PS Brighton or Connaught???

[Stuart Badger]

Help please PDs - I need some 'input' as our American friends would say.

I have recently completed my sketches/drawings and research for the RMS Connaught and am expecting drawings for the Brighton to arrive at any time from the Mitchell Library.

I can't decide which one to build! Really I can't, I keep coming up with reasons for one or the other but am going round in circles.

At 1/48 scale the Connaught would be about 90inches long and about 8 3/4 inches beam. At 1/24 scale (My prefered scale) the Brighton would be about 110 inches long and 14 inches beam.

Both are beautiful vessels - The Connaught is older and slightly more elegant and unusual, but the Brighton would make a splendid 'super model'

So let me ask, if some one offered you a completed model of either to the scales I have indicated - which would YOU choose?

I'm really serious about this  - I would truly appreciate some help!

Stuart

[Eddy Matthews]

I'm sure everyone will have a different opinion Stuart, as we all have different tastes, and there will be some that may not like either vessel.....

My own choice would be for the Connaught, but it would HAVE to have lots of smoke coming from the funnels to look right IMHO.

If your planning on comming back to the UK, it would be cheaper just to buy a couple of airline tickets - Building at that size and sailing it back from Greece seems like your trying to get home the hard way!

Regards
Eddy

[Talisman]

Hi Stuart,
110 inch is 3 bigger than my current project and forgetting the logistics and thinking about on the water my choice would be the bigger of the two. I am looking forward to getting my big boat on the water for a sail but not looking forward to heaving about.

Please do a building diary that would make a fantastic read I'm sure

In anticipation...
Kim

[Stuart Badger]

Thanks Eddy and Talisman

I'm still undecided. I do prefer the Connaught, but I have this feeling that I would need to build her in 1/32 scale to stop her falling over!

This would give a model of nearly eleven feet! My lake is only about 50 metres away - but at that size I'd probably have to build her as a model of 2 halves for transporting.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm - must do some more sums

Stuart

[kiwimodeller]

The logistics of transporting it do have to come in to it Stuart. My big paddler will not fit in the back of the station wagon unless the passenger seat is right forward and the seat back is tipped forward as well so now when I go away for a boating weekend with the club the missus cant come too. Aw shucks! Ian.

[Eddy Matthews]

Just as a matter of interest Stuart, have you calculated the finished weight of the two models? The sheer size is one thing, the weight is another - And they won't be light!!

Regards
Eddy

[Stuart Badger]

I'd like to say 'of course I have Eddy' and produce a page of calculations! I have done a few 'guesstimates'.

I don't have the Brighton drawings yet anyway to try and work it out - but the one thing that strikes me is that the connaught's hull is very rounded at the bilge, whereas the Brighton has a flattish bottom. In fact there is very little displacement in the Connaught hull and this is one of the main things worrying me.

BUT I produced a set of full size drawings on the PC today for Connaught after reading these posts and have decide to go for her - even flat on paper she looks just beautiful. I'll go for 1/48 scale and just be VERY careful with weight above the waterline. It's going to call for a very lightweight set of feathering wheels - which extend incidentally almost as deep as the keel!

Building anything bigger would leave me like that guy who built an aeroplane in his lounge and had to demolish the front of his house to remove it

Stuart

[waldenmodels]

Ah - I see you have come the "right" conclusion without my prodding, Stuart, which I assure you would have been very vigorous

A kind fellow member of papermodelers.com has done a test build of the underwater hull for the 1:250 Connaught, and it's just beautiful - long, sleek, great lines! I don't have the wherewithal to do an R/C version, but if I had, I surely would!

Just a thought - couldn't you add a false lead keel that would go on only when she's in the water?


Cheers,


Oliver

[Stuart Badger]

Strewth Oliver!

It's like a rowing scull! Still I suppose if a guy can balance one of those things with 2 oars either side and not fall over - I should be able to produce something that stays right side up. A detatchable keel is one solution - or a removable dihedral keel.

She is very beautiful. I cant wait to see your finished product - loved the Anglia!

Stuart

[Eddy Matthews]

Strewth Oliver!

It's like a rowing scull!

I have to admit that when you see Olivers photo it is frighteningly long and narrow!! But at the size your building at I still think it would make a magnificent working model Stuart!

Eddy

[greateastern]

Stuart,
There is absolutely no reason (save the lack of a nearby forest) for not building both at the same time. While the glue is drying on one, you can be cutting the frames of the other. That way, in the end, if you decided you didn't like the Connaught, you would have the Brighton as the prize. It sounds too much like my lament--when I'm not near the paddler I love, I love the paddler I'm near.
I'm laughing WITH Stuart, not at you.
  As a suggestion for weight, you might try a cement hull buiding over a clay dummy. There is actually a long history of cememt hulls for cargo ships and some small yachts. Used to have a book on cement hulls.

[Stuart Badger]

Thanks for the encouragment Dave!  I am even now trying to use my very basic Greek to tell two Albanian builders to move a wall to make my workshop bigger!

Stuart

[Talisman]

Stuart,
  As a suggestion for weight, you might try a cement hull building over a clay dummy. There is actually a long history of cement hulls for cargo ships and some small yachts. Used to have a book on cement hulls.

Thanks for the encouragement Dave!  I am even now trying to use my very basic Greek to tell two Albanian builders to move a wall to make my workshop bigger!

Stuart

Stuart, does your Greek vocabulary extend as far as ...
Excuse me Mister joiner could you rattle me up some formers and arrange as per these drawings .......and mister plasterer could you skim my hull?

Could save hours of building and you could consentrate on educating us mortals on better ways of doing things...

Joking aside it would be a novel hull but would it hold up to dents and dings at the pond?

 

I'll go back to my shed now .....

[waldenmodels]

Stuart,
don't you think you might get better results if you employed your basic Albanian?

Cheers,

Oliver

[Stuart Badger]

Ah well! - here's the thing you see. Most of the GOOD work here is done by Albanians who speak Greek - me being a Brit who speaks a little Greek ensures many opportunities for things to go belly up!

Any way - I have spent today setting up the machines and sorting out my tools - all I need now is electricity somewhere near the workshop - DOH! I will post photos when it's done. And if there are any bits and bobs you want me to do in the mean time, just ask in the 'Odds and Ends' thread.
All the best

Stuart