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N.B. Trilby


Trilby Tim

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Hi,

I thought I'd share some pictures of how our build is going. We're getting a shell built by Paul Widdowson, and myself and my girlfriend are fitting it out ourselves. We ordered the shell late last summer and work started in December. The shell's now nearly finished, so our work's about to begin properly!

 

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The first bit of our boat we got was a car! Got this awesome dream machine from EBay, sitting here little knowing that it's 1.9SDi engine is about to be ripped out and find a new lease of life in a boat. A VW engine at 70000 miles, so should be just about run in!

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A CAD drawing of our interior layout, actually we've updated it a fair bit since this rendering.

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A CAD drawing of the shell, it'll be black and grey with silver lines and lettering.

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The shell begins, some sheets of steel stacked on edge!

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Some lovely salvage portholes, solid ali frames and 10mm toughned glass. Although they look shiny on this side, they're quite pitted on the other and are taking quite a while to clean up.

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It gets a pointy end too!

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The quality of Paul's work has been excellent throughout, here you can see some of the lovely detailing.

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Some wine and romantic music and the engine was persuaded to mate to the gearbox. Having a girlfriend with an uncle with a workshop to die for helped too! The plate on the back of the box is to be the back engine mount.

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The Bowman water cooled exhaust manifold intended for the older 1.5 TD engine actually fits the 1.9SDi perfectly. I did consider not water cooling the exhaust mani and using the donor car one, but i the end decided to shell out the money and do it properly.

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And here's the shell nearly finished, with a cabin from the front.

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And here it is from the rear!

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Hi,

I thought I'd share some pictures of how our build is going. We're getting a shell built by Paul Widdowson, and myself and my girlfriend are fitting it out ourselves. We ordered the shell late last summer and work started in December. The shell's now nearly finished, so our work's about to begin properly!

 

Ha!...the same sheds where Earnest was built. I see you have opted for the "slipper stern". Paul used to work for Ray Denton at R&D. Lee Wolosuik started at R&D, then went to work for Mel Davis, then came back to work at R&D, where he was the fabricator of Earnest. Lee and Gary re-formed R&D as X R&D after the demise of R&D. It is a small world round those parts.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Well the shell's finished and paid for and I'd like to re-iterate that Paul's done a cracking job (actually most of the work was done by his son, Paul Jnr), he's been helpful and cheerful throughout and many thanks are in order for the cups of tea and letting us keep the shell there until it's ready for the water.

Sorry to be a bit negative but surely a nice shell like that deserves something more than a totally unsuitable VW engine?

Actually it's very well suited, 1.9 normally aspirated, so around 50 hp at 2500rpm, pretty flat torque curve down to 1000 rpm, and electronically controlled fuelling so it should sip fuel, the same base engine is sold as a marine and an industrial motor. Yes the wiring is going to be complicated and it's a bit of a gamble using a motor that's not been tried before, but it's a calculated one. Will let you know how it works when it's one the water.

It will be interesting to see how you mount and trim the portholes. They tend to be mounted in thicker material than 5mm steel. And please don't put them in the wrong way round like some people do.

Brian

Yes, I'm still thinking about the best liner, there's nothing off the shelf that'll work (they're big!) so I'll be making liners myself. I've some ideas, but any more ideas welcome. Actually the cabin sides are 4mm steel, but I don't see why that should be a problem. There's plenty of stiffeners welded in close to the apertures, so it's all pretty rigid, and actually since they're bolted in so many places (12 bolts per porthole) they should stiffen the skin up still further.

Ha!...the same sheds where Earnest was built. I see you have opted for the "slipper stern". Paul used to work for Ray Denton at R&D. Lee Wolosuik started at R&D, then went to work for Mel Davis, then came back to work at R&D, where he was the fabricator of Earnest. Lee and Gary re-formed R&D as X R&D after the demise of R&D. It is a small world round those parts.

Yes, everyone seems to be connected to R&D by not many degrees of separation. There's also Abdul Polar and Dave Clarke working on the same estate, both of who used to work for R&D, and I think Mel Davies worked for them too at some point. Plus Paul Widdowson Jnr started there before his dad set up on his own. You've got a slipper stern on yours too? How is it, did I do right?

Anyway, time for some more photos.

Mounting the portholes looked to be a bit epic, there's 12 16mm bolts in each of 10 ports, so drilling 120 16mm dia holes in 4mm thick steel looked to be a mission, so we hired in some help in the way of Sam's dad, a couple of uncles and a friend who all came up for a bikers weekend and pitched in drilling. Would have taken days on my own, but with the extra muscle they were all done in 3 hours, so many thanks to the guys.

 

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Danger, men at work!

 

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The completed shell.

 

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Sam's uncle looking like he's enjoying it.

 

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Nick trial fitting one.

 

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And the painting begins with the roof getting a coat of grey (it is grey, not white, honest!)

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Paul used to work for Ray Denton at R&D. Lee Wolosuik started at R&D,

 

Our boat was built by R&D the same time Ray and Shelia retired, in fact during our build. If the same quality of build continues there, you have a vary good boat. Ours was constructed by Abdul Polar who worked and was trained by Ray for 20 years. Abdul has started his own business now on the same estate as R&D still is by the sound of it. it's must a mecca for boat builders on that site as there were 2 others there when Ray and Shelia ran R&D. Slipper stern works really well also.

 

Nice looking boat :lol: and all portholes, well done :lol:

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Yes, everyone seems to be connected to R&D by not many degrees of separation. There's also Abdul Polar and Dave Clarke working on the same estate, both of who used to work for R&D, and I think Mel Davies worked for them too at some point. Plus Paul Widdowson Jnr started there before his dad set up on his own. You've got a slipper stern on yours too? How is it, did I do right?

 

It will make fitting a dream, as there is no swim to get in the way in the cabin space. I did have a waffle a week of so ago, to same question from Dominic, concerning reversing. Just make sure your rudder is big enough. I also suggest that you have cavitation fins on the top of the rudder. Andrew Hooke (Woodworks, behind XR&D) fitted Earnest and he experimented with the R&D design for his own boat (that was still being fitted, last time I heard!)

 

Ray Denton used to work at Hancock and Lane, I think with the Coles of Colecraft fame. Ray also worked for Fernie for a bit. I have not been in touch for a while but Ray and Sheila retired to Australia, when they sold R&D to Procast. Ray is now the sit-on-lawnmower specialist in the area. He bought him self an old JCB and dug a huge fishing lake in his smallholding, then fabricated a fishing boat. He did want to go into alluminium recreational craft, but the planners said NO!

Ray told me the wonderful story of the first steel narrowboat Hancock and Lane built (they built dust cart bodies at the time). It was knocked up in their spare time in 2 halves for one of the directors friends. One Sunday they wheeled these into the carpark next door, welded them together, blacked the join, then straight onto lorry for fitting out elsewhere.

I did hear that Ray came back for a "holiday" to help XR&D start up.

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It will make fitting a dream, as there is no swim to get in the way in the cabin space. I did have a waffle a week of so ago, to same question from Dominic, concerning reversing. Just make sure your rudder is big enough. I also suggest that you have cavitation fins on the top of the rudder. Andrew Hooke (Woodworks, behind XR&D) fitted Earnest and he experimented with the R&D design for his own boat (that was still being fitted, last time I heard!)

 

Ray Denton used to work at Hancock and Lane, I think with the Coles of Colecraft fame. Ray also worked for Fernie for a bit. I have not been in touch for a while but Ray and Sheila retired to Australia, when they sold R&D to Procast. Ray is now the sit-on-lawnmower specialist in the area. He bought him self an old JCB and dug a huge fishing lake in his smallholding, then fabricated a fishing boat. He did want to go into alluminium recreational craft, but the planners said NO!

Ray told me the wonderful story of the first steel narrowboat Hancock and Lane built (they built dust cart bodies at the time). It was knocked up in their spare time in 2 halves for one of the directors friends. One Sunday they wheeled these into the carpark next door, welded them together, blacked the join, then straight onto lorry for fitting out elsewhere.

I did hear that Ray came back for a "holiday" to help XR&D start up.

 

It will make fitting a dream.

 

I'll second that :lol:

 

Really good to know Ray & Shelia are doing ok, really nice genuine couple who knew their stuff and superb quality of work for the money. I'm not surprised he's back to building a boat, although I'm sure i recall Shelia saying that it was the last they would be seeing of any boats especially Ray :lol:

 

Brian who took over from Ray & Shelia owner of Procast had some great innotative ideas and let the welders add some of their own ideas to customers boats, We were fortunate that they took over half way through the build as some good ideas were suggested that we took advantage of, Bow tanks being one of them along with some other nice touches. It's a shame Procast failed and their demise was due to some compliceted circumstances i believe.

 

 

I heard a couple of other owners have taken over R&D since.

 

Is the Procast Foundry still going btw

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It will make fitting a dream.

 

I'll second that :lol:

 

Really good to know Ray & Shelia are doing ok, really nice genuine couple who knew their stuff and superb quality of work for the money. I'm not surprised he's back to building a boat, although I'm sure i recall Shelia saying that it was the last they would be seeing of any boats especially Ray :lol:

 

Brian who took over from Ray & Shelia owner of Procast had some great innotative ideas and let the welders add some of their own ideas to customers boats, We were fortunate that they took over half way through the build as some good ideas were suggested that we took advantage of, Bow tanks being one of them along with some other nice touches. It's a shame Procast failed and their demise was due to some compliceted circumstances i believe.

 

 

I heard a couple of other owners have taken over R&D since.

 

Is the Procast Foundry still going btw

 

Garry Summerfield, Lee Wolosuik and Sue Denton (Rays daughter, who is of course a brilliant stainless steel welder!) re-fomed the company as XR&D in the original main R&D shed. At the time Pro cast took over, Andrew Hooke (Woodworks, who fitted Eranest) went compleatrly solo. He has since fitted hulls by R&D, XR&D, Mel Davis and Paul Widdowson.

My first narrowboat was built by R&D and fitted by Waterways Services at Nether Heyford. I picked this boat up during the "last" recession, as a stage payment failure (Bloke made redundant), so never got to meet Ray and Sheila at that time. When I needed a new stern tube I contacted R&D and they helped me out so much during my ownership, that as Ray, as predicted I went back to them for Earnest. Lee was the fabricator and I think we perfected the double skinned semi-trad cockpit, where none of the internal lockers, etc are welded onto the outer skin, thus preserving the nice curve of the outer skin, with no weld marks showing. I have seen a lot of semi-trads with this same layout and with the same lockers and rear "pedestals", which give the same width and tiller position (Earnest does not have a long rear deck!) as a proper trad, so you steer "correctly" between the doors, or the compleatly unconventional ways we steer Earnest, either sitting down on the lockers (ideal for when you are bored senseless on some bits of the Irish Waterways!) or facing forward or sideways, sitting on the "pedestals". For a run of the mill builder R&D turned out good shells, more due to Ray's skill, which he has passed on to many fabricators.

 

Pro cast are still on the Broughton Industrial Estate, New Ollerton. In case anyone is interested I also know of the engineering company that makes the stern tubes / stuffing boxes, that are used by R&D and many other builders. Somewhat cheaper prices than dealing with the trade!

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I think we perfected the double skinned semi-trad cockpit, where none of the internal lockers, etc are welded onto the outer skin, thus preserving the nice curve of the outer skin, with no weld marks showing. I have seen a lot of semi-trads with this same layout and with the same lockers and rear "pedestals", which give the same width and tiller position (Earnest does not have a long rear deck!) as a proper trad, so you steer "correctly" between the doors, or the compleatly unconventional ways we steer Earnest, either sitting down on the lockers (ideal for when you are bored senseless on some bits of the Irish Waterways!) or facing forward or sideways, sitting on the "pedestals". For a run of the mill builder R&D turned out good shells, more due to Ray's skill, which he has passed on to many fabricators.

 

 

The double skin became bow tanks in ours and we had the seat lockers added also. We have a bow tank either side holding around 90 litres each used to supply the Bubblestove.

 

We had the pedestal seats also, I have cut and shaped some lovvely Iroko yet to be fitted, you can just make make them out in this photo.

 

 

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The other touch I liked amongst others were the 18mm pleated doors that you insert 18mm ply into rather than crudly sticking ply to. Much more solid and agian aides in easier fitting out, also liked the sliding hatch we got, very well designed.

 

Thanks for all the info, good to know all concerned are doing ok.

 

 

I spoke to Abdul Polar about 3 months ago, he'd just got himself a new order i think, I e-mailed him the other day, no reply yet, is he still going ok do you know.

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I spoke to Abdul Polar about 3 months ago, he'd just got himself a new order i think, I e-mailed him the other day, no reply yet, is he still going ok do you know.

 

The last peson I spoke to from the ex R&D crowd was Andrew Hooke (Woodworks), Earnest's fitter. That must have been about 4 months ago. He was doing OK then.

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  • 3 weeks later...

OK, some more photos:

 

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Getting some first coats of paint on her (on the boat I mean, Sam's quite capable of getting paint on herself :lol: )

 

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Painting the engine bay, good clean fun, well maybe not I'm still picking paint out my hair.

 

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The engine bolted down. If it looks wonky, then yes it is, but it's meant to be. It's fitted with a Python Drive which recommends that it should not be installed in line with the prop shaft, the 4 degrees mis-align is within spec.

 

I also heard this week the sad news that Abdul Polar's packed up building boats, at least for the time being, so now they're down to 3 builders on the estate.

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I also heard this week the sad news that Abdul Polar's packed up building boats, at least for the time being, so now they're down to 3 builders on the estate.

 

This is sad news, but I am sure he will be back.

AFAIK the beauty of Broughton Industrial Estate is that the units were available on a monthly let. R&D used to expand and contract as the market dictated.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Well SHE'S ALIVE now. Fired up the engine for the first time in it's new home. There was a whole lot of wiring to come out of the Polo for the engine management system, I reckon that a plural quantity of wires should have a collective noun, like flock, or gaggle. I reckon a nightmare of wiring would be about right. I hooked up the wiring loom to the engine, connected my laptop to talk to it, turned on the ignition, and ......... nothing. It just wouldn't talk to me, probably having an identity crisis after going to sleep in a car and waking up in the boat. I spent ages checking the wiring, but didn't have a good diagram as the Haynes manual was rubbish, so convinced myself that the problem must be with the security coding of the ECU or immobiliser so then spent ages trying to recode an ECU that wouldn't listen to me. Even tried reconnecting the airbag in case that had something to do with it. Still no luck so by then I had pretty much convinced myself that the ECU must have been wrecked :lol: . Finally got hold of a decent wiring diagram from a kindly person on a Volkswagen owner's club forum, and went straight to the problem. A relay that had fallen out when I removed the fuse box from the Polo. Found the missing relay under the driver's seat in the car, plugged it in, turned the ignition on and suddenly everything worked, glow plugs energised, relays clicked and all the diagnostics were talking! :lol: It complained about a missing brake pedal sensor and EGR valve, but nothing serious.

So next I connected up the fuel lines, put some diesel in the tank and came up with the next problem of how to prime it. The VW engine has no lift pump, just the injection pump, and no manual means of priming. It's supposedly self priming and self bleeding, but I'd have felt happier if I could have borrowed a suction pump to at least draw fuel through the injection pump. Not having one, I decided to try it anyway (I had at least managed to suck fuel to the filter). So turned the key, it turned over and started instantly, literally. It then cut out again after a few seconds. Tried it again, same again. Tried it a third time, again fired instantly and this time kept running and responded to the throttle. So the pump obviously is self priming and self bleeding, which is nice to know if I ever run out of fuel. Clever people those Germans. It was obviously LOUD without any exhaust system connected up, so the next job is fit the hospital silencer, cull all the unnecessary wiring (headlights, indicators, etc) and tidy everything up and clip it all in. Even tried putting it into gear briefly to check the prop turned and no nasty noises or obvious vibration, so hopefully that machining has worked too.

Well chuffed with that, it's just taken a big step forward, the painting's going well too, all the big bits are done, just needs detailing now.

 

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A 'nightmare' of wiring. In fact this wasn't even all of it.

 

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One from a while ago. Trying to unscrew the retaining ring from one of the portholes to remove the glass so the frame could be blasted clean. 30 odd years of corrosion needed much brute force and WD40 to remove!

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Fascinating to follow your progress with this project, keep up the good work!

I note from earlier posts thet the R of R&D is now in Australia. While on holiday on the Canal du Midi about two years ago I met a chap and his wife in a small, old boat, got talking to them and he told me that he had been half of R&D - so I suppose he must have been the D. Does anyone know him?

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I thought the D was Dave Clarke, who's still working with his son on the Ollerton estate........

 

It was...but I could never get Ray Denton to admit it! :lol:

A bit like the R&D "Slipper" stern. Ray nicked it from the Davidson short boats that he built.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Been fiddling with the engine mounts. After the euphoria of getting the engine running it did seem to transmitting a lot of noise and vibration to the structure. Paul (the boat builder) didn't seem to think it was that unusual, but I was hoping for much less considering I was using a Python Drive and soft mountings. The boat is at present stood on two metal rollers on a concrete floor so there's no external damping. I do think being in the water might make it a bit quieter.

It turned out I was overloading the front mounts (it's mounted on 3 points, I had assumed even distribution of mass plus a safety margin when I got the mounts, but it actually puts almost all it's weight through 2 mounts and very little on the third) so that they were bottoming out as the engine was running. I swapped them for the mounts from the Polo which after all were designed for this engine. Actually this wasn't as easy as it sounds they pass through the engine bearers and clamp it in the middle, also I had to fabricate some new support brackets. Luckily they were almost the same height off the bearers as the old ones, so it was easy to readjust the keep the shaft aligned (well, to within it's 6 degree tolerance!). Anyway fired it back up after doing that and the difference was amazing. It's so smooth now. I actually balanced a 50 pence coin on edge on the weedhatch, started the engine, revved it and it didn't topple! Admittedly it did when I stopped the engine, so it's still not perfect :lol: .

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Right, time for some more up dates. Paul's been great about letting us keep the boat boat in his shed while we fitted portholes and painted her (and refusing to take rent for it), but he needed the space and we had got the outside pretty much finished, so it was moved outside. It's amazing how much better the paintwork looks outside than it did in the shed. She'll have her name in large letters in the area better the first port and the side doors in silver, and I want silver coach lines too, although my girlfriend disagrees, but apart from that the painting's pretty much finished. We blasted the port holes with a pressure washer to check for leaks, found a couple but managed to cure them.

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Inside we're having underfloor heating in the front half of the boat (bedroom and bathroom), so have had the floor in the front sprayfoamed and laid warm water pipes.

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The screed is a fibre reinforced concrete recommended by the concrete supplier. I was surprised by how dry the mix was, but I've no experience of doing this sort of thing before. It does look like a flower bed before it's scraped over and compacted.

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Looks more like a floor when it's pressed down though:

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Not too far off going on the water now, just got to finish the engine electrics, cooling and controls, the rudder (more details on that to follow, traditionalists might not want to see this) and lay ballast and boards in the rear half.

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Some more pictures. This time of the rudder. Again haven't gone for the conventional option. This is a kitchen rudder. First patented in 1915 by Admiral Kitchen it was used under the McNab name in the 20s and 30s and by the Royal Navy on their pinnacle class cutters (there's a retired navy sailor on my parents street who used one when they borrowed the ship's cutter for weekend picnics). There's articles explaining the concept in wikipedia and Pro boat builder. The reason's I've used it for my boat are 1. Improved propulsive efficiency at low speeds (speeds above about 10-15 knots and it adds drag, but this shouldn't be a problem for a N. B.!). 2. Good manoeuvrability. It acts like a stern thruster, there's several reports of boats being able to spin round in their own length. 3. The ability to reverse where I want to as opposed to where the prop chooses to walk me. 4. Nothing sticks out from behind the boat to get stuck in lock gates (we're 60 foot so will be having to do some locks diagonally as it is). 5. Probably shorter stopping distance.

The main potential problem I can foresee is tangling with debris, but I can still reach from the weedhatch to clear the prop, and I don't know if it'll be better or worse than a conventional open prop. (I'd guess it's maybe less likely to get fouled but more serious and harder to clear if it does). I haven't made the tiller mechanism yet, but there'll be a fairly conventional looking tiller which moves left and right to steer but also hinges up and down to open and close the shells. The other unknown is what the control forces will be like. I don't know if it'll be heavy to use or if I'll get enough leverage on it that it's not too much effort. It'll certainly be interesting to see how it works when it's on the water. In the event it just doesn't work at least I have a conventional marine gearbox with a reverse gear to fall back on.

 

Here's a picture of it in the open straight ahead position

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Here's a picture of it forwards and steering.

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Here's a picture of it in straight reverse.

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Here's a picture of it hard over in reverse. In this position it should act as a stern thruster.

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