Well said Doug the man is a legend👍

Hello tony29h
Here is a Article with all Vic Smeed plans by name , nr.,and where is available

From the States, Vic had a couple of his designs featured in American model aircraft magazines, Sunga Marutham (a patrol boat from Ceylon) was in the July 1957 Flying Models and Hydro-bat an airscrew hydro was in Grid Leaks July/August 1957.

From his range of plans which we would be more familiar with, his American tug and St Louis Belle are readily available.

American tug plan is a slightly smaller version of the old Sterling Models kit from the past, whether he designed the Sterling Models tug or used the design to produce the smaller plan, I guess we will never know.

St Louis Belle is highly detailed sternwheeler, not of any particular vessel, but would certainly build into a superb model.

I grew up building f/f and u/c models, and the names that stand out from the readings of my youth are Walter Musciano, Bill Winter and Vic Smeed. I did not know till a decade ago that Smeed was also a boat modeler, and just recently found out that Musciano dabbled in boats too. One of my favorite sci-fi authors is Keith Laumer, and he also penned a few model aircraft plans. I’m going to have to find some of Vic Smeed boat plans...

Found this about the sale of ST Cervia.

Tony

Some history of ST Cervia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ST_Cervia
Last entry from The Steam Museum / Ramsgate is from 2011, after that ... nix☹️
http://www.thesteammuseum.org/cervia.html
http://thesteammuseum.org/steam-tug-cervia/
Cheers, Doug 😎

Scout13, a double sized Guardsman sounds good, I remember reading about a large size steam powered one in the September 2004 Model Boats magazine, don't think it was double size though. Guess you might have seen the photograph of the full sized cutter which Vic loosely based the design on, HM Revenue and Customs 'Enterprise'. Couldn't find out anything further about this vessel, other than the photograph attached.

John, your Cervia looks superb. Got wondering whatever became of the full sized tug. The last I heard, she was in poor condition in Ramsgate, the hull was leaking badly and sandbags had been used to minimise the leakage. Afterwards the vessel was listed for sale.

tony 29h I built guardsman as my second model along time ago but decided to double it in size I made her so the whole deck comes off it is then held in position by the by the vent pipes which are 1/2" water pipe she is powered by a Volvo car aerial motor she is at present under going her first refit after 30 years. Brian

Hi there,

Another plan by the great Vic Smeed - this is the Cervia Tug, it was great fun to build - and really good fun to sail. I built this one a few years ago.

Some really good designs from the pen of Vic. I love his little 1982, Guardsman design and one of my current builds is his small paddler, Royal Falcon. Guardsman is a good on the water, plenty of power, no stability issues and easy to transport. Hope it's been ok in the cold shed this winter.