Hi Bugsey, I used to live within walking distance (which was much further in those days!) of the Hampstead model yachting pond in the early 60's.
The model yacht club which I never joined but was friends with a few of the members was pretty well gone by 1964. They used to keep their yachts in a purpose built hut adjacent to the lake. This was broken into several times and I think they just gave up. Most, in those days, did not have cars and you could not get a 10R or A class yacht on a bus so without the nearby storage hut they could not persue the hobby.
I used to sail my first RC boat over there on Sunday afternoons this was about 2 years later. I do not remember many modellers up there then. I had a Derek Olley (later to become Fleet) 4 switch set, not proportional, it was almost immune to interference as you could wind the aerial around the electric motor and it still worked.
This was in the days of reed sets and Derek Olley's set was 'electronic reeds or tones' but at a higher freqency with a soldered in blue crystal.
Because the tone frequencies were well above the current multi function mechanical reed sets you could run 2 boats together, almost unheard of then!.
Still got the RC gear.
I remember once a chap turning up with a fast i/c powered MTB or perhaps a Fire boat and it had single channel control. This consisted of switch, and a special actuator in the boat.
To turn left you held the switchdown and then released when going in the direction you wanted. To turn right you pressed the switch once then released it and then pressed again and held it. There was no control of the i/c engine
Imagine doing this with a boat planing along at speed!
The side of the lake had new wood piles put in to strengthen it and he hit most of them in the first 30 seconds, a sad end with the family looking on.
regards Roy