The "Sea Lite" RTR yacht is the current incarnation of the "University Club", also sold by Lidl as the "B-Squared" a while ago. The main difference, apart from the rather tacky-looking bright red + blue colour scheme, is the addition of a working outboard motor, to (theoretically) allow the boat to move without sail power.
Though the boat (and control unit) looks much like your usual cheap RTR, with a pitifully short-ranged radio system rendered completely unusable when any proper R/C boat is running nearby, it actually has a proper crystal radio with a specific frequency, and a fairly large operating range (I've run this boat at Black Park along with many other sail + powered boats and it has remained under control even after sailing right out into the middle of the lake)
The boat has a hull length of 55cm and overall height of about 86cm (as supplied; mine now has a shortened mast). It has a basic two-channel control setup, with proportional control over the main + jib sail (not separately controlled) and a non-proportional three-position "servo" for the rudder.
However, the RRP of £70-80 is extremely steep IMO given that the materials + R/C hardware quality isn't particularly good (even if it has a half-decent radio). You'd be better off buying something like a Victoria or Micro Magic plus radio. However, I managed to pick up a second-hand example on eBay for about £30. Not bad value, I thought, as I've heard the "University Club" sails reasonably well in light winds, and a good starter R/C yacht before moving on to something larger.
However, my first experiences with sailing this boat (or attempting to) weren't very encouraging. The first time, with light winds (very light at times) the boat was very hard to control, drifting sluggishly about and extremely hard to turn, especially into the wind. I had to recover it using the outboard motor. The second time, with much higher winds, the yacht sailed more quickly but was still hard to steer and control, and when the wind picked up, the boat heeled over and was completely uncontrollable. I had to wait for it to blow over to the other side of the lake (thank goodness the hull was fairly watertight - but I still had to drain quite a bit of water out after recovering it!). The outboard proved to be completely useless except in near-dead calm conditions, even when the boat wasn't heeled over.
Overall - based on my limited knowledge of R/C yachts, the advice of fellow club members, and info found online on the Sea Lite/University Club - the boat seemed to be top-heavy and under-ballasted, and, I thought, with too much sail area for such a small boat. Since it was virtually unsailable in its current condition, and probably didn't have much resale value, I thought I'd try my best at modifying it in an attempt to improve sailing performance. If nothing else, I'd gain experience with how R/C sailing models work.
Firstly, I made new masts and sails, 25% shorter than the original, with new booms to match the mast. These are wood dowel; aluminium tube would also be usable, but I didn't have any to hand at the time, and the wood spars look very nice when stained + varnished. The spreader + jumper strut are the original plastic fittings, reinforced with brass wire and painted black; eyebolts and gooseneck are brass wire.
The sails are synthetic dacron, bought on eBay for £5 per square metre (not much of this was needed for Sea Lite - there's more than enough left over to make sails for several more models, including the ketch "Inga IV" which will be my next sail project). Sail fittings/hooks were taken from the original RTR sails.
Rigging lines and adjustment "bowsies" are as supplied.
Secondly, I removed the near-useless outboard. This adds a significant amount of topweight, not only the motor + wiring, but its substantial lead counterweight at the bow (the drag of the prop doesn't help, either). All of the associated wiring + plastic fittings were also removed and deck holes sealed up. Removing all of this lot ended up making a considerable difference to the yacht's stability.
Thirdly, I deepened the rudder. Probably the best approach (particularly in terms of finished appearance) would have been to make a completely new rudder from thick styrene sheet, with a post made from brass rod. But, not wanting to risk damaging the existing rudder servo setup, I simply extended the rudder using a three-piece "sandwich" of styrene sheet. This looks a bit awkward, but isn't visible on the water!
I also added a telltale/burgee flag, this is just a piece of red carrier bag plastic tied to one of the stays, but is invaluable when sailing to tell the wind direction! Carrier bag plastic is the best material I've found for this, as it's light enough to be moved by the slightest wind (even winds that won't move the sails much).
Another important "fix" was to seal around the edge of the battery holder, using epoxy glue. There is a noticeable gap here, and if the model heels over enough for water to get into the battery compartment, some of it will end up running inside the hull itself. I also sealed the join around the ballast keel, (water can't leak into the hull itself from here, but can leak into the keel moulding and is a tricky job to drain out) and I added some packaging airbags inside the hull for buoyancy (in the event that water still managed to find a way in) as well as a couple of silica gel sachets taped near the radio gear + battery compartment.
Finally, I decided to give the model a repaint + some extra scale detailing. Despite its toylike plasticky appearance, this boat is actually a fairly decent scale model of a modern cruising/racing yacht, in about 1/24 scale. More by luck than anything else, I managed to find out the exact design it was based on, the Adams 13E. This site -
http://adams13e.blogspot.com/ - has quite a few good photos which I used as a reference for detailing + painting my model. (As this site is a "blog" and may not be around indefinitely, I'd recommend saving or printing any photos you think may be useful, if you're planning on using them for modelling reference!)
I didn't attempt to represent every detail of the real yacht, as too many small + fragile details can be impractical on a sailing model, and I needed to keep topweight to a minimum. The hatches and window framing (replacing the stickers on the original model) are made from styrene sheet + rod. Railings - replacing the flimsy vinyl plastic ones originally supplied - are aluminium tube, which looks convincingly like the chrome railings on the real boat whilst adding very little topweight.
The wheel/binnacle assembly is the original part (with aluminium handrail added) as are the mooring cleats.
The hull was then sprayed with a coat of grey primer, then the topsides were painted Revell acrylic satin white and the lower hull Revell blue. The hull (not the deck) was then painted with satin enamel varnish to give a more water-repellent + durable finish.
Here are some photos of the rebuilt yacht, out of the water. The extra detailing + painting was only a couple of days work but, along with the new mast + sails, gives the model a much nicer and less toylike appearance IMO.