Imara Tug
Imara Tug
by Pete Colley
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Website updated 28 March 2025. . . . . . . . Next event : Night Sailing March 29th
January 2025
I’d bought the Caldercraft Kit in November 2015 when we were living in France and worked on it through the winter. Then nothing until I picked her up again in February 2024.
And here I am at last. More than 1400 parts filed, painted and fitted, not to mention all the bits that weren’t supplied! 15 months to build (3 initially plus this last year) and hundreds of hours. To say I’ve learned lots of lessons along the way would be a great understatement!!
This month I’ve completed the lifeboats, added the 2 crew members supplied and the rigging together with the few remaining pieces.
I’m now making the bow and side fenders (well actually Paulene is) which I hope to have fitted by the time you read this. I’d also like to add a few more crew but sourcing 1:32 scale ships crew seems an impossible task.
After a couple of sea trials she made her maiden voyage at the January Night Sail. I was really pleased with the way she looked on the water, especially seeing her with all her lights on but am still trying to find the best way of handling a twin prop boat so will be working on that in future visits to the pond.
I guess that a project like this is never really finished and I’ll still be tinkering with her for some time to come. And, in addition to the challenges and joys she’s brought me, she’s the reason that I joined SMBC. I needed help and had it, so a big thank you to the many members who’ve helped and encouraged me over the last year.
November 2024
As I was in touching distance of the end of my build (or so I thought!) I decided to get all the running gear installed and see how she fared on the pond. When she was just a hull, I’d ballasted her by setting lead ingots into fibreglass resin on the base of the hull having calculated the total weight needed to sit her down to the waterline less 2kg as a safety margin. I’d also embedded the prop shafts and bow thruster tubes in resin to ensure good solid totally watertight sealing and strengthening.
My soldering and electronics skills were put to the test and failed miserably. I managed to turn a 1-day (max) job into a 4-day nightmare! But I’d done enough to get her mobile on the pond.
We launched her using the boat lift and I was pleased with how she looked and ran. Just needed another 2kg of ballast in the form of a piece of lead sheeting, kindly donated by Brian Lower.
So I was now ready to do a proper fit of all of the running gear and accessories that I’d planned. But first I needed to hone my electronics skills and get advice on soldering gear, wiring and layout.
Fortunately, our electronics whiz, Paul (White), took pity on me and spent a few hours advising and tutoring me. A few quid later (soldering station, wire and fittings, new transmitter as I’d need more channels than the 4-channel one I had) and I was ready to crack on. Paul advised the FlySky transmitter which he and some other members use so I went for the FS-i6X with the 10B receiver. “What!!” I hear you say. “Who needs 10 channels for a boat?” Given the little extra cost and that I was already using 4 channels with ambitious plans to add other switchable gear, my thinking was ”Why not?”
A few days later I’d fitted everything into the hull : ESCs to independently power the twin geared drive motors and bow thruster; proportional sound (and speaker) and DesignDenes smoke generator, switches, fuses, receiver, 6v and 12v batteries.
All went well until I came to wire up the mast navigation lights. I wired them in series to my 6v battery but, no matter what I did, only 2 would work. I didn’t want to wire them in parallel as that would be more wires running up the mast. Better call Paul! It turns out that each bulb had a resistor on the positive leg and the voltage drop from each meant that not enough volts were getting through to light all 3 lamps. No probs, jut needed to wire them to my 12v battery and then dim the circuit down with a 1k resistor.
I added interior LED strip lights to the main superstructure and saloon. I’d bought some OO-scale model railway station lamps that I though would be nice to light up parts of the deck and fitted them (9 in all) around the superstructure. I didn’t want a “trailing” lead to the batteries in the hull and so powered them with CR2032 lithium coin batteries, each of the 3 circuits being 2 batteries in a switched holder to deliver 6v.
I also added interior strip LEDs to the aft deck house and a 6v LED bulb to the rear navigation lantern, all powered from the 6v battery in the hull as this unit would rarely need to be removed.
I was really pleased with the way they looked after dimming the rear navigation lamp with a 560 ohm resistor. She looked great on the pond at the Night Sailing.
I also attempted to install the port and starboard navigation lamps and hit another hurdle that, assuming I get over it, I’ll tell you about next month.
I still haven’t emptied my box of fittings and there’s still the rigging to do. I was hoping to finish my build by Christmas but, unless I get help from Santa, that’s probably not going to happen!
October 2024
This month I’ve spent many hours on what looks like very little progress, but the careful eye will see that I’ve added a few more deck features. I’ve also fitted the funnel firmly in place and added the fittings to it. Most of my time has been spent on making and fitting the bridge and its fittings.
No matter how carefully I work I seem to drip bits of glue everywhere and thing’s that I’ve fitted perfectly seem to move overnight so they’re no longer aligned exactly how I placed them! I guess the good thing about having so many intricate bits is that the flaws do fade out a bit.
My many sheets of die-cut and printed ply have all disappeared and two boxes of castings are seriously diminished! I’m hoping to get her on the pond for ballasting and first sea trials in November : hopefully in time for the Night Sailing on the 23rd.
September 2024
Well, September saw the sun come out just as the kids went back to school. Paulene and I took advantage of the weather to work outside and take a few overnight stays in the camper. But I did find several hours to do a bit more work on the Imara.
I built the saloon which, believe it or not, was from 37 die-cut pieces. And then there was the table, 4 chairs, sink and cabinet, bench, plate rack, cups and saucers, and plates and jugs to prep, paint and glue in place ; not much to look at but very time-consuming and painstaking work.
August 2024
Having recovered from my deck disaster last month, Jotika, who make the Caldercraft kits, were really helpful and supplied me with a new decking pack. I decided not to stain the new deck and simply sprayed it with clear matt varnish before fitting it on top of the deck already fitted.
I’ve made quite good progress this month having added most of the deck fittings. I’ve also pretty much finished the aft deck house, including lighting, formed and fitted the towing rope guards and painted the chimney and started fitting out the funnel. I’ve also added most of the main superstructure fittings and interior lights.
So, since February, and particularly in the last 3 monthssince joining SMBC, I’ve made a big hole in the 1400+ parts in the kit and learned a lot about model boatbuilding. And I’ve learned a lot from SMBC members!
My next job will be to assemble the Saloon and Bridge.
July 2024
Having completed most of the work on the hull I decided to apply a light oak stain to the deck overlay. Disaster! The overlay soaked the stain up like a sponge, covering up all of the planking lines and making it a dark, blotchy mess.
So I turned my attention to getting on with the superstructure while I await a new decking sheet and the confidence to tackle it again. I’ve also been playing with LED lighting following Paul’s Talking Tech articles
April - June 2024
Prepared and painted the hull, fitted and painted deck, fitted washboards, Panama ports and other bits to hull and assembled and painted most of the aft deck house. Identifying parts and deciding where they go was quite challenging but made easier with the help of Brian (Lower). Most challenging was trying to assemble the Anchor Windlass which is something I'll return to when I've calmed down a bit!
February - March 2024
Started building Imara from a Caldercraft Kit bought from Westbourne Model Centre. First job was to fit the two mfa como drills 919d series geared motors, twin props, Raboesch Bow Thruster, rudder and hull timberwork. I also checked the weight needed to get the boat down to the waterline and embeded most of the lead ingots I'd need in resin, lining the base of the hull.
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