Topic: P2000/ARCHER class (Read 9564 times)

Starspider · « **on:** February 29, 2016, 09:38:31 am »

Morning all
I have spent the last couple of months researching the Archer class of patrol boats as I like the smaller Royal Navy vessels. My question is does anybody know of any builders drawings that are available or where the archive of the original builder or Vospers are stored. I have the drawings from MMI but the drawing bow area looks different to a photograph posted by Rigger of one of the class being slipped.
Many thanks
Colin

17-09 · « **Reply #1 on:** March 06, 2016, 03:28:42 pm »

Hi Starspider,
As far as I know, there were no official drawings given out to the vessels in service for use onboard, we had many "bits" of drawings that showed positions of the internal fittings that were used by the engineers to locate and fix problems but no overall drawings, there was a small GA of the boat that showed some detail including the projected gun on the foredeck, this did not happen but they are strengthened to accept one if necessary. Watercraft of Shoreham built all but two of them I believe, with the Ailsa shipyard building two in Scotland, Vospers finished off the boats after they had been moulded by Watercraft, due to various reasons, they lost the contract and the hulls/superstructure were roaded down to Portsmouth to be awarded to Vospers to fit out.
Watercraft have long gone, Vospers should have drawings but they don't usually supply drawings of their craft to individuals, might be worth having a go though. I also have the MMI drawings, they have the side elevation of the bow straight, if I remember, they dipped a little to the bow in that elevation. I think the drawings were simplified a bit to make construction of a model easier.
Regards 17-09

Starspider · « **Reply #2 on:** March 06, 2016, 04:19:59 pm »

HI 17-09
Thanks for info, the bow looked different to me but could not put my finger on it.
I will enlarge a couple of the pics I have and see if I can alter the MMI drawings.
Again thanks for your info much appreciated
colin

riggers24 · « **Reply #3 on:** March 06, 2016, 05:25:20 pm »

Hi All

The drawings are different to the actual vessel. Sadly a member at Tynemouth did have a lot of info of the Archer but Sandy has pat away and I'm unsure what happened to the info.

Riggers

radiojoe · « **Reply #4 on:** March 06, 2016, 08:25:06 pm »

Fleetscale have a photo DVD of the Archer class if it's any help, I know the Archer class very well I've worked on most of them prior to 2005 when Camper & Nicholson had the service contract.

Starspider · « **Reply #5 on:** March 06, 2016, 09:38:36 pm »

Hi all
Riggers sorry to hear about your friend perhaps one day the info will resurface. It was the pic you posted of an archer being slipped that made me doubt the drawings from MMI so thanks for that.
Joe nice place to work in my dreams when I am a yacht tester.

[size=78%]I have had the fleetscale DVDs for a while, the trouble with walk around DVDs are that they seldom show the underwater form of the hull. I was hoping after reading magazine articles I thought (hoped) that a set of offsets would be available or lines.[/size]
So thanks gents for your help I guess I will keep looking and maybe something will turn up one day.
Regards Colin

radiojoe · « **Reply #6 on:** March 06, 2016, 10:13:31 pm »

Hi Colin, I don't know if it's what you are looking for but cornwallmodelboats have a two sheet drawing of HMS Blazer, I remember seeing them before I decided to build my Hunt Class mcmv.

Starspider · « **Reply #7 on:** March 07, 2016, 12:25:02 am »

Joe I have the Blazer drawings and the hull does not appear to match the images I have seen, but thanks for the thought it's appreciated.
I will push the project back towards the back burner until I can find some definitive data, I don't want to spend a lot of time on a buck and mould if it is wrong.
Again thanks for your efforts
Colin

radiojoe · « **Reply #8 on:** March 07, 2016, 08:26:44 am »

No problems Colin, I think I know what you mean about HMS Blazer when I looked at the picture of it I thought it didn't look quite right from what I can remember of them.

17-09 · « **Reply #9 on:** March 07, 2016, 09:59:04 am »

Hi,
I can confirm that the deck sheer line is not a straight line from the bow to stern, there is a distinctive curve down to the bow from frame 18, similar to the ASRL whaleback design. Also the hull does not have flat sides between the chines, they are slightly convex, the opposite to the concave cross section of the normal Vosper designs, can you please copy to me the photograph of the P20 that has prompted this thread.
Regards 17-09

Starspider · « **Reply #10 on:** March 07, 2016, 11:00:40 am »

Hi 17-09
The picture was put up in another thread by Rigger24 should be below

John W E · « **Reply #11 on:** March 07, 2016, 11:11:01 am »

hi this may help you out
http://www.modelboatmayhem.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,21936.msg215229.html#msg215229

john

17-09 · « **Reply #12 on:** March 07, 2016, 01:39:29 pm »

HiThanks for the picture, I now see why you questioned the drawings, the P20 lines are rather attractive are they not?
The link article notes the class were almost identical apart from a black hull, they were, the hulls were gel coated in black for the RNXS, four boats.
Hulls now painted grey, the boats are prefixed HMS instead of XSV.

Regards 17-09

Starspider · « **Reply #13 on:** March 07, 2016, 09:39:14 pm »

17-09 they do have rather nice lines the designer has a nice eye.
I'll keep looking, I might print a couple of the pics on the fleet scale cd and Rigger24 pic if I can get it big enough
and attack them with a rule and see what that gives

Colin

Starspider · « **Reply #14 on:** March 08, 2016, 09:50:52 pm »

John apologies thank you for the link a couple of the pics are useful hopefully.
Regards Colin

badbunny · « **Reply #15 on:** March 18, 2016, 05:23:19 pm »

Hi, ~30 years ago I had copies of builders drawings of a P2000. They were originally designed and built by a company called Watercraft, who apparently went bust because the engines they bought were under powered and did not perform to the spec. Vosper then finished the remaining vessels. The copies of the Watercraft plans Vosper sent to me were pretty much useless. The different views of the hull and superstructure did not align at all, with the side view and front views clearly not showing the same design. The hull frames were the same poor quality, with the hull changing shape significantly from one frame to the next. I spent a lot of time trying to make sense of all of this in a 3D CAD program a number of years ago, but got sick to death of trying to make it all line up and gave it all up as a bad job. Unfortunately I had a large data loss and I haven't got those files any more. I think if I was starting again I would work from one of the model building plans available, with some 'by eye' tweaks to the bow area and deck curve as discussed above.

Edit - I just remembered that I had posted some images to another forum way back, which I've copied here - might still be useful.

Edit 2 - the drawings you can see in the 3D CAD images are scans of the builders drawings, but I have no idea what i've done with them, and lost the electronic files with the data loss... DOH ! (but as I said above, they aren't very useful anyway)

Pete.

DavieTait · « **Reply #16 on:** March 18, 2016, 05:37:48 pm »

only 4 photos of the class I have if they help

badbunny · « **Reply #17 on:** March 18, 2016, 05:45:14 pm »

Really useful photos there Davie !

On the first one you can see the chines are not straight. The other tricky thing is that the angle of the hull section between the chines reverses near the front... not sure how to explain this better.. they become slightly concave.

On the third one you can see the transom has an odd shape (which I seem to remember looking slightly different on different vessels).

Pete.

Starspider · « **Reply #18 on:** March 18, 2016, 09:41:29 pm »

Pete and Davie many thanks for your inputs. More info to add to the sparse amount I have already
I am hoping to start putting pen to paper this weekend and see if I can come up with a set of lines that maybe a bit nearer to the originals
just wish I had your skills with 3D and CAD which you have Pete. When or if I make some progress I will post on here.
Thanks again for everybody's input.
Colin

17-09 · « **Reply #19 on:** March 19, 2016, 08:23:37 am »

They do look better with the black hull......but I am biassed!
17-09

DavieTait · « **Reply #20 on:** March 19, 2016, 02:32:52 pm »

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=rn+patrol+boat+gibraltar&safe=off&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjnw5TZ-8zLAhUiCZoKHZEyBp0Q_AUIBygB&biw=1366&bih=608

Loads of photos of the P2000 at Gib online

17-09 · « **Reply #21 on:** March 19, 2016, 04:18:11 pm »

The Gibraltar boats are different to the Archer class, they are 16metre boats so I guess they will be known as P1600's ! !
17-09

radiojoe · « **Reply #22 on:** March 21, 2016, 03:28:57 pm »

Hi Colin, I took these photos of Trumpeter this morning at Endeavour Quay ( Camper & Nicholson boat yard as was) we were in the ferry gardens so they were taken over the fence,

anyway I thought they may be of interest.

Starspider · « **Reply #23 on:** March 21, 2016, 03:35:01 pm »

Hi Joe
Many thanks for the photo's, they will help a lot.
I am hoping to print out some of the photo's and pics on the fleet scale CD, hopefully find
something in each pic I can use as a reference length and go from there.
Many thanks Joe

Colin

ps do you think they would mind if I jumped over the fence with a tape measure and note pad

radiojoe · « **Reply #24 on:** March 21, 2016, 03:50:02 pm »

ps do you think they would mind if I jumped over the fence with a tape measure and note pad

You know what Colin, if you walked in the front gate with tape measure and clipboard looking all official like I doubt if anyone would take any notice, there are a lot of small businesses and sub contractors in Endeavor Quay so who would know, a lot different to my time there at Camper's.

I don't know if you've seen this,, http://www.hullmodelboatgroup.co.uk/index.php?/category/Bills_Archer_Class_Patrol_Boat
If not it all helps.

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Author Topic: P2000/ARCHER class (Read 9564 times)