First 'sea trials' of Princess Elizabeth Minesweeper

[ihughes]

Hi folks, sorry to have been absent for quite a while. I've finally got my Princess Elizabeth Minesweeper on the water after a long gap in its construction. I'm using two motors, no rudder and a home built mixer from fellow MTMBC club member Barry Blyth.

We had some difficulties getting both motors running smoothly in either or alternative directions (turned out one of the original motors was faulty) but now everything seems to be working fine.

I've posted some quick snap shots in the Gallery of its second time on the water.

I've still got some more work to do in spreading the ballast around the bottom of the hull in order to get the centre of gravity (or is it bouyancy?) as low as possible and to stop it heeling too much in the turns.

However, the motors and paddles seem to be well geared and it runs along nicely at very low rpm.

Will sort out the ballasting and have another go on the water later this week.

Ian

[Eddy Matthews]

She looks lovely Ian, a real credit to you.... Please keep us posted on how she performs as you iron out the little teething troubles that all models seem to have at first!

[Walter Snowdon]

Hi Ian, I have been going back over old messages which I didnt follow up, so could you fill in some blank spots?. First off, did you use Richard WEBBS plan? Did you use styrene. How long is she. Any further info or pictures of progress and how does she handle. I have been tempted to a set of Richards plans, but they are a bit pricy so any feedback would be nice as to whether they are worth the price.  Thanks, Walter.

[Walter Snowdon]

Hi Ian, I have just dig out the armament list for the outfitting of PE as an anti aircraft ship:
1x 12 pounder AA gun. 2x2pdr AA ( 2 single mounts). 3x 20mm oerlikon cannon (3 single mounts) 8 machine guns (lewis) in twin mounts- quit a firepower !. Regards, Walter.

[Barrie]

Walter


I made the Princess Elizabeth from R Webb's plans - the civilian not navy version. I built it using Richard's plans and materials pack. I tried two methods of powering her. First a single geared motor driving both paddles. I couldn't get the gearing right. Then I tried two individual motors like Ian's, but these seemed far too fast, and I lost interest in her as a working model

To be effective I think she needs a deeper hull. She 'digs in' badly when turning. I also think the paddles sit too deep in the water which may be eased by deepening the hull. Having said that, I enjoyed building her and she looks good.

Regards,

Barrie

[Barrie]

Walter,

I've just been having a clearout and came across the plans for Princess Elizabeth, the 'instructions' and most of the templates. If you would like them you can have them for the cost of postage. Send me a PM if you are interested and I will find out the postage cost.

Regards,

Barrie

[Walter Snowdon]

Thanks very much for your very kind offer, I would like to take you up on it. As you probably have gathered i have been building paddlers for many years ( I have been shipmodelling for 57 years).
. I will gladly reimburse you any costs involved.
I have just sent a set of plans for the PBM Paddler kit which is very easily built from, to one of our members, Would you like a copy with the kit instructions ?. Once again, thank you very much.  Regards, Walter.