A man and his camera.: Narrow boat, Velda

My Narrow boat was made from a kit supplied by Riverside models.

1/12 scale and 53" long so would relate to a 55ft real boat.

It has a fibre glass hull and the rest is 6mm ply for deck and formers and 3mm ply for superstructure.

The hardest part was cutting out the window opening and cutting the rest by hand as I didn't have a band saw at the time.

It would seem from their internet advertisement that they no longer make this kit, only a 6 ft model, but its CNC cut so easier to cut out, also the hull is ply so makes for a more interesting build I guess.

I followed advise from the review in Model Boats magazine a few years ago and a chap from Colwyn Bay Model Boat club who has make quite a few of these boats and they all recommended a 777 motor.

The rudder and tiller arm came with the kit.

I really enjoyed the build of this boat and made a cassette that went inside with scratch built furniture, the only trouble was that on later buoyancy tests the cassette was found to make the boat top heavy, so that will have to stay on the bench and the boat sail with lead in the very bottom of the hull which is quite stable then, I was always afraid of this but it was nice to build at the time.

There is the usual futaba S3003 servo to the rudder.
The control system is an AR 6100..2.4 gig Spectrum receiver and a M'tronic's 15amp speed controller and this is controlled by a DX6i transmitter.
The power supply is a 6V 4.5 amh lead acid battery in the Bows area and all the other electronics are in the rear.

Battery compartment

Steering and receiver

15 amp ESC

777 Motor and coupling

First time on the water

Rear view

Front view

REG No and licence

Mooring weight

Enjoyed every minute of this build and would have liked to build the 6ft version BUT it wouldn't fit into the car!.
...................................................................................................
13.11.2013
Latest news, received Joint 1st kit built trophy for this in the 2013 build competition.