Tony Crollie’s Teddy Bear’s Picnic

Not long after Alan Bond joined the SRCMBC he spotted a pondside bargain – a small cabin cruiser, complete except for ESC, with radio gear and almost new TX, for sale at £10 or was it £15? So he bought it for the TX and RX and gave the remainder to his prodigious boat building friend, Tony Crollie. After some experiments Tony decided to re-model it as a 1930s style naval launch – which apart from a whole new superstructure, also involved adding filler to modify the previous cabin cruiser style prow to give a more ‘period’ hull shape.

Whilst all this was going on, during a visit to the Lifeboat shop in Lymington the cute little naval-uniformed bears were spotted and it was realised they would make great passengers for the launch. The next step was obvious – add a table cloth and cups and saucers, plate of sandwiches etc (dolls house accessories). It is powered by a 380 motor running on a 6 cell NiMH pack and an Mtronics 15A ESC. After some experimentation to find the best prop, it now has a fair turn of speed.

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