rblubaugh

My Feedback: (5)

Bill,

I really like the work you do on your boats.  Nice attention to detail and the craftsmanship is excellent.

Bob

rblubaugh

My Feedback: (5)

Bill,

I really like the work you do on your boats.  Nice attention to detail and the craftsmanship is excellent.

Rich,  You are in a league by yourself,  I'm always amazed by what you are doing and the things you attempt to do.  Just because I'm silent for the most part doesn't mean I'm not watching and appreciating your craftsmanship.

All of the Dauntless Captains make me strive for excellence in what little modeling time I have.  Hopefully I can get my Dauntless whipped into shape one day, following your lead.

A humble hobbist,

Bob

werdonmorris

My Feedback: (7)

ATTENTION RICH 404:

It has been a very long time since I been on here, or worked on my model.
My mind has been calculating much needed data, of any and all un-foreseen incidents that may
arise in the near future of my water craft performance.
This is why I bought a 22.5 foot Seville Searay boat and new EZ-Loader Trailer. Plus I just bought a 14.5 foot
aluminumn, and fiberglass fishing boat, with new trailer.
Now this summer, I can fish and work on the tons of data for my boat project, and come to a final conclusion.
both boats have Merc Cruiser engines. The bigger with a 4.0 staight 4 cyl out drive unit from Merc. And the other,
with outboard performance edition engine and drive prop.
The smaller I sent out to the marina, and had it re-sealed, and all new paint. I upgraded the wiring for the troller motor, lighting, emergency gas run off, bilge pump.
I know I over did it on safety issues, but I need to have peace of mind while on the water. Both boats total cost me $4,200, with a investment of another $2,700.
What I used to say, and always will. IT IS THE NAVY'S WAY ! I always had two back up plans, for once we was dropped off to do a mission.
We only had to rely upon the six of us, and several times we had to miss the LZ for one reason or another.
All the wood of my project is sealed water tight in marine spar, inside and out. The same will go for the paint as well, as well as the polished brass in clear epoxy.
Have a excellent day, for it is 54 degrees here, and no snow what so ever in Detroit, Mich.

Sound Sailor

Thanks for that, Bob. Have you done any work on your Dauntless lately?

Here is the ship to shore antenna Icobbled togetheryesterday. The mounts are as I remember from my boat, back in the day, when the mast was not a fold down .(back in the days beforeVHS service and 2182 was the distress freq) I used a piece of brass to simulate the coax connection.
Bill

dauntlessfan

Very nice work Bill, I'm impressed! Here's a useful image of the Dauntless radar tower for reference.

Hydro Junkie

Wow, that thing looks hammered!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I take it that shot was taken in the "Post Rockerfeller" era
What I see is the dish speed can be controlled by a gear set inside the motor housing and the motor mounted inside the cabin with a drive shaft running up to the motor housing inside the forward leg of the mast. The only real change needed would be a slight tweek to the rear of the housing to make the room needed.

Sound Sailor

Thanks DF. I 'vegot it "close enough for government work" as they say. I think that box halfway up the mast may be the device to remotely sound the bell.

Bill

Rich404

Rich404

Hi Bob, When the day comes for you to tackle your Dauntless it will be spectacular! The path is still being blazed but the day will come when you and others can use the info here as a template to finish your own projects. My hope for the future is that anyone who has the will, will have the chance to build an accurate or close to accurate Dauntless..

-Rich.

Rich404

Hi Bill, This is wayy better than GuBment work! Yes, I think the device halfway up the mast is indeed the thing used ot sound the bell. Notehow the rope is torn on the end where it comes from the box side and when you look at the bell you can see the other half where the rope was torn away. We can see that the rope once went from the box on the mast to the bell.

-Rich.

Sound Sailor

Hi Rich, I really don't know much about other antennas. WhenI was boating the Ship to Shore (also sometimes referred to as radio-telephone) operated at 2 mhz and used a very long antenna. The antenna you see is a long wire coiled around a fiberglass tube. On a boat like Dauntless the physical antenna woud be pretty high but on smaller boats the length would necessarily be less. Some interesting (I hope) things about he service were that the transcievers were crystal controlled and could be in various watt outputs and that created havoc on coastal waters and led to the demise of the system. You installed crystals for 2182 (International distress frequency), a couple of ship to ship frequencies and possibly some port freqs. Initially the sets were big, heavy tube sets requiring a heavy power supply. Towards the late stages transistorized sets became available allowing smaller boats to have one. I even built a Heathkit one. These sets would be able to call a good distance (about a mile per watt). That created the problem. Realistically 25 watts were enough for coastal boaters. If you needed help, lets sayon LISound,you didn't need someone 100 miles away. Large pleasure boats seemed to alwaysbuy the biggest wattage because they could afford them. By law you monitored and made initial contact with others on 2182 then switched to a ship to ship channel for your conversation. Distress calls were made by saying "Mayday" three times and other urgent calls by saying "Security" three times. The guys with the big rigs calling their buddies would overpower the smaller boats that would be trying to get a distress call out and that presented many problems.
My first set was 25 watts but when I was patrolling under Coast Guard orders I had trouble getting through the clutter to the station at Eatons Neck 6 miles away and I had to get a 65 watt set. This system was replaced by VHF sets which had a range of only about 6 miles or so. Then small boaters started using CB but that was not monitored for distress calls by the CG.

Well I really rambled but my memory about this got jogged. I apologize but I hope it was either entertaining ot informative.

Bill

dauntlessfan

Hey Bill, I think you should show us more pictures of your model Dauntless! From the parts I've seen so far it's one heckuva nice boat.

Rich404

Hi Bill,

I think your post was both interesting and informative. Things such as the radio telephone are a thing of the past much like the Dauntless. A story such as the one you told may not sound interesting to you because you lived it but I find it interesting because it helps me understand the life and times of Dauntless (and her components). I have a picture of Dauntless's(STS) radio telephone and i'm going to model it. One day I (or even others here) may have to explain what the phone on the chart desk is and thanks to you wecan better explain it.

-Rich.

Sound Sailor

DF, my Dauntless is not very special and not as nicely done as yours and Rich's. No seat cushions etc but she is a lot better than when I got her. If you recall I bought her already built and with very little details and some thing to be desired as to quality of the initial build. I have to large a fleet I spent money on to spend more on a total makeover so that is why I try to make her "semi" scale rather than go for exact detail. At my age it is hard to do more precise worksince for some reason my hands don't always do what my head is telling them.

Rich , Thats me you describe "a thing of the past" at 79. I try to add things logically asI remember from my experiance as a boater from an early age to about 1970. That may or may not be as on the real boat such as my handrails on the cabin roof. I just did what I thought was right for the antenna and got lucky except it should have been a little more forward. As I was making it I remembered there was chrome fittings where the sections joined and at the base and then thought why not add the coax. i am not using an outside antenna since I am using a 2.4 with a short wire. Hasn't been a problem on my other boats. Seems to work as long as it is above the waterline.

BTW are you going to the WRAM show in the Meadowlands?


Bill

rblubaugh

My Feedback: (5)

Bill,

The only thing I've done with my Dauntless is buy a 12V  SLA battery and change the ESC to one that will handle a 12 v system.  I also need to put in better motor mounts, velcro just doesn't hack it! 

Internally it needs to be re-wired and a needs to be fused.  Externally I need to sand down the unfinished epoxy , probably add at least one more coat (you can still see. the fiberglass weave in many - large -  areas).

I need to finish up the boat I'm working on before I tackle this one.

Bob

Rich404

Sound Sailor

Rich, hopefully I will make the WRAm show. MACK is supposed to be there also. If you are going maybe we can meet up.
I also am going to the NY Toy Show for the industry at the Javits Center. My SIL has a diecast sales business so I am going as part of that..

I wouldn't say my Dauntless is bad but some of the original workmanship could have been better. I'll leave it at that.

Bill

Rich404

Hi Bill, If I can make it to the show then I would shoot for Sunday, February 26th. The owner of MACK, Rich is a great guy to talk to on the phone so It would be cool to finally meet him too. As it gets closer to the date I will keep you posted and if it works out I would like to meet up with you.'

http://www.wram.org/show_details.html

-Rich.

dauntlessfan

Just in case MACK is giving out free samples at the show... I need some struts, couplers, and prop nuts... .

Rich404

Hi D/F Will do!

Speaking of buying and selling my old 2" props are now on e-bay. These props were put in water only once when Itested the unfinished Dauntless hull on a pond back in the 90's.

I don't know if anyone can use them for other projects but here is one of the props.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/250984353948...84.m1555.l2649

-Rich.

Rich404

Sound Sailor

Rich are you sure that was the original dingy and not put aboard later? The ad for the Grumman says it is 8 1/2 feet.

Bill

rblubaugh

My Feedback: (5)

This Dauntless sold for "only" $405.00"!
 http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=120851106096

Sound Sailor

I was watching that one also, Bob. It was local pickup only so that cut down on bidders.

Bill

I have been having a lot of trouble with this site. Am I alone?

Rich404