Well I am back. The IRCWCC NATS in Rhode Island was a lot of fun. It was well worth the 14 hr drive. There are many highlights for me from this event. And I learned that there are a few things that I have to do do with the PE. The only real downside to the week was the moss on the pond. The pond had to be raked for moss every day. Also there was some areas that it would force a boat to be pushed in should your props get mossed up. testing day was great. The PE passed everything except for speed test. The small props kept getting mossed up and the boat could not move. Thankfully someone had a larger pair of 3 bladed props that seemed to make the PE work better. So I will have to order a larger set of props. The only other issue was radio requency. I had to remove my Futaba receiver and go with the the 2.4 as there was a radio conflict. This would have cause a problem later in the week Day 1 The first fleet battle and the first sortie. There were 22 boats on the water. The PE was part of the Axis swarm. There was another VU and 3 ships at 4.5 and a 5 unit Konig. The only small Allied unit was trhe South Carolina and that did not hit the water until tuesday. The rest were was a West Virginia and a Maryland as well as an Iron Duke, There were 3 Nc class ships as well as 4 Sodaks. And to top that there was the NJ. So after the first sortie 3 sodaks were sunk while the Axis lost only my PE. The reason for the sink was that the pump hose blew off. It had about 16 or 17 hits below and was working well untul the hose came off. That was clamped on for the second battle The second battle saw the PE survive. It is tough manovering as there is a boat everywhere you turn. Most hits were above with a few below. Super structure is taking more damage. More repairs for the winter.. The PE made both sorties and most ammunition was expended. Day 1 saw the Axis in the lead. Day 2. rain. It was raining all day on tuesday so instead of the convoy battle it was decided to do one on one battles. The most interesting battle was the NJ vs the Konig. A class 7 with 8 units vs a class 5. The Konig won a 2 sortie battle. That was impressive. I had a battle with the south Carolina and lost. Lost badly. i did not score a hit. The battle ended with me next to the shore unable to move as the rudder healed over and the props stopped working. The other 1 on 1 were great. Day 3: Fleet battle. Disaster. No response from any servos. So i had to open up the balloon.. Condensation was felt within the baloon. The receive had dielectric grease onn the boards. everything out to dry. I was loaned another reeived and given a waterproof box. A hole was drilled into the box. Wires inserted and gooped over. However goop takes a while to dry. So pretty much I was on the table for the rest of the day until the night battle. Now the night battle (as night as it can get with artificial lights pointing to the pond was cool. Ships with lights of all kinds are out shooting at anything else that has a light. You can not tell friend from foe. Very cool is all i can say Day 4: The CamPAIN. The 1 hr convoy battle. You can come in and re-arm but can not patch. Convoy ships can patch. A sucessful run was ship on the water for 5 minutes. The touch rule was in effect. Meaning if you were touched by convoy ship you had to go to shore and wait 30 seconds. The PE was out twice. Went out shot the rounds, called 5 and back in. The seconds Battle was another fleet battle. the PE survived both sorties. One scary moment the received dies while motor was engaged. Thankfull the moss stopped it. I quickly switched received batteries and got control to guide it home. Thankfully I was on 5 when I lost control. Day 5. First battle first sortie. Having a short term transmitter battery it was guns for glory. pretty much i went into the furball and was getting shot out. a piece of leaf debris covered part of the pump opening and I could not pump out a lot of the water. I sank like a stone in a hurry. It was recovered. After that the boat would work on the bench but glitch out when putting it in the water. Which means I missed the ring of death. A 7ft across ring. No rules. meaning rams, converting guns to spurts are all permitted. Carl's Mushasi took the title of last man standing. The awards banquet was on the USS Massachusetts. It was well worth attending and hopefully I can get back down there next year. I even took the IRXWCC Rookie of the year award. Canukistan Rules!!!!
We had a great time having you, Paul. I wonder if anyone has the pictures of your boat's graffitti. It was really fun to be visited by the gentleman "from the People's Republic of Canukistan" The flag was a riot too!
Hey Paul!!!! FANTASTIC MAN... fantastic! Glad to hear the PE put up a good performance and you had a blast. Boy I hope I can get there for next year. About the props, the model was speed tested and ran at speed. The only thing I can think of is moss may have been slowing it down as you have very little blade area back there.Try the next size up or the same size with more blades should help. Looking forward to seeing the photos !!!!! Curt
I am probably going to next size up. The PE ran well once at speed but with the 4 blade was slow starting. The 1 inch 3 blades got the PE moving well. I will be postimg the damage shots tommow of the hull and superstructure as well as the graffiti I wrote for the last battle. It will need to be re sheeted i think. There are some gouge on the deck.
I really don't have a lot of pictures of the event as i was too busy. I will say we had a fair number of people asking questions. The yellow horde from the day camp was around. having them keep the safety glasses on was a challenge. BB's flying all over the place and some people still managed to growl about having to wear safety glasses. Unless they want to sign a waiver that if they get hurt they won't sue but I doubt they would want to do that. I am looking at going next year. It will be hook or by crook.
Excellent Paul!! Glad you had fun and I KNEW you were AXIS at heart!!! I am gone for two weeks, that gives you 14 days to get your boat patched up and ready to go. J
Glad to hear you made it down, sounds like it was a blast! I had hoped to make it but work had other ideas(Safety courses). Do they know where it is being held next year?
Now down to 28. i will have some pics tommorow. Just as long as I can remember to take my USB cable home to transfer them from my BlackBerry.
HA HA HAHAH.. That's the funniest battle damage I have ever seen on a ship. I am surprised how little damage there is to the Superstructure. Looks like the impenetrable areas did thier job but keep the paint on.
Every day Paul would have a little pile of superstructure parts that he would save. It really was a very nice ship when we started. I know the feeling as I have to fix my bammer back to nice also. I loved the graffitti and by the end of the week I had all sorts of strange things on my boat too. I had a flower, a ruined gun barrel from the Musashi, my silver chain and dollar, christmas lights and a beer cap. All in all great fun!
