Guys and gals,
As preliminary organisation has now been made we, as a group ,can give details of an event that I have wanted to do for some years, but have not, until now, had likeminded nutters to join in and make a dream come true.
On
Saturday 2nd July, 2011 Dave Forrester (aka Nunber 6) Russel Procter (aka 6705Russell) , Mike Pendlebury ( aka Gribeauvil) and myself neil (nhp651) plan to sail some "toy boats" the full length of Loch Ness [ 22.5 miles] in the Highlands of Scotland, from the south of the Loch to the northern end finishing at Langend. This decision was made because of the prevailing winds coming from the north and west, and as such the models that we are going to sail will be very well equipped to take any reasonable weather that the highlands in July could throw at us.
We will be sailing three specially built 1:12 scale models of the Clyde class lifeboats, and these measure 71" LOA. The build logs for 70- 001 and 70- 003 can be seen in the lifeboat section on this site, here:
http://www.modelboatmayhem.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=28564.msg281147#msg281147and here,
http://www.modelboatmayhem.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=26813.0 and mine, should anyone be interested can be seen here.
http://www.radiocontrolmodelboats.com/t721-clyde-class-70-lifeboat-build Hopefully
Dave will be bringing a large lifeboat that he is working on at the moment to make up the flotilla of four lifeboats......would make a nice sight.
We all have our own reasons for supporting our charities, and we four are no different. My life was saved from drowning as an 8 year old boy by a Fleetwood lifeboat man, and this is a debt that I can never repay, but I can but try.
We have now had written permission from the British Waterways Highland division to sail our models up Loch Ness ( usually a craft of 6' and over has to be licenced ) and have been offered and accepted the help from Ian Milne of the Loch Ness Sea Scouts who, for a very modest contribution to fuel, are attending with a 6.5 mtre RIB and their Loch cruiser for comfort breaks.
Also a very kind gentleman who owns a full size ex Rother Class lifeboat has said that he would be delighted to escort our flotilla up the loch if not working away on that date. His name is Alasdair McClean.
Scotland division RNLI based in Perth have said that they will lias with Loch Ness RNLI for their attendance on the day call outs permitting, and press coverage and hopefully local TV coverage of some sort, to the North west is also being negotiated.
Not only will we be braving each other's company for a weekend, being stuck on a small boat for 6 hours but also the chance of glaring looks from a disgruntled NESSIE and midges that tend to hang around like a bad smell at that time of year.........SO WE WANT YOUR SUPPORT, AND PLENTY OF IT PLEASE.
To support our cause you can either send a cheque made out to the RNLI and dated 2nd July 2011,[pm any member for their postal address] or pledge on line at Justgiving.com at this link.
Hopefully the page to the link will be up and running within the next couple of days.May I point out at this juncture that we as a group and singularly,will be meeting ALL out of pocket expenses from our own personal funds, AND NOT from any pledges made. ALL money donated will 100% go to the RNLISo if any of you are in the area of Loch Ness and would give half an hour of your time with an RNLI donation bucket at any of the well visited visitor centres around Loch Ness, then please get in touch....we sure could do with your collecting skills.
Cheers, on behalf of the team and thankyou for your support.
Neil.
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