Spark Ignition Fsrv 35

Over the years The Manchester and Leed's Model Boat club's have had some one of the leading competitors in the spark ignition class starting way back before you could buy tailor made engines which are now widely available such as the Mathe And Mtl to name but two.

So these pages will be purely devoted to the Spark Ignition  Fsr-v boats 22cc and 35cc

the very early beginnings of spark ignition in the uk the engines where mostly home made four stroke engines although a few competitors used the two stroke Olsen and Rice engine but this was no match for the four strokes of the day.

It was only in 1975 at the Naviga European Championships in England is when we saw how far behind  the spark ignition boats from continental Europe we where and what a shock it was because in every other class we where very competitive picking up many medals.

But to see these German and Swedish boats we where truly amazed the British entry had probably the best driver of the day in Manchester club Member (Eric Wilson) and the fastest 35cc boat in the country built by Jan Podlaski also a Manchester member. We all thought we would have good chance of coming away with something how wrong we where Eric was being lapped every second lap and he was driving Buoy to Buoy.

It was to put it mildly an eye opener the driver and boat had won the British championship at a canter just a few weeks previous and here we where "BLOWN AWAY" so where can we go from here well we could not go backwards that would have been an impossibly .

So what next what had the continental Europeans got what we had not got well one was a bespoke engine that cost in 1975 over £1000 and in 1975 that would have been half a years wages not feasible for most competitors plus he only made 10 at any one time and like the car manufacture Lamborghini he waited till he had orders and payment for the ten engines before starting.

So that was out of the question what next looking at the Swedish boat he had converted a 33cc Huskvana engine which was not on the pace of the German hand built engine but was using the same crankshaft but was much faster than the four strokes and the price was much cheaper and as most club members either had a lathe or had access to one so work started along this path.

At first engines available in the UK was very limited with very few manufactures making small 35cc two stroke engines but there was light on the horizon with the introduction of the Fox 22cc Engine available ready water cooled ready to drop into a boat this engine was used with great  affect by Dave Marles in a John Stidwell designed Jumbo Jaguar winning virtually every race he entered.

The Pace of development slowed for a while with the introduction of the Fox but slowly better industrial chainsaw engines became available enter the Kawasaki KT 18 this engine saw off the fox and most other available engines .

We will skip forward now to 1982 the third Fsrv world championships where being held in Les Andeleys France A Manchester Club Member Frank Lamb entered with a KT 18 in a John Barraclough designed boat and finished in fifth place overall he was still off the pace for pure speed but the boats ability to drive a very tight course helped but what an improvement in just seven years we where going the right way.

The Pace of development then slowed down that where I come in I had always helped my father Frank lamb in the engine work department but had not considered running a spark ignition boat eventually I was talked into it and I am so glad I did at first my 35 was off the pace of my fathers and Peter Kirks(Manchester) Arthur Shaw (Birmingham Club) and John Barraclough (Bradford) and Dave Kirkpatrick  but gradually it became more competitive then some bright spark in the club I think it was Martin Gibbins (could be wrong there) turned up with some  22cc Kawasaki KT12's which after a season running the engine in the much larger Burley special I put my fathers in Prestwich Models Mirage 4 the engine was transformed it was not long before this boat was out classing the 35 boats small nimble and as fast which was the undoing of the chainsaw engined boats as one club member said nice boat but it will never be as fast as a KT18 then it will never win a race against the bigger boats again he was proved wrong But as all things the pace of development with the engine soon outgrow the Mirage 4 as had the 15cc a season earlier our problem was the size of props we where running (60-62mm diameter) I had altered a few hulls with some if not spectacular success until my father suggested I a make a boat from scratch so my first petrol hull was born the boat ended up the size of the old Burley special but was designed as if it was just any other Fsrv boat as was proved when I fitted a CMB 90 to the boat (full circle), I used a 90 boat to run the first 22cc Kawasaki Kt12's now I use the 22cc petrol boat to run my 90.

Has it turned out the 22cc boats changed the way we thought about building and running spark ignition boats so myself and Alan Whitaker started to experiment with boats and boat setup and we found yes these boats are heavier but they are still Fsrv Boats and should not be built differently so we would build our boat with 5mm prop shafts with 8mm diameter tube and as light as possible just as any other multi boat. this was also built into the 35cc boats and we still build this way only now we use Carbon Kevlar with epoxy resin instead of the old polyester resins and fibre glass.

The Mathe was coming from Italy

Alan Whitaker had bought a Italian Built 35 cc Mathe engine (One of the first in the country) for the world championships in Austria in 1990 which he fitted to a  John Barraclough  Designed phoenix but the Boat was not able to live with the wash that the bigger German boats where putting out but he was as fast as the other competitors so in the winter of 1991 Alan and myself started work on a boat to try and rectify this we started with a blank piece of paper and a new way of looking at the problem what came out was a boat which I still use The Maverrick Alan was not very happy with the boat so he altered the design and called it the Viper Initially the Viper was much better than the Maverrick but with a different build setup pushing the engine further forward vast improvements where made so I decided to enter the world championships eliminators for in Slovakia 1994 and Managed to qualify but the boat still had a habit of spinning out on corners when in other boats wash.

So For the championships in Slovakia I built a new Maverrick again moving the engine forward and altering the shaft and rudder position when I tested the boat all I can say it was boring it did what it was told no spinning and was now at least on a par with Alan Whitakers Viper but I had never raced against the continental Europeans so I did not Know what to expect so it was a case of suck it and see after the first heat I had to add some trim to the boat just to correct  the wash that the boats where putting out Alan Whitaker was in the same heat as me but had a problem and finished 6th in the heat I was 3rd with a trouble free run. in the second heat Alan was Second I again came third we where only beaten by the then world champion Rudi Hoffman from Germany now we where on the pace . All three British competitors made the final Alan Whitaker qualified 2nd Richard Harris qualified 5th and I managed 6th on the grid. Also Paul Whenham had made the Junior spark ignition final finishing third  and received a well deserved  bronze medal next up us, Richard got a good start an got away first I was close behind Alan had ignition problems and was 12 laps down by the time he got on the water Richard then hit trouble and missed a lot of time on the water elevating me to second place where I stayed to the end of the race picking up a silver medal in the world championships we had done it we had caught  them but  it had taken  twenty years but we had got there. We no longer just made up the numbers

The introduction of the Mathe was not the saviour of the Spark ignition class that we had all hoped yes our boats where now there on a par with anything Europe had to offer but the Modellers who had taken up spark ignition as a engineering project more then anything else started to drop out also with speed and power comes a greater cost and not many would pay out the £800 asking price for Mathe saying it was cheque book modelling those who did found it a lot less fun and dropped out of the sport altogether leaving just a few dedicated modellers to take up the challenge.

Now at every world championships eliminators since 1997 we have been struggling to find more than three competitors to enter the world championships and a petrol race had not been held in the UK for over two years until the British GP 2003 and there was only five competitors.

So yes we can compete but at what cost to the sport no racing no practice so we go to race in Europe and do well but it takes time to reacquaint yourself with your boat and get used to driving it again even if you have raced over the weekend in different classes it still takes time to get up to speed and the boats and engines are not being developed as much has they were but Alan and myself are still here working to improve the spark ignition boats in the uk.