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Peter Wagner's Crazy Clock
The Yacht
Page under construction
Most years, as a family, we have hired a yacht for a few days on the Norfolk Broads from Eastwood Whelpton. Indeed, I have been sailing on The Broads since I was a child. I decided that as this was such a major feature of my life, I would depict it in my clock. There was no equivalent on the original Guinness Festival Clock. On top of the original clock was a carousel (or merry-go-round) which I will also represent. However, it was not centrally positioned on the top, but off to the left for some reason. I decided that if I was to position my carousel centrally on the top, I could arrange for a model of one of the yachts (Trade Wind) we used to hire to "sail" around the outside of the carousel . When not sailing around, it would be "moored" out of sight behind the base of the carousel. On board the model yacht I wanted figures to represent myself, Penny my wife and our two children plus our first family dog Bess.
Us sailing Trade Wind
The model was simply carved from a block of wood. A wooden chopstick was used for the mast and boom, and a toothpick for the crosstrees. Penny kindly made the sails. To apply the EW sail logo, I created the logo on a computer and printed it on to an iron-on transfer sheet, which I printed off and ironed on to both sides of the mainsail. The figures I bought from an on-line model shop. I ended up buying a pack of 100 "O" gauge figures which were of roughly the right scale for the boat. Penny painted the ones that were most suitable. I also bought some scale models of various dogs and selected one that looked very similar to Bess, our lab-colly cross. Incidentally, the reason we hired this particular yacht when we had the dog was because we often moored in a broad under mud-weight. To get Bess to the bank to do her "jobs" meant ferrying her in the dinghy we towed. To get her from the aft deck into the bottom of the dinghy was quite a long way down. This yacht had a step half way down the transom which she could use on her way into the dinghy. You can just make out the step on the model. Bess and our daughter Rebecca are on the foredeck. They wouldn't normally be there when under sail though - too dangerous with the jib up!
Model of Trade Wind with figures of my family onboard.
The entire top section comprising the yacht, carousel and dove are to be mounted on a removeable baseboard which will slide into wooden guides on either side of the top of the main clock tower. The image here shows the baseboard early in its construction. The anemometer feeds back wind speed information to the main controller.
Baseboard showing supports for yacht disc
This is used to stop certain features e.g. the umbrella and synthesiser from operating in dangerously high wind speed conditions. You can also see the multi-way plug and cable which connects the electrics to the controller via a socket at the back of the main tower.
The yacht is moved around the carousel by attaching it to a large disc of acrylic (one of the failed attempts for the clock cover glass!) A large hole was cut in the centre to allow it to fit over the carousel base which covers the area shown in the picture by the black circle around a raised wooden disc. The outer diameter was just smaller then the width of the baseboard. It rests on 10 small rollers attached to the base and is held in position by three large-rimmed rollers attached to the base at 120 degrees around the circumference of the disc. This allows the entire disc to spin freely around. On the inside of the disc is a motor-driven toy car rubber wheel, very similar to the one that drives the clock face's Arthur Ransom disc. This acts as a pinch wheel on the inner edge of the disc. You can just see a cout-out near the centre of the base to accommodate it. You can see the wheel and motor in the image showing the model yacht; it is on the right hand side. To tell the controller when the yacht is in its parked (out-of-sight) position, a microswitch is fixed in an appropriate position to be actuated by a small wedge-shaped block of perspex attached to the underside of the disc.
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