Dedicated Captains

Western Warship held a combat event today at Lake Minden, but it was not an Allied or Axis win; it was the weather!
In this series of three photos, you have the RM Roma that appears to be close to sinking, but there are no gunfire holes in the ship! The second photo the ship mysteriously rises out of the water, only to have the bow plow under for a nice deep dip into the water.

Here you have one of their torpedo cruisers going through the wave (again no holes in the ship) as the cargo ship floats over it.

Wind and waves made for a difficult sortie on Sunday for the 9 ships that made it into the water. The ones that did brave the conditions, sure are a dedicated bunch.

I also hear that the famous USS Iowa sank the previous day. First time in many, many years.

 

The mighty Iowa sank?!!! Was it from fire or weather? The only time I have seen Joe's beast slip beneath the waves was at a makers fare event a few years back. It sank simply due to the mistake of not having the pump plugged in. Lol.

 

Thanks for the photos Gary! It was great to see you at the event today. Running the Roma in those conditions was almost impossible... Thankfully her pumps were cranking away, and she was able to survive.

The Iowa did sink, but unfortunately it was more due to electrical gremlins that battle wounds, despite my best efforts!

We've battled at Minden numerous times, but the weather this weekend was the worst I've seen it.

 

I rushed to get those photos out and didn't see I had a better one showing just how deep the Roma's stern went under.
Clearly a third of the ship went under. That's a lot of water coming off that deck! You can also see that both pumps are working overtime to keep the ship afloat.


Again, no battle damage. Just another big wave that rolled this cargo ship over.

 

Got to be able to fight in all weather. Never know when those pesky allies will strike >

 

Actually, there were 18 of us there for the event, but several of the ships experienced technical difficulties and didn't launch in this battle. The waves were definitely the worst we've ever attempted, but I'm proud to say that no one sat it out. Here's a tiny taste of how high the seas were:

 

It's all about sealing the decks...

 

There were not 18 ships that could play, so a count of the bodies that were there means?

 

Wow, Gary. I guess next time we'll bring all of our ships out of our cabins, vans, tents and RVs, just for you. Then you can count them all up, and add it to your report.

 

Golly, Nick. I guess you don't like my video post-production techniques. Here's an idea: Don't watch my videos! You follow me around on the Internet, watching them, then posting negative reviews of my production values, while everyone else who reacts to them likes them, or posts positive comments. What is your problem with me?

 

This is the reason I rarely post on this site. This hobby (you know the one I mean, where people build complicated scale models of warships, and then shoot them to pieces) is tiny. It's a niche within a niche within a niche. Part of the reason it remains small is the completely unnecessary negative criticisms anal-retentive "experts" post on the Internet. If we want the hobby to grow, we all need to applaud every effort anyone makes to promote it, or if not applaud, just keep our negative comments to ourselves. It simply doesn't help anything.

As for me, I've reached a point where I expect that every time I post something intending to promote the hobby, certain jerks will find some fault with the post itself, if not with the event I post about. To you who think that's the way to grow the hobby, I say: Get a life. Find something to do that might even be fun.

 

From what is shown in the photos, you proved that it was possible! Great captaining in those horrible conditions!

 

Having actually been on a naval ship fighting its way through a typhoon I'd say your boats were dealing with some serious typhoon conditions. Kudo's to the skippers that braved those waves. I remember watching our "small boys" (destroyers) literally porpoising through giant waves that were taking out bridge windows, radar and even damaging smoke stacks. What was supposed to be a four day liberty port in the Philippines ended up as a two week working port call to put our battle group back together. THOSE WERE SOME BIG FRIGGEN WAVES we waded through.

Looked like your guys were hitting pretty close to the same as we did in the real world. Like I said....KUDO's to the skippers that braved the waves.

 

WOW! Very different situations between a toy RC boat and Life and Limb!