Big Gun Combat Event May 22-23 in California - Maker Faire

This is an open invitation to all subscribers of the R/C Naval Combat forums.

On May 22-23, the annual California Maker Faire will take place in San Mateo, California. For the 3rd year in a row, Western Warship Combat Club will be battling in our portable pond (46' x 70'), before live audiences. Last year, more than 6,000 spectators watched us, and we had to turn away several thousand more because the stands were full and we ran out of time.

This year, we are running sorties on the hour, so more people will get a chance to watch. Anyone who subscribes to this forum is welcome to come, either as a participant or spectator. If you want to volunteer to help with various tasks that have to be done, or if you want to run a ship in combat, contact me privately and we will work out the details. Maker Faire is a blast, and if you're not familiar with it, check it out here: http://www.makerfaire.com/pub/e/2221
Rob Wood
Vice President, Western Warship Combat Club
rwood@hypergold.com

 

I'll bet there, and I'm super excited about it!
James

 

Just had one in North Carolina.
We did not have a place to sail but we did have a number of boats on display, along with a cannon demonstrator!
(A totally enclosed box where the spectators could watch a cannon firing close up!)
We were swamped by spectators! All of us had sore throats by the end of the day from talking about the hobby!

 

Uh, you build a pond at the fair???? Cement blocks and tarps? what do you do with the water when you are done?

 

We were not sailing I am sorry to say. We were interacting with the visitors so much that we would not have had a chance to sail if we had built a pond.
We had the boats on static display, and we were constantly removing the superstructure so that the folks could see the inner workings.
If you go to the RC warship page in facebook, we did post the few photos that we ware able to take.
We only had two operational ship there. All of the others were in various stages of construction. One was just a hull with the windows cut. Another was a partial skinned hull with motors installed and a partial super structure. A third was a skined hull and superstructure.
The Cannon demonstrator recieved a lot of attention. We would tell the folks that the pressure is greatly reduced for the demonstration. Then the loud pop of the turret firing would make them jump. We also had two computers set up. One would cycle through photos of past events. the other was a mpeg loop of some combat.