Secret Princess

[Gareth JonesParticipant @garethjones79649]

My wife Elizabeth has become a keen restorer/rebuilder of old model yachts. Her first project was a fifty year old Marblehead which had been in our neighbour’s garage for several years. Inspired by her success in this, she bought a 30 inch yacht hull off Ebay for £15.

 

It was in very poor condition and even I was dubious about the value in restoring it, but, off came the deck to reveal balsa skins and internal structure.

 

After much patching of the skins and reinforcing the internal structure, Elizabeth made a new deck, mast, sails and rigging. She laminated a new keel weight from lead flashing sheet.

 

A new Braine gear was constructed to give it some limited directional control.

 

An excellent varnishing job has been carried out to give long lasting protection and a real vintage look. By now we had aquired a 1950’s book entitled ‘Build yourself a model yacht’ and it looks like the original hull was one of the designs featured, a 30 inch Sharpie. However it has been renamed Secret Princess and sealed up in the hull is a description of how the yacht was found, rebuilt, and what and who inspired Elizabeth to tackle the project.

 

Secret Princess had her maiden voyage on the pond at Goole MBC today. Despite the scepticism of some of the members (who originally suggested the best thing to do with the hull was burn it), and the male chauvinists who still don’t believe a woman could actually build a model boat, she sailed beautifully in a very light wind.

 

 

 

[Gareth JonesParticipant @garethjones79649]

[The Long BuildParticipant @thelongbuild]

Very Nice

 

Any Pictures of the MarbleHead

[Ole VaugerParticipant @olevauger]

A beautiful Yacht Elizabeth and Gareth. Women are no less skilled at this than men. But unfortunately it is far from every woman who has this as a hobby. Ole

[LARRY WHETTONParticipant @larrywhetton68737]

hi Gareth very nice project ,…….gives me the urge to have a go at my

6/8 hull taken of skip , when I…. no what it is no details yet………LARRY …….

[Gareth JonesParticipant @garethjones79649]

Long Build – I will put the Marblehead pictures up in the next day or so under the title Pond Princess.

 

Larry – Elizabeth will be off scouring the skips now looking for her next project. Just to give you some more encouragement to start, here’s the one she is working on at the moment, bought in an antique shop last year. It will eventually have radio control of the rudder, main sail and mizzen sail. She is also part way through building a Moonbeam kit.

 

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