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    Tom Andrews' award winning X craft

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    Tom(ADMIN)
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    Post  Tom(ADMIN) Sat Mar 12, 2011 10:55 am

    Back in 1987, I was lucky enough to be introduced to Tom Andrews, the man who built the ME award winning X craft. Whilst chatting over a cuppa at Bernie Wood's house, the subject of how he built this wonderful little boat came up, and so Tom kindly gave me copies of some photos and the build log of the boat...which I've reproduced below.

    Tom's boat was tiny, not much bigger than my little Kilo, so how he managed to cram all the electronics and a full gas dive system into it remains a mystery...remember, there were no miniature electronic items back then, the radio system was an elderly Fleet 27Mhz set with standard sized servos and receiver, which were huge compared to modern day equipment.

    The boat was completely scratch built from odd and ends in Tom's workshop, the hull was a fibreglass moulding, and all the gas fittings Tom designed and made up himself.

    The pics are here, the build log will be uploaded tomorrow..I managed to crash the local library computer whilst scanning it.

    I have no idea of Tom's whereabouts nowadays, so I hope he won't mind me posting these for you all to see.


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    Apologies for the quality of the pictures, you have to remember that these are scanned images of 35mm still photos taken nearly twenty five years ago.
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    Post  Tom(ADMIN) Sun Nov 17, 2013 2:13 pm

    This is Tom's build log of his boat...


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    merriman
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    Post  merriman Sun Nov 17, 2013 3:06 pm

    Excellent reading and plenty of eye-candy (pictures). Thanks for posting this! What a Craftsman.

    David
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    Tom(ADMIN)
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    Post  Tom(ADMIN) Sun Nov 17, 2013 6:37 pm

    It was(is?)an amazing little boat, David...somewhere I have some video footage of it in the AMS pool at the show we did at the Sub Museum at Gosport years ago, I'll dig it out and post it up here.
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    Post  Tom(ADMIN) Mon Nov 18, 2013 9:51 am

    As promised, here's a video of Tom's X craft in the AMS pool at Gosport Sub Museum.

    Apologies for the quality of the video, it was copied from a twenty five plus years old BetaMax video, transferred to a VHS video, copied to a DVD, then edited and downloaded to my laptop, then uploaded to YouTube via Windows Live Movie Maker!

    david f
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    Post  david f Mon Nov 18, 2013 10:21 am

    Really interesting article, Richard.
    Interesting use of bellows etc. (Rather like the Jacques bellows system ) I don't know why people don't use these more - people still seem keen on various "bags".
    His description of his painting and weathering is fantastic. Not surprised that he won prizes.
    The video is good - not bad quality. The sub was a very nice performer although the gas bubbles would have alerted the crew of the Tirpitz!

    David

    P.S Is it just me or has the Forum Title changed to blue - if it was deliberate it looks nice!
    profesorul
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    Post  profesorul Mon Nov 18, 2013 10:36 am

    RICHARD ,

    Along with these excelent explanation there are by accident some where ,some photos with the internal parts?.
    For me as Non Native english spoken it's litle be difficult to have in mind hole picture with the components, if You know what I mean!.
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    Tom(ADMIN)
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    Post  Tom(ADMIN) Mon Nov 18, 2013 10:37 am

    Somewhere (if I can find them...I think they may be in the albums which I sent to Nigel, though..) I have some photos of the internals of Tom's boat, it's amazing how he managed to squeeze everything inside such a tiny boat. His ballast system was very well executed, those bellows were a masterpiece.

    (And yes, the changes to the forum were deliberate, David...I thought it was about time for a change of scenery. If you notice, no matter whereabouts on the forum you are, you can return straight to the home page by just clicking anywhere inside the blue area in the header picture now. Doing that also refreshes the page.)
    profesorul
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    Post  profesorul Mon Nov 18, 2013 11:57 am

    Maybe methods and materials were rudimentary , but if I can do it cheaper and safer , I'm willing to do it even if it involves more hand work .
    Is a great lesson for me on how I can do it.
    I'm not in a hury so if You find those photos it's great.
    Deep Diver (Fred)
    Deep Diver (Fred)
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    Post  Deep Diver (Fred) Mon Nov 18, 2013 5:37 pm

    One of Tom's boats is now with the Chaterham Submariners Club, Bernie passed it on to me way back, and I passed it onto them as a long time passed member was on them as the boat diver.
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    Post  Tom(ADMIN) Mon Nov 18, 2013 5:51 pm

    Is Tom still about, would you know, Fred? I haven't heard anything of him in years now.
    Deep Diver (Fred)
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    Post  Deep Diver (Fred) Mon Nov 18, 2013 6:03 pm

    Sorry Dick I just do not know, I do not remember seeing any member from Hamwell for some time now, but that could be down to the fact that I have not been to that many shows in the last few years,

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