By TONY PITTS, Times Herald BOAT BUILDER: Ed Cook works on scale-model wooden boats designed to sail in small ponds. His Highlander Sea model will be motorized. Acheson Ventures has said it will build a sailing pond in the Desmond Landing development.

While their real-life counterparts command the waterways, freighter models have a more difficult time finding safe areas to travel.

Their small size and fragile assembly require a calm pond, not the expanse and power of Lake Huron or the St. Clair River.

So a group of local model-boat builders is itching to get its hobby onto an enclosed body of water at Acheson Ventures' Desmond Landing development in Port Huron.

It's unlikely, however, their miniature vessels will sail any time soon.

Acheson Ventures, the Port Huron development company renovating the city's southern riverfront, has promised some land to the Great Lakes Nautical Society, a local club dedicated to handmade scale models of not only freighters, but other lakes ships including U.S. Coast Guard vessels and sailboats.

Because plans still are being developed, Acheson Ventures spokesman Paul Maxwell couldn't give a timetable on when the small-vessel operators will have their water.

The goal is to allow the modelers to operate their little ships in a channel to be constructed north of the Seaway Terminal. Acheson Ventures also has plans to give the club space to build their models in view of the public.

"I'm anxious to see it go," said Ed Cook, 67, of Port Huron. He's one of the half-dozen club members and is making serious progress on a 2-foot-long model of the Acheson Ventures-owned tall ship Highlander Sea. Like other club members, Cook relies on private ponds or small streams to pilot his creations.

Such a waterway would benefit more than the hobbyists, said group founder Norm Hart. Members not only have a wealth of knowledge about ships, but the surrounding waters, too, and are anxious to share.

"It's an information-disseminating club as well as a model-ship building club," Hart said.

The group put on a popular show at the Seaway Terminal during Port Huron's Be A Tourist in Your Own Town event in June. About 2,000 people saw more than 60 boats motor about.

Originally published Saturday, September 18, 2004