Hi y’all. I decided a few weeks ago to start working on my Christmas present, an ROmarine Dolly. My lovely bride, Teresa, ordered it along with the fittings kit and fire monitor kit. The Dolly is a beginners model, but there is some interesting things to watch out for during the build. The way the deck unit builds up is a little convoluted, everything seems to line up well until you add the cabin, then it seems to get out of whack. I spent considerable time adjusting, tweaking, sanding, etc to get it to fit..it’s not perfect, but it looks okay from a few feet away. The hull and deck are fairly straightforward, but the deck is a little flimsy so I added stiffeners for and aft to shore it up.
The boat calls for a Speed 400 on direct drive...couldn’t do it. Can’t help myself, especially since this boat may be put in harms way, putting out fires, rescuing errant ducks and the like. Sooo...I went thru my stash of motors, settled on an old AYK Magnum 480Z mild, very mild, modified. I have hot stock motors that run harder than this, but it’s smooth, has a pretty machined case, and is almost new. The stock 2mm shaft was used, I almost cut down a 4mm shaft, but the shaft and motor are lined up well. I may still add a brace between the tube and hull.i also stiffened up the bulkhead mounting plate.
I found some 10th scale diamond plate, so that’s what the fire monitor area is covered with. I also found a cheap and cheerful light bar that will be added and wired in. I took it apart to paint and reassembled it.
The fire monitor is neat, if somewhat fiddly to build and set up. It has a return spring to pull it in the up position, there’s a very fine (.5mm or less) nylon thread that runs from the monitor down a 1mm i.d tube that is parallel to the main tube, the thread runs thru that and is connected to a servo. The servo pulls down, when pivoting up the spring adds positive mechanical pull as the servo feeds the thread. Pretty neat and simple really, but a little bit of a pain to build.
That’s about all for now, need to add the monitor servo and then see where I’m at.
Cash

Quick video of the light bar I’m installing on the Dolly. It was a quick clip, and there’s super glue on my finger so no, I’m NOT molting🤣

Howdy all. Had a little time this week, and most of Friday night and today to myself, so I set about trying to get the Dolly finalized, at least as far as the electrics go. I built up the cabin roof with the nav lights, light bar and searchlight. I realized that the light bar would block the searchlight, so I made a mount of cf tube and installed a smaller unit and painted to match. The top of the cabin has troughs to help guide the lighting wire aft and allow the roof to sit flat for gluing. I terminated all wiring at the aft port side of the cabin, all wiring is wrapped in a clear shrink tube that is installed at the aft port c-pillar. I made a hole in the deck for the wiring to pass thru below. Once I have all my installations finalized, I’ll build an “electrical box” for the upper deck wiring to be hidden in. The shrink tubing will be painted white to match the interior. Admittedly, this would have been a lot easier had I installed the lights before gluing on the cabin!
I’ve installed the rudder servo, pump, and speed control. Im using an old Castle Creations Pixie20 esc to operate the pump in lieu of a switch and relay. Small size, easy hook up, just make sure the power side of the rx connector is removed to disable the esc’s bec. I have the pump operated by one of the rotary switches on my transmitter, which gives me water flow control vs simply full pressure and off. The motor is handled by and older Polks Hobbies ESC, simple hookup and smooth, smooth, smooth!! Nice unit. The light bar is powered by the receiver, easy install there, and the rest of the lights are being controlled by a Graupner SXM electronic multi function switch.
Now, I wanted to try to keep the inside somewhat tidy, although it doesn’t look it now. To that end I built a bus using what connectors I needed and some 2.5 mm wire. This way I have a central place to plug in anything that runs off the main battery. Works as advertised, I’m happy with it being its my first try at such a thing. So, I need to finish installig the receiver and wiring for that, once I have everything squared away I’ll check balance and leaks then I’ll pretty her up and take her to the lake.
Cash

Hi y’all. On further testing of the fire monitor I noticed it was leaking at the fitting near the hinge of the monitor body. Problem is that fitting is very short, and the tube in the kit is thinwall silicone, great for flexibility doesn’t hold onto plastic that well. What I did was install a short piece of tight fitting brass tubing into that fitting, it extends outward about 3/16th of an inch, and replaced the stock hose with medium fuel line. I also ran a 4mm brass tube down the shaft instead of using a long piece of silicone. Ran the pump, no leaks, good pressure, but the up and down movement was a little off, probably due to the slightly stiffer tube. I decided to grab my oiler and lube the upper brass tube, shaft and spring. However.....I grabbed my ca instead. Locked it up tightly.
At this point, I made the decision to go ahead and glue up the pivot points and make the nozzle fixed at about 35 degrees up. I want to enjoy the boat, not let it become a source of frustration. My wife thought that was a very mature decision...😉 Anyway, all is not lost. I can always purchase another monitor, build it up and replace this one when/if I feel the need to have a moveable unit. Anyway, she’s coming along, I’ll have more done in a few days post pics then.
Cash

Hi all. Well, she’s 99 percent done. Need to add Velcro for the battery mount, and a couple of odds and ends, but she’s ready to maiden. I did a little lettering, TLFD near the bow ( Towne Lake Fire Department) and I named her after my Uncle, Wayne Jenkins, who passed away in 2019. He was the Volunteer Fire Chief when I was very young, so I named her “Chief Jenkins” I called my aunt to make sure she wouldn’t mind, she got a little sniffly and so did I😊. I did the railings using brass stanchions instead of the die cut abs ones provided in the kit, as I wanted to use the natural brass finish vs paint..to that end, I assembled the railings with ca instead of solder.
I applied the lettering using sticky backed adhesive letters, spaces them out on wax paper then used masking tape to transfer the completed “decal” to the hull.
Anyway, there she is, hopefully she’ll maiden this Sunday.
Cash

Hi everybody. Well, I maidened the Dolly today, as expected she was a bit overpowered with the old AYK 540 sized motor. However, even at wide open throttle she was stable and did not show any tendency to torque over or get unstable. Only problem is that the pump failed on the second run. No noise, anything, just dead. Now, the pump acted up on the bench, I’m thinking I ran it too many times dry while testing, however, the pump on my Neptun never gave me any trouble, and this is the same type of pump. No problem, I’ll either fix it or replace it. You know what the say, anything can be fixed with a lot of time and a little money, or vice versa🤣
Overall I’m pleased with her. The old AYK ran well, and cool, and all the other systems functioned as expected. Little more fiddling and she’ll be fine.