Lifeboat toy ahoy!

I'll admit I'm a bit of a sucker for RNLI stuff. When it comes to supporting a charity, one that involves volunteers heading out on dangerous seas in all weather to try and save lives gets my vote every time.

That and I like orange things, especially orange boats.

All this means that if I find an RNLI shop, I'm going to be spending money and probably buying all sorts of stuff that I don't really have a need for.

Which is how I ended up with a clockwork lifeboat. It's a funny looking thing. You rotate the little man to wind up the motor and he spins gently as the model sails along.

If water is not available, the toy has wheels so can be run around the floor like a car.

I know my lifeboats well enough to know that the RNLI don't have any amphibious vehicles, but perhaps they should consider one based on this.

Of course I can't just sail my boat in the bath. It needs a try out on the model boat club lake. Despite sitting very low in the water, the model performs but the clockwork motor isn't really man enough for these conditions. The run time is pretty hopeless too - although to be fair I don't think the designers we thinking of me when they were chewing the ends of their pencils.

I did ponder fitting a motor, possibly a servo converted to drive the model, but that looks like a lot of work. For a start, how would I get at the insides?

Back to the bathtub with this one I think.