Model Yacht Restoration

[blueg33]

Looking for activities during lockdown I came across a piece of my history in my attic

Please bear with me a minute whilst I tell a story or just skip down the thread.

My dad is now 87 and very frail, I’ll be amazed if he sees 2021.

When he was 18 he was into horses and sailing. He choose to focus on sailing so bought himself a kit racing dinghy called a Firefly. He built it on his own a beautiful varnished wooden boat with sail number F969. He raced competitively qualifying for the Olympic team. Sailing was in his blood.

The advent of a young family stopped much of his sailing. He taught me to sail aged 5 in the Firefly, but mostly it spent its time under a cover in the garage.

When I was about 8 he scratch built me a scale model of a Star class yacht. This was my pride and joy and the subject of this thread, so I will get to that in a bit.

As we grew up dad was able to afford to buy a cruiser racer and we sailed every weekend. Sailing remained his passion he even taught the youngest ever Global Challenge skipper to sail.

Unfortunately in his mid 70’s dad had an accident on board, he ruptured his achillies tendon. Although it mostly healed it had a bid impact on his mobility and ability to keep sailing.

The boat got less and less used and was eventually sold. Looking back this ripped the life and soul from my Dad and must be the hardest decision he ever made.

He is getting dementia now but still talks about sailing as a young man and as a family.

In my attic, I found my model of the Star, its worse for wear, so I plan to restore it, get it sailing again and take my dad to the lake where we can enjoy a least a small taste of sailing and see again the beautiful thing he made for me.

Anyway this is the first instalment. Here is the boat as I took it from the attic today.







It needs new mast, new standing and running rigging, new sails, painting and sealing, varnishing, new rudder and I will try and install compact RC steering.

What you can’t see in the pics is that everything is hand made apart from the screw eyes. Even the sail travellers and swages for the stays.

Thanks for bearing with me.

[CATD8H]

What a nice story, please keep us up to date with progress...

[DIW35]

Be interesting to see how this one progresses. Hope the final chapter will include some 'on the water' shots.

[gruffgriff]

Wonderful history. Watching with great interest...good luck!

[Tyre Smoke]

That's amazing! I'm in. The decking looks incredible. The mast and boom look okay in that pic, what's wrong with them?

I suppose you already know this but the Firefly was built to be an Olympic single handed class. Even though it had a main and jib. And they are sailed two up now. What happened to F969?

[blueg33]

Tyre Smoke said:

That's amazing! I'm in. The decking looks incredible. The mast and boom look okay in that pic, what's wrong with them?

I suppose you already know this but the Firefly was built to be an Olympic single handed class. Even though it had a main and jib. And they are sailed two up now. What happened to F969?

The mast has snapped where the screw eye for the jib was inserted. I may try and repair it with an aluminium sleeve as it’s always going to be a weak point.

My dad used to race With John Oakley of America’s Cup challenge fame Lionheart. Dad keeps all this stuff quiet you have to drag it out of him.

F969 was a labour of love, it got 8-12 coats of varnish every year, wet sanded with fine grit between each coat. She was sold when my dad was about 55, whereabouts currently unknown.

My model Star is about 47 years old.

Looking at online images the model is pretty accurate



Although the spreaders are lower on modern aluminium mast versions



Dads F969 is still on the Firefly Register under his name

Firefly Register said:

Name
"Ambition"
Builder
Fairey Marine January 1952 Kit Hull number - 1003
Deck Colour
.
Hull Colour
.
Usage
Racing
Condition
Not Known
Location
Present location - not known
Current Owner
Present owner - not known.
Known Owners
1st owner - Trevor Towe, Rugby SC, NFA Life Member.

Edited by blueg33 on Saturday 4th April 14:32

[dr_gn]

Nice story. Nice model - there’s something very satisfying about restoring an old model. Watching with interest.

[Simpo Two]

I'm surprised the deck has a such a 'patina' of age/use. Are you going to retain some of that or go for the shiny new look?

It's a nice model; having scratch-built three model boats myself I know how much of a step up from a kit it is and the skills needed.

[Tyre Smoke]

Do you think you could get the Star register to officially 'measure' it?

[blueg33]

Simpo Two said:

I'm surprised the deck has a such a 'patina' of age/use. Are you going to retain some of that or go for the shiny new look?

It's a nice model; having scratch-built three model boats myself I know how much of a step up from a kit it is and the skills needed.

I want to keep the deck patina, so a light sanding and a coat of varnish

Struggling to find suppliers of things like rigging wire and can’t work out how to swage the rigging wire at the ends.

Dad seems to have created the loops in the wire and sheathed them with brass, maybe really small brass tube squeezed flat.

[Simpo Two]

blueg33 said:

Struggling to find suppliers of things like rigging wire and can’t work out how to swage the rigging wire at the ends.

Dad seems to have created the loops in the wire and sheathed them with brass, maybe really small brass tube squeezed flat.

This place has a good range of brass tube and other bits in model-making sizes: https://www.hobbies.co.uk/materials/metals They are in sizes which telescope together, which might be useful for you.


NB I don't think just flattening brass tube is going to grip two bits of wire very well - but it you add solder it will.

Edited by Simpo Two on Sunday 5th April 10:51

[dr_gn]

Not sure if this is what you're after, but Bob's Buckles make rigging eyelets for WW1 model aircraft. I used some on a 1:32 SE5a (but with elastic line).

https://www.bobsbuckles.co.uk/how-.html



TBH they are very easy to make by wrapping some fine copper wire around a pin drill. I started to make them, but got bored (needed dozens) so ordered them from BB.



Here is a supplier of fine rigging wire:

https://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/acatalog/Stai...

I guess you could solder a home-made eyelet into one end of some brass tube, and the wire in the other end to make a custom version. I'd imagine it would be strong enough. You could even push some fine wire through brass tube, loop it and crimp the tube, but depending on scale, the wire would have to be very fine.

[blueg33]

Thanks. I have found some brass crimps online. On close inspection it looks like that’s what my dad used so I e we I’ll go that route.

During its life the boat was modified to use wind vane self steering. I am going to return it to the original Braine set up, but the quadrant is long gone so I will get some brass sheet and make one. (Wish I had a laser cutter!)

[blueg33]

Deck fittings removed and transom sanded back to wood to make sure it’s ok. It’s stained but is found. You get an idea of how thin the deck and hull are.

I can’t remove the travellers so will have to varnish with them in situ.

[Simpo Two]

blueg33 said:

I am going to return it to the original Braine set up, but the quadrant is long gone so I will get some brass sheet and make one. (Wish I had a laser cutter!)

As I discovered, brass sheet can be very hard as it's rolled, so thanks to another PHer I learned of annealing. That and a scroll saw eventually did the trick.

blueg33 said:

I can’t remove the travellers so will have to varnish with them in situ.

If those are the tarnished brass bits, perhaps some wet and dry?

[blueg33]

Simpo Two said:

blueg33 said:

I am going to return it to the original Braine set up, but the quadrant is long gone so I will get some brass sheet and make one. (Wish I had a laser cutter!)

As I discovered, brass sheet can be very hard as it's rolled, so thanks to another PHer I learned of annealing. That and a scroll saw eventually did the trick.

blueg33 said:

I can’t remove the travellers so will have to varnish with them in situ.

If those are the tarnished brass bits, perhaps some wet and dry?

That’s interesting about the brass sheet. Wonder if that’s why dad used copper originally.

Yes I will use wet and dry on those brass bits. Other brass bits will go in some warm water with bicarb, ste vinegar and table salt.

[Tyre Smoke]

Why a Star though? Easier than a Firefly I suppose. Chined hull versus rounded.

[blueg33]

Tyre Smoke said:

Why a Star though? Easier than a Firefly I suppose. Chined hull versus rounded.

Could be

[cati]

Hi odd you mentioned lionheart. My dad and his team built her. Take it you heard John’s stories about the sea trials at goat island ?

[blueg33]

cati said:

Hi odd you mentioned lionheart. My dad and his team built her. Take it you heard John’s stories about the sea trials at goat island ?

I never met John, and dad sailed with him before Lionheart, so I haven't heard the stories, it would be interesting to hear some