Pit Box Update

‘Cutie?’ or a restoration project that became something more.

Several years ago I was shown the hull of what looked like an early tethered hydroplane. It was single stepped, boat shaped and very deep. What was unusual was a keel piece running from the bow to the step. It had been painted all over with coat of green paint, which covered any evidence of its origins. A model aeroplane enthusiast had discovered it in a shop in Norfolk, but was more interested in the 10cc Brown Junior lurking inside. A deal was done for the engine, and there it was left until the aeromodeller happened to tell a friend of his where the motor had come from. He was promptly despatched back to Norfolk to buy the hull as well, which then was consigned to a garage for many years. I hate to see boats being neglected, and after several attempts, an agreeable swap was arranged.

Having brought the hull home it was possible to have a good look at it. The Brown Junior was obviously an afterthought as there was a substantial pair of brass engine mounts to fill the space once occupied by a much bigger motor. There were tether points on both sides of the hull, split pins through the sides and through reinforcing strips. This system had been seen before, usually on deeper hulls. The skeg was there and indicated a straight shaft and a talcum powder tin on the foredeck had done duty as a fuel tank. The best bit though, was that holding the hull to an oblique light revealed the shape of a name or registration number underneath the green paint, ‘QT V’.

At this stage, I was unable to identify the boat, who had built it, or even an approximate age, although the shape looked from the late 1920s or early 30s. What was obvious was that it had been built with steel screws and every single one of them had almost rusted away. These had to come out before anything more could be done and luckily they had rusted so badly that there was little grip on the stringers, so with a bit of care, and several days work, all but three came out. Something I have learned is that very early boats used just shellac as glue, and until resin and aircraft glues came onto the market, what was used was glue in name only and probably did no more than fill the joints. This boat was no exception and soon I had a complete kit of parts, with no two pieces of wood joined. A novel place to start, but it made cleaning off the grotty paint a doddle. With the boat in bits, it became obvious that is had been very well made, but I was still no nearer with an identification.

Rebuilding the hull was relatively simple, but this time I used Cascamite and brass screws, seemingly boxes of them. I did have to scarf two small pieces of ply in where the rot had done its worst, but otherwise it was in very good condition for a hull of that age. Unusually for me, a motor was no problem as I had an equally unidentified four stroke of roughly similar vintage that looked as if it would be about right. Fitting out was just a matter of making a new shaft and couplings, with a neat, but dummy outlet, to disguise the rough hole cut in the side of the hull for the Brown Junior exhaust. Peter Hill's wondrous spares box provided a period prop to complete the drive train. With several coats of shellac reddened to match the original and a hand painted name, the job was more or less done.

It still niggled me though, that even with the name it had not been possible to identify the boat. Peter Hill said that he had recollections of seeing details of it somewhere, and suggested that it might have been a design by J.C Hudson. After looking through twenty years of Model Engineers and other magazines I was no nearer finding the answer, even after it was featured as a 'pitbox' item in Sept 08. Peter then had another moment of clarity and thought that he had seen the design featured sometime in the 1920s. This was quite exciting, but again going back even further in the MEs still did not reveal anything. I was now at a loss until Peter again came up trumps. Looking through the early magazines for something else he had come across ‘A design for a Metre Hydroplane Hull’ in the Dec 17^th issue of ME for 1931, and there was the 5^th in the QT series, by D.C. Jeffrey. That begs the question as to why I did not suss it out earlier? Well, sod’s law, being what it is, dictated that of 40 years of Model Engineers, which issue was missing? Yes, Dec 17^th 1931, yet another bizarre coincidence.

D.C. Jeffrey was very active in Scotland around that period, and published several articles in ME. He claimed that ‘QT V’ had a ‘good proved performance’, ‘planes level and steady with practically no wash’, ‘is easy and inexpensive to build, yet has a fairly good appearance’. The earlier version of the design, QT IV is illustrated, fitted with a flash steam unit. To accommodate this power unit, the depth of the hull was increased to 5 inches, which Jeffrey’s admits made it look too ‘dumpy’. He does give alternative construction for QT V to allow a flash steam unit to be fitted.

Unusually he provides a material list:-

One sheet, 4ft by 3ft 6ins 1mm three-ply 3/6 (17½p)

Eight strips 5/16^th sq by 4 ft long white pine 1/- (5p)

3 gross iron woodscrews 3/8 long by 2g 1/9 (9p) (I knew there were a lot!)

One tube liquid glue 0/9 (4p)  Total 7/- (35p)