This 1985 Bayliner 3250 was a scratch build project that I started in 1985 when I was doing work with youth in London Ontario through Youth for Christ. The kids in our program each built a simple plank on frame hull from balsa. At the time I had a scratch built PT boat in the works, and used this model for a bit of a diversion whenever I ran into problems with the PT Boat.

The working drawings (ink on mylar sheet…those days are long gone) were hand drawn from an article in the July 1986 edition of Power Boating Ontario, that I created from photos and the specs stated in the article. I can’t believe I still have those drawings after all these years. It wasn’t meant to be an exact scale model, but over the years it evolved into a pretty good representation of the Bayliner 3250 Conquest. The hand drawn hull was later redrawn with AutoCAD, which simplified the need to create drawing details for the model.

This was a scratch build which over the years was never finished and got stored away with a lot of “stuff” at my mom and dad’s house when I got married. It was almost tossed in the garbage when my mother’s sold her home in 2019.

The model was resurrected from the trash while cleaning my mom and dad’s basement. It was salvaged before the final yard sale we had when their house was sold. Like other projects I have started, I never had the heart to pitch this one out, and I am glad that I didn’t. I remember in 1988 I worked as a camp counselor for a few weeks and water tested this model in the camp’s pool running on a Mabuchi 550 motor, and a 7.2V Nicad pack linked to a rheostat speed control taken from my Tamiya Frog RC Car. It was hard to keep my transmitter out of the hands of the kids in my cabin.

I had only started to paint the hull when I lived at home, and the job I did was brutal. I took the model home after being salvaged, stripped it down, filled in the bad spots with micro balloons, re-sanded and re-glassed the balsa hull. The original drive shaft was a Graupner 4mm drive that I salvaged from a Graupner gear drive I used for another build in the late 80’s. I spent a lot of time cleaning up some of the cabin details to bring this model back.

I built a work stand from scrap oak I salvaged from my school. The uprights were covered with 1/4” thick cork that was salvaged from scrap cork sheet provided by a local lumber store. The cork is nice since it is soft, natural product that protects the paint finish on the model. I did little on this model until the pandemic helped me to get my butt in gear and get some work on several models.

The Covid 19 years were the big push years on many of my model projects, and this one did not get left out. It was a nice easy model to work on since the hull is only 18” long which made it convenient for just puttering with, while I planned online lessons for my “work at home” students.

At that time I ordered parts for several other models and picked up a 500 size motor and motor mount from Model Boat Bits. Awesome vendor with decent prices who ships outside the UK and has a convenient link for international orders on his website.

After priming the entire model with white primer, the area below the waterline was sprayed French Blue similar to the magazine cover. It’s not an exact match but Bayliner like car manufacturers I am sure had several colour options for their boats. The rest of the model was finished white with dark blue tim lines.

The white primed deck and cabin roof were masked and primed gray which was a good match for the Bayliner deck surfaces. The gray primer was later sprayed with several coats of Rustoleum clear to protect the primed surfaces. The clear coated gray primer also retained a low sheen which is a nice look for this model.

More details were added to enhance the exterior look of the model such as the wind screen, hatches helm details and walnut rail trim.

The 1/32” railings look to thin for this build, but when I tried 3/64 diameter it looked oversized. The dark wood used on the open deck was extremely thin walnut stock that was left-over from table saw and planer scraps my students left behind from their shop projects. The use of CAD to create detail part drawings is a nice asset that always simplifies part fabrication when I am working on a scratch build.

After doing the windscreen, railing and the walnut ladder at the back I realized how inaccurate some of the features on this model really are. Oh well, despite being semi-scale, it was started as a project to help a few youth in my community.

I wonder if any of their Bayliners are still around after all these years. I am sure that one or two over the years got chewed up by some of their family pets or destroyed by irate siblings.

The Danforth anchor and the forward anchor winch were the last deck details added to this model. To save weight both were hade of styrene sheet and tube stock based on a bow photo I found of a 3250 online. I did detail drawings for a Danforth anchor for my scale PT boat that was made it from brass stock, so this one, scaled down and made from styrene was an easy modification from my drawing.

I used a short length of jewelry chain I "borrowed" from my wife, for the eye end of the anchor going into the winch. I never had a long enough piece to show how the anchor actually feeds through the deck so I just did this for the aesthetic value on the models bow…it doesn’t look correct but it looks good.

Now all I need is a cheap electronic speed control, a small LED’s for the mast, and a suitably sized action figure. Then I can get this thing in water deeper than my bathtub.

It didn’t turn out to shabby for a scratch build that was really just a diversion while I was working on other boat models (I have some build write-ups I should post on these as well). I will do an update on this build in the spring when I take it out for it’s sea trials in a local pond.