Have Boat, Will Sail
 

Purchased my first (RC) boat tonight... Been racing in the league for a few weeks now on borrowed boats. Psyched for my 'first' race tomorrow. I bought it used off a friend who stopped sailing. Took it out to the local pond and was not happy. Brought it home, and with my dad's help (who has gotten me into this), completely re-rigged the boat, looks like it should really accelerate out of the tacks better now.

Tomorrows race should have about 16-20 boats in it. Should be a good test of the boat.

Not my boat, but gives you an idea of the type:

http://app.onlinephotofiler.com/Imag....1600x1200.jpg
http://app.onlinephotofiler.com/Imag....1600x1200.jpg

http://www.soling1m.com/Soling1m.php

Good luck with your race.:)

I loved my RC sailboat. I'm sure you will enjoy yours. Stay windward side of your opponent. It takes the wind right out of his sails.:arrgh!:

Used to have RC submarines and powered boats but never the sailing type.

Best of luck in your race :salute:

Cool, I have a 1/250 scale model of the IJN Yamato that I rescued from a charity shop. It is motorised and needs a complete overhaul as it had been sitting in someone's attic for 30 years or more.

I hope to get it sailing on the local pond one of these days. :arrgh!:

Cheers

Gary

RC sailboat? how cool is that!

Do you really have full control over the sails or only limited?

Post a pic. I love older RC.

Full control, as sails/wind is the ONLY means of propulsion.

As mentioned, spent the night testing out rigging setups. Packed the 2 boats (fathers too) into the car and drove an hour to the west side (theres a west side and east side racing club, we have a home/away regatta every year, this was the away leg. Overall club v club scores). Got to the pond. (Satellite view here. The dock on the south side is about 15 feet long. If you zoom in enough, you can see the buoys we use for marks on the course). And I found one of my side stays had fallen off (fell off in the garage at home, previous owner had never closed any of the Eye-bolts). Had to quickly fabricate another load bearing rigging out of the trunk of my car. While I had plenty of spare parts, it completely negated all of my rigging R&D done the night before. Mast was all out of whack, my vang wasn't pulling right, back stay sounded like a guitar string :o. So while my jib was shaped correctly, my main luffed way too early. Ended up not even getting the top third of the main to fill right, which gave away way too much power on the up wind legs.

That said, first 6 races, averaged 3rd place out of 12. Even managed to win one. Tapered off from there. Next to last race, batteries died in the transmitter, so I had to set the boat into a starboard turn, turn off the transmitter (boat kept turning) and replace the batteries. Missed the start by like 2 minutes (which is huge in a 15 minute race). Ended up getting 4th. :yeah:

Overall I performed well, easily taking advantage of others mistakes to move up, but the boat (and I) sailed like crap.

Next race is saturday, so a full rigging refit is in order, even going to rebuild the rudder mechanism and reinforce the inner hull.


Here is my boat, without rigging, open to dry the inside (small leak I have to find). Note lack of any propulsion!

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/l...ps99a7d1ca.jpg


Inside view of the Hull. Main servo can be seen, the large swing arm controls the Main and Jib (hidden) sheets. Need to also replace the main sheet as there is visible fraying. The long black (carbon fiber!) arm runs from the second servo to the rudder.

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/l...ps1a976b27.jpg

One of the guys in the club has a 75 year old model boat that his grandfather started when he was a kid and never finished. Tom got it from his grandfather and finished the build, then retrofitted it to take modern RC controls and sails. He's still working on it, but he's to the point now where hes able to keep up with the fleet during a race. I'll see if I can grab pics next time I see it.

Another guy in the club builds custom classical RC boats. Apparently his crown jewel is a 3 masted schooner. Lives in Ohio, but drives once a month to Central Park in New York to compete in the classical boat race they have. More of a tiny tall ships parade than a race I hear.

I meant to ask whether you had full control over adjusting the sails (raising lowering, slacking and stuff)

Will do as soon as I have my Mancave set up which should not be too long :D

Cheers

Gary

Well if you ever travel to the Newcastle area drop me a line because I've a 1/96 HMS Illustrious hull with all the fittings gathering dust in the garage which you can have.

Wait just a minute, I have cash! I'll pay for the entire model, PLEEEEEASE!

Thanks for the offer Jim I am very grateful, but if yoo can get hard cash for it then... go for it:up:

Cheers

Gary

Not sure Mr Mat could afford to have that shipped to Australia, nor that it would arrive in one piece....

I had an RC yacht, many moons ago, sadly long since sunk in a house move, but my crowning moment was rescuing a non-RC sailboat on the local boating pond which had been becalmed, I tacked across to it and managed to nudge it back to the waiting kid and his Dad at the side.