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| by Mark
Steele - Auckland, New Zealand
Of Todd’s
two Mariah’s, a Mad Hatters Starlet
Day, Bawley John, and Mark’s magnificent
Victory
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Mariah the boat |
Mariah the bird |
Todd Weber (of Arizona, USA) seen above is someone
you may not have heard about in model sailing boat
circles. After spending a good portion of his childhood
around a variety of boats, with summers spent on Long
Beach Island off the coast of New Jersey, he was taught
to sail by his grandfather on a Perrine sailboat and
he now owns a 13’ Pico Lazer which he enjoys
sailing on visits to Mexico. Having always enjoyed
miniatures and model building, some three years ago
after a month-long sail with friends from San Diego
in California to Mexico on a 50’ Kettenburg,
he decided to replicate that yacht. Having been introduced
by a friend in Washington to a Tippecanoe T37 kit
he saw the basis of the sloop he wanted to build.
A jeweller by trade, having built up the 37”
Tippecanoe kit, Todd (seen above with the finished
model) has now scratch built the features and details,
added a cabin which is held in place with four strong
magnets and has an opening hatch on its roof allowing
access to the switches for working lights and servos,
functional inclinometer and other fittings. What about
the name given to this boat, Mariah? It was named
after a Kestrel Falcon similar to the one above) that
Todd had raised many years earlier - a bird that had
taken her first free flight, had flown almost out
of sight and landed high in a tree, refusing to return
until the following day.
Sailed for the first time at a lake near to where
the Kestrel had flown, history had almost repeated
itself, the model suddenly no longer responding to
the radio signals sailing over half a mile away and
needing to be rescued by a lady in a Kayak. How many
of us have left a switch on and ended up with dead
batteries?
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What one can do
with a Tippecanoe!
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What a delightful looking little schooner prototype
(below) has emerged from the crowd at Fleetwood Model
Yacht & Power Boat Club in England. I understand
from Jim Bennett that their Fleetscale division are
intent on establishing a Lady class (and that is nothing
to do with women sailors) of boats on this 36”
length overall hull from a mould made at Fleetwood.
Eleven have either been built or were in the process
of being built to sail or race as schooners or single
masted cutters. I think that the prototype has absolutely
beautiful lines, nice and flowing and with a hint
of the past while retaining a simple rig. Not entirely
disimiliar to the South Sea schooner Tiare Taporo
the boat is refreshingly `different’ to the
run of the mill schooners. One member of this club
has built and sails the impressive Winston Churchill
model seen below in the second photograph.
Here in Auckland I have seen several Vic Smeed Starlets
appear over time that fall close to the `which part
is the Starlet bit’ question being asked.. Having
said that, our Ancient Mariner windling modus operandi
has no rules and it is all fun with the emphasis of
building what you like and enjoying sailing it. How
about this Starlet based junk (below) from Ron Rule
which appeared in January
and what better way to lead into the low key but enjoyable
Starlet Mad Hatter end of (our) summer fun day held
at the beginning of March? A dozen turned out, there
were three or four sailing events and several skippers
wore mad hatter headgear (a compulsory requirement
or go naked!) Richard Gross won a sail-off with John
Stubbs to take the trophy for the `Have a Go, just
one go’ time trial with his Starlet Mist
and Murray White won the dinghy towing race with his
Starlet, Southern Cross. A few hours of showery
weather pleasure ensued.
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'A little harmless,
outrageous fun is
an important
activity of the
Ancient Mariners'
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My friend John Butterwith of Devon in the UK (below)
has built several really beautiful RC scratchbuilt
models including a couple of Bawleys, indeed he is
partial to the Bawley to the extent that he is addressed
as `Bawley John’ but he has however also built
a nice Bristol Pilot Cutter. He once was a fisherman
and is now holding a responsible administrative position
in the UK fishing industry and runs the Fishermen’s
Association. In addition he performs audit surveys
of fishing vessels for a UK company.
That incredible model shipwright in Sydney, Australia,
Ian Hunt I believe hopes to complete his large model
of the Sindia by the end of this year. In
the first of two photographs shown below can be seen
a few of his lifeboats on the water. Nice modeling
work and a really nice photograph. I hope to feature
the completed model when it has been launched. Some
may remember his impressive County of Inverness
1877 built some years ago. The Sindia, a
4 masted steel barque, ran aground on the shores of
Ocean City in New Jersey, USA on December 15th 1901.
Here’s another beautiful square-rigged model.
Mark Tindall of Kent built and now sails this wonderful
work of art, a 58” long model of Admiral Lord
Nelson’s famous flagship, Victory.
The model which is of course radio controlled, required
16lbs of ballast and has been modelled in her Trafalgar
condition and the builder decided to show all the
gunports open as though cleared for action. Depicted
above and again below, there is an amazing tide of
interest in square-riggers generally, in particular,
fighting ships. Mark built the model in a year and
a half period of time, having selected a size that
would be relatively easy to both transport and lift
into and out of sailing water.
‘This far down the stream
of time that has been and still is thank God, my life,
before I expire, I hope I can continue to try and inspire
others on the gentle art of model yacht sailing’
Click
here for previous Columns by Mark Steele
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