Amati Riva Aquarama for use on water.

Beautiful job Duncan. Congratulations from a fellow RC boat builder. Over the years as I launch my latest creations my wife and I have always put a little wine on the bow of the boat and a little for us to celebrate the inaugural voyage at the pond. Good Luck.

Jim
We will take you up on the idea of a bottle of champers! Thanks for your comments.
Cheers
Duncan
 
After a test in a paddling pool at home it was off to the local model boat club in Bury for the maiden voyage - along with a bottle of fizz! It was such a beautiful day it was so perfect for a launch. After christening the boat it was time for the moment of truth - will she run OK! I'm pleased to say that she handled very well although I thought she might run a little faster. The bonus was she was perfectly dry inside - great! Perhaps a direct drive rather than going through the supplied gearbox that arrived with the motorising kit would make her run faster. Since I'm going to have it as a display model I'm not that bothered about the speed. Perhaps it is about the correct scale speed of the original boats than weren't fitted with dual V12 Lamborghini engines! Please see this video of the V12:-


I have now bought a piece of 1.5mm ply so that I can create a planked floor area in the cockpit on top of this piece of ply. So that will be my next lot of work! The seats are fastened in with magnetic door catches so this will make it easy to replace the existing vinyl flooring.
I also have a full video but it is 50mb! This short video has a short screeching noise at one point - that wasn't my Riva! If you click on the 3 dots on the right of the box below you should be able to download the file in order to see the video of the launch.


View attachment Riva Maiden Voyage-extract.mp4
 
Beautiful job Duncan. Congratulations from a fellow RC boat builder. Over the years as I launch my latest creations my wife and I have always put a little wine on the bow of the boat and a little for us to celebrate the inaugural voyage at the pond. Good Luck.

Jim
Hi Jim, We followed your great suggestion - toasted and christened the boat!
RivaToasting.jpgBoat Christening.jpg
 
Hi Duncan,
Your boat looks fantastic, well worth the effort.
Sorry to hear your hands are not up to do much more model making anymore, hopefully you can find a way to rectify this.

Looking forward to some on the water shots at some point.

Cheers,
Stephen.
Hi Steve,

I've decided to have a go at making the Mantua Bruma modelled on an Ocean Going Cruising boat. It is a twin mast vessel and twin engine and having seen it been converted on the internet to also be a sailing boat I thought I would like to also have a go! My hands are not quite as bad now after a rest from modelling so I'm hoping they don't give me any more problems during this build. If anyone who reads this article has any experience in converting it to also be a sailing boat I would love to hear from you please. Again I'll probably start a blog. The kit is currently in transit to to home from Italy - cheapest place for the kit even with carriage through Amazon!


th
 
Hi Steve,

I've decided to have a go at making the Mantua Bruma modelled on an Ocean Going Cruising boat. It is a twin mast vessel and twin engine and having seen it been converted on the internet to also be a sailing boat I thought I would like to also have a go! My hands are not quite as bad now after a rest from modelling so I'm hoping they don't give me any more problems during this build. If anyone who reads this article has any experience in converting it to also be a sailing boat I would love to hear from you please. Again I'll probably start a blog. The kit is currently in transit to to home from Italy - cheapest place for the kit even with carriage through Amazon!


th
Hi Duncan,
Looks like an interesting project, looking forward to the build log.

Cheers,
Stephen.
 
Thought I had finished !!

IMG_20230720_173902.jpgIMG_20230720_173959.jpgIMG_20230525_163308.jpg
Having seen another Aquarama built by Damian on Model Boat Mayhem I decided to follow his lead and replace the vinyl cockpit floor( as supplied in the kit) with a walnut planked floor. The planks are 6mm x 0.5mm walnut from Cornwall Model boats. I ordered 4 metres of them and I thought there would be plenty but I ran out before even starting the foot rests! I ended up having patch under the magnetic catches for the seats. I couldn't believe it - 4metres! I've separated the planking with 0.75 black rigging string. I eventually decided to order another 1 metre of walnut to do the foot rests so as to finish off the job properly! Needless to say the postage was 4x more than the plank!! I think it looks a lot better than white vinyl. Thanks to Damian Curzon-Price's great idea.
Soon I'll be able to start work on my Mantua Bruma kit!
 
Thought I had finished !!

View attachment 385834View attachment 385835View attachment 385836
Having seen another Aquarama built by Damian on Model Boat Mayhem I decided to follow his lead and replace the vinyl cockpit floor( as supplied in the kit) with a walnut planked floor. The planks are 6mm x 0.5mm walnut from Cornwall Model boats. I ordered 4 metres of them and I thought there would be plenty but I ran out before even starting the foot rests! I ended up having patch under the magnetic catches for the seats. I couldn't believe it - 4metres! I've separated the planking with 0.75 black rigging string. I eventually decided to order another 1 metre of walnut to do the foot rests so as to finish off the job properly! Needless to say the postage was 4x more than the plank!! I think it looks a lot better than white vinyl. Thanks to Damian Curzon-Price's great idea.
Soon I'll be able to start work on my Mantua Bruma kit!
Hi Duncan,
Nice improvement, when are models really finished?

Cheers,
Stephen.
 
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