Welcome Mermod

welcome to the forum bud

now lets see your builds 

from what I have seen on mayhem, we are in for a treat....welcome to the site mermod.

Thank's for the welcome guy's, I found out about this site from Tugtower over on Mayhem, I don't think I ever did the proper intro over there so here goes
I'm a 41yo (today!) model boat fanatic, cabinetmaker by trade, first got hooked after getting tired of fixing my RC cars in the early 90's, and stumbled across the local boat club back in Western Australia (West Australian Model Boat Club) straight after that I had my parents down the local hobbyshop and we bought a second hand MFA Fantome that had been IC but I converted it to electric (Hectoperm GT500), after that I was at every meet and competition day until I left WA and Moved to Tasmania but was horrified to find no clubs in the north of the state, only down in Hobart 3 hours away, anyway I found a nice spot to sail in a little town called Penguin and went there every weekend and eventually talked a few people into the hobby as well as meeting up with some other boaties looking for someone to sail with. I continued this for a few years but managed to injure my back at work requiring surgery and stopping me from doing much for a few years, once it was obvious I couldn't do my trade anymore it seemed the next logical step was to open a hobby shop, we opened Mersey Models in the small town of Latrobe (which has just been hit with terrible floods not seen since 1929) and we had a ball, great little business and we were supported well by the locals and eventually had people travelling statewide, unfortunately it didn't leave much time for my boats, after a few years trading I started having bouts of dizziness and fatigue which made it hard to operate and by this time the GFC was in full swing so employing someone was out of the question so the decision was made to close the business  I still miss the shop but I don't miss hordes of people claiming that running their nitro car into a wall at 60kph should be warranty and similar crazy claims.
So once the shop was closed I got back into my passion for building boats and combined this with a facebook page for Mersey Models selling bit's and pieces as well as taking on comissioned work and desperately trying to get some Australian made kits into the marketplace, in the meantime I also discovered the fatigue and dizziness was down to a rare condition called SCDS (superior canal dehiscence syndrome) where the tops of the ear canals controlling balance break down, this has slowed me down a fair bit but I am determined it won't stop me
my personal models are.....
Star Perseus at 1.2 metres long
Navy 45 tugboat Mersey, one for me and one in a local museum
billings flying fish, smit nederland
Freedom Song Boatworks tugboat Preston, recently scaled up and re built at 1:12
Robbe Paula 3
Robbe Dolly for the wife
several other small tugboat prototypes and one of my ALbert kit's built up as a demonstrator
oh and a model of the Spirit of Tasmania in a local museum
oh yeah and a half finishd Abeille Liberte at 2 metres long
oh and a Sea helper from the marine modelling plans, no doubt I will remember others after I hit send anyway thanks for adding me to the site and I will try to contribute whenever I can.



Phill

Heads up Mermod .. i'm the mayhem tugtower, oh i've emailed you something. i tried twice to send via PM but it came out all garbled for some strange reason, i can only blame server issues. so please check your email!

Hi Roadrunner, I did get your message but it was super tiny, I managed to zoom right in and read it though, I did send a PM but let me know if it didn't work.

Hi and very welcome here Mermod

Hi Phill welcome from Ballarat Vic. I also once lived in WA. 12 house town of Hamel just south of Waroona back in mid '80's and sailed at Mandurah. still building but no where local to sail Lake wendouree is clogged with cut weed from the 2km rowing course.

Damien.

Hi Damien, I grew up in Mandurah back when it was a relaxed little fishing town, spent a lot of time playing on the wharves at the back of the old Peninsula caravan park, eventually we moved to Rockingham where I did my apprenticeship on Dixon RD, the boat club used to meet at a little man made lake at Woodbridge, we also used to attend the hobby expo's at the Claremont Showgrounds, I vaguely remember sailing at a lake which was mostly run-off as you got into Kardinya.

Phill

Hi Mermod

I was at Latrobe last week!
A model boat group ran at the Country Club, but, I asked if it was still possible to use the lake( IC would be a NO,NO, I think).
No model boats for about 2-3 years, but, may be a good place for a restart.
We run at Lauderdale Canal each Saturday morning as part of the MMACA group(MMACA.com)
The Hobby shops in Hobart are not a great help in boating stuff.
The Launceston one had 3 boat drive line kits and a few bits.

Float a boat in Ringwood Vic. http://www.floataboat.com.au/shop.htm won't take long to get parcels anywhere in Aust.
 Rhonda & Adrian Brewer own the store they're great for parts, plans and kits.

canabus wrote:

Hi Mermod

I was at Latrobe last week!
A model boat group ran at the Country Club, but, I asked if it was still possible to use the lake( IC would be a NO,NO, I think).
No model boats for about 2-3 years, but, may be a good place for a restart.
We run at Lauderdale Canal each Saturday morning as part of the MMACA group(MMACA.com)
The Hobby shops in Hobart are not a great help in boating stuff.
The Launceston one had 3 boat drive line kits and a few bits.

Hi Canabus, the group that ran at the country club were about 4 or 5 older guys that would run mostly during the week and were reluctant to let anyone else know when they were sailing.
I would love to come for a sale with you guys but when I'm in Hobart it's usually during the week of there's not enough room in the car for a boat, I do plan to have a sail at the Australian Wooden Boat Festival next year, might catch up with you there?
Hobby shops in Hobart are pretty basic, I refuse to buy anything from Sorrel (you know who I mean) but Mcanns are OK although they don't have much for model boaters, I mostly scratchbuild everything but do use Float a Boat when I need to, luckily I can still get my radio gear from suppliers I had when I had my shop and for everything else there's Hobbyking.

Back in the old days the Hobart group used to come up here and we would all meet at Evandale, a guy had a private dam at the back of the Evandale markets, great set up with docks and an island in the middle with lighthouse and train line but sadly the owner passed away and it all stopped, If you run into Dave Hunt he will tell you about it.

Phill

Hi Mermod

I plan on going the wooden boat festival we had a good display last time, but, I think the guy that was doing that has retired from it and the area that we used has moved???
I will see if I can find out more info.
The guy that owes the Sorell one owe the one at Moonah.
Nice to know about Float a Boat as I am looking for fittings for my Sea Hornet, Sea Commander and my Aerokits mix-a-boat which is a bit of a few for their designs rolled into one(I called it the SEA RAVEN).
Ye, I am a Hobbyking fan, but, the web site is a pain in the butt.
I have a F3 outboard with a broken flex drive they do not have spares and a mainland hobby shop jump the price up from $10 to $20 each and I refuse to deal with that place again.
I will change the boat to inboard with the same motor and use a 4mm flex drive.

Quote :

I have a F3 outboard with a broken flex drive they do not have spares and a mainland hobby shop jump the price up from $10 to $20 each and I refuse to deal with that place again.

Hobbyking are a nightmare for keeping spares in stock, basically fi your buying something from there you better not break it!

but as a suggestion, a broken flex drive is actually an easy fix without buying the 'offical spare part' you just need to go onto ebay and buy a flex shaft of the correct dia as the one your replacing and once it arrives just cut it down to size ( then you can have 2 or 3 spares from one length which works out cheaper!) 

//On a side note tho flex shafts rarely break 'easily' they tend to break when they over heat from lack of lubrication, or if they have started to rust through lack of proper maintenance.

A flex shaft should be washed and cleaned with water, dried and then oil soaked before returning to the water and this should be done after every single day of sailing. ( and more so for salt water use!) a single shaft thats well looked after should give you many many years of trouble free use!//

if you need to crimp/square the ends then i suggest silver soldering the ends and then clamping in a vice to square off, if your lucky enough to not need that then u can use some lock tight retaining compound for permanent or semi permanent attachments allowing for parts to be joined to the flex shaft.
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I would only buy components from Hobbyking, motor's and such, anything scale float a boat are awesome, anything fast electric like flexi shaft, teflon liners, props etc I would go straight to RCboat bitz australia, as for the show Dave Hunt has retired from running it and they have moved us back to the glassed in pavillion thingy closer to the front of the show......no air con

Phill

Hi Mermod
RCboat Blitz are the one's that double the price.
The Flex drives are only 3mm with silver solder end and with a 90 degree bend and cleaning after end day still do not last.
I will go 4mm flex and inboard.
As for the glass thingy building, the model boat were in that place and it is totally unsuitable for displaying model boats.