CLUB OVER 40 REGATTA AT MANSFIELD – 11 JULY 09

There we were sitting in nature’s living room. The thermostat was set perfectly; the wind generator was set on too high. The smell of grilled meat, fresh water and clean air mixed together to make a wonderful outdoorsy scent.  The PC crowd says we should spend more time outside to get some fresh air and sunlight. Well, this was it.

The contest was between Bob’s STAR and the hoard of US12’s of Mike  Flynn, Ron Rhault, Rich Ellis, and now Cindy Latournes. Pete brought his old star and was trying to get it together, (unsuccessful). Given that the winds were 10-15 mph, the US 12’s were no match for a well set up STAR, which I can attest Bob’s is, by driving it while Bob retrieved my crippled US12. My poor boat was all messed up; settings would not hold in the stiff breezes. The US12s were sailing well beyond their standard A sails. Mike Flynn installed his B rig, which helped a lot. The B rig for the US12 is the standard rig for the one meter soling. We will have to break out a used set of soling sails to have them available.

Cindy L came with her husband, who had mentioned that she was interested to try out R/C sailing. Ron had his spare US12 sitting on the beach so just like that Cindy had a transmitter in her hands and a boat in the water. Cruel as we are, no instructions were given beyond the simple basics. After a while she became comfortable with the boat and given the difficult wind conditions she controlled the boat pretty well. Congratulations, Cindy, welcome to the hard knocks school of R/C boat racing.

 Bob’s STAR was quite a bit faster than the US12s so for the regatta Bob had a handicap where he had to travel a longer distance than the other boats. This made things more even; nevertheless Mike Flynn pressed Bob pretty hard and when he changed sails to the B rig a lesser handicap was devised

See the results below:

NEXT REGATTA  -  MANSFIELD HOLLOW SITE – 25 JULY

Our next event will be an UNDER 40” class of boats, that is IOMS, USOMS, ETC  Of course you can bring your favorite hull and sail along with us, however we prefer boats that are similar in size. I expect that Pete L will bring his new usom Rooster, maybe I’ll bring my Saber usom to give Pete something to chase .