My Mantua Mincio, crewed by Mini Me and Mini Herself had it's maiden voyage on Friday in our local park. Here's a
LINK TO A VIDEO that includes it and my two boys' new boats too.
I was very pleased...for a while.
Apart from the obvious balance problem....she's a bit bows down in the water.
I was going to rectify this when, a few days later, I found a quantity of water sloshing about under the floor in the front compartment. It had swollen the balsa and pushed the mahogany planking out.
So, a major refit is afoot!
First, the crew members have lost weight via the medium of a drill bit.
Then, the front compartment has had the floor removed and the hatch sealed and then been filled with expanding foam. The floor in the engine compartment has been drilled and also foamed. The battery compartment (cockpit) will received a nice coat of epoxy once all the foam's gone off and been tidied. Then I'll have to clean up the outside again.
I'm a bit cross about all of this as it was obvious during the build that the unprotected nature of the balsa below the floor was not such a good idea. I'm cross that Mantua didn't tell me to do something about it as I was building and cross because I didn't do something about it off by own bat.
Hey ho! We live and learn. It looked good on the water though!
Cheers!
R.