Paddleducks
Old Yahoo Group => Yahoo Messages => Topic started by: Paulrjordan on June 13, 2005, 08:01:38 PM
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At the beginning of the month, I had great pleasure in welcoming
Kevin Appleton to our group. I asked him to send a few words about
himself, but at the time he was having those Yahoo access problems
which so many of us know about. I thought it was surprising he
hadn't responded to my request, because he is an eloquent
correspondent, informative, and makes alot of effort to keep in touch
with his email friends which he does with me and I count myself
fortunate at knowing him.
HOWEVER, I was just now checking some old Paddleducks files and I
found the following in a Wordpad file of all things. Kevin MUST have
sent me this in an email and it somehow got transferred as a text
file..who knows !
He has sent me a number of photographs of his models, and the work
of his brother and DAD is truly outstanding. Who knows, one day
Kevin, because he likes tugs, he might want to commission his "team"
to build a Model of one of the last great Sidewheeler Tugs "Eppleton
Hall" or "Reliant" (recently and rather shamefully dismantled in
Greenwich) but for which a GRP hull is available.
But here it is, rescued from my archives andin his own words.
Belated THANKS for this Kevin who is
modeltugger and kevin@appletonkj.freeserve.co.uk
**********************************************************************
Following a chance contact with Paul on a UK web site forum page
various emails and pictures found their way backwards and forwards
across the Atlantic. An introduction to this group was made and Paul
invited me to comment in a welcoming posting last week.
I have no specialist interest in the model boat hobby but do have a
real liking for sailing. Like many of my friends I got into serious
model sailing when health problems forced me to sell my full size
yacht, however, as a child I can remember owning two free sailing
yachts and a small motorised cabin boat. I live in Norwich a city
with a population of about 50,000 close to the east coast of the
United Kingdom. We are fortunate that in one of our many parks there
is a sizeable boat pond. This pond is long and thin, raised from the
ground and holds a million gallons of water. It was built in the
1920's when free sailing and vane sailing competitions were held
regularly on its waters.
With advancement of radio control, in the 1960's, a group broke
away and a racing club for Marblehead's was formed elsewhere. A
club exists on this pond today and members sport a huge and varied
collection of models.
Three years ago I formed Norwich Model Yacht Club and our small group
are fortunate to sail on a flooded gravel pit that has been
fantastically landscaped and developed as a Country park and wild
life reserve. We do not race formally but do sometimes lay out some
buoys and chase each other around. My employment involves visiting
people in their homes so I am able to visit one of these two waters
in my lunch break and unwind with a transmitter in my hand!
I do not confess to being a good model boat builder but am fortunate
to have a brother who is. During a long spell of unemployment he
spent over 2000 hours building a very fine scale model of Nelsons
Victory, this model is now in a Nelson museum collection, and keen to
continue with his new found skills it seemed the right thing to do to
challenge him to build something for me.
He jumped at the chance and the first of my "fleet" began to
take shape. What an arrangement! I fund them, he builds them and then
I play with them! No "playing time" lost in the workshop for
me! My father got the bug and has now started building models as
well. He is currently awaiting the first hulls for a Waveney Class
lifeboat kit that he hopes to go in to production with. This boats
hull is the same as a design used by the US Coast Guard organisation.
So our fleet expands……………I am currently working on a floating
dredger and barges and I have a tug hull awaiting delivery to my
"dockyard".
My brother is currently scratch building a clinker hull steam launch.
He seems to like pain! And guess who will get to play with it!
Thankfully I have not had to fund this project! I have a huge
collections of pictures taken of my and my families boats and at
model shows in the UK and would be pleased to hear from anybody who
would like to exchange emails and or pictures.
Kevin