Model Maker: Volume 3, Issue 33 – August 1953

~ VOLUME 3 NUMBER 33 AUGUST 1953 IN THIS ISSUE: One-tenth scale model “Bluebottle’ Dragon Class Yacht: “Incendiary” 23 cc. Functional Racing Car: Dean on Ignition : “Silver Ghost” Rolls Royce Prototype: National 10-Rater Championship: 10-11 A New Tucker 10-Rater: Overhead Monorailway: Working with Plywood: Radio Instz jation for H.M.S. “Wolvertown” : Drifter Trawler : Working Signals in 25 mm. Scale: Poole Regatta: Ford “Zephyr” Electric powered model: Test Bench Trade Review: Fork Lift Adjustable Vice: Soldered Rail Joints : Way Some Engines Grow: Model Church. a ‘THE 1953 10-RATER NATIONALS [DEAL weather favoured the _ enthusiasts assembled at Birkenhead for the 1953 10-Rate r Nationals, held during the week June 22-27. The light N.W. wind which obtained throughout the meeting could hardly have been better, since this gives a true beat and run on the Gautby Road water. The total entry of eleven proved rather disappointing, but enabled four full rounds to be sailed in comfort in four days. Under the prevailing conditions Jsis, the lightes t boat in the race, began to open an early lead, being 7 points ahead of the nearest rival, Tornado, on the first day, and increasing this to 16 on the second . Tornado began to creep up, however, on the third day, and by winning all but three of her twenty boards, reduced the Isis lead to 103. The fourth day saw Tornado still fighting back hard, but the meeting between the two boats settle d it. [sis had the windward berth, and with both boats on a 100 per cent. windward trim, kept Tornado tucked under her lee throughout all their‘ tacks. Tornado won the run, due to a slightly better trim. After lunch the pace increased, with the gap still closing, but when the final results were totted up Isis led by a clear 54 points. Flora, Vectis and Scheherazade had meanwhile been involved in a hectic battle for third place, and it was not until the last day that Flora managed to pull far enough ahead Special mention must to ensure her placing. be made of Estrellite (ex-Seabrook Albergate) whose owner, J. S. Thomas, travelled up from Bristo l and put up a fine show in his first big race. With 30 1b. displacement on a 48 in. l.w.l. Estrel lite’s resulting large sail area was worth its weigh t in gold, and enabled her to completely outpo int and outsail both Isis and Tornado on their windw ard boards. At the official dinner on the last eveni ng it was unanimously agreed that this was the happiest regatta ever, and, despite the smallness of the fleet, will be remembered for the splendid weather and high good humour of all concerned. RESULTS points 1. W. H. Jones Birkenhead Isis 1503 2. B. H. Priest |Morecambe Tornado 145 3. E. Blackshaw North Liverpool Flora 126 OTHER ENTRIES (not in order of finish). J. S. Thomas (Bristol) Estrellite; D. Hazleh urst (Bolton) Scheherezade; J.. E. Edwards (Birkenhead) Virgo; A. Howarth (Birkenhead) Nirvan a; J. T. Manley (N. Liverpool) Edrina; A. Levison (Guildford) Suroni; F. Smallwood (Morecambe) Vectis; e BRASS TILLER SOCKET DATUM. “SOLDERED TO RUDDER POST AFTER view. | a F RUDDER TUBE eeu ALL MOULDS OF PLY OATUM \ 38 CLARENOON RD WATFORD SPRUCE © RUDDER IS HUNG MODEL MAKER” PLANS SERVICE x36 To allow the hull to be “‘aired”’ the sliding cabin hatch is made as a push-on hatch with dummy slides. The well deck floor is of – in. ply and is well fitted to the sides of the hull, any gaps being rudder post are detailed in the RACED BY HAY THE UKE OF EDINBURGH PUBLISHED BY GRACIOUS | eye-plates. \ SCREWED TO LEAD KEEL CABIN HOG. = TOP x BLOCK ra oo iileiat =o // re BRASS FOOT BEARING — / TRL E MOULD 11 BONE OF 4 SPRUCE, COMPRISING 2 PIECES OF PROPE! IloLBs : | , SIDES Yi, PLY Z ; | 5 ALL ROUND MAHOGANY 450 August 1953 The colour scheme for the hull is:—Royal Blue top sides and Pillar Box Red’bottom. There is no | | | boot topping, and the deck, which is canvascovered in full size, is painted a mid-stone colour with a matt finish. The mast and boom are of circular section throughout and are made of spruce to the sizes shown on the drawings. Should the builder desire to make his own fittings, it may be of interest to note the method of fixing adopted for the cleats and sheet winches on the well deck coaming. The cleats were drilled through the centre so that a suitable sized brass pin was a drive fit. Pins with a large “flash” under the head were selected and driven through from the inside of the coaming and rivetted over into a countersink on “top” of the cleat. It was found that the “‘flash” gave ample fixing against the cleat turning. : The sheet winches were held down by a piece of 6 B.A. studding passing through the deck and mounting block. The studding was screwed and soldered into the winch and a nut and washer – fitted under the deck. The glue used throughout was “‘Aerolite 306” which is a gap-filling, waterproof, synthetic resin obtainable from most ironmongers. [ BLUEBOTTLE SHEET 2 OF 2. Si2 ~ * Hoos. | IH | FULL SIZE WORKING Hi DRAWINGS ON TWO SHEETS ai WW TO) Mou. EX UM B WEL D | || | ss | \ A TENTH SCALE O–hi-\ MODEL L.O.A. 35 INS. bce lek | fea —# BEAM 8 INS. AVAILABLE | /R\ | | iH | | PLANS SERVICE | 38 CLARENDON RD., (/ WATFORD | POST . | | | FROM MODEL MAKER PRICE \ 7/6 i ; FREE | | | #\l 7 | f \ L | f \ Ott ee) i _ ; +” ~ FOR B BOARDS 451 August 1953 POOLE RADIO REGATTA « THE SECOND ANNUAL REGATTA AT POOLE ATTRACTS SOME OUTSTANDING BOATS Elegant Mersey Tug entered by J. Merrick in the Steering Competition, which took second place with 164 pts.,from winner P. A. Cummins of Byfleet Inset: The neat “steering wheel” type of control box used by the tugboat’s skipper Below right: Lt. Col. Bowden’s Whale, the biggest cabin cruiser entered with 1.oa. of 40in. 3 RILLIANT weather blessed the second Poole Radio Regatta, which took place on their now catwalk-enclosed water, and amply rewarded the strong entry that attended the event. D. W. Rowe with his well-known Wavemaster won the first event, a two-lap race round a triangular course, in 1 : 2 from Max Coote’s television-featured Sirius Star with 1:11. Thirteen boats in all entered for this contest, including Col. Bowden’s Swordfish and the big Whale, Col. Taplin’s metal-hulled boats, Bertil Beckman’s Stockholm entry, and George HonnestRedlich with his Spraymaster. We were also pleased to see ex-model car racer Jack Gascoigne with his Below: All the winners! Left to right: That regular placeman, George Honnest-Redlich with Spraymaster, in this case ousted’ from third place by a sister boat entered by M. Gordon.! Max Coote with his delightful scale model Bates cruiser Sirius Star, which performed faultlessly throughout the meeting. D. W. Rowe with the famous Wavemaster, which can attractive Willardia. The two-lap steering event brought out P. A. Cummins with his most impressive radio gear and the equipment-packed Conrad which notched a win always be reckoned on to find winning brackets 463 ee INA MODEL -‘ MAKER- Ot er a Se are ca Ee Gt re — — Oe Just for a change! P, A, Cummins surrounded by some of his radio equipment, and his battery filled hull, was one of the few entrants responsible for their entire radio instal lation. Compare this Set-up with G. H. R Technically, we were interested to note that nearly half the powered craft were using the tuned reed receiver; others were empl oying either E.D., E.C.C., or Ivy receivers, with one “modified Cossor” according to the entry list. P. A.Cummins a A I — es yee Fa this event betokens an interestin g future for this kind of racing. In spite of jocke ying over the line in the lead Col. Bowen had to give best to George’s boat, which managed to pick up more of the spray airs than he could find. —as befits a member of the R.C.M.S.—had installed a 465 mc. receiver of his own design. With the exception of Circassia and the Mersey tug all boats followed the popul ar river cruiser style with cabins, or the simpl er runabout layout such as Spraymaster. This is the first occasion we have seen this little boat in compe tition and there is no doubt she held her own. We wish skippers, however, would try to get all the gear under the hatches provided instead of relyi ng on an untidy ~ with 181 points, closely followed by J. Merrick of Birmingham with his delightful scale Mersey Tug, at 164 points, and G. H.-R. sailing the model liner Circassia, built by J. Pennington. No visit to Poole would be compl ete without some mention of the excellent organisation of the meeting, the informed commenta ry, and the fine range of prizes. Nor must we neglect the social centre—or On Sunday, with glorious weather continuing, we had another steering event which gave Max Coote the opportunity of putting Sirius Star into first place with an almost faultless round of 151 out of 155 possible. Against a show like this Bill Warne’s 145, which earned him second place with his Wavemaster, is really hard luck—and would have won on most days! sub-clubhouse—the Dolphin Hotel, where most competitors put up so comfortably and continued the yarns well into the night. Then came the turn of the radio-controll ed yachts. Col. Bowden retained the Taplin Trophy , a handicap event, for the second year with his Marblehead, beating G.H.-R. and Cobb, a local clubman with a most elegant model. The actual race between the Colonel’s A Class yacht and a similar design in George H.-R.’s hands was the spectacle of the day. In exceptionally light airs it was truly amazing to see the boats inch toward s the slightest suggestion of a ripple to pick up what breeze there was. Normal yacht racing, let alone a three-point triangular course, would have been impossible in such conditions, and the success of The two A-Class boats sailed by is Col. Bowdenposition! and George HonnestRedlich make ready to ockeying transparent cover for the rear cockpit! for cross the line on the gun. Their performa nce in sailing a two lap triangular course in almost non-exist ent winds speaks well for the future of this new aspect of model yacht racing 464 e ees S ee ae MODEL MAKER 7. Thread’ the upper end of the Control Wire through the Control Wire hole in the Arm, push Pivot Pin through from the back of the Lamp and solder Arm to Pivot Pin as described before. 8. You should now be able to operate the Arm from the Control Wire sticking out of the lower slot. A little judicious bending of the wire at the upper slot should result in the signal stopping at dead horizontal in the ON position and at the correct angle in the OFF position. Do not, at this point, cut off any of the surplus control wire protruding through the arm. This is the last thing to be done, before painting so that any final adjustments can be made. . 9. Solder post to base. I shall deal with the control crank and the detailing of the signal in the next article. —sS — Last Words on “ sunkiss? Sir,—My friend, Wally Jones of Birkenhead, cut out and sent me Mr. Tucker’s reply in the current polemics running in MopEL Makeras of the June issue. He invited me to supplement some facts in the controversy, which relates to an alleged violation, by the use of sliding rig, of a prohibition against ‘movable and _ shifting ballast” on an M class yacht. In reading it, I was impressed that Mr. Tucker just went through his customary jousting routine to keep his following safe within the Metacentric Curtain. The sliding rig and the vane steering gear represent rents in that curtain, so trivia, distorted facts and misrepresentations are marshalled into the defence. My dictionary defines “‘ballast’? as a heavy substance laid in the hold of a vessel to steady it. And that must have been in the minds of the early rule-makers in opposing the practice of placing in or removing blocks of lead from the bottom of the yacht in order to promote speed or control The ship’s gear, such as running, standing, stepped or sliding rig, hasn’t up to now been classified as ballast. But there is a precedent: the same jousting tactics were once used with reference to the vane. “The extremely elementary arithmetic” came out beautifully. The only correction I could suggest is that the sliding rig consists of six parts, but only one moving 2° 5 S1r,—May I thank Mr. Tucker for his very interesting letter published in your June issue. In case newcomers to our sport of model yachting may be in doubt as to the legality of the sliding rig due to Mr. Tucker’s letter, I should like to point out that the governing bodies of model yachting, i.e. the M.Y.R.A. of America and our M.Y.A. have allowed boats to race in Championships with the sliding rig. Although no doubt Mr. Tucker would like it prohibited I cannot imagine the M.Y.A. taking such a retrograde step. It appears to me as though Mr. Tucker belongs to that old school of model yachtsmen who did their best to ban the vane, when it appeared British sailors were taking an interest in it. For one who has been in the sport for so long I cannot understand how Mr. Tucker can be so confused over the difference between the rigging of a boat and movable ballast. I shall do my best to put it in very simple language: “‘moveable ballast” has only one object and that for the specific purpose of trimming ship. Now the rigging, mast, etc., so the text books say, is the ship’s gear and not classed as movable ballast. Therefore stepped, running, standing or sliding rigging is, once again, “ship’s gear.” Now such a clever man as Mr. Tucker should know that the object of moving the rig on a Sun Kiss is not to trim the boat. Perhaps as one part. That component weighs around four ounces. Its moment 1.75 inch-pounds. The adverse (according to who races in the M class I may have taken unfair advantage of Mr. Tucker in my defence of the Sun Kiss as I mentioned in my previous letter it was blatantly obvious from some of Mr. Tucker’s remarks that before making them he had never bothered to race‘or sail a Sun Kiss or even see one in action. Whereas, for myself, my observations are from the practical side and not from the armchair. I think for the majority of sailors in America who use the sliding rig, and the fewer in Great Britain, and for myself, I feel that we need have no fear that we are taking unfair advantage by the use of the gear. The authorities in both countries and the International M class rule allow it. I must apologise to Mr. Tucker for my somewhat inaccurate statement as to his ‘‘Ducks.’”? I merely meant in my May letter to criticise the sailing qualities of the **Ducks” in the M class, as I take no interest in the 36 in. class except where the juniors of the Birkenhead Club the Analysts) change of buoyancy, as result of seven inches of travel, is around 2/10 in. All of which qualifies the matter for the trivia depository. Mr. Tucker, in an earlier issue, decried moving the rig ahead when the yacht is set for a run. True enough: beginners in a conceit of prior discovery, do just that until they have forgetfully failed sufficient times to compensate for the return trips. The inference is that the sliding rig should be declared illegal. That means the inclusion of one more item of prohibition. On this side of the Atlantic, we have, in three countries, the knowledge that by a deletion we can make the sliding rig unnecessary, regardless of sailing methods employed. An attempt will be made at the coming Annual Meeting of M.Y.R.A. to delete from the rating rules all restrictions on keel and fin design, which would make the recessive leading edge of the appendage permissible, for one thing. Such step would be a decided break through the are concerned. My congratulations to Mr. Curtain. Our sacred cow, the Analysis, theme and Tucker for his clever design and to his skippers for their very excellent variations, would have to earn her own keep from then on in unregimented competition, a thing that Britain, jealous of her leadership should and must embrace. —Yours very truly, A. R. LasseEL. California. performances. It is a pity that some of our modern top flight designers do not take an interest in this class and give Mr. Tucker a bit of competition. For Mr. Tucker’s paragraph on ‘Elementary Mathematics” I say you.—Yours faithfully, W.H. Jones. Birkenhead. Editorial Note: This correspondence is now closed. 470