The deck was finished using some left over oak wood stain but I lost the argument over the wheelhouse doors that weren't allowed to be wood but had to be white like the rest of the wheelhouse. What happened to the Orange and Black interior I hear you ask, well I forgot all about it and when James saw the interior was white said It's just what I wanted!
We glued the two halves of the lifebelts together, rounded off the edges and James painted them orange. During the week Grandad added a little detail and when Friday came around again a little person was delighted with his real looking lifebelts. It was decided that they would be glued on the wheelhouse doors rather than alongside the doors as per the instructions so if the position looks a little odd "Its my boat.........."
The fish turned out ok and were glued into the fish boxes and arranged in a neat diagonal line by James who refused to have them scattered around the deck as grandad suggested. I must admit they look ok. We assembled the anchor and painted it grey also assembled the winch. James decided that the winch should be for raising the anchor so we attached a lenghth of line from the winch to the anchor which "needs to be hanging over the front of the boat in case they need it". I fabricated a cleat to hold the anchor in place. James has accepted that it wont wind up and down and now realises that it's bad practice to sail with the anchor banging against the side of the boat so will sail it with the anchor aboard.
I fitted the electronics into the boat and we tried it in the bath. Full throttle rammed the boat into the tap end and tried to empty the bath water onto the floor! Some tweaking to the endpoints on the controls is called for. At least it didn't leak so almost ready for a maiden voyage.
Grandad had a couple of surprises up his sleeve (as grandads do) so the boat was placed on display awaiting delivery of some parts. Well the package went missing and family holiday got in the way so everything was placed on hold for a while. On our return from holiday there was a package on the doormat, don't tell James the surprise has arrived.
I had ordered some 1:25 scale figures meant for scale railways, I wasn't going to pay an arm and a leg for painted fishermen! with a little adjustment a standing and sitting passenger became captain and crew for our little fishing boat. The captain holds the wheel in a flat cap wearing a moustache, like grandad (James hasn't noticed that yet!), the crewman sits on the hatch mending the fishing net wearing a yellow cap with batman logo on it (this was spotted very quickly by James who was absolutely delighted!) There are plans in my head to add a seagull being chased away by a little boy but I'm not sure if my modelling skills will stretch that far, time will tell.
So it was time for a maiden voyage. Off we went, with James new fishing boat along with my paddle tug, to Kearsney Abbey just outside Dover for a sail in the lake there. I had a very excited little boy with me who delighted in telling everyone that the fishing boat was his and it made his day when someone told him that his boat was better than grandad's but not to tell grandad! The boat sails extremely well despite James full forward - full astern treatment. He only hit the bank a couple of times but thankfully no damage. I had a very brief go, the boat in it's throttle restricted mode is very nippy and turns on a sixpence and will be great fun to sail, if I ever get a chance!
All in all a very good kit with detailed instructions that I would thoroughly recommend to anyone no matter what their skill level.