Build #10; Farman "Water Taxi"
 

So I found this photo in a thread on RCG and was very intrigued with the design and thought it would make a neat scale RC model. The original boat was built in 1924 in France by The Farman Company. Some sporadic information can be found if you look around on the net - Farman made many different "hydroglisseur" boats (hydro glider roughly translated) and had several speed records. This boat was designed as a "water taxi" for carrying passengers down the river. The first photo was colorized by Kmot. My engine choice as of now is an Enya 46-4C - hoping it's small enough in girth to fit inverted and still have the "cab" of the boat look as close to the original as possible. Someone had built a scale model of the boat, but it's assumed it's electric (R/C) or just a stationary scale model. I'd like to build a 1/8th or 1/10th scale model of the boat. It is believed the original water taxi was approximately 12' wide, 29' long, and had a 9-12' prop diameter. Specific details are hard to find and most of what's been written about it was translated from French.

Have fun, and I'll be watching. Should be a very interesting build, especially as you mentioned with the limited information available. Good luck!

I've been brainstorming how I'm going to go about this one. It's going to be a little tricky, but I'm up for the challenge I think. It's just gonna take awhile to get there. My twins are due in two months...

If it's any consolation, after seeing your other builds, I dont think you will have a problem. I think your biggest problem will be painting it, cause I know how much you like the bare wood....

I'll paint it. To get the contours of the cabin, I'll have to use a few different materials to make it happen, so I think it would be ugly if I finished it naturally. I think period colors is prudent, though the outer part of the hull will probably be naturally finished cherry.

Any updates? :)

No sir. I've been in and out of the hospital with some heart trouble and my wife was in the hospital on bed rest due to a risky twin pregnancy. So we are kinda floating dead in the water for now on this project. :(. The twins are due July 20th, so I have no idea if I'll even be able to get it started before then. BUT!! Rest assured I will make an attempt at some point, it's probably just going to be awhile.

Oh wow! Take care and I hope you both get well soon.

Yeah, June hasn't been all that kind to us this year. It's been a bit of a bummer.

I’m bumping this old topic up. I think I’m getting closer to revisiting the drawing and getting some dimensions figured out. I want to be as close to scale as I can - something I’ve never really bothered with since my man goal was speed. I’m undecided on what to make the cabin out of; I am considering aluminum sheet or fiberglass. The front shovel nose will be solid cherry that I intend to CNC cut. I chose cherry for color, and light weight. I think I’m going to laminate a block of alternating grain directions to get the aesthetic I want, and also for stability. I’ll add photos of my drawing after I dig it out of the drawer.

I am still planning a 4-stroke .46 Enya for this project, as they are easy to convert to reverse rotation. Though I also have a .60 4-stroke Enya if it gets too heavy. If I play my cards right, I can still use a standard rotation APC prop.

Here is my initial drawing. Basically just a sketch. I need to make some changes before I draw up the CAD file to cut the bow out of cherry. My drawing puts the LOA at about 25”, which is what I approximate at 1/13th scale.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rcu...2e288d659.jpeg
Farman Hydroglisseur scale mode drawing.

I have decided to switch gears a bit on this project; instead of killing the bow part from solid wood, I’m going to either use a Balsa core or a foam core and glue sheets of veneer to the core. This will undoubtedly be lighter than my original plan. I don’t need it to go 60, but I don’t want it to be a brick either.