I have always wanted to build a traditional Scottish wooden fishing boat but have never seemed to get around to it so when I once again saw the plans for this in an advert in Model boats mag I finally took the plunge.

The plans are by Sandy Cousins and distributed by Traplet and, as luck would have it, I ordered the plans exactly one week before Traplet publications went into administration.

The plans are on eight sheets, one of which shows how to make a working trawl net, which I doubt very much I will be doing. The boat will be built as a working r/c model, my first for many years, but knowing me it will probably sit as a display model until such time as my grandson is old enough to take an interest in sailing her (if he ever does).

The model will be 500mm in length with a beam of 150mm.

This will be my first fully scratch built hull and as such could be fun. The plans call for the frames to be made from 0.8mm cardboard/pasteboard and the hull plating from 0.4mm cardboard/pasteboard but I decided to make these from 0.8mm and 0.4mm ply respectively. The keel piece is made from 3mm ply. The plans also call for the planking to drawn onto wider strips of 0.4mm ply which are then applied over the plating but I intend to plank the hull with mahogany planking strips applied to the ply plating and well varnished. The interior of the hull framework will be coated with epoxy resin.

The first Pic shows the side plan of the boat as she should look when completed.

So to start the build.

The keel piece was traced onto 3mm ply using carbon paper and cut out with a Stanley knife. I cut out a 3mm wide section where the prop shaft will be fitted and glued 3mm ply strengthening pieces across each side of the cut out, this forms a pilot hole which will then be drilled out to take the prop shaft. A similar operation was performed for the rudder tube. Pic 2 shows the keel held in a keel clamp.

The frames are produced as half frames, Pic 3, and there are 24 frames (48 half frames) in the hull. To cut these out I scanned the drawings and then printed the frames out. These were then glued to the 0.8mm ply with photomount and then the individual half frames cut out. The frame number was then marked in pencil onto the ply and the paper removed from the frame.

A waterline deck piece, with slits cut to position the frames, is used and this was again traced out using carbon paper – this time onto 0.8mm ply – and again cut out with a Stanley knife, pic 4.

A scupper deck runs around the top of the frames onto which the main deck is later screwed down. Pic 5 shows the scupper deck traced onto 0.8mm ply prior to being cut out. The marked square sections are the positions for strengtheners to be glued under the deck where the main deck screws will be located and the four cross sections are temporary stiffeners which will be cut away later.

3mm square strips were glued to the keel at the waterline to support the waterline deck (these can be seen in Pic 2) and I made a couple of supports from scrap plastic card which were clamped to the centre of the keel to temporarily support the waterline deck until some of the frames were glued in place, pic 6.

It was now time to start gluing the half frames in place. Each half frame is test fitted in place and any adjustments made before gluing it into place. Pic 7 shows the first few frames being fitted.

Well, that’s it for now

Graeme

Very interesting project Graeme. Will be following.

Regards,
Phil W.

Looks as if you have yourself a very interesting kit Graeme and great to see you're off to a very nice start..... will be following with interest on this one.... .. Good luck with it....

Regards

Alan

You should have a peep at an old Scottish TV show: The Vital Spark.

A brilliant comedy about an old Clyde puffer and the crew.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3fRxJIjJ2U

Roy.

Just a brief update, I have now attached all the half frames to the keel and apiece of triangular bead to each side of the keel at the bow to support the hull plating when fitted.

I checked the beam measurements at all the frames and compared them to the marked out scupper deck and found some slight discrepancies where the actual beam was slightly wider than the traced deck - probably poor tracing on my part - so I have decided to make a card template first then, when correct, use it to mark out the ply.

Graeme

Looking good Graeme, you're really getting going with this. Great work
Happy building
David

Thanks for looking in and the comments guys.

As I said in my last post, when I test fitted the scupper deck it was short of the edges of the frames in several places. To rectify this I weighted the deck in place, Pic 1, I then measured the discrepancy at each frame position and noted this on the deck, Pic 2.

I then placed the deck on a piece of card and drew round it. I then marked the correct positions at each frame and using a flexy curve re-drew the deck outline. This card template was then cut out and test fitted on the hull, Pic 3, and was found to fit correctly.

This template will now be used to cut out a fresh scupper deck but that’s for the next update.

Graeme

Nicely done and great work

Neat and tidy build nice work.

Al

Nice work Graeme, all these things are sent to try us and coming up with a solution shows the skill of a great modeller. Doing well mate.

Chris