Saturday, March 01, 2008

Splodgers maiden voyage


maidenvoyage
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker.
The great thing about a footie fishing boat (it’s called a footie because of it’s length) is that you don’t need to fill a bath to test it, the kitchen sink will do.

With everything wired up I need to see how well the boat floated – there’s no point in carrying on if it won’t do that after all !

Once in the water the biggest problem was a list to port. I’d weighted the model with lead equally but then stuck the heavy speed control on one side. Placing the two standing figures on the starboard side helped but a bit of kitchen “stuff” was needed to get things properly level. The “stuff” – a lid for a jar – weighed in at 34g so I need to add some more lead inside. Either that or remove some. The boat is a bit low in the water really. Trouble is, when I stick lead down, I stick it down properly so I’m not sure if I can get any out…

Sailing in the sink isn’t exactly exciting but I did get to prove everything works although the motor is wired back to front. Nothing that isn’t easily fixed though and then we can head off to larger waters.

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