Have a chance to buy this pretty reasonable. 27ins. Long, 9in. beam. Pittman motor.
Any thoughts. Thanks, Ron

Looks well made and original - it should respond well to restoration. A new brushless would give it a sparkling performance, and you could sell the old vintage motor on Ebay to defray some of the cost...

Thanks, been looking for one of these.

Definitely an old Sterling Sea maid.
Mine just has an old Astro 05 marine and it scoots along very well.
Pittmans are great motors but not for speed. Dave

BTW
There should be a back seat and the motor should be in the aft section. Dave

Yeah I been digging up picture of this Boat. Have to see if I can find some parts somewhere. I think I can build a backseat. Going to have fun with it though.

Wouldn't it be great if someone on the US side of the pond would start a project to get the Stirling plans and frame patterns together - reverse engineering from old models if necessary - and out on the web? There must still be a number of old kits and plans out there, but they won't last forever...

I happen to know someone that contacted Estes (The model rocket people) who currently own the rights to the Sterling kits.
He offered to by the name and company to reproduce the kits as laser cut models.
Instead of the die-crushed as we called them wood parts.
But they will not sell and have no plans to bring the kits back.
Very sad! Dave

Originally Posted by Subdave

I happen to know someone that contacted Estes (The model rocket people) who currently own the rights to the Sterling kits.
He offered to by the name and company to reproduce the kits as laser cut models.
Instead of the die-crushed as we called them wood parts.
But they will not sell and have no plans to bring the kits back.
Very sad! Dave

That is interesting.

I have also chased the rights to these items, and ended up talking to the holding company Hobbico, who own, amongst other companies, Estes. I was asking for permission to publish data on the Stirling kits openly on the web at no charge.

Here is their response (dated 08 Jan 2013):

Good Afternoon,

We are able to give you approval to post the old Sterling manuals that you have in your possession. We do not have a public archive for these items but you can publish what you have and what you may acquire in the future as long as you recognize that it is our property. Please add the following: "Copyright Hobbico, Inc. Used with permission."

Carol Pesch
Product Communication Manager
Hobbico

So far, the only company who has refused me permission to publish their old Vintage plans, while having no means whereby customers can obtain them from company archives, is Mid-West.

Originally Posted by 61impalaron

Have a chance to buy this pretty reasonable. 27ins. Long, 9in. beam. Pittman motor.
Any thoughts. Thanks, Ron

Hi, 61ImpalaRon,

I have just received a set of Sea Maid plans from Gavin, and will be putting them up on my site. Can I include one of your pictures?

DG

Sure, no problem!

Originally Posted by 61impalaron

Sure, no problem!

Thanks very much!

We are now doing quite well for Sterling kits - four of the models on the page link below are filled in...

http://oldboats.tk/Sterling1.html

Originally Posted by dodgy

Thanks very much!

We are now doing quite well for Sterling kits - four of the models on the page link below are filled in...

http://oldboats.tk/Sterling1.html

Hi Dodgy, FYI I am in the process of restoring the Sterling Sea Maid 20 plans to a vector bitmap with all the low-res content repaired. If anyone has tracings of the kit parts, I'd like to include those in case a rebuild is necessary.

Originally Posted by CloudCruiser

Hi Dodgy, FYI I am in the process of restoring the Sterling Sea Maid 20 plans to a vector bitmap with all the low-res content repaired. If anyone has tracings of the kit parts, I'd like to include those in case a rebuild is necessary.

Does that mean that you have an original copy of the plans? I would certainly be interested in getting a copy to go up on the web site.

As you say, a drawing of the actual kit parts is an ideal. I usually ask people to scan the kit parts as a PDF, and then I use a CAD package to draw over it. So, for any of the kits on the web site which have part drawings, I can provide an output for a numerically-controlled cutter.

One of these days I intend to build one of these: http://store.amberspyglass.co.uk/esh...nical-kit.html

No, I'm restoring the 6-meg plan that I believe you have already. I think the original that was scanned didn't have smooth paper or enough ink, so when magnified the lines fall apart. It will take a while to finish it. A small section is uploaded. Do you have a scan of the booklet that came in the kit box?