Pictured here is a Prestwich Models Sloopy 2 and a much modified Dateline Marine Volante. The Sloopy is primarily an ECO boat which would normally be used with a submerged drive system, but this one has been modified to operate with a surface drive propeller. The drive system consists of a 12 turn 540 motor and 2.5:1 Master Airscrew gearbox running on 7 cells. The yellow boat started life as a Volante but a step has been cut into the hull. The boat now features a self righting flood chamber and a closed canopy replaces the original twin open cockpits. Power for this boat comes from 12 cells feeding a Graupner 700BB turbo motor via a home built ESC.

 Here is my first GT400 boat. These are raced at the Southend Club in Essex and are great fun. The boats are available with a selection of tops but all share the same hull. The drive system is a standard Graupner speed 400 drop-in unit and all the boats use 6 sub C cells which give around 20 minutes of run time. My boat uses a 20 Amp Model Electronics Company ESC, which was built from a kit.

 This was my first attempt at building a hydro. This is a Snark 2 by GTM. The motor is a Graupner 480 Race which feeds a 29mm carbon fibre propeller. Power comes from 7 CP1300 cells via a Dymond 20 Amp ESC. This boat is incredibly fast but takes an age to turn tidily, I am still playing around with the set-up on this one.

 Here are a couple of fun boats that I have built for my kids. The boat on the left features characters from the Wallace and Gromit cartoons and was made for my son Daniel. The boat on the right is called "Tommy the Tugboat" and belongs to my daughter Elizabeth. Both boats were built from SHG Marine kits.

 The Wallace an Gromit boat was starting to show its age and Daniel was keen to get a proper racing boat. This is his GT400 which he has called "Red Lightning". We both now race at Southend and are starting to get used to racing these exciting little boats.

 This was my first micro boat and has been used as a test bed for various battery and motor combinations. The first motor was a 6v Graupner unit which worked well until I tried it with 7 x CP1300s. The motor burnt out because it was not water cooled. Water cooling has now been fitted and the motor changed to a 7.2v 400 unit. This boat has now been claimed by my daughter for her first fast electric boat.

This is my Club 500 from Model Slipway. These are often used for club racing here in the UK. In my first race I managed second place (mainly because all the other boats either turned over or broke down!). In the second race it was my turn to break down. The prop shaft tightened up when I struck a buoy and smoked the ESC. Oh well, that's racing for you. All boats must be built as provided in the kit and no modifications are allowed, resulting in some very close and even racing.

This particular boat has now completed its second racing season at Southend, having finished second in the club championship for 2004 & 2005. Hopefully 2006 will be its winning year.

This is Daniel's Club 500 (with its go-faster spoiler). He loves it when he beats me in a race and he managed 6th place this year (2005) in the Southend Club.championship. Mechanically it is identical to mine.

The manufacturer of the Club 500 is Model Slipway

This is my GT 400 hull, which carries all the hardware from my original GT400 boat. The first hull took quite a beating during its first season and needed to be replaced. This was one of the first GT400s made from a thicker plastic and was first to feature a dual coloured hull. The thicker plastic did cause some handling problems with this boat, but I have managed to resolve them by placing all the internal parts along the keel line of the boat. The moulding has now been improved by the manufacturer and the handling problem has been resolved.

A new hull was also purchased for Daniel's GT400 boat and is now running well after we sorted out the handling bugs. He finished in first place in the junior championship, so is well pleased with this years result.

The manufacturer of the GT400 is George Turner Models