New Year Sail

My Dad received a superb present for Christmas this year from the Chairman of our model boat club - a model boat.

Not just any model boat though, a micro Fairey Huntress. This is the Mk2 version of the boat that appears in the January issue of Model Boats magazine. It's a really tiny vessel but can still cut it on the water with much larger models.

Weather, illness and panto work meant that the maiden voyage wasn't until the New Year bank holiday but once on our pool, it raced around like a good 'un. The top speed looks pretty close to scale - David suggested we might want to tweak the blades on the prop for a little more aggression but at this point it doesn't look like it.

The model isn't quite finished. I've been tasked with touching up the paint and adding a name. We'll also fit a steering wheel from the stash of model railway bits. A couple of crew members are required and the new owner (who is well chuffed with his new toy) is going to have a chat with a friend who makes these from scratch to see if he can't make a commodore and dolly bird. If this happens, don't worry, there will be photos !