I wonder if anyone would try placing a scuttling system in their ship.

It would be an odd thing to put in an RC ship, but if you dont want to be blasted to pieces, you might aswell sink it yourself.

 

I have one, it's my pump, If I want to sink I turn it off. VERY Effective.

In all seriousness such is system isn't really needed, its pretty easy to sink yourself without taking a ton of damage if you want to. The risk of such a system failing (either not sinking you or sinking you when you don't want it too) makes it not very practical when there are other ways to get the job done.

 

No need for a scuttling system in the WWCC. If you're disabled and don't want to get shredded, just say "I surrender". There's a big point penalty for surrendering instead of taking your licks and sinking, but the cost of a surrender plus zero damage is often less than the cost of a sink plus damage plus repair/recovery time.

Now if you had a pump that was powerful enough to slice through balsa, I could see reason enough to install a few scuttling hatches, so long as you can close them again once damage starts accumulating. On the other hand, I don't think slicing balsa with your pump is legal in any club...

 

I was thinking about this last week while I was trying to fit a float onto my ship. I thought, I need a good way to reliably sink my ship, without actually damaging it, so I can test this float over and over again.
The best thing I could think of is sticking a spare pump in there with the inlet over the side of the ship, into the water, and pump the water into the ship.

 

Even easier, omit some or all of the sheeting.

 

Poke a hole in the side of it and hold it under until the water almost sinks it. The hole will finish it. Take out servos and electronics if you can before doing this or if you can't, they will get tested too. The hole can be patched when you are done. You will be patching this after battling, right?
Or blow out a panel
certain death

 

pull your prop shaft out

 

Put an axis flag on it.....sorry, wrong thread.
Pulling the shafts would be what I'd do.

 

Aye, pull the shafts and unplug your pump. I saw a guy lose a propshaft to mines once. His cruiser got tangled with a destroyer, and in the tug-of-war that ensued, his shaft coupling failed. Out popped the tangled shaft, which dropped to the bottom and anchored the poor destroyer in place. The cruiser sailed away at 25 knots, radioing all his buddies about the immobilized destroyer. Needless to say, the destroyer sank shortly thereafter...

 

There were plans for one in one of the early "HULLBUSTERS" for an Iti ship, no wait, that was a cartoon.

Marty