Way back in the Dreamtime I picked up a 65inch or 1.6 metre Torpedo Boat (McHales Navy type) hull with the idea of using it to take my lure out from the shore. I talked it over with a couple of mates over the years but did nothing about it except come up with some crazy idea that it would be good to have a “Baby” game boat that would catch fish. 

Then one day out of the blue, one of my mates, a self confessed “Sick Puppy”, by the name of Russell Warby donated to the cause a Mitsubishi 22cc whipper snipper motor and clutch.

I had a drawing of a 52 foot Riviera blown up to 26inch long by Russ years ago and I dug it out along with the old grey hull with nothing in it at all. After a few sleeps I went to Birkenhead Point Marina and took several photos of a Hatteras 65 called “Hattitude” and decided to mould my “Baby” on this beautiful boat.

I didn’t have a clue where to start, so I had the motor and propeller shaft fitted professionally, then modified the muffler to run into a T-piece from the pipe elbow so I could run the twin exhaust under the water line.
Next I reshaped the hull as best I could from photos and drew the substructure, made a cardboard dummy, then built it out of ply wood before fibre glassing it and then the fly bridge came about the same way.
After painting and adding windows and a roof I fitted the bow spirit and glassed / fly deck and it started looking pretty good. I made and fitted the radio box with a cheap 2 channel R/C unit made a throttle linkage and fitted the rudder.

Now it started to get silly. I fitted the navigation lights and interior lights and put outriggers on and added the game chair. After a few weeks hanging out around toy shops I located “Randy”. Randy Savage the wrestler / action doll, finally a moveable 6” doll that could hold a rod, as he already had his hands in the right position complete with hole for rod. Loves the boat our Randy, haven’t been able to get him off it since I screwed him to the game chair and added a mousetrap spring to his back so he’d ‘pump n  wind’

I lacked something; I had working outriggers, lights and a fisherman. Ah yes, another nightmare, I added a railing out of aluminium tube. Now it really looked the part. I took it to Parramatta park and gave it a test run. After guessing weight distribution pretty well, it got up on the plane nicely and handled its own bowages pretty well. I retired back to the shed for the next phase. I changed the lights to 12 volt from 6 and then added a 148:1 motor and gearbox I had set up with a Shakespeare baitcaster loaded with 300 yards of 4lb IGFA test mono. An RC line digital speed controller gives the reel 0.106 rpm.

I tied a double using a bimini twist and then tied 10lb fluorocarbon trace long enough to reach the reel before running it through Randy and up his 6” Ugly Sick tip Bent-Butt. Enter 4 channel JR Quattro radio control to drive the lot. I got some extra keyring reels (okuma baitcaster) and made up a set of 7 ‘Bent-butt 130’s”. 5 working and 2 spares. It will tow a long corner, short corner, long and short riggers and Randy armed with hook runs off shotgun (others are hook less teasers). Randy sets his drag about 1.5 lbs.

After adding sign writing on stern SICK PUPPY SGFC, It looks pretty good and will catch fish.