I am new to the world of model yachts, my previous experience has been with powered ships and boats.
I have recently finished scratch building a model of a New Zealand coastal steamer and I wanted something new to do, so as I have been taken, when watching model yachts being sailed, on the idea of something that could be operated for some time without the need to recharge batteries. I therefore decided that my next project should be a yacht.
I have started this saga on the tail of my Introduction entry and Claudio has kindly responded to my initial inputs, but I think it would be better to now have a specific thread, as I do not want to clutter up the Introduction section.
On deciding to build a yacht I had a look at the model kits available, but did not find any that appealed to me, in that in general they did not involve a lot of buiding work or research into their history and they were also quite expensive for reasonable sized models. So as I had seen quite a lot of distressed old boats on e bay I thought I would take a chance on something from there.
After a few weeks looking a hull came up of a static model, not far away, so collection was easy so I bid and got it for 99 pence so if it ended up in the dustbin not much would be lost.
At first it looked quite good, but on closer examination it was evident it was coming apart, it was planking on a very substantial set of frames and longitudinal members, in addition all the inside had been very liberally coated with, I think plaster of paris. I had hoped that I would have got away with just glass fibre on the inside but this was not possible and in any case the internal structure requiredas much reduction as possible.
To cut a long story short, after taking off all the planking, cutting down the internal structure and cleaning off all the plaster on the structure and planking and reassembling and lining the inside with glass fibre, I have ended up with a hull that may make a yacht that I can use to amuse myself, I have no wish to do any racing etc and at my age I do not think I would be able to.
I had no idea what the model was when I bought it, but on another site where I covered the refurbishing, some one suggested that it may be a J class. On what little I know and from the one book I had on the subject I thought it was a Marblehead, but on researching the hull shape on the internet it was fairly obvious that it was a J class in style, so that is why I am here with the intention, with your help, to make a Fun J Class.
I have attached some pics of the hull as it is at present, unfortunately I have stuck the deck on and planked it, so I do not want to take it off again, so this will be a limitation on what I can do.
I think that is about enough to start the story and my fingers are hurting.