I have a Victoria
Well used and abused.
Good fun.
I like it a lot, it is simple to build. It would take an absolute novice 20 hours, or a skilled modeller about 5 (plus glue drying time).
She sails nicely out of the box. Not too good in very light air, but can take a pounding in heavier winds. she only has a 9" draft so great for ponds that are shallow at the edges. At almost 700mm she also looks like a proper model and does not look at all toy-like.
What I did wrong or would do different, and what went wrong.
- I did not score the inside of the hull with sandpaper before gluing in the radio tray, it came adrift and this meant the controls went slack. Luckily I was only on a small pond.
- All the knots came undone, but now fixed with superglue.
- Most of the boom fitting slipped, need to clean the booms thouroughly before glueing with epoxy. and I used more glue.
- all the anchors for the stays will come off. But on reglueing they are rock solid. So don't dismay. You will see on other blogs that people think they are crap and go out and get metal fittings. There really is no need.
- the wheels add to the scale appearance, but this is not a detailed scale model. I find mine catch the sheets and cause tangles. I would not fit them, or the 'v' shaped plastic that supports them.
-The rigging and set up of the sail arm, as per the instructions is not so good. The use of knots and cleats may look more scale like, but they are the weakest point of the model.
Go to this website
http://www.victoriarc.org/newsclipping01.htmThey show a more sane way of rigging.