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[portside II]

And more so would you admit it.
Well i have buils a few and the latest was a tug hull that i thought would be ok on the bench , it was 2 feet long and 10" wide and had a draught of about 8" . i fitted it with a 90mm prop and kort (steerable) which was driven by a childs scooter motor running off 24v= 2 12v 7ah bat's either side in the hull , most of the weight was as far forward as i could get it and low down for stability.
The first run on the pond the other week was almost scuppered due to the ice , but we managed to make a decent clearing in the morning for a sail that afternoon .Thats when the trouble started , when i put the hull into the water the first thing i noticed was that it was in need of more ballast forwards so rather than put another battery in the hull i decided to put it on the deck  .
Well it mooved off the wall nicely with plenty of controll from the kort and a good bit of thrust from the motor prop setup and a couple of runs around the clearing all was well , it was then i thought would it be a good pusher and aproached a large sheet of ice , but i forgot the rule of ice berg's , 30% above water 70% below , and i hit the lower part which caused the hull to lean over and the rest is down to gravity. Battery slip's to side , water over comings , stabillity gone , hull fills up with water , bow starts to dip, and the last thing i see id the stern heading for the bottom of the pond with the prop still turning slowly, Glug Glug.
There was nothing i could do to stop it , so it was on with the waders and into the icy depths for a recovery .
Since then the hull has been stripped and dismantled (burned) , all the radio gear is fine but the motor has seised up so has been dumped .
back to the drawing board , sorry no photos of the sinking .

[Martin (Admin)]

Must unstable boat I've had was the venerable old SHG Shadow, a great boat in it's own right but
not one to be over powered! Anything over a .19 (3.5cc) and it did anything but go in a straight line!



......"hull has been stripped and dismantled (burned)"   

           "sorry no photos of the sinking." .... bit of a lack of commitment to Mayhem there! 

[Bryan Young]

Yes. My one and only foray into the world of Paddlers. I think I made every mistake possible with this one. A very salutary experience I assure you. Actually it does work (after a fashion), but I can't get the balance right, and it's taking up valuable space and so has to go.

[dreadnought72]

Built an unsailable boat?

I'm not sure about that, but I AM waiting to sail an unbuildable boat. (i.e. It's taking ages).

Andy

[Tug-Kenny RIP]

                 Made my day, Portside11

I can now hand over the Crown.  Thank you for sharing that with us. I expect some more Honest letters from members now, please.  This is a worthwhile subject which we can all learn from.


ken

[FullLeatherJacket]

Daz
Same shape as a house-brick; same colour as a house-brick...............why so surprised, then? 
FLJ

[wombat]

Closest I have got is Grimy Rita (Gry Maritha) which is a "xxxxx" out on the water - I find it almost uncontrollable, not sure why though.  There is a lot of torque steer from the props - to the extent that the rudders are almost useless.
There is a lot of weight forward of the centre of gravity, but this is to make it sit level. Probably the biggest problem is my inability to drive and the boat is too unforgiving.

Wom

[cbr900]

Yes I have, it is pictured and I my opinion it was a rather good build,
but when placed in the water its deck was level with the water and
of course if you dropped a sixpence into the water it sank.............


Roy

[steamboatmodel]

Well most of my scale boats I have managed to sail, but I was into Fast Electric and did build a couple of hulls that were a bit of a hand full to run. One that I never did get to go was arrow shaped very long and narrow, You had to ease the power to it or the prop would stay still in the water and the hull would rotate. I did get it going in a straight line, but could never get it to turn without barrel rolling, and once the prop lost contact with the water you had to reduce to 1/3 power to get it to bite again. With my scale boats I have had a few sinking's in which my lights have stayed on, I was referred to as the underwater lighting expert in the club for a while.
Regards,
Gerald.

[tigertiger]

My first boat.

I was aged 10.
It was a self design. A deep 'V' with about a 45* V. About 12" long and 4" beam. And about 4+" from keel to deck. Hard chine, built from balsa.

Steam powered. It has a cigar tube (with a cork with a small hole in it) half filled with water rigged above a candle on deck. The resultant jet of steam was desinged to push the boat along.

This was too top heavy and kept flipping, even before the cigar tube was fitted. And so I had to add out riggers. It stopped the boat flipping, but the steam generated was insufficient for the task.

[malcolmfrary]

Built an unsailable boat?

I'm not sure about that, but I AM waiting to sail an unbuildable boat. (i.e. It's taking ages).

Andy

Me too.

[HS93 (RIP)]

Yes I have built an un sailable boat of sorts, it was a mini fire boat and it was a bit over powered, I started it about 4 years ago when brushless motors where very new in boats, and made the first newbie mistake to brushless in that they don't need to be the same psychical size,  I got the KVMs right but that was more luck and the fact I only ran on half the volts I had planed to, it had two motors that where bought as was everything else before I started I like all the bits there first so I can lay them in the hull to see where things go, first test was at deans mini pool Martin was there and drummed up a crowed as he does, the boat was a bit fast , the speed controllers did not like starting at the same time or staying in sync and anything over 1/8 power it was on its way out of the pool, it would also lay on its decks when turning and refuse to respond to the rudders till you lifted off. it had instant reverse that could get a wave to completely cover the boat, I tried it on a big lake and although it was fast and with small udders it still just leaned on its side, so I have put two small brushed motors in and will use it for   er , something

[BobF]

I built a one meter yacht that sailed perfectly when in grey primer, but when I painted it yellow, it refused to ever sail again. I have wondered about painting it grey again, but probably won't bother.  P S, there is absolutely no reason why this yacht won't work, as all measurements are correct !!! ???

[Damien]

Not an un-sailable model but a sinking sorry no pic's were taken.
Around 1978 i'd just finished adding radio, winches etc. to my Stirling models Emma C Berry Schooner, and went for trials to Albert park lake a man made lake not far from Melbourne CBD picture middle of winter freezing cold day, she sailed really well until a squal hit her broadside and laid her in her side here the trauma started when the cotton sails hit the water and got soaked the surface tension kept he there a 4" sq hatch cover chose this moment to float off, no guesses needed what happened next shortly after there was just the top few inches of the main mast visible in the troughs of the waves stripped of to jocks and sneakers silly me also left glasses behind jumps in to find i can't see said model so my wife guided me the 100 foot or so to the model in amongst verbal abuse for being stupid retrieving just a model. A 3' schooner hull full of water weighs lots lol   subsequently she was dried out all electrics survived & all hatches were fitted with locking pins.
I received spousal jibes for several weeks afterwards whilst recovering from bronchitis.
I still have this model in sailing condition but have no way of getting her to water.
Damien. 

[Subculture]

Yes. My one and only foray into the world of Paddlers. I think I made every mistake possible with this one. A very salutary experience I assure you. Actually it does work (after a fashion), but I can't get the balance right, and it's taking up valuable space and so has to go.

Nice looking boat. You could try fitting a lead keel, and if you have heavy batteries, replace them with li-po's and add the weight saving to afore mentioned keel.

[portside II]

quote from: B Y
Yes. My one and only foray into the world of Paddlers. I think I made every mistake possible with this one. A very salutary experience I assure you. Actually it does work (after a fashion), but I can't get the balance right, and it's taking up valuable space and so has to go.
un quote

Nice looking boat. You could try fitting a lead keel, and if you have heavy batteries, replace them with li-po's and add the weight saving to afore mentioned keel.

Good advice ther as my next will be a slim springer paddler and it may end up on here   , pics to come on springers, thats if it can be classed as one as it's only about 140 mm wide at the hull .
daz