Royal Yacht, Duchess of Kingston – 1778

Duchess of Kingston

The royal yacht built for the Duchess of Kingston was built in the late 1770s by the shipbuilders JM Hillhouse in Bristol. This type of ship appeared to have many older, more classical features compared to those built for the Royal Navy, making the yacht look more like a product of the late 17th and early 18th centuries.

The dimensions on the original plans were as follows:
Length of keel - 68 ft
Length of the deck - 81 ft
Width of the hull - 24 ft
Depth of the hold under the beams - 10 ft
Load capacity in tonnes - 206

The unit of measurement English feed (ft) is still partly used in shipping and aviation today. 1 ft = 30.48 cm, which almost corresponds to today's shoe size 46.

The model kit is designed to be as accurate as possible in both scale and detail. According to the manufacturer, the estimated construction time is between 60 and 80 hours,

Contents of the kit:
- Laser-cut parts from MDF and clear acetate. All visible parts are laser-cut from pear wood panels
- Laser-cut ladders and gratings made from pear wood
- Laser-cut and etched maple decks with nail details
- The entire area above the deck is already pre-cut, only the area below still needs to be planked with mouldings - the bark timbers are also pre-cut.
- 5 etched brass plates
- Moulded black 4-pounder gun barrels made of resin and black acrylic cannonballs
- Double planking for the hull made of lime wood for the first planking and pear wood for the second planking
- Walnut roundels for mast and yards
- Several thicknesses of black and natural-coloured rigging twine, as well as all the necessary blocks and maidens
- The full-colour English building instructions are very comprehensive and the building steps are supplemented with many pictures. In addition, the kit comes with 13 full-size plans containing all the mast and rigging drawings.

Technical data of the model
Scale - 1:64
Overall length - 576mm
Overall height - 480mm
Width overall - 208mm