Todays Boating

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

<p style=”text-align: left;”>Thank you Colin. It also has lights around the rear deck but these don’t show very well in the sun. Speaking of sun. The brightness of the day belies the freezy cold wind!</p>
Working on a Bayeux tapestry Norman boat for vacforming at the moment….

Ashley

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Bayeux Tapestry – yes seen that couple of times in the flesh so to speak. It is very impressive.

Colin

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Nobody will see this as you will all be busy (or drunk) but I will say it anyway..

Merry christmas!

Ashley

[harry smith 1Participant @harrysmith1]

Hi Ashley

I sea ewe !!!

27C tomorrow, we can spare 7C for ewe !!!!

Merry Christmas (well knot that Merry) to all fellow model boaters and their families.

Tomorrow is sit and watch the start of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race.

Looks like it will be a bit hairy going by the weather forecast!!!

Best wishes 2 all

Canabus

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

I saw it too!

Merry Christmas everyone.

Colin

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Harry! Merry christmas from ” on top”.

9 degrees yesterday, same today boxing day. Spoke to my brother yesterday in  Oz (mount Martha, underneath Melbourne) and it was 26 degrees….expecting 38 today!!@

Ashley

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hi Harry,

Good to hear your going strong !!  As Ash say’s the winter drags on and on here 🙁 it’s not the temperature so much as the lack of sun shining and grey cloudy days !!

All the best

Ray

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Yes boating of late has been cold and grey.

Before Christmas I ventured out with Trevor and it was v cold. And the wind got up.

His Jesse rower couldn’t cope with the wind and neither could his little tug. The ferry then had a broken rudder servo. And hms Midge torpedo boat refused to go at all.

Today the torpedo boat refused to work, however the Hobbies Hydro was OK. We stayed an hour and a half and called it a morning g.

Back at base…the motor connectors were not making contact before Christmas and were cleaned whereupon the boat worked although the servo was slow and noisy. Today, I changed the servo, reseated the motor leads and it all worked fine….???

See if it works next week. Titanic next week. As its cold…

Ashley

 

 

[Chris FellowsParticipant @chrisfellows72943]

You’re a braver man than me! The only model boat related thing I want to do at this time of year is build! Though I could be tempted if I had lake trials to undertake but fortunately I don’t have any builds at that stage!

I’ve even just dusted off my Tamiya Unimog build that I haven’t touched for well over a year.

Chris

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Know what you mean Chris! Unfortunately not much boat building going on here due to a cold workshop

Creativity is called for in the next stage of the Skidboat having at least got the hull working ok, and this requires artistically fiddling about , difficult when cold, and the next project also requires some pre-production design, also requiring artistic doodling.

Thinking about it, I need to order materials for the longtail drive and make a propulsion unit almost before doing anything else.

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Another unlikely to be viewed post

Happy new year to everyone!

at the freezy cold boating Subday a man with child appeared to be genuinely interested in (perhaps,) making a boat and we had no thing to offer other that words, as I did not have my drawit/fold it/ glue and paint it card landers. Slapped wrist. Must carry the folder and models at all times.

New years resolution…design/ make, and have instructions for a small very easy to build  r/c boat. Instructions(double sided sheet A4,) to build include a scaleable simple plan, list of hardware/likely cost and suppliers and a pictorial wiring diagram like the late DM version…a model of clear simplicity. Materials…to be decided. 2×4 sheet 4mm ply ok for a more boxy craft. Prospective builder to take pictures of boat for reference.

Easy.

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

No boating on Sunday. Recced  the pond on the way to Kingston and it is frozen over. Not only that but it is covered in all sorts of toot..logs and so on.

I think we should meet in Weatherspoons at 9 for breakfast instead…..

Bought some neon paint for the next boat on Friday.¡!!!

Ashley

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hi Ashley,

I expect it will be the same at our Bluewater lake tomorrow we are supposed to be running a winter series of yacht racing it’s been almost a non event so far , roll on the spring , Weatherspoon’s sounds like a great option , beers with breakfast 🙂

Regards Ray

[geconParticipant @gecon]

This Ashley chappie seems to think that we all are pie-eyed at (hic!)  Xmas and the new (hic!) year. Where does he get that ( hic!) impression from?🤪😵‍💫😴😴😴

Happy New Year Ash(hic!)ley 🎆🎉🍾

😁🫡

[harry smith 1Participant @harrysmith1]

Sorry to say only sunshine and hot weather down under !!!

So pack your shorts and T shirt we can supply a model boat.

First Sail for the New Year 2025

Still working on a number of projects plus repairing the lifeboat for a fellow boater.

Surprise 28mm 1100kv brushless motor on a 3S lipo battery moves this log well over scale speed.

The 3 blade 50mm props.

The video only shows it at half throttle.

Harry

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Well done Harry. Makes me smile that you are boating in a canal. The word canal has a different connotation over here..

28mm outrunners our go-to motors over here. Cheap, small and powerful…50mm props…no problem!

Question for you i/c bods. Plastic clunk tanks in an i/c boat. Did they come in any colours. Or just plain semi see through polythene or whatever,???

Ashley

[harry smith 1Participant @harrysmith1]

Hi Ashley

WE made our tank from tins for the planes and boats.

Add sump tank into the bottom of the boat ones to keep the fuel up to the motors on cornering.

Also a pressure line from the exhaust.

The motor stopped on the tank being bone dry !!!!

Only sunshine and no cloud today with 28C !!!!

I called into the non electric faster charging station and top up my non electric horseless carriage .

In less than 10 minutes and good for another 500 Km.

Harry

 

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Cheers Harry. -4 here this morning.

I want to simulate a fuel tank  so having a coloured one would look better in the boat, however the original would have had a polythene type I dare say. I did think of making a shell out of some thin aluminum .

The foam one I made as a try out is a pale blue at the moment and looks reasonably ‘plasticky’, however I am going to try some other colours. A well used grubby polythene tank would be a sort of dull yellowy white? The aesthetic is what matters here…the balance of fake realism verses what makes the boat look more colourful.

It’s not critical, as it is only filling the gap between motor and the front of the recess in the hull and is held in place with magnets so as to be easily detachable in order to slot the battery in. It also hides the steering servo and the hole that the battery goes in to.

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Just received delivery of some 20mm and 10mm “strong” disc magnets. Some of which I need to hold an item on a boat.

My word, I had to use a knife to separate the 20mm ones and I struggled with that.

Fortunately they are not quite so strong on their own.  Hoping epoxy is up to the job of holding them in place. I will (change of plans,) only use one 20mm magnet now instead of the projected three or four, on the boat and a 40mm penny washer of steel on the other item (fake fuel tank).

Sigh. Cut out the template for the perspex windscreen, cut said perspex, wrestled with a hot airgun and pipe to bend it ( not a bad job considering) to find it will not sit on the bow as of course there is a change in slope at the end so the rear corners of the screen do not touch the deck. Double checked the plan and it clearly shows the windscreen sitting on the deck which is impossible.

Just going to leave it as is and point out that the plan shape for the windscreen is incorrect….

 

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Methinks no boating tomorrow! Pond MUST be frozen still, and it took me 15 mins to clear the car this morning to take my son to the train station. Plus it will be jolly cold standing around.

Going to make a box for the Skid boat tomorrow.

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Have a cough so staying in today.

Skidboat box done, smart in a matching yellow. Painted the styling flash on the boat using a felt pen, ruler and a bit of nifty freehand. Tricky.

Ashley 

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

I hope it was a waterproof pen Ashley!

When I was very young I ‘restored’ an old motorbike.  I sprayed the tank with automotive rattle cans but wanted a white pinstripe around the tank sides.  I painstakingly masked it off and painted it with Humbrol white gloss enamel.  I was so pleased with the way it looked.  The first time I filled it I spilt a drop of petrol down the side of the tank and it simply dissolved the enamel away into a white vertical streak!

[Dave ReedParticipant @davereed72029]

 

Just received delivery of some 20mm and 10mm “strong” disc magnets. Some of which I need to hold an item on a boat.

My word, I had to use a knife to separate the 20mm ones and I struggled with that.

Before trying to separate magnets with a (magnetic?) knife you should always make sure there is someone available to drive you to the nearest casualty department!   Especially the strong neodymium type.

Plastic card (such as an old credit card with filed edge) or non-ferrous metal can be wedged between magnets so they can be slid apart more easily with less blood stains. If they stick too well to your washers for the epoxy , a thin piece of ply/balsa/plasticard  glued to the washer or magnet should help by preventing them from touching.

 

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Richard. Permanent marker! Should be OK

I am going to varnish it all over with a gloss varnish in any case.  Box covered in emulsion which for all intents and purposes is waterproof for the odd shower at the pond.

Magnets. They were SUPERstrong stuck together but thankfully only just REALLY strong on their own. One of the larger 20mm ones holds the fake fuel tank on, but there’s only a thin strip of steel on the tank thus limiting the force to manageable propotions. They came with card washer separators and I used a plastic scraper to separate.

To be honest, they may be too strong, however they were inexpensive.i could probably do with “ordinary” strong magnets and not neodidibum ones.

Ashley

P

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

Very effective Ashley, I really thought it was IC for a second!

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