Model Boats: Volume 40, Issue 478 – December 1990

Russell Potts at the Worlds, entertaining Romanians and launching a publishing house usually end up producing the copy for this column in an enormous rush, working close up against the editor’s deadline. Those of you out there muttering “… and it shows” can see me after class. This is partly a conscious policy to ensure that the material is fresh and topical, but more seriously it is the result of a chronic inability to get anything started until just before it is needed and a long history of producing some of my best work against deadlines. Even so, the month since I wrote the last piece seems to have been immensely long and action packed. I was actually writing the copy for last month’s column while the RM Worlds were in progress at Fleetwood and since then I have been up to Fleetwood to see the last few days of the RM meeting and the special World Masters event on the Saturday following the end of the Championship; I also spent a couple of days there, sailing a pair of vintage Ms that had been brought up for the celebration. At Fleetwood I launched a new specialist publishing house and since my return from Fleetwood I have been to the Vintage Day at Clapham on 9 September. IfI say that I also managed to crash the hard disk on the computer just before going to Fleetwood and just after producing the first flysheet publicity for Curved Air Press and have only very recently restored the machine to full The World Masters fleet reaching across the top of Fleetwood lake with Robert Wattam, the eventual winner of this special one day event, in the lead. working order, you will understand that I feel as though my feet haven’t touched the ground and that I am having to run very hard to keep up. Even the orders resulting from the modest amount of publicity so far given to Curved Air Press have been a bit of an embarrassment, as I had no means of producing the master sheets for the covers and thus could not produce anything to send to my customers. This will have been rectified by the time you read this and the Press will have a stock of all advertised titles from which to meet demand. Watching paint dry would be a bit more engrossing; the sort of racing that gives World Championships a bad name as entertainment. 40 RM Worlds I don’t propose to say much about the competitive side of the event, as it will no doubt be covered much more fully by Nick Weall who was a member of the Protest Committee and in R/C Boat Modeller by Mike Kemp who took part. For me it was more an opportunity to renew acquaintanceships with several of the competitors who were back for a second dose of Fleetwood weather and to meet some with whom I have had a long postal relationship. The actual racing, on the days I was there towards the end of the week, was surprisingly uninteresting to me, partly because the weather was very light and there was no excitement in the sailing as such. Only if you were taking a close interest in the changing positions at the head of the fleet was it possible to distinguish between the action on the water and the excitements of waiting for the lawn to grow enough to need mowing again. This probably tells you more about my current attitude to competitive sailing than it does about the competition itself. Derek Priestley, the Race Officer, was firmly of the opinion that the event had been even more successful than in 1986, and I didn’t find anyone among the competitors to disagree with him. Certainly it was in the main a very friendly competition at both ends of the fleet. Indeed the E Fleet became so attached to each other in the course of the week that it was regarded as slightly bad form to do well enough to progress to the D Fleet even for a single race. The E Fleet contained a number of people like the two Australian entries, Henry Nehrybecki and Richard MODEL BOATS Simmons, who were in Europe for some other reason but decided to take ina World Championship along the way, and Paul Toal from Ireland who was originally proposing to come over as a spectator until I persuaded him to bring his boat and sail. None of them had any serious expectation of getting away from the bottom of the pack for more than a brief period, but all enjoyed their week and some at least went home inspired to upgrade their weaponry and start trying harder in competitions back home so that their next trip to an international would enable them to find how friendly the competition was in higher fleets. One sign of the development of radio sailing was the much lower incidence of protests than in 1986. The three-strong Protest Committee of Marianne Ericsson, Barry Jackson and Nick Weall even had some time to step out of their cabin and see what was going on on the water. They did a sterling job and the competitors were much indebted to them as they were to the relatively small team who acted as Race Observers. Dave Hackwood was one of these, which left his wife Eileen to run the Information office and sales counter single-handed for much of the week. She performed marvels and sold vast quantities of MYA publications and clothes branded with World Championship and MYA insignia. So much so, that the MYA might seriously consider bidding for a World Championship every couple of years, as the profit on this sort of activity gives a very healthy boost to finances and helps to keep the subs under control. The results will no doubt be given in detail in Nick Weall’s column. The thing that impressed me was the very solid performance of the English entry, which packed in at the top of the fleet to make the team result a foregone conclusion. This is partly the result of holding the meeting in the UK, so that very few of the top skippers who qualified for places Study in concentration. Japanese competitor Kazuo Takei and the Spanish team coach paying close attention to action on the water. The Spaniards have affiliated their model organisation to the full size association. The big boys felt they didn’t know enough about the way model races were run, so they sent a technical representative to find out how it’s done. did not attend. More important, in my World’s results. Each race was competition at the top of the MYA ranking list, which is having the desired effect of improving the overall quality of the fleet and the relative standing of the MYA in international competition. We didn’t manage to get into the top place this time, but as between skippers at this level of competition the distribution of individual places right at the top of the list turns on very small differences of performance on the day and even to some extent on luck. None of this takes away from the fine performance of Christophe Boisnault of France who carried off the World Title. In the technical field there was little to report that was radically new. Leon Taliac’s boat with the forward rudder, when seen in the flesh, was more notable for its very narrow hull and low freeboard that enabled it to “submarine” through the waves in the heavy weather of the early part of the competition. The low wetted area of the amazingly skimpy hull meant that it was a potent performer in the light as well and his overall position reflects the care with which the boat was prepared and sailed as much as its design advantages. The actual construction of the hull was a bit rough as befits a one-off design that might have turned out to be a dog in competition. The hull stayed in this country as Leon was trying very hard to realise on his assets to help with the cost of the trip from New Zealand, so we should have a chance to see how it performs in the hands of a home skipper. accompanied by a commentary on the PA following the fortunes of one boat through its race, drawing attention to the tactical opportunities available to the skipper and expressing instant judgements on the use he managed to make of them. Even to the extent of drawing the skippers’ attention to breaches of the Rules and failures to complete the penalty turns correctly. The idea was that these commentaries would make the spectators on the bank more conversant with what radio racing involves and enable them to understand what was happening on the water, which is often difficult for the uninitiated in normal racing circumstances. This was a good idea and well executed by Roger and the others that he called on to World Masters The World Masters event run on the Saturday had been intended as a TV spectacular to bring radio sailing to the Argentine competitor at the Worlds, Roberto Azar. DECEMBER 1990 extent from those at the top of the view, is the effect of the concentrated notice of a wider audience, but these plans fell through and it was re-jigged by its organiser Roger Stollery into a one day demonstration event with a single fleet of 16 skippers drawn to a large commentate on races. Unfortunately the day of the event was overcast and damp, not to say raw for late August, and almost no-one apart from those who already understood very well what was going on was on the lakeside to get the benefit. A lot of work went into the organisation of this imaginative attempt to bring radio racing to a wider audience. It was a great pity that there wasn’t a better return on the effort that Roger put into the event. The skippers enjoyed themselves though, particularly Robert Wattam, the young New Zealander who came second in the Worlds but managed to win this World Masters. A glutton for punishment, he left as soon as it was over to drive to Austria where he was engaged to sail in the NAVIGA Worlds which were to take place at Wolfgangsee. The only other competitor to make this long drive for back to back competition was Janusz Walicki, who won the Wolfgangsee event as compensation for failing to retain his IYRU title. Romanian Modelling Another who thoroughly enjoyed his day in the World Masters, despite 41 in its top suit, she was left for dead both upwind and down by any of the modern boats, which are simply more efficient in converting the power of the wind into forward motion. The real difference is in the sails. Though I had a couple of new suits made in cotton by Walter Jones, it has been a long time since Walter made cotton sails and I don’t think they were as good as the old suits that were made for the boat in 1937, though these are at the end of their lives and literally falling apart. Even with the very best available cotton sail technology, I think Sagitta would have been outclassed, as her depth of keel is insufficient to hold up the rig for full effect. Also the cotton sails are by no means impervious to the wind and something like 15% of the power was Graham Bantock, left, watches the others show him how to do it, with Canadian entrants Allan Gardner and Baird McClean. finishing last by a convincing distance, was Mircea Kiritescu, a Romanian model yachtsman who had made enormous efforts to travel to Fleetwood to see the Championship. He borrowed Graham Bantock’s boat (see photo) and sailed it doggedly at the back of the fleet. Mircea spent a few days with me in London before he travelled on to Fleetwood and, among much in a more or less continuous conversation on model yachting, explained how difficult modelling of any sort was in Romania, even without the political problems of megalomaniac dictatorship and uncertain revolution. Materials are difficult and sometimes impossible to come by and the very small number of active model yachtsmen, under 50 in the whole country, labour under enormous difficulties. Mircea works as an aircraft engineer in the nationalised industry which builds British Aerospace designs under licence, but I sense that his main interest in life is his modelling. He runs a small company on the side which makes sails and fittings and supplies the great majority of the model yachtsmen in Romania as well as selling elsewhere in Eastern Europe. He desperately wants to import modelling goods from the West, but this is only possible if he can manage to sell some of his products to us for hard currency. He had brought some of his sails with him and though considerable interest was shown in them he wasn’t successful in making a sale, despite the fact that they were cheap by Western standards. Possibly he was trying to sell in the wrong market. Most competitors at a World Championship are interested in having the very best, regardless of price and a high proportion of them are pretty fair sailmakers themselves. At club level there may well be a market for sails that are competently made and cheaper than those available from the general run of sailmakers in the UK. Much turns on whether someone is prepared to take the plunge and try a suit or two from a 42 maker who has absolutely no reputation in the West. Restored Ms My main sailing activity at Fleetwood was with Sagitta, the 1937 Marblehead that I had restored to show off at the Championship. True to form, she was finished only a few days before she went North and Mircea was roped into help with the final rigging and fitting out. The boat was fitted with rudder only radio control for display purposes and I did a bit of trolling about with some of the championship boats before and after the formal competition. It was very noticeable that even in light weather, which was no embarrassment to my boat simply going straight through them. The most illuminating difference and one that should have been self evident if I had thought about it beforehand, is the huge difference in manoeuvrability between a boat designed to be sailed with radio and one like Sagitta designed to sail in a straight line. Applying rudder only radio to such a boat enables her to be sailed more or less where you wish and she tacks easily enough. You think that the boat is under control and that, with the addition of a winch she could be made at least to sail round a course with more modern boats. It’s only when you actually sail in company that you really see the difference. Going down to the leeward buoy with a modern boat more or less level, it took me so long to get the boat sailed round the mark and far enough through the wind to tack that the other boat was half way up the windward leg before I was really moving again. Despite that, Sagitta looked very fine and attracted a lot of attention, both on and off the water. The photos probably don’t show that she had to be fitted with plastic plates at each end of the main and jib horses to prevent the sheet hooks Romanian visitor Mircea Kiritescu launches the boat he borrowed from Graham Bantock. MODEL BOATS falling over the corners and jamming on one side. Her original fit of Alexander equipment included a set of very neat travellers that ran on the horses and prevented this nonsense. They had been put in a safe place with a number of other small fittings and chromed screws when the boat was stripped for varnishing and when the time came for them to be replaced in a hurry, as you might, expect, they couldn’t be found. I tell this sort of tale to encourage other mere mortals out there who find organising a workshop beyond their limited powers. We all know how it should be done “a place for everything …, but very few of us actually manage to do better than a heap of tools and work in progress pushed to the back of the bench until the workspace is literally the size of a small handkerchief. Then it takes a day and a half to get everything straight. And what is the effect of a nice tidy workbench with all the tools where they should be? A rush of enthusiasm to get on with things and a heap of tools and work in progress rapidly advancing from the rear of the bench. I had more fun with Sagitta after the World’s caravan had moved on, sailing her up and down the lake under her original Braine gear. I discovered going to windward (with the rudder locked central) that when I resoldered the Braine quadrant onto the rudder post, I had not managed to get it quite true, giving a very slight bias to the helm. This acted like a guy and brought her about after she had gone about a third of the way across Fleetwood. It was very convenient, as I was able to guy up one bank and avoid the need to find a mate to tend the boat on the other side. Coming down wind is a tricky quartering run with the wind much disturbed by the notorious Fleetwood hotels. I was very pleased to find that my second trim was good enough to get her down the lake in one leg without any need to rush from one side of the lake to the other to fend her varnish off the concrete. A simple pleasure but one to be savoured. The emphasis laid on “the hotels” in Priest and Lewis’s book reflecting on their sailing experience in the 1950s, brings home the effect that they had on sailing at Fleetwood when they were built shortly after the war. What had previously been a more or less unobstructed windflow from the South West across a shortish distance of shore became a swirling set of wind funnels that played havoc with the trimming of boats that could only be sailed on a course relative to the wind. They are there to stay and after 40 years we have learnt to put up with them. Until very recently when the wind was in the north west there were equally great problems with the wind shadow under, what had become over the years, a large sand dune much higher than the concrete block sea wall that had been built when the promenade was improved and the lake constructed in 1930. Sand blowing into the lake had also made the top corner too shallow for modern Marbleheads to sail in. Earlier this year, at the prompting of the Fleetwood club and the MYA, the Wyre Borough council made a substantial reduction in the height of the sand dune, levelling it off to DECEMBER 1990 Sagitta restored and sailing at Fleetwood. One of the nicer looking boats at the Worlds, though / say it myself. the top of the original sea wall. The difference in conditions, particularly for free sailing boats, has to be seen to be appreciated. While I was in Fleetwood I had the opportunity to sail another elderly “M”’. This was Sapper, a 1947 boat from Morecambe which I wrote about a little while ago. She was on her way south to her new owner but I took the opportunity to see exactly what there was in the sail bag. As well as a couple of suits of cotton sails in good condition there were two balloon spinnakers made from parachute silk. You could tell it was parachute silk 43 only. Fred has sent me a photo of the boat he sailed at that time. She is a 12-metre to the International Rule of 1907 and was built as Gaiety Girl about 1920 in the club that then existed at Bootle and was bought for him by his grandfather in 1926. When Fred had her she was called Inneen Veg as a bow to the Manx origins of the family. She originally had a gaff rig and simple sheet to tiller steering but was converted to Bermuda rig and Braine gear in the very early 1930s when the club affiliated to the MYA and young Fred became seriously interested in model yachting. More than 60 years later he is still at it and a very active member of the Birkenhead club. Curved Air Press Detail of Sapper’s mast foot arrangements. Distinctly a transitional boat between pre-war and post-war best practice. Wire shrouds, wooden mast and spars, chain sheets to the jib (and to the main, though it’s out of the photo) and a spring kicking strap to the main boom. But the jib has an arrangement that makes it essential to use the horse to keep the clew down when beating. because the panel they had been cut from was still in the bag. The boat had an early form of vane gear, a type marketed in the early 1950s by Lance and Mullett, and a deck plan described as “new deck 1951” which pretty accurately fixes the date of her conversion to vane gear. After a bit of advice from Derek Priestley on how the vane gear was supposed to work, (there was no graduated disk and no way of giving different vane angles on each tack) I found that this boat too could be made to go down wind in one leg. Going to windward seems to be fairly easy and the performance was quite convincing when put into not very serious competition with some vane “M’’s being sailed by some of the junior members of the Fleetwood club. The boats they were sailing were not the most modern, but were probably 40 years more up to date than mine. They were not too clever with their vane settings and I managed to get up the lake ahead of them. It is ridiculous to be so pleased with minor successes in getting toy boats to do more or less what I want, but I have to confess that it gives a quite unwarranted sense of power and control when what is, after all, a fairly complex collection of mechanical contrivances manages to convert the variable and uncontrollable forces of wind and weather into purposeful movement. This is the real attraction of free sailing and why, despite the conveniences of radio for competition, it will never die out. At least I hope not; I don’t want to be the last dinosaur left on earth. That would be lonely. Oddities at Fleetwood In the picture section two boats that were brought to the lake side during the week for an opinion on their age and origin. It was clear that, though they differed very largely in the style of the hull and rig, they were from the same hand. Many details of the home made fittings and the style of painting made it obvious that they were the product of the same workshop. Despite the very different design approaches employed, 44 the boats also had in common the lack of any steering gear. This was particularly noticeable on the smaller and more mdoern looking of the boats, which has a fin and skeg profile that clearly derives from those typical of racing models of the early 1920s but a “rudder” that was made as part of the skeg and never intended to move. The other, which in style of hull and in the use of gaff rig seems to be earlier, was a massive weight for her size and had only a very modest depth of keel. She must have been fairly tender under all that sail and anything but fast, given the shape of the hull. The fittings on both boats are very simple and clearly home made, mainly from aluminium. They are well planned and perfectly effective. The more modern looking of the two is clearly influenced by racing model styles of the early 1920s Finally a word about Curved Air Press. This is a few paragraphs of unashamed puff for a commercial venture that just happens to be run by the writer of this column. Think of it as a re-working of the press release that I’d have sent to the editor if I didn’t write regularly for the magazine. One mention now when the project is launched and I promise I won’t do it again until there is some more product to offer. Curved Air Press is a very small, very specialised, publishing house that will produce short run editions of material of model yachting interest. When I say short run, I mean print runs in the low hundreds as is the case with the Marblehead design history and in the low tens for some of the more esoteric reprint titles. The market is there, but it is very small and production methods have to be adapted to the size of the market which is why most of the very short run material is produced on the photocopier or directly on the laser. There is no point in printing and binding several hundred copies of a reprint of a “how to sail it” pamphlet of the 1920s if I and might just possibly be a small 10-rater hull from the period. Despite the older style of racing for which they were intended, these boats came equipped with some forward looking and (for its time) high tech gear. Though the older and bigger of the two is gaff rigged, as shown in the photo, the other had a choice of rigs, one of which was a very nicely made streamlined, groovy revolving mast in wood with a suit of Bermuda sails made in some form of oiled cotton. These had been left out in the air for many years and were in ribbons as the oil which had been applied to make the cotton more windproof had eventually hastened the rotting process. The use of a fixed rudder on these boats suggests that they belonged to a club which, even at that date, was still racing only to windward and that the more modern design had been adapted to this archaic form of competition. The only places that I know of that were still doing this in the 1920s were some clubs on the North-east coast and the Sefton Park club in Liverpool of which a very young Fred Callister was a member in the late 1920s. Fred tells me that when he joined, the club still sailed a Tonnage class to the “1730” Rule and these were rudderless and sailed up wind pies: ‘iiassiaiati Sapper reaches down Fleetwood Lake for the first time since her owner laid her up in the late 1950’s. MODEL BOATS think there is only a potential sale of a few dozen. The costs are relatively high because of the small scale of production but the material is unique and will have immense collectors’ appeal once the original editions are exhausted. If any of you have great thoughts on model yachting that you think are worth hawking in book form to the very small number of people round the world who might be interested, or if you have items similar to the “how to sail it” pamphlets that might be worth reproducing as nostalgia items, please get in touch with me as, like all publishers, we are always ready to consider manuscripts for future publication. The current list is reproduced alongside and the prices are post paid in the UK. Overseas airmail letter postage comes expensive on single copies, but using the printed paper rate packet service, which is now the same price everywhere, the simple swings and roundabouts approach suggest that if you add an additional £1 sterling for each item (except the Model Dockyard Handy Book which will be £3) we shall be about right. One straight line racer with fixed rudder. The gaff rigged example may date from the beginning of the century. Above middle: another viewcof the gaff ragde avaight ing racer,vied aSecond example which probably dates from just after the 1914-18 war. Above: Fred Callister’s first model yacht, the 12-m Inneed Veg built in the early years of the century, seen here in the early 30’s after conversion to Bermuda rig. Photo: Fred Callister. DECEMBER 1990 45 Nick Weall takes a one-issue break from his popular Yacht Rules series to report onthe… RM World Day One fter the gentle breeze of Saturday and the hot sun, the day started off very wet and fairly windy. As the day progressed the wind got steadily stronger. By lunch time the sun put in an appearance only to be replaced with rain again later in the day. For a World Championships it was surprising how many boats got thrashed. Racing in fleets of 15 it was not unusual in the morning to have up to five drop out due to gear failure. Frankly I would have been very ashamed of myself to turn up at a World Championships without a full range of sails on tested rigs. There was also of course one or two instances of radio problems and the like. That is understandable although extremely frustrating for those involved. When you have installed new gear prior to the meeting and tested it satisfactorily on the warm up days it has to be mind blowing to have it let you down in the very first race that counts, as happened to Ian Cole. Jon Elmaleh of U.S.A. also had repeated problems with a mystery glitch throughout the day, giving him very disappointing results. On the warmup day nothing could touch his boat for speed it seemed. Leon Taliac from New Zealand had a wonderful day with his unconventional speed machine carved out of foam with a rudder at the front and a heavily raked forward keel fin. He also uses luff tubes on his mainsails and sails with panache. The major incident of the day was when Janusz Walicki T-Boned Ian Astbury of Brazil. Ian’s yacht was on the run burying its nose in the water passing near to the finish line to 46 windward. Janusz failed to lay the mark and bore off slightly to miss the mark and then bore off sharply, getting over powered by the wind in the process, and getting slammed across the foredeck of Ian’s boat. Janusz’s boat then caught the mast of Ian’s boat giving his boat a final screw and drawing his keel fin right into the starboard bow quarter of Ian’s boat. The result was inevitable: one sunken boat, which was quickly rescued by the rescue boat. The rest of the day saw me tied up in Protest Committee work, although it has to be said we only heard eight cases throughout the day, which considering we have six complete races of five heats was very good. All six races were operated as seeding races, allowing the race committee all night if necessary to sort out the fleet racing positions for Tuesday’s racing. Wind force range through the day, 3 to 6. Day Two The second day of the Radio Controlled Marblehead World Championships again experienced strong winds. The direction of the wind allowed a good course to be laid down the length of the model yacht lake providing a good windward beat. The rain obligingly kept away and some good periods of sunshine made the day far more bearable for all concerned. After the previous day’s six seeding races, the total race entry of 75 yachts was divided into five fleets of 15 yachts. This is in order to have a manageable number of boats in each fleet that allows the controlling skippers a reasonable chance to see their boat from their elevated control position. The racing was fast and furious. Again the strong wind took its toll of gear failures. In fact in one of the bottom fleet races there were only three finishers. Since the first four boats finishing in any fleet except the top fleet get promoted up to the next fleet, it was necessary to award fourth place to a boat that had actually sunk during that race! the rest of the 15 boats in that fleet having been wiped out earlier or not able to start owing to earlier damage still being repaired at the time of the race. The strong wind seems to favour the British boats with seven English boats in the top ten including the first three places! However, the racing continues until Friday afternoon, so there is plenty of time for fortunes to change. Switzerland, France and Germany occupy the other three places in the top ten. As the writer is serving on the protest committee it is easy to say that the protest committee is very impressed with the standard of sailing and the acceptance of the alternative penalties on the water to resolve most occurring incidents. To date we have only heard 22 protests after twelve complete races, each comprising of five separate fleets as set out above. In comparison, after twelve complete races in the 1986 RM Worlds there has been over three times as many protests heard! Fewer protest hearings means less delay between races and consequently more racing for these World Class Skippers. The race committee have managed to keep the event moving at a good pace with only one or two short delays whilst protests were resolved. MODEL BOATS Papas Ga ANA Tra eee MODEL BOATS Opposite, top tobottom. 1 competition went on right through the evening and into the night with almost all of the World Class skippers entering. The final informal winner was a member of the protest committee, at one time there were around 35 scribe.on~ the water! All under control and most enjoying themselves. 98— Martin Mickleburgh seems to have the lead at the (subject to outstanding protests!). Andy in a friendly race. 2, Some of it, designed by Race Officer 111 was the yacht which ning event for me. Great boats Kissack, who acted as an observer most of the week was a close second. Does this make me World Champion Mustang Skipper? No, of course not, but it was all great fun and my thanks go to all of the owners of the twelve Mustangs who were kind enough to lend their ~ great fun. 3, Carmina Banana is cast off by an obliging helper for Martin Mickleburgh. X5 by Migel Zatarain as fast and finished 12th. 74 is Jon Eimaleh’s Pinter ll. 06 is Robert Wattam, whilst 133 is Chris Dick’s magical Krystick, a carbon bre killer. 4, Hemlock in the foreground boats out to be raced. We simply got given in each race any one of the twelve boats. I finally won the last heat with number 111. K48 had provided me with good results in the previous few heats. The racing throughout the evening was very close. There was also much interest caused by two 5. Howa start looked from the Cor i tower. 6. Chris Boisnautlt (Jib 13) ns the 4 feoward gag ahead of 147 is Beaupain and 9 ing little Japanese model twelve metre boats based on the new measurements. They looked extremely realistic, in my opinion they look much more like a real yacht than most other model racing yachts. They appeared to be amazingly fast for the conditions. A little one of the final races. 7, John Cleavea 44), Graham Bantock and a Fin study the results on the _window of Lord Vulture’s nest! lan Taylor __ spent over a week locked away churning _ out results, starting at 7.00am and finishing fan. 8, 7th placed Peter t midnight. Thanks _ smaller than a 590 they were not giving very Stollery with Pitstop waits for another A much away in speed to the Mustangs in the light breeze! They are called “New America’s cup style CUP RACER CR610” having a one piece moulded hull all complete except radio . fleet to art anesa – fleet to finish. Day Three The day started off dull with a hint of drizzle; the wind was light coming from the same direction as the previous day. In these conditions racing commenced shortly after 9.00am. Different wind conditions naturally enough offered new opportunities for those boats that had been struggling to survive with the moderately heavy winds of the previous two days. This is to be welcomed because surely the true test of a World Champion is to be able to sail well over the whole range of wind strengths. This is, of course, also a test for the design of his or her boat to be able to perform well in any wind strength. Only a good combination of personal skills coupled with a good boat will find the true Champion. Minor matters such as sail shape, choice of sail, type of mast rig, etc., all in truth havea major contribution to make as well. Anyone who thinks that this is simply grown-up people playing with toy boats is gravely mistaken. The amount of preparation that goes into one of these boats and the amount of practice that will have been put in prior to coming to the Worlds would match any other serious sport. Remember, that all of the racing skippers participating will have had to first beat all or most of the competing RM skippers in their own country! Thus you can appreciate that considerable achievements have already been made by all of the 75 competing skippers representing their countries from all around the world. Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Argentina, Brazil, U.S.A., Canada, Finland, Sweden, Holland, France, West Germany, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Norway, Ireland, Scotland and England all have skippers sailing on their behalf. No one should feel ashamed of finishing low down in such gear. Made in Japan they are 610mm long, 150mm wide, 1070mm high with a weight of 1.4Kg. The sail area is 18dm sq. I do not know who is going to market them in this country. But when they are available I would recommend all clubs to invest in a couple to use for match racing events. Some excellent music provided a pleasant background to all this activity and merrymaking. At one stage Martin Mickleburgh proved himself to be a man of many talents as he joined the group on their keyboards for a little while. Above, still the master in my opinion. Graham Bantock seeks that extra bit of drive from his DECEMBER 1990 Thursday morning started off misty with little wind. It was a day that was to frustrate the Race Officer Derrick Priestly and Assistant Race Officer Ian Hall, as they tried time after time to get races away with a proper windward beat. If the windward mark was laid in one by all of the racing fleet, the race was abandoned and a new course set. This raised some criticism on the bank side which was, in my opinion, quite unjustified. It was all being done to give World class skippers a proper test of their sailing abilities and anyone who simply wanted a sailing procession round easy to lay marks should have stayed at home. Skippers had the dilemma of choosing between sailing to defend a position already established or continuing to attack to improve their position with the possibility of losing places if they get it wrong. The majority of skippers, used to being winners in their own countries, continued to go all out to improve their positions. For the current event leader at this stage it proved to be a very difficult time. Graham Bantock, having held the lead since very early in the Championship, had the defending World Champion, Janusz Walicki from West Germany, breathing right down his neck. Graham, the current English Champion, had managed to establish a good lead over Janusz during the fresh winds experienced on Sunday and Monday. Since Tuesday, however, in a steadily decreasing wind, Janusz has relentlessy closed the gap. A good example of Janusz’s sailing skills is that in one race at the first windward mark, Janusz lying in about fourth place touched the mark. The penalty for touching the mark is to break clear of the fleet and execute two consecutive 360 degree turns. This Janusz quite correctly proceeded to do, whilst the rest of the fleet of 15 yachts passed company. Fourteen protests were again lodged and heard through the day’s four complete races of five fleets of 15 boats. If a skipper finishes in the last four of any fleet except the lowest he gets relegated down into the next fleet. The converse is that if a skipper finishes in the top four places of any fleet except the top fleet, he gets promoted up to the next fleet. Thus it is possible to move up and down through all of the fleets until one’s natural position is established. Because of this, skippers of more or less the same ability tend to end up in the same fleet. This makes the racing very competitive. In the evening a Bar-B-Que was held together with an informal competition using twelve of Fleetwood Club members’ boats. These were available to all comers to have a go in a race, the top six from each race going through to do another round. This proved to be a very popular event and not one protest was heard throughout the evening! This Day Four him. By the time he had completed his turns he was lying second to last! Off he charged down the lake off the wind to the wing mark and A little meditation for Minao Hirao from Japan, alongside his yacht Fire Bird. then on to the leeward mark, overhauling several yachts on the way. By the time he came back up to the windward mark he was in second position! That is by any standards a 49 remarkable achievement. When you consider that in this case he overtook 13 top World Class skippers it is incredible! The only boat he failed to catch despite getting very close to it at that last windward mark was Nimrod, K4491 sailed by. . . yes, you’ve guessed, Graham Bantock. Down that final run, round the leeward mark and up to the finish line Graham managed to hold a hungry Janusz off, winning by a nose. Janusz’s sail number is G6 and his boat is called Skalpel! Thursday was the day that Graham blew it! I have not yet talked to him about it, but my opinion is that in deciding to cover Janusz, Graham made the mistake of letting others in the fleet through. Graham got Janusz down into B fleet for a race, but at the expense of getting himself down as well. This would not have mattered if Graham could have got out of the next B fleet race. But . . . he didn’t Janusz offending yachts being awarded disqualifications NOT DISCARDABLE! (D.N.D.) – one under Fundamental Rule C and one under Fundamental Rule D. Rule 70.2(a) was also used for the first time in these Championships to protest a yacht under 52.1(a)ii. The yacht protested immediately retired. All three of these cases are extremely serious and will no doubt be talked about at great length for some time to come. From a racing point of view, this was not a day to allow anyone to claw their way back up the list. At the end of the day, Chris Boisnault sailing Pac Man from France had gobbled up the entire fleet, 36.5 points clear of the second placed Robert Wattam from New Zealand sailing Invisible Touch. Janusz Walicki crept into third place, 13 points off our first man Martin Roberts, closely followed by Graham Bantock, Chris Dicks, Peter Stollery, John Be. Antics in a light wind A fleet race. OO – Francois Beaupain, Martin Mickleburgh, lan Cole, Phil Playle, Martin Roberts with Mark Dicks the observer seeing something naughty! did! Graham continued throughout Thursday to experience misfortune; a minor radio glitch caused him problems in more than one race and he found fighting his way through B and C fleet races in light winds frustrating. Janusz meanwhile was also experiencing problems; a disqualification in one race for an incident with 133 Chris Dicks under rule 42.3(a)ii (Limitations on Establishing an overlap “When a yacht completes a tack within four of her overall lengths of a mark or obstruction she shall give room as required by Rule 42.1(a) to a yacht that by luffing cannot thereafter avoid establishing a late inside overlap.” Janusz also had radio problems in one race. Other skippers very close to these two at this stage were Martin Roberts from Birkenhead and Chris Boisnault from France. I had predicted in the daily report I was writing for a local paper that, “If Graham and Janusz spend too much time worrying about themselves, Martin or Chris could slip by to gain positions over them.” “All within sniffing distance of the rare prize are Chris Dicks from London, Robert Wattam from Néw Zealand and then three more English names Peter Stollery, lan Cole and John Cleave. No position is cut and dried. There is just enough time left for positions to be seriously altered. Come along and enjoy some good close racing.” Cleave, Francois Beaupain, Ian Cole, Roger Stollery and Miguel Zatarain of Spain. Six Brits in the top twelve! All twelve Brits in the top 38! Ireland skippers, Oliver Williams and Paul Toal were not so lucky I’m afraid, Paul has the distinction of being the lowest placed skipper and Oliver was 53rd. Prize Giving The prize giving Dinner and Dance that evening was brilliant. The entertainment was by Frank Flynn, a duo of musical entertainers that I had not seen or heard before. They were fantastic and kept the large audience laughing for hours. Besides being extremely accomplished musicians, they have lots of spare musical instruments that they spread around the audience at times for audience participation, and boy, they certainly got it! Kettle drums, cymbals, trombones and other wind instruments were employed to great effect. The most dramatic piece was when one of the duo gathered all of the kettle drums around him and the other one tipped water all over the drums, the lights were dimmed and spot lights put on the drums and then they played. Each time the drums were struck they sent up a cloud of water droplets that were perfectly illuminated by the lighting and looked extremely pretty. The large gathering of people at this function served to remind me of just how many Mark Dicks moves away and Klaus Schroder moves in. lan Cole starts to dance! people had freely given generously of their time and worked hard to make the World Championships the smoothly run, well supported event it was. It would be unfair to single out a few names and we have not got the space to mention them all, but believe me from catering, to entertainment, to buoy laying, to boat park, to race management, to race control, to input and output of results, to line judging, to position documenting, to observing, to co-ordinating observers, to documenting observers reports, to chasing up all protesting skippers, witnesses, observers Day Five Friday, the last day of the competition, with very little wind and lots of sunshine. Only three races were completed on the final day because the wind was so light, and also because 14 protests were lodged and heard between twelve o’clock and half past four! Two of these protest hearings resulted in the 50 Leon Talaic’s Odi from New Zealand was the focus of much attention. 16th placed Leon carved the shape from foam and layed grp on top. Yes, the rudder is at the front, and yes, it was fast. Purchased by a Fleetwood member after the Worlds, we have not seen the last of this narwhale’s tooth! Notice the luff tubes by the way! Which made this speed ~ sails or hull? MODEL BOATS Demo Time On the Saturday after the Championships, Roger Stollery had organised a demonstration race meeting using about 15 of the top class skippers from the Championships to takes a long time to perfect when actually participating. It was great fun, I took part in several commentaries and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Roger Stollery did a few himself with great style. Martin Mickleburgh, John Cleave, Nigel Wilder, Leon Talaic from New Zealand and Jon Elmaleh from New York also provided some variety of voice and style to the public. It is difficult to evaluate the success of this event but certainly if the response on the bank was anything to go by it was a resounding success. Well done, Roger and thank you for organising it. Another report on the Worlds from a racing skipper’s point of view was recently published in our sister magazine Radio Controlled Boat Modeller by my fellow hack, Mike Kemp. Mike, who may be too modest to mention it, came a very creditable 32nd in his first RM World Championships against remember top class Finland, Barry Jackson and Nick Weall, both from England filled the other two positions. This was a six day event and it was quite usual for the protest committee to be sitting hearing protests well into the evening. The longest hearing went on to 2250 hours one night. Most nights we were finished by 2000 hours or so. Out of the 82 protests, 31 yachts were disqualified. In only one hearing were both skippers disqualified under rule 33(b). Two skippers were allowed to retire after the race had finished, one within the ten minute time allowance, the other after the final race having been protested under rule 70.2(a) for infringing rule 52.1(a)ii. One skipper was disqualified for infringing the sailing instructions rule 15 for switching on his transmitter at a time other than when racing without first seeking the permission of the Race Committee. Phil Playle (in the middle) wonders if his boat is dancing with lan Cole’s – it’s all too much for Phil! participate in a proper race for prizes to the top three. The main object was that in each race one boat was singled out and a commentary was given over the public address system describing what the boat was doing, what was likely to be going through the skipper’s mind at any moment regarding tactics to either gain places or to defend a position. Events like this are to be encouraged, because it is a very good way of catching the interest of the passing public and then help them to understand what on earth is going on. Which, as we all know does not take very long to understand, it just skippers from all around the World. I would imagine that the pressures upon anyone sailing in such august company must be great. Mike was usually moving up and down between B and C fleet and finding out just how tough the racing really was. Protest Committee Report RM Worlds 1990 Fleetwood During the 7th RM World Championships at Fleetwood there were a total of 82 protests heard by a committee of three. The Chairperson was Marianne Ericsson from , Z f Two skippers in separate incidents received D.N.D. under Fundamental rule C and D respectively. The remaining disqualifications were for infringements of: 33(b) 36 5 37.1& 37.2 41.1 41.2 & 41.3 41.2 42.1(a) meee DOr OD ww and supporting documents in all weathers and, dare I say, even protest hearings it all went extremely well. Once again, Fleetwood has come up trumps. To organise such a major event at such short notice is remarkable – a big thank you to them on behalf of all the racing skippers. Also let us not forget all of the behind-the-scenes people, who had to write to all the skippers, organise printing and a thousand and one other minor little tasks, all of which have to be done long before the competitors started gathering to Fleetwood to tune up their boats in the week preceding the Championships. ‘ Left, Patrick Taillez of France is a well known and welcome visitor to UK model yachting doing final ‘tweaking’ to a beautifully made boat. The almost transparent deck film allows you to easily see the perfect lay-up of the hull below. Right, an example of the fine craftsmanship to be found on Janusz Walicki’s boat. | wish | had had more time to study all of Janusz‘s design innovations. DECEMBER 1990 51 Me SS 4 i 4 . Left, the RM Worlds Champion for 1990 – France’s Chris Boisnault. Above, the final moment as Chris Boisnault crosses the line – Roger Stollery applauds him and everyone gives a cheer. Tech Specs. 42.1(d) 1 42.2(a) 4 43.2 2 42.3(a)ii 1 Appendix 3 1.1 and 68.2 1 69 Awarded 21 69 Refused 10 Nineteen protests were dismissed. Four had insufficient evidence to allow the facts to be established. Four were counter protests that had been heard under the original protesting yachts’ protest. The remaining eleven protests were invalid or dismissed for the following reasons. In one the protesting yacht had only hailed once. (No contact had been recorded or established). One involved a collision with an out of control yacht that had finished and cleared the line. One involved a protest by an observer where it was established that penalty turns had been completed before the yacht doing the penalty turns was involved in a subsequent incident. One where no contact established. One where no loud protest calls were made and no contact established, and one where turns were done by the protesting yacht for the incident being protested thus accepting responsibility for the incident. Only one protest was dismissed for failing to meet the time limit of registering a protest. The protest committee then decided to open a hearing on the case under 70.2(b). There were unfortunately a few occasions when fleet racing was delayed by a backlog of protests waiting to be heard or a hearing taking a long time to establish the facts. This was usually due to language problems and was at its worst when each skipper had to have an interpreter. However, the Race Committee managed to complete 28 complete races during the six days, which included two days of fresh wind, two days of breezes and two days of light wind. The Protests Committee was admirably served throughout the meeting by Norman Hatfield, who performed a very unpleasant job at times‘in cold and wet conditions without complaint. On behalf of the Protest Committee I would like to extend to him our sincere thanks. It only remains to record that both Barry Jackson and myself appreciated the input that Marianne Ericsson put into the Committee, she came up with one or two real gems. Barry was very good at putting some searching questions up and I was very busy writing everything down so as we could review each hearing and establish the facts. Together we worked as a fine team. I personally made a lot of new friends over the week and I look forward to meeting competitors and officials in future events. 52 What boat won, what did it weigh? Chris Boisnault from France was sailing a Paul Lucas design – Berlingo – the total weight was 5.1Kg including 3.8Kg of lead. Ring mounted sails and a ratio of 27/73, Chris makes his own sails from Mylar or Drawing Film. He used a two channel Multiplex Radio Set and of course a Whirlwind Winch. This information and all the following information has been culled from Elizabeth Andrews’s excellent three paged A3 size list setting out all the details anyone could possibly want to know. Now for a builder’s league Paul Lucas’s Berlingo got 1st, 24th, 29th, 55th and 69th places. He also had a Cedar Club at 31st. Geoff Smale from New Zealand had 2nd and 22nd places. Janusz Walicki of West Germany had 3rd, 19th, 45th, 49th and 52nd with his Skalpel design. Chris Dicks had 4th and 6th place with his Mystick design. Graham Bantock had 5th, 8th, 10th, 14th, 20th, 34th, 38th and 58th with his Enigma design. He had 32nd, 57th, 59th and 69th with his No Secret design and he had 62nd, 63rd and 64th positions with his Hush Hush design. Roger Stollery had 7th and 11th with his design Top. Guy Lordat had 9th, 21st, 41st and 57th with his design Fast. P. Sterne had a 10th with an Orbit, 40th with a Kisutch and 44th, 72nd and 74th with his Logic design. Miguel Zatarain had 12th, 25th, 28th and 56th with his design Txanpam. Jon Elmaleh had his design Pinter 2 come in in 17th and an Archer in at 43rd. Henry Ericsson of Finland had an 18th and a 48th place with his Quantum design. M88s came in 33rd, 37th and 68th. Lupard had Anjas at 18th and 69th. Philip Sol had an Aixtra at 15th anda Delphi at 13th. Jahan had a Jedi at 36th. Squire Kay had Sea Scamps at 54th and 65th, and a Nymph at 75th. You may make what you wish from the above information. You cannot get away from the fact that Bantock makes good boats and that he had three Enigmas in the top ten. It was a meeting that Graham should and could have won. As usual it was the people behind the controls rather than the designs that made the difference. The most popular winch by a million miles was Dave Andrews’s Whirlwind. Two channel control systems predominated with 14 threechannel sets and five four-channel sets. Alan Gardener had so many channels on his set that he lost count and also lost control due to the damp conditions which was exceedingly bad luck. Futaba was the most popular radio gear maker, with a fair smattering of Multiplex and Robbe. JR had five sets being used. For sails Graham Bantock still rules the roost. Weight of lead ranged from 3.1Kg to 4.5Kg, the most popular range being 3.7 to 3.9Kg. Keel lengths ranged from 370mm (came 71st!) to 520mm (came 3rd). 450mm upwards seemed to be the range to be in. If you want to know all of these details plus an awful lot more then get in touch with Elizabeth Andrews and for the princely sum of £10.00 you can get the lot! Summary How was it that British Competitors did so well in the World Championships? I think the main reason was that without exception they came well prepared with a full range of sails to meet any conditions that Fleetwood could throw at them. During the first two days sailing in fresh winds, this gave most of them a flying start. We are well used to such conditions and most of the British competitors managed to sail well and, more importantly, stay out of trouble. The second reason was that, on the whole, the British skippers stayed out of trouble. I certainly saw very little of them in the protest 6th placed Chris Dicks (133) to leeward of 2nd placed Robert Wattam (06) of New Zealand, with 1st place Chris Boisnault to windward. room and, if my memory serves me right, only one British boat got disqualified. That skipper made the fundamental error, whilst being in MODEL BOATS Jnteenutionae meeeUnion ModeoY 39 Sas _F. Beaupain — Carmina Banana Pinter i . kKKiwi Logic © Alforria ae Top, Chris Boisnault’s winning boat. Above, to the victor the spoils. In the background is our sister magazine’s yachting columnist Mike K—_ Looking for that exclusively different shot. the right of failing to protest the offending boat himself, calling instead to the boat had had to push back towards the bank words to the effect “Sorry you protest number?” O.K., I’ll fill you in a bit more, the incident was a Rule 43 situation. Boats coming in on Starboard, close hauled towards the bank, those nearest the bank tack to port after making their calls, a forceful boat continues down on starboard and forces them back again, the ripple effect putting the boat nearest the bank on to the bank. If the skipper concerned had protested the yacht that put him back to starboard himself and if he had called for water to that yacht before being put about,he would have been in a very strong position before a Protest Committee. Obviously most British skippers either kept out of trouble completely or did their alternative penalty turns on the water and DECEMBER 1990 kept out of the Protest Hut. Seeing how even when you are sure you are in the right, a protest hearing result is a 50-50 affair, they made the right decision. This was a classic example of a race series being won from behind. Graham Bantock seemed to have the result in the palm of his hand through the first half of the Championship. As the weather eased off Janusz Walicki closed the gap between them on points and we saw a covering duel take place. The obvious dangers of engaging in a covering match too soon became apparent as Graham’s commanding position slipped away over Thursday’s sailing. The fact that both Graham and Janusz suffered minor radio problems during this day, helped neither of them either, but I believe that they had sown the seeds of their own demise before their radio problems compounded their fall from grace. This allowed a close group of skippers to close the gap between their points and the leaders and by the time Graham’s discards had taken up the day’s bad results they slipped in front by the last race of the day. Friday being such a light wind day with only three races completed gave little chance to either Janusz or Graham to pull back the lost positions. Chris Boisnault won the Championships by good steady consistent sailing and by keeping out of the protest room, as did second placed Robert Wattam. Congratulations to them and to all the skippers who finished in the top dozen. To finish in the top dozen in the Worlds is a considerable achievement. To be entered in the Worlds in itself is a major achievement in any country that has a large fleet of RMs racing. Now let’s all look forward to 1992 and another chance to do battle with the best in the World. 53 y interest in model sailing goes back many years, starting as a Junior member of the Gosport club during the ’Sixties, owning a couple of Marbleheads and a Highlander A class that I campaigned with moderate success. Upon moving away from the area I spent several years learning to fly radio-controlled gliders, a painful process but, once mastered, leaving little in the way of any competitive aspect. I had, however, learned a whole new set of building techniques, an overflowing scrap-box of balsa and my trusty two-channel radio gear. A good knowledge of sailing and a young son who could not be trusted to the controls of an aircraft, led me to design and build a simple yacht. Akela Akela is one of a series of small models built to self-imposed rules at around 4M or 25R size, using standard two-channel radio equipment without a sail winch. The square-sectioned hull is built “‘sides first” from 25mm balsa, bonded throughout with Superglue. This particular model has been coated with epoxy resin but is also suitable for doped tissue or Solarfilm covering. She carries 12o0z. of lead on her aluminium fin, the all-up weight, including half a pound of radio, being 290z. The swing rig is handled easily by the servo, coupled via a long lever attached to the side of the hull and giving very rapid sheeting control. A standard four-cell Ni-Cad pack, which will give several hours’ sailing with sensible use, is carried ‘“‘saddlepack” fashion on either side of the fin as it slots through to deck level, effectively dividing the radio compartment in half. The radio installation has to be very compact in order to place it directly over the centre of buoyancy, minimising its moment of inertia and the “dumb-bell effect”, important in a small sailing model. The receiver sits in a balsa box aft of the fin, everything being arranged Two models built to the full-size plans presented in the centre of this month’s issue, designed and built by John Bone. The main reason why John Bone, above right, decided to design and build this attractive 25in. yacht, was to encourage his son Thomas into model boating. It looks like he has succeeded, judging by the happy smile on Thomas. John is holding another of his designs, Ripple, which we hope to bring to you at a /ater date. 54 MODEL BOATS so that it can be removed through the hatch, made from the top of a plastic food container with a snap-on lid. The layout of the radio equipment is shown in the sketch, the batteries being wrapped in Clingfilm for waterproofing. The servos are varnished along the joints in their casings and left to fend for themselves, whilst the receiver box will deflect any water that may find its way into the hull. In practise she is a dry boat, having been sailed almost under water in suicidal conditions, nosedived and knocked down. The heavily-flared forward sections provide a mass of reserve buoyancy, generally enabling her to survive the initial offwind slam, planing in spectacular fashion on her flat bottom panel. She can even be coaxed onto the plane whilst reaching, the deep fin giving considerable stability at speed, regardless of the lump of lead beneath. Hull Construction It is not intended to give a blow-by-blow account of the construction sequence as there are quite a few options, depending on what is available in the scrap-box. The hull is built from matched side panels, pinned and sanded as a pair. They are then taped together at bow and stern whilst the built-up main bulkhead is sprung into place and glued. The tape is removed at the stern and the after bulkhead fitted, using a straight-edge and centrelines to align everything. The bow tapes are released, inserting the triangular forward bulkhead in a similar manner, making sure that the hull is not twisted in the process. The hull is fragile at this stage but stiffens up considerably once the bottom sheeting is applied. This is again 2.5mm balsa, either laid in sections crosswise, or lengthwise as in the original, with a narrow strip on either side to make up the required width. The sheeting is stitched in place with Superglue before being flooded along the insides of the chines to form a very strong watertight structure. A sanding block removes the overlapping balsa from the bottom panel, flush with the hull sides. The rounded bow block is made from polyurethane foam, as used as a base for flower arrangements. When coated in epoxy resin it is tough enough to withstand the occasional bump. Various alternatives include vertically planked or soft solid balsa, thin cardboard or micro-light plywood, wrapped around a former. The steep sheerline curve with rounded bow and transom takes away much of the squareness of the hull, resulting in a reasonably shapely boat despite its simple lines, A square section is excellent for a small yacht as it gives maximum hull stability for a given beam, the flattest waveform for a given displacement, very good lifting properties and a vee section for coping with a chop to windward. Provided that the boat is kept to a light displacement with moderate beam, the wetted surface does not become a problem, my self-imposed rules placing no restriction on sail area other than mast height and the capabilities of a standard servo operating on 4.8 volts. DECEMBER 1990 Three shots of the partially completed model which should be of great help to builders. Fin and Lead The fin is cut from 2.5mm aluminium. It is screwed down at either end to a strip of wood, enabling it to be held in a vice and filed to section. This is a laborious process but produces a gleaming machete-like fin after finishing with wet-and-dry abrasive paper. A wood fin can be used but will have to be increased in lateral area to counteract the loss of efficiency due to its necessarily thicker section. The hard work involved to make an aluminium fin is well worthwhile. The lead is cast in a simple mould made froma strip of metal bent into an airfoil shape. It is bonded down onto a wooden base with a generous fillet of car body filler, as shown in the sketch. Scrap lead is cut into small pieces to speed up the melting process in an old saucepan or a tin can, bent to form a pouring lip. A domestic cooker, camping stove or butane blowlamp will supply enough heat but make sure there is adequate ventilation and wear some old gloves, just in case. Scoop off the impurities as they float to the surface and pour the molten lead smoothly into the warmed mould. (Be very careful during this operation, and make sure there is no extraneous moisture present in the utensils or mould. – Ed.) Even a fairly ragged casting can be used, provided that there is enough margin left for cleaning up and making good with car body filler. A sawcut slot and Superglue attaches it to the fin, bolts or pins being unnecessary at this small scale. Dry-fit only at this stage to allow for any adjustments that may be required after a buoyancy check in the bath. Basic Hull Fit-Out The hull shell is fitted with %/,, in. square inwhales, either running full-length and notched through the main bulkhead or split into two halves and butting against it. After clamping them in position with clothes pegs, the hull is turned upside-down and Superglue flooded along the joint at their undersides, sheering down afterwards with a sanding block. If tissue covering is intended, vertical strips of balsa are added every few inches preventing the “starved horse” look, as the shrinking tension will otherwise pull the panels concave and make the hull appear as if the air has been sucked out of it. The fin is slotted in from beneath, adding reinforcing pieces to the bottom panel and main bulkhead as shown in the detail sketch, making sure that it is firmly integrated into the hull structure. A sudden stop at the lakeside can cause the fin-to pivot forwards, splitting the hull open and causing irreparable damage. The mast tube sits on a ply or balsa pad on the bottom panel, providing a positive location and a watertight joint. A wire pin is inserted near the lower end, engaging in a slot at the foot of the mast to prevent it from turning. In my experience, rotating-mast swing rigs always jam and a fixed mast, rotating boom layout is preferable. The mast tube is held at deck level by a beam and the kingplank. This is the only means of mast support and, as with the fin, must 56 The sail and boom arrangement is very clear from these photographs. The boom joiner and gooseneck is from micro-light plywood; the mast from 9mm dowel. be strong. Holding the boat by its fin, aim it at a mirror like a pistol to sight in the mast tube, using a length of dowel as a dummy mast. The rudder stock is made from ‘gin. bore brass tube, stiffened internally with a length of 16 swg piano wire, plugged and sealed to prevent it from rusting. The rudder tube is glued into the hull and supported by a shelf butting up to the rear bulkhead. Make a couple of drain holes in the bulkhead before closing it off with the curved transom panel, after fitting two side pieces to form a well for the rudder arm and linkage. The rudder is made from balsa, using the sharpened end of the rudder stock tube to gouge a neat hole for itself, like an apple corer. Stresses on the rudder can be high, especially as you hurl the boat around the leeward mark after a fast run, causing the bow to leap into the air. However, I have never yet broken or bent one built by these methods, damage being far more likely when out of the water. An alternative method of rudder construction, successfully used with a delta-shaped foil, is to sandwich the brass stock tube between two pieces of micro-light ply, clamped with the clothes pegs and flooded with glue. The plywood foil mounted beneath damps out pitching, helps to prevent nosedive offwind and shifts the C.L.R. aft when heeled. This stops the boat from screwing up into wind in a gust and generally makes it easier to sail. It is, unfortunately, a wonderful weed-catcher and is best substituted for a plain rudder in light winds. Radio Installation The batteries are soldered together leaving at least four inches of connecting cable between them. They are waterproofed and stowed behind a retaining bar glued across the main bulkhead. The batteries are held in place by the servos, screwed end to end ona slotted plywood plate, glued to the fin. It is easy to make the plate, fit the servos to it and drop the whole assembly into place before gluing. The plywood plate is MODEL BOATS notched to give clearance to the cables for servo removal and is supported by the receiver box at its overhanging end. The receiver box consists of four sides only, glued to the bottom panel. Do not make it too tight a fit, allowing space to stow the switch and enabling the receiver to be wriggled out of its box past the servo linkages. In order to obtain as much sheeting movement as possible, the sail control lever takes up the full width of the boat behind the receiver box. An L shaped wire pivot is bound and glued to one end of the plywood lever, rotating in a brass tube securely bonded to the hull side. The lever is driven by a bicycle spoke push-rod, using the threaded end for adjustment to the nylon clevis at the ‘SADDLEPACK’ WIRING OF RECEIVER BATTERIES. a LE SAIL SHEETING MECHANISM IN CLOSEHAULED POSITION. servo. The linkage is arranged in such a way that it is self-locking, running nearly up to top dead centre on the servo when closehauled. Excessive tension on the mainsheet cannot therefore overrun or stall the servo, for it has progressively greater mechanical advantage towards the end of its travel, giving more power and control for fine trim adjustments whilst hard pressed to windward. For offwind sailing where the swing rig tends to depower suddenly, the rapid sheeting action keeps the boat moving. Gybeing, sometimes difficult with this type of rig, can be initiated by sheeting quickly in and out again, with minimum “S” manoeuvring necessary, useful when sailing in close company. A small bore nylon tube, approximately 18in. long, carries the mainsheet forward from the lever to exit through the deck near the bow. A single hook onto the forward boom is all that is required for rigging at the lakeside, sheeting fully out before switching off. The rudder is operated by a simple nylon snake with another tube laid parallel to it carrying the aerial cable. These tubes exit through the stern bulkhead into the steering well, the aerial being a piano wire whip, fixed by means of a short length of nylon tube to the top of the rudder stock. With the radio installation completed, attention must be paid to the hatch. I use a plastic food container (cheese sauce, I believe) from the supermarket, identified by the name “Ringlock 92mm” on the lid. They are not absolutely watertight but very nearly so, benefiting from a smear of silicone grease around the rim. The deck area in way of the hatch must be strong enough to support the snap-on action of the lid, requiring beams laid in a square around it and a vertical pillar to the top of the receiver box. 7 MAINSHEET GUIDE TUBE. THE AERIAL LEAD-WIRE IS MADE FROM NYLONCOVERED STAINLESS STEEL FISHING TRACE. THE TOTAL LENGTH OF THE AERIAL SYSTEM MUST EQUAL THAT OF THE ORIGINAL. THE MASKING TAPE le PLUG ON THE LEAD WIRE SEALS THE END OF THE CARRIER TUBE AS IT EXITS AT THE STERN. Le —— 9″.PIANO WIRE AERIAL. MASKING TAPE PLUG. 4g” 0/D.BRASS TUBE. CRIMPED. 4g” 1/D. BRASS TUBE, SOLDRED & HEAT SHRINK SLEEVED. MASKING TAPE PLUG. / NYLON SNAKE OUTER TUBE. RUDDER STOCK. HULL SIDE PANEL. INWHALE. \ RECEIVER. Y%g”0/D. BRASS TUBE. CRIMPED. ea —> HATCH CARLIN BEAM. DECK BEAM. RECEIVER BOX. a 5 Lo aa = — Ci SERVO MOUNTING PLATE WITH CUT-OUT FOR CABLES. RUDDER SERVO. PLYWOOD FIN BRACE. MAIN BULKHEAD. TOP F FIN. PORT SIDE BATTERY PACK. MOULD FOR LEAD BALLAST. DECEMBER 1990 ee CENTRE LINE.——_______ ra S) RUDDER LINKAGE TUBE. ue by KING PLANK. MAST TUBE. MAST TUBE GUSSET. TOP OF FIN. PLAN VIEW OF CENTRE SECTION. (PORT SIDE) 57 The food container is cut away, leaving a in. beneath the rim. A strip of micro-light plywood is formed tightly around it and glued together into a ring. Using a thick cardboard or balsa disc pushed inside to hold its shape, the plywood ring is glued to the underside of the deck, adding extra reinforcement and a guide for cutting out the hole. Once the deck has been fitted the plastic rim will be a tight push-fit into place, watertight when flooded with glue and adequately supported all around. The hatch lid is pierced with two small holes near the edge and a loop of line threaded through, knotted securely against a small plywood backing plate inside and allowing it to be peeled off with cold, wet hands. Mast and Sails Above left: R/C access in the deck. Above right: profile view illustrates the modern lines of this miniature racer. The mast is made from 9mm dowel, Canadian pine or spruce if possible, shaved down to a fine taper like a snooker cue. My own personal restriction is 36in. in total length, giving an adequate sail area of around 250sq. in. without resorting to excessively long booms. The boom joiner and gooseneck is built up from micro-light plywood, starting first with the mast hole. This can be a little fiddly but turns out to be very strong and light, especially after the addition of the cotton bindings soaked in Superglue, preventing the unit from bursting open under heavy shock loadings. It should be a fairly loose fit around the mast, prevented from riding upwards under rig tension by a plywood ring glued to the mast, forming a bearing shoulder against which it rotates. The plywood ring or washer is dished on its underside to accommodate the slight rocking movement of the booms under varying tensions set up in the rig. Mast and booms are waterproofed by coating with Superglue and rubbing it in quickly with a finger. Work a section at a time and stop when it gets hot and your eyes sting. The build-up of glue on your finger can be chewed off later, it’s better than biting your nails! (Seriously, folks, Superglue fumes should be avoided – and certainly kept out of the mouth! – Ed.) This waterproofing method is very quick and tough, able to withstand the scraping action of the wire fittings as adjustments are made. The low viscosity glue penetrates right into the wood and is especially suitable for stiffening the sharp trailing edges of balsa rudders and other fragile components. The boom fittings are bent up from 20swg¢g stainless steel wire, about the gauge of a paper clip. A fishing paternoster is a cheap source of this wire if none other is available. Use round-nosed pliers, forming the loop around the boom first and adjusting as necessary before making the rest of the Close up profile of the completed model, rigged and ready for the water. hook. The mast fittings comprise three short sections of small bore nylon tube, glued and bound to the leading edge. The uppermost is for the rotating sail-head crane, the lower two being jib luff attachments for working and storm rigs. Sails Mylar drafting film is a little heavy for sails at this scale, but this is outweighed by the benefits of high efficiency and 58 SS Close up of the boom and gooseneck construction. MODEL BOATS strength. This material is virtually indestructible and very temperature-stable; so much so that it is useless if it has been stored ona roll, being impossible to flatten satisfactorily even with drastic heat treatment. “Used” sheets can be wiped clean with acetone and rolled very loosely for a short time, but I prefer to store them flat if possible. Flat sheets can be bought in sizes up to around three by four feet; let your fingers do the walking to find a supplier. You will need a Formica-covered board for sailmaking although a sheet of hardboard will do as a substitute, becoming scored beyond use after a while. Froma piece of film large enough to make the mainsail, fold and gently crease a 3in. wide strip along one edge. The material does not crease readily in a straight line, so weight it down and go carefully to avoid wastage. The crease will form the leading edge of the luff pocket, lying immediately in front of the mast. The trailing edge should ideally be curved, but is approximated to three straight lines to the proportions shown. This is then marked in pencil and cut with a Stanley knife and straight edge, through both layers of the folded material, taking care not to cut beyond the intersections of the lines into the remaining large sheet. The folded strip that has now been cut will naturally take up an airfoil section when closed lightly together along the open side, the remaining large piece being a perfect fit behind it. The luff pocket is put to one side and a narrow wedge is sliced off the top section of the large sheet, along the uppermost of the three straight lines that have just been cut. This wedge should be no more than ein. at the top, tapering away to nothing at the intersection point, halfway down the sail. From a roll of masking tape, tear off a dozen short strips and stick them to the edge of the board, ready for assembling the sail. Rub out any pencil lines that may be left and carefully tape the two pieces together along the trailing edge of the luff pocket. Weight it flat with the straight edge and close up the gap left by the thin wedge that has been removed. When satisfied that everything is straight, turn the sail over and tape the other side. Permanent sail joining is done with “Invisible” Sellotape. The small rolls on a dispenser are ideal, cutting neatly and avoiding the problem of becoming hopelessly entangled whilst reaching for the scissors. This tape is waterproof and Mylar-based, a perfect match for the drafting film. Starting with the centre section and removing only so much masking tape as necessary, join the sail together with three long pieces of tape on either side, overlapped at the intersection points. The material is tough enough to withstand being scraped with a blade, this being the easiest way to remove the tape in the event of a mistake. The mast and boom assembly is inserted into the luff pocket and the head, clew, tack and jib luff cut-out marked. The foot is cut at an angle a little above that required, as it will pull down when the rig is tensioned. DECEMBER 1990 Mark out and cut the leech with a maximum of lin. roach curve, unless sail battens are to be used. This is most easily cut as a series of straight lines. Corner reinforcement at head and clew is done by cutting a narrow strip of film, approximately half the width of the Sellotape and taping in place on either side. This makes a total of three thicknesses of film and, when punched with a hole, needs no further reinforcement for sails of this size. A small punch is made from brass tube, sharpened internally and glued into a wooden block for a handle. By using a twisting action neat holes can easily be made, pushing out the build-up of punchings with a piece of wire from the back of the handle. The cut-out for the jib luff attachment should be made by punchinga hole into its right-angled corner before making the two straight cuts through the folded film. The hole in the luff pocket must be large enough to allow it to rotate without fouling the hook, but not so large that it weakens the sail or spoils the otherwise clean airflow. Three more holes are punched through the luff pocket near the crease, for the mast ties. A short length of line is passed through each and the mast inserted, pushing it between the line and the crease. Using clothes pegs to hold the mast against the front of its pocket, the lines are tied in loops, the knots being pushed back inside to lie neatly behind it. Do not tie them too tightly as you will not be able to remove the mast again. The sail is therefore supported only by its head and clew, hanging freely at the tack, with the luff pocket rotating about the mast on its three ties. As the clew is eased, camber is forced into the sail due to the shape of the pocket and the distortion built in by the narrow slice removed at the head, causing the sail to “pop” as it is tacked. This type of semi-rigid sail can be further enhanced by the addition of one or more full width battens, fitted with camber-inducing lines. The battens are made from micro-light plywood taped in place, with a lightweight line passing under tension around the sail, as shown in the drawing. The knotted ends of the lines locate in a notch in the batten, enabling them to be unhooked to de-tension for storage. As the sail tacks, the line has to slide a little around the luff crease. Do not overtension them as the sail may not tack properly, causing drastic loss of drive, much embarrassment and frantic stick-waggling. A sail of this type, only 200sq. in. in area, has driven a land yacht model at speeds approaching 35mph – faster than the true windspeed! The jib, by comparison, is a very simple sail, the strength of the drafting film being such that no extra support is necessary for the luff. The sail is basically a triangular piece of material with a reinforced hole in each corner, the luff being cut with a slight hollow to maintain a straight edge when under tension. It is more convenient when changing sails to leave the jib boom permanently attached. The storm suit will therefore have its own jib boom ready fitted, making the task a lot easier when wrestling with flapping sails by the lakeside. A better alternative of course, is to make a complete new rig, changed in seconds and minus the 10in. of bare pole at the masthead. In Conclusion In rough weather Akela is a delight to sail, powering her way through mountainous seas as if by magic and slashing downwind, water streaming everywhere. Bring her ashore after a few minutes and have a look inside, baling out if necessary with a piece of sponge bound to the end of a stick. Although it is virtually impossible to totally seal a radio-controlled yacht, the system described has proven itself to be adequate. Models of this size represent a cheap introduction to sailing with great appeal to youngsters, giving them the opportunity to take up an active interest in the hobby by having a boat of their own. My 9 year old son has become a competent skipper, although lacking the finesse to win races – yet. All you Dads, Grandads and Uncles, dig out that old 27Meg. set that you don’t use any more and nail together a 25R for the kids, our future depends on it! You may find it so much fun that you will want to build one for yourself; a handy size to take on holiday, able to use the smaller stretches of water that always seem to appear unexpectedly. The simple rules effectively restrict the major speed factors without being too specific. A conventional deck-stepped rig will theoretically gain an advantage in light winds, losing it again as sheet loadings and shroud windage increases. The fixed keel specification has been added as a means of restricting extreme draught or interchangeable fins, guiding the prospective designer towards a well-balanced all round boat. Proposed Class Specification Monohull. Maximum hull length 25in. Total length of mast 36in. Two standard servos only, operating on 4.8 volts. Fixed keel only. No exotic materials to be used. 59 PRESENICY WIiihn WUUCL DVUAIO WIAVACIING VOwv. JIU; CYT Iinicitit, < FAINUUS A 25 in RADIO YACHT by JOHN BONE PLYW a bm RUDDER TUBE SUPPORT SHELF. (NOTE ANGLE FOR DRAINAGE). INWHALE.IPORT SIDE SHOWN.) Vie".BALSA OR MICROLIGHT Ke a ALY ANY DY SRY SSE EP IOS ——". > 55 » ay | == a -NYLON TUBE§$:FOR RUDDER “LINKAGE & ‘WIRE AERIAL. PLYWOOD SUPPORT oe DRAINAGE HOLE. P.& S. i RUDDER STQCK.’4_”.BORE BRASS TUBE e”.BRASS TUBE —— PIVOT.ST’d SIDE.) WITH PIANO WIRE INSERT. wo ee ae | | | — STERN BULKHEAD. DEVELOPME {| BULKHEAD F | ee ea RUDDER 4mm.BALSA. ae FIN = 2 (TOTAL — —— “rf > ee = |Y ae LEAD-I20z. HSLIALIO! FUDLILAITIUNO, ANMNUYS MYUSCE, DYUVINVANT WAY, NECMOCL MCWrOICAY, MAINSHEET BOOM OF SV HATCH RIM FROM PLASTIC FOOD CONTAINER. ) SUPPORT RING NEMIo, 0 UNDERSIDE a eee aa —— PILLAR BENEATH Es | es DECK BEAM. PLYWOOD SERVO — MOUNTING PLATE. SSS re — |) N a : RECEIVER BOX. —— = BATTERY 2 genes BOTOM PANEL a IN WAY OF FIN & MAST. OF HULL SIDE – PANEL WITH ITIONS SHOWN. SS –<—— MAIN BULKHEAD. rr. a. _——— nm. ALUMINIUM VEIGHT INC. LEAD !40z.) me Z.0ol. O FORWARD ING RIG. BRASS SCREW EYE. KING PLANK. AAST TUBE. (PLASTIC \LUMINIUM OR BRASS.) BO PO fie) FOR MAINSHEET. SMALL-BORE NYLON TUBE ST STEP PIN. a ee a ALL MATERIAL BALSA UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED. HULL, DECK & BULKHEADS 2.5mm.BALSA. MAST - 9mm.CANADIAN PINE OR SPRUCE.36"' lq. SAILS = MYLAR DRAUGHTING FILM. ALL - UP WEIGHT = 29 to 30.0z. BOW 7 A BULK ROOM .JOINFR ASS HOLE FOR MAINSHEET TUBE. BUILT-UP MAIN BULKHEAD. (LOOKING AFT.) BLOCK. (URETHANE FOAM. SAIL PLANS. SCALE 5mm. to ee _— ed linch. ——— sesterere -- gee L. ee ge oe SO RUDDER LINKAGE TUBE. ie aa PLYWOOD ee at AERIAL WIRE TUBE. FOLD & CREASE LEADING EDGE OF LUFF POCKET. (2) MARK OUT & CUT TRAILING EDGE. (5S) MARK OUT & CUT LEECH. FOOT & (@) TAPE SAIL TOGETHER ON BOTH SIDES. CSAIl HEAD (OFFCUT IS USED FOR JIB). MAKING SFOUENCE. (3) REMOVE NARROW WEDGE AT SAIL HEAD. 6) REINFORCE & PUNCH HOLES. Jib LUFF CUTOUT. =4 a PANEL FBOTOM DOUBLER. -BICYCLE SPOKE LINKAGE TO MAINSHEET = =ff SERVO. HATCH SUPPORT YW ATE hc an _--]|_— BRACE \ /\j.) — f’——---- - “TOP OF )| FIN. SERVOS FIXED AT INBOARD ENDS “—-===}— HATCH CARLING ——_. —a : BEAM. ce __ ie — —= ROTATI O c ae S HOOK () IS A FIGURE OF EIGHT (T° TWISTED THRU’ SODEGREES. IS BRASS SCREW EYE. RIGGING DETAIL. NG MASTHEAD CRANE fii 2 —= SAIL BATTEN. MICROLIGHT PLYWOOD. RIGGING OF CAMBER INDUCING se SECTION THRU’ SAIL AT MAST TIE. JIB LUFF HOOK. RIG TENSIONING BOWSIE. i JIB LEECH LINE.AOPTIONAL) ae RIGGING DETAIL. c AAIUN CUVER. WOer- HATCH RIM. a DECK. —— HATCH CARLIN. "CH DETAIL. — RUDDER ARM PLYWOOD HATCH SUPPORT RING. Ss = PLYWOOD BRACE. \ aS HATCH SUPPORT RING. 5 —— ae RECEIVER BOX. —_ = / 4 BOTTOM PANEL 2 1oy) =o , DOUBLERS. HULL CENTRE-SECTION STRUCTURE. ET ° SV : ere Re Aas | | SERA _ : Es f MAST STEP ———- & : —— = = aK PIN. \ RAR, MAIN BULKHEAD. ; = ee (NOTE SLIGHT ANGLE To =i FORWARD AKE O LM, ee TERNAL STRUCTURE OF HULL. MAINSHEET IS FITTED AT THIS STAGE,