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VOL. IX NEWSLETTER Ensign’s report 1st May 2016 There were coloured lights on the water at Queens Park whilst we had our night sail on 3rd April - thanks to John E. for the photograph. Dragons out in Force Another Joysway DragonForce 65 has taken to the water - mine, and our group’s fourth I think, as Alan’s got one as well. I haven’t entirely gone over to the dark side, it’s just that at Peter and Clare’s suggestion, this $205 (with radio) ‘ready to run’ model - which took me a week to assemble - should give my thumb a rest from hold- ing a throttle open all the time, plus I can enjoy the spectacle of power boaters having to give way to me. Old Dumas Chris-Craft kits I have added a couple of vintage Dumas kit to my collection recently. Believed to date from the fifties (one drawing is dated 1949), they are of the Chris-Craft 40ft Challenger and Chris-Craft 34ft Commander, at a time when these wooden boat were current models. I found an advertisement for the full-size Express Cruiser, a variant of the Challenger differing mainly in its cabin ar- rangements and open bridge (below), and the model seems to shape up pretty well. A front exposed cockpit was a feature of these boats. Unfortunately the models are ‘fit the box’ scale and a similar size (around 32”), despite being based on 34ft and 40ft boats. Construction is of balsa with mahogany for most of the ac- cent exposed woodwork areas. This works well if the hull is fibreglass coated for protection prior to painting. An unusual feature is the use of multiple ‘knees’ assembled to the keel in place of frames. This saves material, but as the resultant parts have short grain and require careful alignment; I would replace them with Lite-ply frames at twice the interval. Knee re-construction required Dumas Chris-Craft 34ft Commander NO. V http://www.bmbg.org.au/ NEW EDITOR SOUGHT

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Page 1: NEW Old Dumas Chris-Craft kits EDITORmembers.iinet.net.au/~mteese@ozemail.com.au... · Another Joysway DragonForce 65 has taken to the water - mine, and our group’s fourth I think,

VOL. IX

NEWSLETTER

Ensign’s report 1st May 2016

There were coloured lights on the water at Queens Park whilst we had our night sail on 3rd April - thanks to John E. for the photograph.

Dragons out in ForceAnother Joysway DragonForce 65 has taken to the water - mine, and our group’s fourth I think, as Alan’s got one as well. I haven’t entirely gone over to the dark side, it’s just that at Peter and Clare’s suggestion, this $205 (with radio) ‘ready to run’ model - which took me a week to assemble - should give my thumb a rest from hold-ing a throttle open all the time, plus I can enjoy the spectacle of power boaters having to give way to me.

Old Dumas Chris-Craft kits

I have added a couple of vintage Dumas kit to my collection recently. Believed to date from the fifties (one drawing is dated 1949), they are of the Chris-Craft 40ft Challenger and Chris-Craft 34ft Commander, at a time when these wooden boat were current models.

I found an advertisement for the full-size Express Cruiser, a variant of the Challenger differing mainly in its cabin ar-rangements and open bridge (below), and the model seems to shape up pretty well. A front exposed cockpit was a feature of these boats.

Unfortunately the models are ‘fit the box’ scale and a similar size (around 32”), despite being based on 34ft and 40ft boats. Construction is of balsa with mahogany for most of the ac-cent exposed woodwork areas. This works well if the hull is fibreglass coated for protection prior to painting. An unusual feature is the use of multiple ‘knees’ assembled to the keel in place of frames. This saves material, but as the resultant parts have short grain and require careful alignment; I would replace them with Lite-ply frames at twice the interval.

Knee re-construction required

Dumas Chris-Craft 34ft Commander

NO. V

h t t p : / / w w w . b m b g . o r g . a u /

NEW EDITOR SOUGHT