new old classics out on the water where they should be.

All your other projects look and sound fantastic.

Thanks for sharing, Hayden

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