Friday, February 20, 2009

Maiden voyage (sort of)


Brede Hull sailing
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker

I know this isn't how you are supposed to do things. Years of tradition tells that a new model boat hull is meant to see water for the first time in the domestic bath (which will be refered to as the "domestic test tank"), but I was down at the lake having a sail so I thought, "why not" and stuck the Brede Lifeboat in the car.

Once the water had quietened down a bit and I'd taken Tomsk out for a run with our towing barge, I launched the hull complete with a bit of lead to see how things were looking.

Since the last post on this project I've filled and sanded the surface a couple more times and am the proud owner of an old jacket that has been bulletproofed with filler dust. I've reached a "good enough" point where any improvements will be tiny and quite frankly I need to move on. An imperfect finished model is always better (IMHO) to a perfect model that never quite emerges from the workshop.

Anyway the main thing is the hull didn't sink. In fact it floated very well with the small amount if lead ballast. I think we're a bit high still so pushed down which confirmed that there is plenty of buoyancy to handle batteries, radio, motors and superstructure.

Sadly, no one could help much with idea for the spray rails. Plastic was suggested but I know I can't get anything triangular 5mm tall so it looks like time to go back to the garage and make some dust with a sander and some wood.

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