On Sat. WWCC had its first combat event of the 2019 season and first thing I have to say is the weather for combat in Wattsonville could not have been better, 68 degrees sun and no wind. We had a new member Julian bring out the old VU that he rebuilt by him self, very impressive. Also a previous member from the late 80's Jim M stop by and run the second merchant. We played Joe verses the Volcano. Its were Joe takes on all of us while trying to sink the two merchants (one of them Jeff K's. new 3D printed boats). It started out well for Joe, he almost sank one merchant very quickly and he sank the VU in one pass (pump issue I think) and then it did not go well for Joe after that. This is just a small sample of the damage he took below and he almost sank. We defended the merchant successfully and after everything was added up the Volcano won by more than 100 points. That was a great fight and the new Cruiser P worked great. We tried for hours to get Julian's boat running for the next sortie but failed, so he drove the second 3D printed merchant in the next battle. Joe wanted a rematch and he took Julian on his side. Julian skippered that merchant like a vet and after he drove circles around me in Cruiser P with no superstructure left ( that's all I could hit) I used use the torpedo's on him and it was over. Joe focus on the remaining transport almost sinking it and doing a lot more damage to us this time but he was in far more trouble than the first sortie and the pic's will show how much. We barely won the second battle. We all had a great time and it was good seeing some old faces and meeting new one's, you did a great job Julian for your first attempt with no help other than on line or the phone. Gratz to team Volcano and TY Joe for the great fights. Joe was trying get to the launch and recovery device but was too deep in the water to get on. See you next month.
Good to hear the season has started back in California. I still miss that club. Is that a camera on the VU?
Yes. I put a camera on the front turret years back, but it was less effective than I thought it would be. Hard to have good situational awareness, which is more important.
Here is a pic of our recover system for sunk and disabled boats. This is VU and I found and recovered a very small merchant without a float marker. It works very well on a pond with a smooth bottom. I have recovered ships in 30' of water and as big as a NC.
