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[Neil]

Two or more YEARS or so ago I bought a bargain on eBay for £50.00p........the hull only of a 52' Arun class including big powerful motors and shafts./props and esc's included.


I had thoughts of building 52-02, Sir William Arnold, the 2nd prototype Arun built from tripple layer diagonal plywood cold moulded hull, with probably the nicest superstructure of any of the Aruns, and totally different to the rest of the Arun lifeboats, and one I had built for a gent who owned the actual converted boat 15/16 years ago.


I didn't need a grp top CABIN usually sold as mouldings by Mountfleet models, and also one made by the seller, which was different on the underside to that sold commercially as the actual boat, being cold moulded had different lines, actually making her 2 - 4 knotts fastrer and why she was stationed on Guernsey, Channell Islands where casualties were normally further away from mainland coastal stations.


So, as she had a different cabin to the 52-03 onwards, she had a gantry aft of the superstructure that housed a Y Type rib. And when one came up on eBay as well last year, I managed to nab that as well for another bargain price, where she has sat inside the hull of the Arun and stashed away, untill this morning when I remembered it, and decided to build it as an if and when time allowed me to do it.


As with any Speedline model, instructions are very sparse on the booklet, so hopefully can shed a few hints and tips to help other builders who might like to build one but not had the experience of building 9 Atlantic 21's over the past 15 years.


So if you want to buy a Y from Speedline, stick around and hopefully give you a few hints and tips.

[Neil]

And so to the build of the Y boat!


As usual with Speedline instructions they are rather sparce and the Y boat is similar, making it at times a little more difficult for a beginner to get a good finish with the boat. However a few tips might help, as I have in the past built 9 of the old Atlantic 21's and designed a RNLI D Class rib for vac forming and now in the possesion of Mountfleet Models.



I have to say that having seen the Y boat and handled it, I would have liked it to have been formed in a plastic at least 0.5mm thicker plastic but it is workable with care as described in the instructions. However, I chose to mount the hull vac form to the grooves of the bottom part of the sponson set to give the structure some rigidity, as when I built my first ever Atlantic 21 many years ago, that was also the basis of the build that one should glue the 2 halves of the sponsons together around the circular cut frames mounted inside the sponson halves............and it became twisted on setting........and once they twist, that will NOT come out!. All others that I have built of the 21, I have glued the bottom sponson half to the hull first.


Also in the instructions it also recomends gluing small squares of plastic inside the half of one sponson to act as a "catch" to locate the second half. That would be fine if the two halves of the sponsons fit perfectly together so that all edges of the two parts met and fit perfectly, but I can guarantee, that one in a hundred builders would be able to get that acuracy, certainly not me though!

And so I ran pieces of scrap plastic strip on the inside of the lower sponson all around to act as a retaining "clip" to hold the top half in place, giving a gluing point all around the boat and a backing from the inside so that if there are any areas where the edges of the sponsons dont meet, they can be filled with such as Dolphin Glaze easy sanding filler before carying on, making a good water tight seal should you wish to motorise it.

Once  those strips have set, the two sponsons can be glued together after the strips have been sanded to adjust fit.

[Neil]

And once those strips had hardenned, the top half of the sponson could be attached and glued, making it quite a robust little boat even with all gaps between the two halves, but filler will alter all of that.

[Neil]

Final job on this little cracker for a few weeks now that I have got the Barnett lifeboat almost ready for sealing inside and out to waterproof it is to have fitted the transome stern as shown in the instructions, and this has now been done!

Once I have done the Barnett and it starts getting too cold to go in the work shop unless for once we get a mild winter I have 2 x  Atlantic 21 lifeboats and this Y boat to build, which will keep me busy for a couple or so months in doors.

But have achieved more today with the little Y Boat than I expected to do, and hope it turns out right and fitting to be going on 52-02, the Sir William Arnold.