Todays Boating

[Kev.WParticipant @kev-w]

Well this thread was getting a bit neglected, so I thought I'd give it a 'bump' .

It was quite blustery down our local lake this morning, but a good turnout nevertheless.

We had a showing from 4 wind powered vessels of various sizes, which despite 30 kilometer winds (with some serious gusts of 45 at times) , managed to keep their main booms out of the surf, whilst a dozen or so electric powered boats entertained the local park goers.

Big thanks to Eric, who kept the kids supplied with sugercanes & chocolate with a little help from Santa in his turboprop powered water sleigh.

Next sunday should be a sight , as the request is for Xmas decorated boats, this is when we all see club members at their gleefull boyishness.

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Kip. Yes, neglected as the weather has not been good…rain…gales / whatever and I have not been boating !!

Glad to see you are keeping the boating end up. I should like to see the xmas decoration pictures, as well as the turboprop santa…

Have been busy at home with project No3, which is in two halves at the moment. One bit being veneered and now varnished, and the other being painted. Fortunately the boat is not so big and so varnishing can be carried out inside (loft), and a warm-ish spell a few weeks ago allowed me to spray the cabin without the dreaded bloom, in fact, the shine is quite nice. I didn't want to T-cut the finish, as there are loads of lumps and bumps and inevitably one would rub through the top coat.

This year has not been good for boating. My diary tally is woefully thin, due to weed and weather and even ice !. Oddly enough landing craft feature as the big users. I have taken at least one along on every visit for kids to have a go on , and as a rescue boat. They are such fun and so handy, and the converted Ferry one is a big hit with pond-side audiences and small boys.

Next year of course the priority will be to run projects No1 and 2 and photograph them (although I think No1 will have to have another motor in it to perform properly) and finish off project No3.

THEN what??? what`s next?? I must confess to be intrigued by a Zumwalt, or better still the sub From "league of gentlemen", then there`s the 6 wheels left over from the Alvis…staring at me…saying "come on, use me use me". I have a partially completed Turbinia, 4 foot, which I never got any further with due to worrying over the power/weight of motors that would be needed to turn 9 props…however brushless are on the scene now, so the solution seems obvious….

Several boats could do with an upgrade. Motors and detailing, now I have more time. The Titanic was not fitted with lights, but I have a large reel of those 12v strip LED tape things, and the possibility exists of re-fitting the boat with some of these, bit tricky, but a possibility. The non-flying boats all need better motors for more fun. The Sunderland is unlikely to get them, but for the others its an easy job. A definite possibility as a proj is a decent biplane flying boat, with "proper" props (not the cheap park flyer jobs) and hot small brushed or small brushless motors,a Felixstowe F2a. A surface runner K class sub, or even a new hull to put a K or M class top on…. I could also do with something that eats Crocs and Hippo`s, and divers come to think of it.

Then there`s stuff already ON the list, but you don't need to know what they are.

​The KM Ecranoplan needs to be fitted with rear flaps and run on 3s Lipo, run a few times to see if it will lift off properly and then disposed of. It takes up too much room. It is really really quick and a looker, but. Similarly the Foam Flyer Ecranoplan also needs a good home. This is very easy to use, no foibles, very reasonable performance on a standard 7.2V Nimh stick..would no doubt take off like my other one on a 3s pack. RtR Severn, converted to 2×280 motors…also little used and ripe for disposal. The larger of the small landing craft could also be shifted, not used much, I have 3 others!

Ashley

[Trevor HollowayParticipant @trevorholloway99134]

Will try to get some of the cheap coloured battery LEDs for the tug to Christmas it up for Sunday, definitely have some tinsel but it may not be the right scale.

Sunday morning fresh air may be worthwhile – numbers may even be boosted by the first outings of RTR Xmas presents.

[The Long BuildParticipant @thelongbuild]

Hi Ashley, How you get the time to build what you have escapes me..

Shame you don't live closer as I could look after the KM Ecranoplan and a landing craft for you !!

Keep building..

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Trevor. Yes I think a tinsel sail after xmas is in order. Easy enough to load an LCM up with Santa's and reindeer and perhaps some edible cheer.

LB. Yes shame, however if​ I make it to Haydock next year….

Ashley

[The Long BuildParticipant @thelongbuild]

Hi Ashley

I certainly hope you can as I would love to see some of your Models you have discussed on here in the flesh, I think they would create a lot of Interest as not the norm ( in the best possible sense)

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Its a bit blowy and there is a drop of rain in the air, but I recon a quick visit may be in order, suitably dolled up (boat, that is). Perhaps 9.30 ish. If nothing else I could do with a walk! I have battery lights and Santa's aplenty, medium LCM will do nicely, well ballasted down, I think…
Ashley​

Edited By ashley needham on 27/12/2015 08:32:10

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Great boating last Sunday, 15 or was it 18 ??? down, all with santa`d or tinselled boats. Great turn out. Trevor deserves special mention as he had strung battery powered coloured lights around his tug and they looked very effective. I ALSO had battery lights but they were not quite so effective.

Back to reality and I have been making a flying off deck for the Glorious. This was the third in the trio of "large light cruisers" (app 18,000 tons, 4x 12" guns) but was only ever completed with the forrard flying off deck and the original planned 18 inch gun turret in the X posn. (only single barrel in the turret)​; As such I suppose I should have called it something else until the flying off deck is in posn but I live dangerously.

If you recall this was a hull built out of carbon neutral superior sustainable man-made board and 3/4" plank, to test the plank-for-a-base theory that we were umming and arring over at the pond, and it looked so good I decided to put a deck and top on it, and these boats came to mind, as the hull was approx. the right shape and depth. AS SUCH the flying off deck is not quite right, as it has to allow for the incorrect dimensions of the hull. That said, no one will know, eh? I have made some dinky little planes for it, also probably not the right size but in for a penny etc. It should look quite novel, and certainly unusual. As it is an addition, I have been forced to use inferior materials in its construction….balsa and 0.8mm ply, in order to keep the weight down. The deck obscures the forward armoured director a bit, I dare say they altered the original, but I am not going to fiddle about making a completely new deck….the new flying ramp simply plugs into the hole used for the ex-A posn turret and the capstain, which is now a bit hollow after the application of a drill.

Latest varnish coat on proj No3 is RUBBISH and will need a bit more wet n drying than the last coat, unfortunately. Ho hum. I need to call |Mick Charles models to see if he has a Fusion 2826 18ooLv brushless for proj No1 for Saturday……. Proj No2 simply needs good sunny calm day for pictures and a good zoom about. PaulT latest commission…almost, but not quite..

Ashley

PS am going to look into putting lights in the Titanic..some of my 12v LED sticky strip ones. It was not made with lights in mind, but I have some time now to hack the superstructure around and see what can be retrofitted.

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Oops I am in error here.. it was the Furious that was only completed as a "carrier" with the flying off deck, the Glorious was fully converted after WW1 service.
Deck looks good now with first coats of paint on, although the aircraft DONT look so good, ​hopefully will look a bit better with paint, roundels and so on, on.

Proj3 rubbed down again and nicely flat.. It seems to me that I have always thought that just varnishing a bit of wood was like painting it; An undercoat, possibly two (first coat of varnish), rubbed down and then topcoat, but this just is not so. Without at least a half-dozen layers of varnish rubbed down flat between, the finish is most unsatisfactory, especially on large flat surfaces. Proj3 is turning into another marathon varnish/rubbing down session, and I only wanted simply a reasonably smart forward section.

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

You can't believe it; I had a bit of a thought that despite the varnish only having been bought last may, it looked a bit thick…so I decanted a few large brushfulls into a container and thinned it with a brush or two of white spirit. What a difference. Went on much easier, and dried flat, no brushmarks or runs or sags…beautifully flat AND virtually no dust!…

I am going to redo a few​ panels on proj no2 now, and hopefully get a slightly better finish on a couple of them.

Furious deck finished, aircraft stuck on. May try it out Sunday, give the lads a treat eh ???

Ashley

[The Long BuildParticipant @thelongbuild]

Not much boating going on at our pond !!

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Oo er..bit of an issue there !!! chance to get the hovercraft out though, eh? Ashley

[The Long BuildParticipant @thelongbuild]

Yes but apart from there not being any water and a corner left of detritus its not as bad as it looks. !!

The Park , Pond and surrounding area are being jazzed up after we helped the council win a Lottery Grant, part of that is that they would repair the pond edges, the result off this is that the pond will be raised by about 10 inches in depth , they area also tarmacking the path as well as revamping an old toilet block into our new Lakeside Pavilion.

The money did not stretch to doing a total clean up of the pond ( incidentally this was built as a large Paddling pool for the area !! ) about 1948 ish if not earlier. As such the group have helped to clear the area, you can see some more pictures of the pond clear up here, these were at the start a few months ago

It used to be drained and cleared very regularly, however this has not been done for at least 15 years and was full of silt, rotting leaves, about 180 golf balls, 1 kids scooter, a few phones and about £ 8.00 in coins.. Duck poo and the 200million tons of excessive overfeeding of the ducks with bread. !!!!

http://www.runcornmodelboats.co.uk/..

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Our pond could do with some maintenance. I dare say several chaps here would be willing to don wellies and use rakes to remove plastic bags and so on, but I don't suppose h&s would allow non-park personel to carry out this sort of work.,
Boating this am. Glorious​ with its flying off deck. No difference to stability. Grey paint on the sides is a gnats too dark, not by much. Little planes look ok. Deck looks bare (there is nothing on it) but there was nothing on the original.

I put a beige stripe along the centre of the Argus deck as it looked unfinished without any markings, but at this time there were no deck markings to speak of. so.

Looking forward to taking delivery tomorrow of a plastic Euphonium. In glossy black ABS plastic no less, and ridiculously cheap. You tube video has it sounding just the same as a brass one, but it weighs 850g instead of 4.9Kg !!! A massive weight saving and I shall enjoy toting that to band Tuesday on my push bike, and may take it to brass band practice tomorrow to see if it blends in with the normal brass instruments. Only one Euph at the concert band so a small change in tone is not noticed..

Ashley

[Trevor HollowayParticipant @trevorholloway99134]

With the threat / promise of cold and snow tonight, I have been asked if we can go crunch up the ice.

I've got the tug on charge ready for the morning – will have the camera on stand by.

[harry smith 1Participant @harrysmith1]

Only 21 to 26 degrees C down under and we need rain!!!!!

Heaps of bushfires.

Shorts and T shirts!!!

Come down for the winter!!!!

Harry

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Harry. Its is a balmy 4 degrees or so here, it actually snowed overnight (nothing much to speak of however).

Trevor and I indulged in a good hour or so`s icebreaking today. Trevor had his tug out, laden with extra ballast, and I had the medium sized lander, also with extra ballast to a)weigh the bow down to stop it simply riding up the ice, and b) at the stern to give the props a bit more bite.

Despite a lot of dodgy sounding crunching when going astern, and at least 3 lifts out to correct rudder trim, the rudder did not bend and the cheap 2mm shaft type props appeared to be totally undamaged. A bit of grey undercoat on the bows and it will be as good as new.

Trevors tug was making smoke from the chimney very realistically, and this was despite that he has no smoke generator…what could it be??? Yes, the motor was getting JOLLY HOT, and the rubber coupling was also looking a bit melted, not so much to stop it working though!, however what is snow for if not to cool engines??

I did take the Fantome down, but decided not to use it as it was likely to have broken all the ice up in 15 mins or so at it is so big and poweful which is no fun when you can do it the hard way.

Hovervan next week if ice is likely.

Ashley

[Trevor HollowayParticipant @trevorholloway99134]

Was "encouraged" to go ice breaking by my 18 year old daughter who wanted to have a go.

During the fun although both boats got stuck, much to the amusement of the spectators , team work and sheer determination meant neither needed manual rescuing, .

Having cooled the motor down with snow (very effective but not really recommended) it still works – however it is now also a sound generator !

One spare motor has already been pulled out of the come in handy box and a new coupling is on the shopping list.

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Trevor has been working on a "gaming LCM" conversion which we were going to battle with today but its raining:

Work on boats has stopped​ for a bit, difficult steps needed on proj no3, nice weather needed for pics on No2, and also nice weather needed to optimise no1, and subsequent pictorial rendering.

Dithering over main motor for Project no1. Swapped one over already but (I have not tested this one yet) not sure the Kv rating is what I need for the prop. I really need a different style prop but have not been able to find one. Space is limited for a larger motor, usual thing, odd designs always come with built in difficulties. Proportion and thus room is the issue for this one, limiting the available prop space to a size really too small over what would be considered adequate for this sort of thing, and then I have further limited the flow by trying to imitate the workings of the original, which saps available motor strength horribly. I have also seen why the system in use will not lead to good on-the-water performance but should help in other areas.

Ashley

[Trevor HollowayParticipant @trevorholloway99134]

A total of four 1:35 D-day landers have been converted to "gamers", so on Sunday morning there will be the inaugural "Bushy Park Boat Jousting Event", possibly followed by some fun utilising a football.

I'm sure a full report including photos will follow in due course if successful – otherwise you will hear no more about it.

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Trevor has artfully come up with an incredibly simple conversion for the landers, facilitated of course by the handy easily removable tank deck. Less is more, in action.

I have similarly made two​ decks for mine, incorporating a repositionable/removable jousting arm (nothing clever believe me), for trials purposes and storage and also incorporating some lightening holes for the wooden block used, and a splash of paint (but of course I have nothing else to do !!!). Buffers as fitted (grey foam pipe insulation) have had ends glued on for football control purposes, as well as being useful for pushing stranded boats. 4 sets for all participants as we anticipate this being a "contact" sport.

We will see,,, Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Not looking very nice out there now, not sure sunday will be very nice. as long as its not raining, we are not afraid of a bit of wind. I have drilled a 4mm vertical hole in the top of the lance-holder to fit a sand flag in, to wave arouind.. I have two pairs of flags to differentiate the teams.

I have been busy drawing up my customary dimensioned sketch (lets not call it a plan) to see where all the bits might go in proj No4. This is a new project, the others are stalled by weather, bad, and so on. This one will be a dining table job (like the Alvis . This project is utilising left over bits from something else, or at least that was the plan but I have bought NEW bits as these bits are so tasty and useful looking I want to have some left over to do something else with them, possibly. I have already seen some snags with it, but nothing a bit of expert bodging will not fix. The snags are as per usual, its a big craft but the space is all over the place and not where you need it. Nothing fancy for the drive-line…a pair of 540/1 MFA motors and 35mm brass props with a rudder centrally mounted.

This is a nuisance, I seem to have several warships and so on with rudders no where near the props. They turn o.k once on the move, but getting away is a bit tricky, and I don't want the expense of differential prop control. My solution is to make the rudder over-long to ensure it impinges on prop-wash one side or the other at full lock. This provides some steering at very low speeds, adequate to get off the jetty with. The craft like some others I have, has the hydrodynamics of a brick. I am expecting there to be an issue with straight line performance

Battery location, and there is no room in the belly of the thing to put a battery!!! this is a blow indeed, likely to be solved by putting it somewhere unusual. It was touch-and-go fitting the battery in the Alvis, and proj No2 has to partially dismantled to get at the battery….you will hopefully see why later.

Project No1 has a different requirement for battery placement, and I have had to go to Lipo`s and not the size I would have liked but the craft has been built roughly to scale and I could not do anything at all about providing more room.

I have been on e-bay purchasing figures for Proj No4, not ideal as far as style goes, and I will have to do an amount of filing/trimming/filling to get them to look like wot I want, however they are spot on for size! Result.

Ashley

Edited By ashley needham on 06/02/2016 18:05:13

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Well well. A resounding success, the balloon jousting. Despite issues with one lander, there were three on the water , crewed by all and sundry and we had a fab hours jousting. Quite a large crowd gathered to see the antics, which took place in the side stream as its a bit more confined there and there is not no ducks to get in the way.

It is not as easy as it might appear, ramming someone exactly side on to pop balloons, and even more difficult considering all the landers have roughly the same speed and turning capability. A fair wind also added to the shenanigans. Port holes on the Ferry were letting in moveable ballast…must tape up next time. Several bystanders kiddies had a go, fostering a new generation of boaters. It may have helped that one lad came down with an RTR, which was slower than my flak lander…batteries low…and when asked how long our batteries lasted I had to feel a bit smug to inform him …ooo…an hour, hour and a half…or more…at full throttle.

I am tempted now and then to build more to sell, but although the actual craft probably only cost £15 tops or so to build ( incl propshaft, prop and rudder), there's £45 for an r/c set, £25 for an ESC, and £20 for a battery….it all adds up…£100 for a basic lander. Not for us of course as we have the expensive stuff, but to a non-boater, it would not seem like very good value compared to a cheap RtR. It is a bargain of course, I mean, I would probably have spent at least an hour or so making one!

Didn't get a chance to play football due to the excessive wind. Amazingly there was no damage to any of the landers, other than a tiny bit off the flak lander. and a person unglued from the ferry. I dare say there are a few scratches not that you would notice.

Ashley

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

Ashley

It sounds like a wonderful day on the water……jousting with landing craft……what a fantastic idea.

I must try it up here in't north but instead of landing craft we could use clogs, in fact it would make a great event at this years Ellesmere Port show.

Paul

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Paul. Clogs would of course make a wonderful boat…just the right shape and wooden. They would make a good crowd-pleaser.

It is a fact that since having built so many landers for the D-Day event, they get used just as much as any of the other craft I have. They are extremely manoeuvrable, the battery lasts for hours (385 motor, cheap 2mm propshaft and low pitch 40mm prop) and they are, unlike the originals, extremely sea-worthy, with a relatively high freeboard, very high ramp (and thus entry into waves) and provide endless interest for the pond side public. NOT to mention their usefulness in boat recovery, with that flat front and excellent turning capability.

Although the word jousting has been used, it is of course a balloon popping event. Trevor has to be credited with the idea and prototype, but with time on my hands I have refined the mechanics a bit, specifically as I was worried in case the politically correct brigade thought we were skewering the wildlife. To this end, I made bamboo lances with a sharpened nail at the front, but this only protrudes about 6mm so is relatively safe, especially considering how not-fast the LCM`s go. Trevor's original had a pin attached at the front, and although this does work much better is much more vulnerable to damage (bending). In practice, the nails or pins worked fine, and it was more difficult than at first envisaged to get into a satisfactory popping situation.

I did think that we could indeed go jousting, with much longer lances, and a quintain on the deck, this would be very funny.

For the next round I will make a couple of "sport" tops for the landers I have, so that the originals do not lose figures and so on, although as stated there was very little damage…the landers being sturdy and slow. It is not a tactic to take a run up at speed to bash the enemy..it takes too long !!

Ashley

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