The Shipyard ( Dry Dock ): Builds & Questions > Lifeboats

Fitting out a 47: A Rivet Counter's Guide

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heritorasphodel:
This thread is going to be partially a build log but also a guide to modelling the 47ft Watson in all it's variety. This class is a popular among modellers mainly because fibreglass mouldings are available and partly because the 47 is a handsome boat and is a good introduction into building classic lifeboats.

A bit of background on the class. The 47ft Watson was the final evolution of the Watson sailing lifeboat from the 19th century. She incorporated features from all the large lifeboats in service, the 46ft 9in and 42ft Watsons and the 52ft Barnett. She was the most spacious Watson, with a bulkier hull and a larger forward shelter, and it was the first lifeboat to be built with an enclosed wheelhouse (other than a couple of odd ones). The first boat of the class, Dunnet Head (Civil Service No 31), was built in 1955 and was stationed at Thurso for about 11 months before she was destroyed by fire along with the boathouse. Other boats were just as unlucky. In 1969 T.G.B. from Longhope capsized with the loss of all hands; and in 1981 Solomon Browne from Penlee was wrecked. In 1983 Salcombe's The Baltic Exchange capsized but righted with no loss of life.

heritorasphodel:
A 47 can be built at one of three periods per boat. The first, exemplified by this photo of Helen Wycherly, is as built. The first half of the class had Kent Clear windscreens as standard, the second had normal wipers. All had folding windows.

The second period is around 1970 when the lifeboat fleet began to be modernised. Patches of the superstructure went orange, and radar was fitted. This is Solomon Browne.

In the late 70s the R.N.L.I. converted all their boats to self-righting. in the case of the 47 most of the boats were fitted with an airbag on the rear cabin deigned to inflate if the boat heeled over beyond 100 or so degrees, while 6 boats were highly modified with what's been called the 'Solent Conversion' which meant fitting a larger superstructure to make the boats inherently self righting. While the airbag-fitted boats all look fairly similar, the Solent conversions were different on every boat. (I have photos of 3 or technically 4 of these conversions)
Frederick Edward Crick, of Lowestoft
Joseph Soar of St. Davids

F4TCT:
Looking forward to it!  :-))

Dan

heritorasphodel:
My boat is Pentland (Civil Service No 31), the second boat of the class which replaced Dunnet Head at Thurso. One service of note did not have a happy ending, which was the night of the 17th March 1969 when she was tasked to rescue and then recover the capsized T.G.B.


Now to the model. It originally belonged to my dad, and I think that it's older than I am. he had abandoned it in his shed for years, and then I 'inherited' it when he needed room in his shed. Here's the state of it when I acquired it:

It wasn't in too bad a condition, most of the guts were there, but some bits were missing and others weren't built properly (Furball take note here  :-)))

heritorasphodel:
The hull is the one that's sold by Models By Design, which, even though it's inaccurate in places (Such as the tunnels) is the fastest way to get a seaworthy boat. The tunnels should look like this:
where the top edge of the tunnel is perpendicular to the deadwood when viewed from astern, but look like this
 

I don't think it's any fault of the manufacturer, I assume that it's fairly difficult to produce this bit right because I've not seen a fibreglass hull that's correct in this area yet. But after all, it's going to be below the waterline anyway and only someone like me will ever know it's wrong so it doesn't really matter.

Another problem is the deck is supplied as a separate moulding bonded to the hull, leaving a large flange around the hull that when removed separates the hull and deck again, but this can be easily corrected.

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