This is a build log for a re-make of the Aerokits Fast Patrol Boat.

To me this is a significant boat because as small children it was an occasional but very enjoyable outing to Nauls Mill Pool in Coventry to go and sail my dad's free running Fast Patrol Boat. This was in the mid to late 60s when radio control was out of reach of most people but there were the fortunate few who had their smart looking blue aluminium Mc Gregor R/Cs. Regardless of that my brother and I took great delight in releasing the boat on one side of the pond and racing around to the other side to catch it and send it back again.
In later life I crudely butchered it with some Meccano and a Futaba 2 channel R/C.

Now a "little" older I have returned to R/C and already have a few electric R/C planes and a *** Sea Queen under my belt. However what really takes my fancy is to detail & build my own Fire Boat but before I bite off more than I can chew. I think it would be a good idea to start on something smaller.
While visiting my parents at Christmas I dug out my dads Fast Patrol boat but unfortunately the plans were no where to be found so I fired up the CAD and got a pair of callipers to measure up and re-draw the boat.

Attached are some pictures of my dads original (now some 40 + years old)

The bulk of the design was completed mid / late January and that included time to purchase some of the necessary hardware (motor, prop tube, rudder & UJ etc). I just wanted to make sure that every thing would fit before I started to cut wood.

Just in case anyone was going to get upset about copyright, the overall length has been increased from 20" to 24". This will be essential in order to get the intended motor to fit.

When it came time to cut the parts out I printed them full size & cut the paper templates out with a sharp X-Acto knife & then traced around them onto the wood.

The main structure will be build from 1/8" ply and the keel will be (3) laminations of 1/4" ply.
See attached picture of the main components.

Attached two pictures show the main components & them slotted together.

I roughly opened up the windows in the cabin sides but they still need cleaning back to the line.

Due to the close pitch of the bulkheads it was not going to be possible to drill bulkhead 2 to accept the path of the propshaft after assembly so it needs to be taken care of early on.

My next step was to cut the keel false rebates. I profiled the pair between B2 & B3 to match the line of the bottom skins as dictated by the bulkheads. Then I pre-cut the keel to make drilling the prop tube easier.

Now the first bit of gluing. I glued the false rebates between B2 & B3 in place. Next day when dry I opened up the hole to allow fitting of the prop tube. The tube was then pushed forward to confirm where it will break through B2 (Turns out it was exactly as per my drawings).
Next I drilled the bulkhead to accept the prop tube.

Please note in the "assembled" photos in this section the only thing glued are the false rebates between B2 & B3!

My choice of chine & gunwale stringers are two laminations of 5mm x 10mm spruce, back to back for a 10x10mm square section.

Next step was to carefully cutback the bulkheads to accept the stringers. I made up a little 1" x 10mm x 10mm test piece that I used to keep checking the squareness and depth of each notch as I slowly cut them back.

On completion I glued B2 & B3 to the keel. To check alignment I placed B1 & the transom in the transom in place and located them all with the cabin sides.
As you can see, all is a good push fit!

When dry, I glued B1 & the transom in place, again using the cabin sides as a locator.

I'm getting a little concerned over my choice of chine wood type & size in that the required radius may be too tight. To encourage the wood to be more sympathetic, I soaked the chines for 30 mins in water and then clamped them into a radius fixture to match the installed chine. I'll leave them for a couple of days and see if the wood takes the radius.

Next step is to profile and glue in place the keel false rebates between B1 - B2 & B3 - Transom.

Taking a look at my jigged chine stringers they had taken up some of the bend but not really as much as I would have liked. There is no point setting up undue stress, so I made up some lower breast hooks to carry the chines at the bow. To help locate the breast hooks I drilled two 1/8 holes in the the keel, one near the bow and one near B1. I then alternately held each BH in place and used the holes in the keel as a jig and drilled into each BH. I then cut some 1/8 dowel and pushed it into the keel holes so that it stood proud on each side. I then glued the BHs in place locating on the dowel pins.

When dry I epoxied a single stringer on each side of the lower BH.

Next day I epoxied the chine stingers to B2. To help hold them in place while the glue dries I notched a piece of scrap and packed it with a lollipop stick to get the exact fit.
I will progress likes this gluing the chine to just one bulkhead at a time.

OK, The inner Chines are now installed & I have delibrately left the long for the time being.

I have decided that for the next step, rather than double up the chines, I will install the inner gunwale stringers.

Time to glue the Upper Brest Hook Plate in place.

At this time I have still not glued in the main cabin sides but I do locate them while gluing any stringers etc to help ensure that I don't run into any alignment issues further along.

Inner Gunwale stringers complete and left long.

Cabin sides still not fixed.

The next set of stringers have now been in the bending jig for less than 24 hrs so too early to work with.

Double up the Chine & Gunwale stringers.

My method is to epoxy the end of the stringer into the breasthook and leave 24hrs to dry.

Next apply glue to the inner faces of the doubler joint. Where the gap is too thin for a spreader, I run the glue in with the thickness of a piece of paper.

A joint like this will benefit from pressure along its length but as I don't have a limitless number of clamps and the pressure req'd is too great for conventional clothes pegs so I simply notch some scrap so that they are a good push fit to hold the wood tightly together.

The stringers have now been provisionally sanded and trimmed back to the transom.
A front deck support infill piece has been fitted.
In order to make it easier to set up / dry fit the running gear a support stand for the hull has been put together.
The keel has been drilled to accept the rudder assembly.

I think it would be a good idea to get the drive line fixed while its still easily visible. This means before the bottom skins are fixed.

I have built an interlocking motor mount (base, front face and two side gussets). The motor locates on its front hub diameter and has a support cradle underneath. The gearbox is attached to the mount plate with (2) M3 screws.

The motor mount is intended to be removable from the boat. The whole mount attaches to a mounting plate thats permanently fixed to the hull. The mounting plate is made from 1/4" ply and is fitted with (4) blind nuts to accept the motor mount fixing screws.

The idea is that this assembly will be carefully positioned to line up with the shaft and tacked in place with the odd spot of CA before being permanently fixed with some keel doublers.

I urgently need to get round to checking out the motor, I still have not put power to it !!!