Wampum II Marbleheads | Classic Pond Yachts

Two Wampum II Marblehead yachts. GRP hulls with radio gear.

I bought these from Beale Park some time ago, but only started working on them in the last couple of weeks. The Wampum II was designed by James A Potter in 1935, It won the first national championships in England, run by the Ryde Model Yacht club, on the Isle of Wight, as an unofficial National Championships in 1937, the class was not at that time recognised by the MYA, there were 9 boats entered, Wampums won the first 3 places, so a good design. These boats have been built from a GRP hull as a recent copy, apparently several of these designs have been built, so hopefully we will see some more. I bought one model for me, and one for a friend, to be taken to Vintage meetings, but I wanted them to look more like an old boat, so changes are being made. The one thing I wanted to keep was the radio control, I want to be able to take the boats out and sail them any where, I just want them to look more like the original design. Pictures below of the boats as bought, changes will be Varnished Dacron sails, to the original size, rudders more like the original ones behind the skeg, remove the modern long alloy track for the jib sheet and forestay fitting, fit old style forestay track etc.

Below are the original plan and rig size.

Here is the picture of the original rig, the new Varnished Dacron sails are being made by Catsails to these sizes. As can be seen they are different sizes to the existing sails.

Here is the original hull drawing, I will make new rudders as per the drawings, it may make the boat harder to steer, but I think it will make sailing them more fun.

I started working on these Wampum's To get myself back into a position where I could do the work, also the work involved with these boats was fairly basic so good training, the pictures below are of what has been happening-

The first job was to remove all the old deck gear, deck patches etc. Sand back the varnish and the timber trim around the hull, and apply two coats of varnish ready to fit new deck gear.

Sanding back the deck on the second boat.

One of the things I did not like was the position of the rudder servo, I am moving it closer to the rudder to make the steering work better, before the steering cables were too long and went through too many angles. These are the fittings to fit the steering servo under the deck.

The aft deck cutout is just ahead of the tubes that allow the steering cables to run from the rudder servo and connect to the new brain gear steering fittings, although the servo is further aft, the cable is much shorter and does not run through so many tight angles to run through the rudder tubes, I guess with the servo being further aft, it has moved some weight aft, but the steering will work much better.

This was the old rudder quadrant, with rusty connectors for steering cable.

New Sails ETC brain steering system, just to try and make the boat look older.

Another Sails Etc fitting, a new jib forestay track.

This picture shows the old long track to take the jib forestay and jib sheet line, the new one looks older, still got to fit the sheeting eye.

Nigel at Catsails will be making the new sails shortly, I have some new mast tubes on the way, going to paint the new masts cream, next job to fit the rudder servo mounts. More pictures to come.

24 July 21 - I am afraid that I missed some pictures, but boat now looking good. I had a problem trying to get the Brain steering systems to work, as the pin holes are to far forward of the rudder shaft I found it impossible to get the cables from the rudder servo to word well, in the end I bought some new rudder controls. Some pictures of work to date-

Rudder servo fitted, new steering arm fitted and steel steering cables fitted, the deck eye is so take the main sheet cable, the crossing steering cables seem to work well, and keep the mainsheet clear of the steering cables.

New rudder section ready to cut out, rudder blades made out of three sections of ply, grain running in different direction in the center.

Stainless rudder tube cut out, I drilled holes in the shaft and fitted stainless bolts to secure blade.

Here both rudder blades glued together over stainless bolts, glued together with epoxy, clamped together.

One of the rudders glued up ready to shape.

Once the rudders were sanded to shape I painted them, both boats different colours, I had to try and mix paint to get close to correct colours. Both boats below.

I picked up some new alloy mast tubes, sanded them pack, primed with etch primer, sanded back and painted them white. I also removed the old mast gooseneck fittings from the old mast and painted them white then fitted them to the new masts.

New mast with old gooseneck fittings fitted, also made new boom and jib boom in timber.

New jib boom fitted.

A picture of the main boom, notice that the mast is in a new mast position to move it forward for the new rig to the original design.

New mast step position marked and pilot hole drilled.

Fwd mast hole drilled, ready for the timber to be sanded and re varnished.

Stainless gooseneck fitting epoxied into main boom.

Main boom outhaul system fitted to boom.

Main boom kicker and sheet fittings.

Jib boom jib luff fitting.

Jib boom outhaul fitting, and topping lift line.

Pictures below of the boat with new sails, only a few things to finish and she can go sailing, we have two of these to play with.

The picture of the boat as collected, the smaller rudder lots more like the original but, I don't know if I will still be able to steer, I suspect she will be fine, but you will have to adjust the sails to steer. The sails are to the original 1930s design, mast is shorter, the main boom longer and the jib boom shorter and the jib lower, I think she looks more original, I will take some videos of her sailing on the Hamble River.

At the start of the Vane A class national championships first week in August, the first day coincided with 100 years since Walpole Park was opened, when the A class stopped for lunch, we sailed some older style model yachts, my Wampum was one of them, did not get videos, but did have some pictures taken by a Gosport club member, thank you.

Great photos she looked really nice and sailed beautifully, getting the second Wampum ready to sail. I am hoping to get her going for next week.

14 September 21 - Second Wampum ready to sail, I think she looks' better than the first blue one, pictures of her in the front garden here, we will take them both sailing on the Hamble River and take some more pictures as soon as we can.

This one for a friend of mine, I think she looks great, next Sunny day with a nice breeze, and when the tides are up, and when we are allowed out, easy really !! I will take some pictures of them sailing together, I think they look really nice, much more vintage !!

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