Todays Boating

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Wow. Almost didnt make it to the pond today. Connected the battery to Project No2 (after having rationalised the two power/light switches into one) and you know what happened next…all the smoke came out the wires!! How can I have got it so wrong? How hard can it be?

THEN, having made sure all the smoke had left, the lights on the P92 power board were still on (but not as bright as usual) and the P94 didnt work !! I have it sorted now and evrything is working as it should (whew) but needless to say it didnt make it to the pond.

Instead No1 made an appearance, along with the Seahawk (lost reverse???) the Herald and the Sunderland. Extra waterproofing on No1 inneffective, unfortunately so back to the drawing board. One motor on the Sunderland is later starting that the others so may either need oil (as they get wet and eventually start to squeak) or changing.But at £2 each I am not too fussed, and have spares. I would like to put some more powerfull motors on, but as I cant really fit any larger props it means faster revving motors. Small high Kv brushless would be good but need to be 2mm shaft for the push-on props and the cost??? Herald going well when the breeze was up. I say well, I mean.. it was moving and didnt need the motor so much to tack.

6 other boaters. Usual eclectic collection. Good stuff. General opinion of the landing craft idea…could do. Wait until next year I think and firm up the idea and think of what we should do exactly.

Ashley

Edited By ashley needham on 16/06/2013 18:37:33

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Boaters. Dastardly weather, and the water was chock full of water fleas.

Took proj No2 out, but battery seemed a bit lifeless after a very short sailing time. Has letting out the smoke from last week knackered it?? or was it not recharged enough?? anyway..it was running nicely and completely unaffected by the blustery weather.

Also had the Hornet (running well) and Invincible and T22 on its acrylic lead.

Unfortunately the wind was difficult, and Ray`s Thames barge was stop/start/backwards.. and I found myself roughly in front of Rays barge (when it was reversing)…with the invincible/t22 combo..and then the wind change and Rays barge shot forward and crash!!..right into the t22. No apparent damage buit on docking I found a large split in the ply below the waterline!!! didnt seem to be letting in much water but should be easily repaired with a patch inside, a quick rub down outside and a bit more black paint. Disengaged the T22 in order to have some fun with the carrier and chuck it around a bit (no kidding)..its such fun.

5 of us in all, interesting conditions. Andy`s pond draining waterjet powered action man carrier going exceptionally well and looking very good in the chop. It is suprisingly heavy and this gives it a good realism on the water.

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Sunday will be Victorian day. Torpedo boat, Torpedo boat destroyer, Devastation.

Making NIMh converter tray for TB (uses 6v SLA usually but is quite quick despite this, as the hull weighs very little) out of my favourite material . May pop in a 480 and see how fast it will go..

Decided tomorrow I cannot be faffing around spending 30 mins prepping project 2 or baling out project 1 before or after sailing (respectively). Occurred to me I had not had all three Victorian boats out together. I need to have a race to ensure the TBD is indeed faster that the TB, which I know it is of course but a comparison would be nice.

IF anyone pops down from the forum please say hello.

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Well. Fabulous morning, in our shorts and string vests. Where were the crowds? Normally on a hot day the park is heaving butv at 10 o clock there were still loads of spaces in the car park!

Where were all the boaters? a grand total of 6 of us down! gives us room of course.

Victorian day was without drama. HMS Midge had a nuscular speed 480 installed and was running on an 7.2 nimm rather than the 6v SLA and speed 400, but to be honest didnt appear to be that much fatser!! Hasty was performing well, but did notice that the 480 was VERY warm after a good thrash. I am going to have to open up the deck and make the large vents..vent.. and that should get a biy of air in there. Devastation her usual self, no drama, very quiet.

Only one disater…it was Andy`s turn to let the smoke out… of his croc!! oh no… BBQ croc we thought (yummy)..ESc totally fried..black lump of charcoal. Luckily no other damage.

Ray and Rays pal on Thames barge/yacht respectivley caught on underwater obstructions twice but no ongoing issues.

Took the new project down to show the lads..gosh..how heavy?? I will have to get shares in A sandpaper manufacturer soon. Almost done and I can take it to a man for his approval and things can go onwards.Several ideas noted from pond members as to the propulsion conundrum.

Next week I shall consult my list and see what I have not used for a while and dust them off for a bash. I may have a flyingboat day next week…hmmm

Ashley

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

How about some piccies of this mysterious new project?

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Sorry, need to know basis only on the project. In the fullness of time, though you may see and read about it….

Have to order new battery chargers from a well known component supplier tonight, have had a run of failures lately, one my fault the others have just died.

Ashley

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

Assley

Thats a shame but with the promise of seeing and reading about it I shall keep an eye on Crimewatch.

Paul

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

You may well be featured yourself Paul if I send Ashley your address…..

Colin

Edited By Colin Bishop, Website Editor on 01/07/2013 18:57:28

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

I wouldnt..or would I? Gosh Pawl do you realise you have misspelt my name. What a mistake.

I may investigate working missiles on this one….

So saying my very first boat was a Leander frigate, 4 feet long..not very good I am afraid but I was young and inexperienced.. AND at the time they were selling tiny firework rockets..and the ship had box launchers for Exocets on the front oddly enough the little rockets fitted nicely inside..and I thought….

But I never did. i still have three packets of rockets in a draw in the loft!

Ashley A S H L E Y

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

I have thought about it and I suppose at the end of the day it may not be worth writing about. Picture shows something similar. doesnt quite look the same mind you but has loads of similarities. Always wanted one on first seeing a picture..but we will have to see,

2nd picture my old leander.. c 1980 or thereabouts.. Ashley A S H L E Y

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

A S H L E

A word of caution concerning pyrotechnics and the public………….Don't

Paul

Y

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

I never did. A

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Picture. My favourite model boat. A rustic model of HMS Agincourt, located in the Steamer Inn pub, Shanklin, IOW.

We have been going to the island for 15 or more years now and always eat at this hostelry, nice food/beer and on the sea front.

I always spend time looking at this model, it is about 2 feet long, in a glass case and appears to have been carved from solid (hull, well, bread`n`butter perhaps) .

It is one of those things.. A lot of time has been spent making it, yet the overall finish and proportions of some items is not good. A few more hours sanding and fettling gunports and so on would transform this. So saying, it is of course the very thing that gives it its charm. If a much better finish was to have been implemented, then the model would look NOT so charming, and look like a half baked job.

There is loads of detail on the boat, from the rigging to the anchors, guns, ships boats and so on. The rudder is roughly carved and secured with a nail. I would so love to have this in the workshop as inspiration. This is a model after my own heart, a real looker but yet simple with it. I have plans for an Agincourt from the maritime mus, all seven or eight feet of them (I kid you not) and may eventually have a go, but mine will be more of a model model and lack this sort of period charm.

It needs some TLC, even though it is a case. Boats secured, rigging mended, a good dust an clean and so on. Shame. I will see it again next March/April and again spend more time looking. Eventuall we will go there and it will have gone, flogged to some clearance company and "disposed " of. I shall have to get the hanky out then.

Ashley

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

Offer them some money and try to buy it

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Paul, you are a right wotsit of that there is no doubt. Next year….

TOMORROWS boating. WW1 theme continues for a blast with HMS Glorious, HMS Argus and the BFB3 (now BFB2 after a rebuild) and the LFM landing craft…which after a quick sail will donate its ESC and reciever to the flying boat.

Project.. on to the chipboard now!!. It will all make sense later on.

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Blast! just got on the compurter and been called for tea time. Next exciting instalment after tea. And a few cold ones, it is v hot here at the moment.

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Ah. Replete. Belly of Pork, slow roasted, left over Chicken casserole veg and cous-cous. But I digress.

fabulous day. I was an hour early getting up oddly and so there was no rush. Glorious, Argus, LFM and t22 (fully mended). BUT the pond was full of CLAG. Scum or whatever, and loads of floating patches of weed. Boats were filthy. In consequence I must say my efforts were a bit desultory and I made only a half hearted attempt at boating.

BUT ALSO 12 or so boaters down !! Usual mix, croc and all (now fitted with crowd pleasing squirter in the nose) (I hate him).

Prize must go to Steve H, who bought his Fairmile D down. Stunning piece of work (I hate him as well), large and fully detailed. First trip on a pond he says, and great success..good speed, sound effects audible at a distance, great manouverability (mixed rudder/shaft arrangement. A few issues, depth charges (we wont mention those, but there is a superior realistic burnt effect on the rear deck now) are a work in progress. Endurance…10 mins or so on 11Ahr Nimh pack. Boat has 4x Johnston 600`s and 38mm props, but the battery pack is new and needs a few charges before maxing out on capacity. Steve may try smaller props, or ?? However Steve, you just will not cut it with the public at the pond unless you fit a water squirter, I am telling you.

Steve also had a mean looking powerboat (also first run) with the usual surface piercing arrangement.. which didnt…prop marginally too high, and from where I was looking it was only 5mm or something, but just enough not to bite. Funny, I have just fiddled with my first surface piercing design (the Hornet) which took two attempts and about 7 props to get to perform, and both Andy and Barry have had similar probs. It is really critical, the placement of the prop. I didnt realise just how critical it was until having tried, and watched , others.

I am car-less next week, so despite having prepped the flying boats, it will boating-in-a-bag on me push bike next Sunday. Limits choices a bit, but there we are. Hornet and Toyboata?? we will see.

Ashley

[steve hParticipant @steveh76883]

Kind words indeed Ashley. just cleaned all the pond scum of the fairmile and prised her off of the stand, all in all a succesful launch. will try and address the glitches this week and have another go next sunday. definetly gona get a water cannon for the tug though, to squirt the kids and to put myself out!! ps, scorch marks look great. steve.

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Steve , will see you. I have the car Sunday !! so may bring down projects 1 AND 2 besides a couple of flying boats! (and the Hornet, have just made a few (more) adjustments.

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

My spy says someone with a crocodile was putting in some practice at the pond midweek..is he trying out something new we wonder??

Projects 1 and 2 are go, with bfb2 for Sunday, and one other.

The new one is coming on well..I can hardly lift it now, and just a few tweeks are required before

BUt there will be a production delay, and I need to have something on the go in the meanwhile. While I wait. I am looking at my Drakkar (the one I made for my soldiers, hanging in the loft) and I think I might have a bash at one to sail, or not sail, motor really.

I have talked about this before on a thread..cant remember which one now. All the gear can fit in the centre tent ..I would use a small silent 385 motor to move it at no great speed, and the sail could be net (as in curtains) or something fairly wind transparent as I can imaging sailing something with one square sail would be tricky and demand a certain sort of wind/weather and so limit available sailing days. Of course, it may be that I could make a proper sail and just have motor assistance? The crew will be an issue…I will have to do a few calculations as to what size a large boat would be using Vikings 70 or 75mm high works out at. Is that 1;25 or something?

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Hornet is the other. I have installed a "standard" speed 600 7.2v Graupner version..replacing the ECO one previously fitted. Should give me an extra 4000 rpm or so.

Will be hot. Straw hats and suntan cream plse chaps, anyone fainting gets rolled in.

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

I should retitle this chapter "todays wading", as "Crocodile Andy Dundee" took one for the team disgruntled colls, and waded in. I should expand perhaps,…having gottten his fake steam launch stranded (weed) two compatriots zoomed out to rescue him only to get stuck as well!! They were not happy bunnies. It was left to u-kno-who, with a rather spiffing weed resistant vessel to rescue the steam launch and so on and so forth. Andy had, in the meanwhile had WADED IN! ITt was WARM, he said, but soon got COLD, presumably when the water reached his Gentlemans area…

We did LARF!! Chris has taken snaps which will appear in due course. Chris feel free to post…

So. New motor in the Hornet and predictably, despite in theory being a more powerful unit, was slower. TRied (from the Graupner 50mm hydro-prop) a 45mm prop and then an S50, at which point we thought that performance had been restored, but only just, it may be FRACTIONALLY faster but nothing to shout about…

Project No1 going well, smooth and…well, still letting in water despite trying clingfilm. I may try some mods to the rear end next time to get some more something going to achieve a better something else..but if you were not there, you will not know! (later).

Project no2 also performing as per the label, and not doing something it did last time (should think so after all the repairs and extra paint), but my 12v 5000mAhr Nimh pack is definitely NOT delivering the full monty after letting the smoke out and I forsee a new pack having to being purchased. I have fitted lines with pinstripe..but the ends are lifting?? usually this stuff sticks like u kno what but…I may resort to the indelible marker if too much more lifts. One mum correctly identified… something… on the ..boat.. and that makes a change..usually they say "Oh look, its the xxxx from the xxxx" and they are totally wrong.

BFB2, after performing HEROICLY really well , had a few broken struts (superglue)…and I have now modified the interior a bit with a saw and drill, in order to seperate the wires and get some range back,. I have also fitted an eye on the tail so I can fit the hook for the float-and-string recovery apparatus, and mercilessly cut the front of the wing floats down, so that water will not wash over them (these are the THIRD set of floats…one day I will get it right.

Weed, and if, as promised, the sun continues for a month.. I shall only be flying-boat boating.

I wish I had a hovercraft.

Ashley

[LARRY WHETTONParticipant @larrywhetton68737]

 

Ashley, you want one of these, mount wire coat hanger on front as a collector,

have a payout reel on deck, do a return trip and then just haul in no weed problems or heavy

misaps cheap to build, and if the prop is not coverd it will cut down reeds,

used mine at a old mill pool wich now as been drained , it work a treat cheers Larry

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Edited By LARRY WHETTON on 15/07/2013 10:08:24

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Larry. Had an idea.

I have several spare sheets of 12" by 24" by 10mm thick Stryrofoam left over from var projects.

i am going make a "Foam Flyer" out of two sheets and a small block. It will be a slightly larger A90 ecranoplan. I have cut a few bits up last night, will cut and glue and make a plastic motor mount tonight, and expect to make and paint it all tomorrow afternoon/eve !! using 5 min epoxy, Eze-cote and a lot of sandpaper.

A speed 480 and 6 blade fan (two 3-blade props) and 8.4v Nimh battery. Servo in body rather than tail this time. Should weigh almost nothing. Will put a semicircular fixed strake underneath, as will have reverse on this.

Watch this space!! Computer broken at home so no more updates until monday.

Ashley

[LARRY WHETTONParticipant @larrywhetton68737]

ASHLEY , a eureka moment, dont forget fan guard , A VERY SICK……. Larry

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