Saturday, June 28, 2014

Turtleback

Recovered boatHere's a surprise. Look back to December 2011 and you can read how a model I built of a Korean Turtle Boat sank during its first tests on the lake.

At the time I spent an hour or so poking around in the water with a big net but didn't find any trace of it. Sad, but this is the risk you take putting a model boat on the water. It wasn't something I'd spent many months building so I decided to chalk it up to experience - the lesson being that when you try to retrieve a boat, use a net and not a pole with a hook on the end of it.

Anyway, I was sitting in a rather nice Italian restaurant on Monday and recieved a text with the picture shown here in it.

My boat had been found by the grand daughter of the lady who owns the farm has been paddling in the lake with some friends and found some boats on the bottom - 3 of them including mine! As you can see, it's a bit muddy but as far as I can tell intact.

Back home, the model have been well washed and looks pretty good for a model that has been under water for nearly 3 years. The electrics don't seem to work but then that's hardly surprising. Something is rattling around in the hull too.

Not to worry, when I get a minute I'll try and take it to pieces and see what the story is inside. If I could make it work again, that really would be a story...

Cleaned recovered boat

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Its a ghost ship now. Back from the afterlife.

Anonymous said...

Question: why don't you always have a large block of polystyrene firmly attached to a boat on a piece of string in a maiden voyage? That way even if the boat sinks,you can retrieve the polystyrene and thus the boat, assuming you attached it well enough.

Even if you have to make a temporary attachment point, surely it would reduce the rick factor?

I'm sure there is a very good reason why you can't do this, and I'm sure you'll now tell me what it is...

Phil Parker said...

Thta idea comes under the "Nah, I'll be alright" section when at the lakeside. The sort of thing you with you'd done AFTER the event...