Old tradition prepares for Littlehampton comeback

With pennants proudly fluttering in the breeze and white decks gleaming and immaculate, Britain’s last remaining aircraft carrier, HMS Illustrious (or “Lusty” to her friends) is ready for the off.

Joining her on Sunday will be HMS Arun and three Fairmile Ds, the motor torpedo boat built by shipbuilder Osbornes in Littlehampton to counter the threat of the German E-boats during the Second World War.

A couple of the Fairmiles have come all the way from Switzerland to take part, along with the royal yacht Britannia, HMS Daring, which once sailed under Earl Mountbatten and PT109 commanded by John F. Kennedy.

All the vessels in this impressive fleet, perfect down to the last detail, are precision scale models operated by radio control, and are coming to take part in a flotilla of miniature warships.

“The objective is that they are totally realistic,” said John Hawley from the Surface Warships Association which is putting on the display. “It takes a lot of research before we even stick a knife in a piece of wood”.

The ships are made from metal, wood or plastic with some, like Lusty, 7ft 1in long, making her 100th of the size of her 22,000-tonne namesake.

The ships will be launched, then inspected by Littlehampton’s mayor, Alan Gammon, on Sunday.

He describes the event as “a brilliant idea”.

It came from Harbour Park’s Gary Smart, a collector of model boats who has, among others, an 8ft HMS Victory in his Galley tearoom.

Gary also had a black and white photo of scale model Dreadnoughts on the Oyster Pond in the 1920s and thought it was time to revive the tradition.

Association member Bob Jenner hopes if spectators come there might be some future model-makers among them.

Otherwise he fears “an awful lot of skills and knowledge are going to be lost”.

He adds: “We want more youngsters to be involved so they can carry on a wonderful craft.”

Colleague John, whose model Corvette nearly sank in Gosport the previous weekend, has concerns of a more immediately-practical nature in his mind.

“The Oyster Pond is salt water,” he points out. “So we’re going to have to wash our models out very carefully afterwards!”

The precision model ships display is from noon to 4pm.