PS Bellarine

[Doonie]

PS BELLARINE 117 gross tons. Built as Dispatch at Milang in less than 9 weeks in 1877 by Thomas Smith and Frank Potts for A H Landseer. She was 111.6 feet (324m) long, had a draft of 18 inches (457mm), could accomodate 60 passengers with bunks for 8 females and 12 males. Serviced the Milang-Meningie mail service across the lakes. She was a Royal Mail vessel and a vital link in the overland service between Adelaide and Melbourne. November 1888 sold to W H Smith & Sons Ltd of Melbourne and steamed to Port Phillip under her own power. 1889 renamed Bellarine, worked on Corio Bay Geelong until when 1900 sold to A Phillips, Melbourne and converted to a lighter. {Notoriety: - In November 1877, soon after she was built, the Governor of South Australia (Sir W F D Jervois) travelled on the Dispatch to Goolwa after visiting Milang. In 1881 Prince George (later King George V) and Prince Albert travelled on the Dispatch, skippered by Captain George J Wallace, to the Bowman's property, Campbell Park, to join in a kangaroo hunt}

G'day, Doonie ére.   I've made a start on the Bellarine and I'd like to share the build here if I can.   I'm hoping to get a bit of help every now and then as I hit hurdles.

Here's a couple of old pics I've found.

Doonie

[derekwarner_decoy]

Hi PD's ....& welcome Doonie  .........

Yes certainly this is the correct location for your build thread of our PS Bellarine.......

Are you using the Float a Boat plan set?...Bellarine would make a superb model 

Naturally any questions just ask.......one of our world wide members will be more than happy to assist

Digital images are always very informative & most welcome.......Derek 

[the bombus]

Hello there ,
First of all best wishes
would'nt 35.76 be a more correcte lenght of the ship ?
Otherwise it would be a Titanic xxL 
Gr from The Bombus

[Doonie]

Hi PD's ....& welcome Doonie  .........

Yes certainly this is the correct location for your build thread of our PS Bellarine.......

Are you using the Float a Boat plan set?...Bellarine would make a superb model 

Naturally any questions just ask.......one of our world wide members will be more than happy to assist

Digital images are always very informative & most welcome.......Derek 

Thanks Derek.   I'm a little way along with the build and yes it is from the Float_a_Boat 2 plan set.   The plans are a great aid but not fully informative and one must make a lot of stuff up as ya go along.   Matter of fact, I had a  good look at the pics I posted and it may yet become PS Dispatch.   The twin electric motors and shaft/bearing set up takes up a lot of room where the Boiler and engines go but I noticed that the Dispatch had a forward Cabinny thing which would help to hide all that.

I'll post a few more pice in the next day or so.

Doon.

[Doonie]

Hello there ,
First of all best wishes
would'nt 35.76 be a more correcte lenght of the ship ?
Otherwise it would be a Titanic xxL 
Gr from The Bombus

Very observant.   I copied that info off the net and didn't check it.   My mistake.   My model is a 5 footer (1.5 m ish)

Cheers,

Doonie

[Doonie]

Here's some pics of the build so far.   Next thing I have to do is build the paddles.   I haven't tackled paddlewheels before and am not sure how to build them.   Also haven't been able to find any plans yet.   I was going to cut 3 mm circles off the end of a bit of 6" and 4"plastic pipe for the outer circles but the six inch won't fit under me bandsaw so I'll have to think of another way to cut them.   Any ideas of a simpler way would be terrific.

Doon

[Jaydee]

Hi Doonie I am in the same situation as you new to the site and making my first boat.  Did you have a look at the paddle wheels at Float a Boat they have a range of them in different configurations ranging from 50mm up to 180mm maybe you can get some ideas from them

[mjt60a]

.... Next thing I have to do is build the paddles..... I was going to cut 3 mm circles off the end of a bit of 6" and 4"plastic pipe for the outer circles but the six inch won't fit under me bandsaw so I'll have to think of another way to cut them.   Any ideas ....

I'd use a 'compass cutter' (circle cutter) and cut them from suitable thickness styrene sheet

[Doonie]

Hi Doonie I am in the same situation as you new to the site and making my first boat.  Did you have a look at the paddle wheels at Float a Boat they have a range of them in different configurations ranging from 50mm up to 180mm maybe you can get some ideas from them

Yeah, I went there to buy some but when she said, "that'll be $150 thanks," I shat meself and thought I'd have a go at making them.

I'll get there.   Something will come up or I'll just go ahead and make some and see what happens.

Cheers and thanks,

Doonie.

[Doonie]

.... Next thing I have to do is build the paddles..... I was going to cut 3 mm circles off the end of a bit of 6" and 4"plastic pipe for the outer circles but the six inch won't fit under me bandsaw so I'll have to think of another way to cut them.   Any ideas ....

I'd use a 'compass cutter' (circle cutter) and cut them from suitable thickness styrene sheet

Thank you.   Still thinking about that.

Doon.

[bill stafford]

theres no reason why you cant build them your-self,but , my first set of p wheels took me 3 months , but im a slow builder
since then i haver use laser cutters for my adelaide p wheels , last set were HIPS from FaBoat , took me all of 4 hrs to build , a very good product .
i would advise to build up rims on a plan or jig , others have cut out of alum. plate
 good luck

[Roderick Smith]

See also the reference which I culled from Loney:
http://www.paddleducks.co.uk/smf/index.php?topic=2384.msg11355#msg11355
It was used for pleasure cruises from Geelong to tea gardens at Point Henry.
I wouldn't want to go right down Corio Bay with that draft, and not across the heads to the Mornington Peninsula side, although Lake Alexandrina and Lake Albert were both notoriously rough.
The sale date of 1888 was the result of the opening of the through railway between Melbourne and Adelaide (IIRC 1887), making the mail boat redundant.

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

[Doonie]

Thanks for that.   I'm leaning more to build it as the Dispatch, for various reasons, but thanks for that tidbit to add to my info collection.

Doonie.

[Doonie]

OK, I've made a decision.   Its going to be the Dispatch, or as near as I can make it going off a couple of old photos and Flooataboats plans.   I have the independent drive systems set up and wired up but now I have to wait for some stuff to arrive from the US before doing much more.   I'll give more pics when that happens.

For now, needs must move on to other projects for a while.

Doonie.

[Doonie]

I moved over to the Baby Bootlegger Project while I'm waiting for the bits for Dispatch from the US.

Here is where she's at.   The first pic is the real boat, the second a modern replica and the others are my model.

Cheers,

Doonie