I am sure that we have all dreamed of skippering a craft which we could never afford or obtain. But today there are options ranging from actual firing war ships, typhoon class submarines, multi-masted schooners, classic runabouts or anything else that you could possibly want to skipper can be made, to scale of course. You may not feel the rumble of a 454 engine or the wind in your face, but there still is the excitement of piloting your dream vessel through the waters, even if they are not 15 foot swells.
For whatever design you may wish to make, there is a club or a class for
it.
These crafts can be as simple or as complex as you would like them to
be. These range from any craft using as little as a 2 channel radio to
control the throttle, or sails, and rudder to 8 channel 
radios
which can control any assortment of gadgets available such as lights,
horns, smoke, and even sounds. There are even little boats such as ours
which have made it into the mix, http://www.amya.org/images/mjohnsonmjw65.jpg
these great little boats can usually be bought as a kit from any number
of manufacturers or can be scratch built from just a set of plans for
as little or as much as you would care to spend. This truly is a great
way to pretend you are out on the water in the craft of your dreams. Best
of all, you still built it.
The construction of these kits are typically done one of two ways, the fastest and easiest is to purchase a pre formed fiberglass hull and deck which you put your hardware in, paint, glue together and call it a boat. The second is to either purchase a wood kit which has all the bulkheads and frames laser cut which you assemble and glue each piece on then finish, or you can scratch build. This method means that you cut each piece according to your own plans which you have either bought or made yourself. This method gives you the most control over the outcome of the boat.
The
hardware basically consists of three elements, the receiver, the transmitter
and the servos which control the different mechanisms such as a sail winch
to control the boom and jib and the rudder. For power boats instead of
a sail winch there is a power control which regulates the speed.
Back Yard Yacht Builders
A non-commercial association of amateur boat-builder enthusiasts.
All our wooden boats are Stevenson designs.