These are my very first boats I ever made. At left you see the "SAMSON I" from Billing Boats (1977), an easy beginners model of 50cm. The club sticker is still on the bed; the club stopped in 1980. The other one is the "HAMBURG" (1978), produced by EMI (called the "Fairplay V"). It measures 65cm and has a functioning fireman onboard (that little yellow german soldier who's weapons I cut off and the helmet I transformed into a sou'wester). The "Samson" still needs some serious restoration. The mast is broken, the rudder is gone, some railings are broken and the tires are all gone but one, but the original engine (a Johnson) is still on-board, rusty but operational.

At the left you see a yacht I made in about 1979. It was only made to prove some guy his boat was not as fast as his big mouth. Two heavy Johnson motors and 2 motorbike batteries made the guy a bit more humble. At that time +/-25 km an hour was reeeal fast on the water!!! (I only burned up the complete wirings). Now we are rebuilding it for my nephew in a more appropriate configuration. The second one is the "SAN REMO" from Robbe (1995), whitch I used to experiment building PVC kits, a new material for me which I learned to detest. Wood still works best. I choose this model to build an out-board motor on a rather small yacht and kept the finishing rather simple.

Well I did'nt learn my lesson well the first time and pruchased the "ORKNEY EXPRESS" from Robbe, a complete PVC kit! It's a hard lesson, but to be honest, I fell in love with the idea of having a fast boat and tug boat at the same time. It will take me some more months to finish this one because I HATE PVC and I hate the bad kits from Robbe. The hull was deformed and the parts were only touched by the cutting machines and fitted real badly. The "BROOKLYN" from Dumas is a relief to build, practically all wood and a resin hull. Only the scow had to be replaced because I did'nt like that long toiletpaper tube.

The Hamburg and the Wannabee completely restored and back in their element for a first testrun.
The Hamburg has some electronics aboard (diesel emulation, horn and foghorn), a pump to provide water to the little yellow marine on backboard, and full lighting. A 6V - 4Ah battery, the old original transistor equipped variator and the original Decaperm motor take care of propulsion. The Hamburg (named 'FAFF'OEL') navigates like in the older days, the best suited boat for saving actions, which he allready did in the past and for which he'll allways be ready to run when we're having fun with other boats.
 
 
 

And the Wannabee? An ugly green monster, transformed in this IKEA colored beauty. (My nephew wanted it yellow and blue, so what?) A whole lot of sanding, refilling, sanding, refilling etc... and five layers of paint gave it a slick hull. After the first testrun we decided to leave it with very few details and let the colors speak for themselves. The boat watchdog is allready aboard, the captain is in painting and only a window on the top deck has to be made. The Wannabee navigates on 2 6V-3Ah batterys (in serial = 12V) with 2 Speed 5E motors. Its a real beauty to see him go at full speed. Maybe more powerfull motors would give more speed, but the sight in fact is perfect, so we doubt to change the motors.
 

Even second hand bought boats can give much fun. The steam tug-boat is called "SEA ROVER". I bought it on an model exposition in Hasselt (B) for a very beautyfull price. The model must be of some age, has never touched water or have an engine build in. From a distance the building looks great, but a good look shows a number of beginners errors (deck planking isn't correct, some parts aren't mounted as it should, the superstructure isn't build over an embankment to keep water out, but sinks into the deck, and worst of all, the interiour ends of the shafts are positionned to low to fit a standard motor). A tooth-belt system from Graupner with a reduction 2:1 were the only good solution to this problem. The boat is powered with 2 12V Johnsons I bought in Dortmund (Ger) for only a few bucks. The speed controller is a 40A Simprop model that gives good control of slow speed. A Steam engine simulation is build in provided with a bell and steamwhistle sound. Originally it is a kit meant for trains, but the effect in a steam powered boat is marvellous.
 
 

My friend Pol baught this trawler from an Antwerp young guy. It should be the THALIA, but it is made so very, very badly, that he decided to rebuild the whole superstructure. Lucky for him I allready had the plans and documentation of the Thalia. He bought the boat because of its low price and the fact that the motor (Robbe Power 1000) was included, so he could be on the water in a minimum of time. On the first testrun, we were very lucky my Searover was in the neighbourhood to prevent it from sinking. Pol forgot to fully charge his radio and after a couple of hours the Thalia went off on her own, in reverse full speed. Because of the low rear deck and the bad closing of the hull he was taking much water. I positioned my Searover behind the Thalia and stopped it by letting it ram me. The boat stopped, but was still taking water, so I pushed him ashore as fast as I could. Only 2 minutes more and that ship was lost in the 13m deep lake. Fun it was, but hard for someones nerves too.

                                                                                                                        The Sea Rover doing what a tug boat has to do.

This luxury yacht, the "OCEPA", is made by a retired carpenter who passes his time building model ships from scratch and then sells them for a very democratic price. It measures about 1m25 and is build in very light materials, so it needs some interiour reinforcement with a resin coat. I was surprised when I opened the boat: the carpenter had allready build a great part of the interiour furniture. It only needs finishing. I intend to build in a powerfull motor to show off at a rather high speed.
The second boat has allready been on the water and shows some symptoms of usure. It is the trawler "WOTAN" from Graupner. I baught this one to simulate a ship in distress, letting it sink partially (nose under water). Navigating from left to right and back isn't fun for longtime, so a little bit of animation must bring us more fun.

This is my first sailing boat. This fast-construction kit is the "Dolphin" from "Robbe", a very democraticaly priced kit, generally easy to build. The box says "buy it today, navigate tomorrow". Well, that's about true, but 2 days of work is a better estimation. The building went well, but some remarks have to be made. First of all there are five hooks screwed in the deck to fit the ropes. Before screwing them in, turn a normal 2mm screw through the 1.5mm holes, this way the holes are allready tapped. I broke a hook screwing it in at first.
Secondly, the explanation about mounting the ropes is not really clear; a beginner could have serious trouble to find it out. I must admit that this is the first kit from Robbe where all parts fitted well and didn't need very much cleaning up. Should they have changed their way of working? I surely hope so, because these guys produce beautifull boats.

I bought this boat in a reflex. The price was very good and for this model I don't need to charge powering batteries. Only thing to do is keep my transmitter and receiver batteries in condition. When the water calls me, I simply grab my stuff and off we go. Sailing seemed to be extremey simple with this stable beginner's boat. Some basic understanding of how a sailing boat works is enough. Specialisation is for later.

Projects I have in mind: the "ARPEC", a more modern high sea tug-boat, which I want to build on a bigger scale (say about 150cm or 60") and the "Frederic Mistral", an older Donau tug-boat, which I intend to build in metal (messing ribs, plated with zinc?). Well... it is my intention do build these ones. But that will have to wait for some time. At this moment I am redrawing the plans of the oldest scandinavian tugboat, the "STYRBJORN", from which you can find the site in my link list. I simply fell in love with the model, being able to do heavy towing and even breaking ice (thin ice off course). And my old dream of navigating on steam is to be realised in this tug. I started building a financial base to buy the good stuff. If anyone has advice for this beginning steamer... please let me know!!

  

  We note 29 aug.1998: