FN France - The Black Death

Repairs were fine. Not sure what the fuss about black paint is all about. My eyes are good yet so maybe that factors in. Will say it keeps my score low when the old axis captains can't see the holes.

 

Ze former Axis Admiral would like to chip in and congratulate you and the rest of the Allies on a bang-up job. You guys worked hard and earned it. Hold your heads high, walk proud, and hope to see you next year in North Carolina.

 

And I would like to thank you for the awesome competition. Twas a blast. Can't wait for next year!

 

Great job Captn.

 

Said I wasn't going to change anything but then I changed my mind! Lol
Changing the gun arraignment to duel 15° sterns and 1 unit haymaker + .5 unit bow gun. This requires another solenoid in the stern. Deck seemed to be the best place.

Tight in there.


Gotta hurry up and throw it all back together for Nate's in Sept. Those duel sterns are gonna be fun guns though.

 

Seems I have some updating to do. I just got back from a weekend of battling in Georgia. The boat handled very well. I will share the updates as time permits but in the meantime here are some pictures.

 

Nice ship! Did you know that the France was the boat that carried President Poincarré to and from St. Petersburg during the July Crisis in 1914? The initial war actually broke out during the return voyage, and the fact that the diplomatic team was isolated from knowledge of the unfolding events played a key role in the stumbling of Europe into war.

 

Did you find the dual sterns to be "better" than dual haymakers?

 

Interesting question. I really enjoyed the dual sidemounts at nats. Still getting used to the dual sterns.
I think both are probably equally effective if you know how to use them. I myself might switch back to dual sidemounts after a while just because I like to slug and I find myself forgetting I have sterns. Lol
I'd set it up the way you like to play. You really can't go wrong with this boat.

 

Dug the old warhorse out for the NJ regional. Needed to fix some things and upgrade others. Her main issue was poor gun performance. Back in 2020 my gun building skills left something to be desired. The guns would jam or not cycle very quickly. Opening them up I found some pretty poor machining on my part. After boring the tees out with the trusty HF step bit and replacing the crushed springs the guns cycled much better.
Other improvement I made was to eliminate the pump hose going through the deck. It was always such a pain to get the hose through the hole in the deck before battle and if something needed adjusted inside you needed to deal with it again. So I changed it to exit through the deck rim, a technique popularized by @Kevin P.. This works so much better. Highly recommend this method.


Another upgrade I wanted to make prior to battle was changing out the plastic servo city rudder chain for stainless .25 pitch chain. Most people have no issues with the plastic chain. I had it come apart on me once and didn't like it. Stainless chain is my standard now.


Moving on, the NJ regional was a hoot. The Friday tour of Bacuna and Olympia were awesome. Well worth the money.
Saturdays goal was 3 battles. The France did well and managed to stay above the water all day. Dished out some damage while taking more in return I'm sure. Had a blast though. I had forgotten how much fun a Courbet is to drive.
My lucky battle flower. There were two other Courbets in attendance, both one the opposite side Saturday. Had a lot of fun tangling with them.


The last sortie Sunday I sank, mostly from neglecting to keep an eye on my boat. I had a ram that was challenging the pump's ability to keep her afloat and then some well timed propwashing from @bsgkid117 put her under in a heartbeat. Will was nice enough to fish her out for me so I didn't have to go home with wet pants.


The weekend was a blast. Definitely a great way to end the 2023 season. Kevin and Will put a lot of work into the pond and I'm sure it's only going to be a better and better venue. Looking forward to battling there in the future.

 

Nice! I still like that your Courbet has the funky WWI superstructure.

 

yeah good move on the chain. I was in the middle of a scrum with Craig and like three Iron Dukes at Saranac a few years ago, and I went from being totally on the attack to "holy crap I lost steering completely!!!" and then about a minute later the pumps got overwhelmed and the boat went down like a hero.

turns out one of the mob of Dukes landed a lucky shot that blew through a gap in my internal armor and snapped the chain.

that bb-sized gap has since been closed, but still.