Im beginning to do a long overdue refit on the Foundation Franklin. I built the ship over 30 years ago and is now time to clean her up and getting her ready to sail once again.
The first task is to disassemble the reduction gear, clean and re oil it.
The gear box is powered by a 12 volt dumas motor. The reduction is 5 to one. The top section of the assembly has the Dumas coupler. The bottom coupler is much larger and is needed to turn the 4 inch prop. I manufactured the unit to fit backwards in the model under the salvage hatch. The 5 to one reduction gives very slow speeds and is very quiet.
At full throttle the ship cruises wit a realistic bow wave.

The Foundation Franklin was 155 feet long and 31.5 feet in beam. The model is built to .375 inches to the foot. Model dimensions are 58.125 inches by 11.625 inches in beam. She draws 5.25 inches of water.

Hello all, recently I repainted the bottom. Was long overdue as the coat of paint on her was the original paint.