New & Old Looks

This could be a thread with little or no interest for discussion. Its not about vessel dynamics or design in regards to efficiency, its about boat appearance and history.

There’s a movement amongst creative tinkerers called Steampunk (Google it) where Victorian aesthetics are applied to modern technologies. Imagine your laptop computer; clad in copper with leather palmrests, clawfoot legs and keypads from a 100 year old typewriter. Something out of the movie Brazil, or a contraption from the TV series, The Wild Wild West.

From this cue, I have been adding touches to my rc yacht build. The hull is unpainted carbon yet I have been using brass fairleads and contemplating teak (faux - balsa) accents. The access hole is oval which (to me) looks retro. I probably will stop short of a chrome wave splitter or figurehead on the bow.

Anyway, is there a place in our modeling interests for the most high-tech materials we can find, to be combined with nautical adornments that are so part of its history, to capture more than speed and maneuverability?

yar

Yes!

I too have pondering along the same lines.:sly:

I notice this on some of the larger yachts being built. The one that did it for me, was the Nautor’s Swan, Black Swan 70. If anyone has pics of her, please post!:zbeer:

Maybe a carbon deck, with a light coloured wood like teak, pine, balsa, etc.(I want to use bamboo).

I want to use bamboo
nigelpheron, Great idea! How about using it for the mast, boom or bowsprit?

yar

Good idea. I may just do that to a future wooden Footy, that I want to play with.

The Rockler pressure-adhesive veneer I use for cold molding sticks like crazy to epoxy and plastic surfaces (including blue foam), and can be used to “retro-ize” just about any part of a boat. Comes in ash, cherry, mahogany, maple, red oak, walnut, birch, white oak, teak, rosewood, and hickory. You can get either 24 x 24 in or 24 x 96 in sheets. Great stuff.

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=2213

Cheers,

Earl