Photo  of  the  month -  March 2006

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This was my first go at building a model boat ( after many years of aeromodelling).

It (the sailing boat) is a 1/8th scale model of my Westerly Pentland Ketch ( well it was mine - I've sold it now - getting too old for long nights at sea). I built it with a GRP hull from a mould which I made from foam. Decks and superstructure made from lite-ply. Masts and sails and fittings are all home made plus a 500 electric motor with a three blade prop from the Propshop.

"Dolfyn" is a bilge keeler so the model has bilge keels, moulded in GRP, filled with lead encapsulated in resin, and bolted to the hull. They give ample stability for most normal winds.

I sail on the lake at Llanberis (in the shadow of Snowdon) with the Gwynedd Model Boating Group. On most sailing days the assembled model boaters motor off in convoy along the lake and up the feeder stream out of the lake as far as we can go (about a mile and a half or so).

On this occasion I accompanied them just motoring,  (I hadn't made the sails at that time) and ran out of battery power, so was towed all the way back to base.

Don Brown
( Click here for Don's Other boats )


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