TWO-AND- A-HALF months of hard work and patience culminated in the successful maiden voyage of a home-made submarine at Poole Park.

Pensioners Kevin Patience and Tony Ferguson, both from Poole, hand-built the 20-foot vessel in a garage with a lot of hard work and perseverance.

Mr Patience said: "We're both interested in model boats and this was a chance to build something a bit different.

"The launch went really well, we had a couple of initial problems but it went exceptionally well overall."

The sub is made mainly from plywood, is powered by an electric motor and has a rear-facing television camera.

"It was very comfortable when we got in," Mr Patience said. "We did a couple of trial runs around the area, and stayed in for about 20 minutes."

The pair are hoping to take the craft to an open day at a submarine museum, and following the success of this launch, are already planning their next project.

"We're now thinking about building a German submarine based on a Second World War model, but this is still at the drawing board stage," Mr Patience said.

"We learned a lot from building this, which should stand us in good stead for the next one. We might consider selling it and putting the proceeds towards the next project but we're not sure yet."