Just after
Christmas 2005, I purchased a Southampton from A MODEL WORLD, (Northwich),
and she is a good boat, need to get some transparent plastic to do the
windows of the bottom deck, having tried a power test with her in the
bath, tethered, I think that a tow could be done I wound the engines up to
full bore holding the tow line and she seemed ok, the deck bollards not
moving.
I do like how the battery compartment has its own
watertight hatch, underneath the lock-down superstructure, and the way the
lock is concealed to the rear servo access hatch, (which makes for good
useful storage). that hatch too is weather proof, so as long as nothing
silly is done, she should take some good water on the lake without taking
on water.
As regards detail, the model is very well detailed
for a RTR, and worth the £216 I paid for her, which when you consider say
a kit built tug may cost £160 before paint, motors, optional fittings,
radio gear ETC, is a good price.
The hull itself certainly looks to be durable, not
made of cheap plastic, even though it is quite light. The only thing I can
fault, is the fenders, being made of vinyl, to be as soft as rubber tires
are on the real model, some of them ripped as the thread that held them to
the ship was being fed through the pre-formed holes, also the thread
itself isn't particularly wonderful, cheap nylon, so I will get some
double sided tape and stick the tires down to the hull.
Southampton
on the water.
After charging batteries, it was a case of go down
to the local park lake and put the ship in the water to assess how she
performs, here are the results as follows.
along with My freighter, Gemini, Southampton was
sailed around the lake, at varying speeds and turns to see how she
handled, with the results being quite pleasing, the Twin-screw drive
performed as well as can be expected with only two-channel control.
The turning circle could do with being a little
tighter, taking as she has a radius of around 5 boat lengths, (that may be
due to the fact that she is twin-screw twin rudder with no differential
effect on the props allowing the speeds to be controlled independently,
changing this to 4 channel with twin ESC will probably solve this)
The high superstructure on the deck, in relation
to the deck means that the model is prone to weather-cocking, and so
sometimes twisting in reverse, and the kort nozzles reduce the
effectiveness of the rudder when in reverse, this may be a problem when
engaging in Tug-Towing competitions, however, it is no worse than a single
motor tug.
In all, I am impressed by the quality of the build
(as said earlier), a Very good model, but could do better, perhaps an
option would be to produce a model of her with twin controllers for the
engines and to make the rudders have more throw on them.
Well
done Graupner
Rating: * * * *
Mark Wilkes |