Aren't loaner boats to bystanders a no-no due to NAMBA? Would be a problem at any sanctioned event, so no real point in building "Here, try!" style boats for curious bystanders.
If they buy single event insurance from NAMBA then they are good. Joining IRCWCC can be done if Tommy is at the battle.
I would change the “Loaner” to “Rental”. As the club is a pseudo business. Figure out that number and charge $2x. My goal for small boats is to mold an internal pan that mounts and protects the guts. Replacement hulls will be molded with windows cut and ready to sheet for super duper cheap because I don’t have to waste materials on areas that get cut out anyway. just swap battery’s and add Ammo. Gun is straight plug in and servo fired —needs 2 channels for fixed mount. Add 2 more for rotating & depressing. Lower costs are always better.
Note the single event insurance must be bought prior to the battle not at the battle as previously allowed.
Advertising “limited spaces available” & “pre-registration required” covers that. It just seems to me that every person I’ve ever discussed this sport with reacts about the same. “That’s cool! I want to do that!” Then comes...”how much does it cost? A THOUSAND DOLLARS?!?!? Where do you do it? 3 HOURS AWAY?!?!?” That puts a damper on enthusiasm. If you said $50 for a days battle less than an hour drive, people would buy into that in droves. Say you get 6 guys to bite on that. Ka-ching! $300.... another club boat. Is it me or the VOC’s?
It's hard enough getting rookies to travel to an event without making them register/commit to anything, requiring a sign up/insurance payment will work very sporadically at best. The cost of the boat is not even a massive hurdle for most...very successful rookies have started with nothing more than "Wow, this looks cool, I want to build a boat" and some plywood. I'm looking at you, @Beaver . As for the travel distance, you will never reach the population density required to get any rookie anywhere to an event within an hour. This hobby is tiny. We have maybe, what, 150 guys worldwide who are familiar with it and even fewer with functional models attending events. Travel is required, if they are gawking at a 3 hour drive they will never make the 8+, 10+, 16+ hour drives.
Exactly... yet this is a hobby with a “cool factor” through the roof. There must be something keeping people out. Every major city in this country should have a population base of people that would love to play this game if it were more accessible.
The problem I think is that there really is no "ready to run" style setup for the technically challenged for this hobby, and if it existed it would hurt as much as it helped. These boats deal with tons of stress and hardware failures are super common. Honestly making the hobby more accessible is an admirable goal, something that I myself have tried to work on by building a "kit" combination of wooden hull+3d printed superstructure for an easy to build French Suffren cruiser. Total investment maybe $450 and a rookie could be on the water. If the rookie can't build his own boat and requires a ready to run kit, he'll never be able to maintain it through combat. Imagine the support calls you'd deal with, you'd spend a fortune trying to help people troubleshoot boats. I know from my own technical difficulties. This is why it's critical that a rookie meet up with an experienced battler and essentially apprentice under them. Everyone will have their own opinion on why the hobby has such a small rookie retention rate. My opinion is this: First, the complexity of the boats. Second the travel Third, the ambition. Most rookies don't want to build a manageable cruiser. They might buy one to start, but leave them to their own devices and you'll end up with rookies in Bismarcks and Iowas because they're the "cool" boats. Then, in those "cool boats" they suffer with technical difficulties and either get demoralized and leave or the rare few struggle on and become good battlers. I'm currently in the "struggle on" process. Fourth is the ruleset. We have a 40~ page rulebook. For a newbie with no experienced battler to help them, it can be a bit confusing and overwhelming. Fifth is the niche of the hobby. You need someone with technical acumen, who wants to dive headfirst into the RC hobby world, who wants to build a model ship, who also wants to arm it to shoot other model ships. It doesn't appeal to everyone.
By spring I should have a much better grip on the combat boat basics but my early estimate is $300 ready to fight... a ship molded by a highly skilled well known leader in this hobby (not me) sporting twin stern 1/2 cannon and a half unit pump. A fully skinned smoke wagon. ...but the fumes are heavy tonight. Building an Iowa;Bismarck and huge Crackerbox Race Boat.
We intend to buy a suitable pond. Not just to fight in.... Sailboat / powerboat races and we have 2 pet ducks and a Lab. Plus it’s a way better flying rc seaplanes than low cutting a field for wheels.... spend more time cutting than flying.
Loaner boats, by themselves, have a very low success rate at recruiting new members. Properly recruiting someone requires a lot of time and effort from the veterans, helping the new person learn to battle and maintain a boat, build their first warship, and gain the confidence and experience to be successful. When Gascan and I joined the WWCC back in 2004, it was almost a whole-club effort to get us involved. We first showed up at an event, and some of the skippers let us drive (but not fight) their boats. Dozens of emails followed, then at the next battle they had some loaner boats for us to borrow. The rest of that year was spent almost entirely at various people's garages learning how to repair the damage and maintain the ships. It took hundreds of hours of mentoring before I finally had my own first warship ready for action and the skill to maintain it. My efforts at recruiting others has been very similar. Lots of work on my part preparing rookie ships for the new guy, followed by lots more effort helping them keep their ships working as they slowly work their way up the learning curve. I remember one major battle where almost every single ship on the water had either been built or re-built by Gascan and I. Starting a new club is extremely difficult because there's nobody around to provide new members the attention they need to succeed.
We usually get one new rookie a year, who comes to the boat shop and builds his dream boat (often with some parts from many of our members). They may make it to the pond for one battle but then life happens and they get married or a new job or something and we never see them again. There are a few that hang around for awhile but it is a demanding hobby.
My goal.... 1.5 unit ship... twin stern 1/2 cannon 1/2 bilge pump, 4 channel radio (throttle/rudder/gun power/trigger). Sheeted and ready to fight. No ESC’s, no CO2, no solenoids, (none needed). Simple basic fighting boat right out of the box..... I believe is much easier to maintain something that you started fresh with. Lots of people cannot design and build their own cars, but can fix the one they have. $300. With that in hand many rookies will take to ponds around the world. And I’m not even sniffing resin fumes right now.
One thing we try to do, is have some convoy ships on hand and get prospective new members to run them. No NAMBA is required for unarmed convoy, just your normal safety standards. This gets them familiar with running ships without the confusion of trying to shoot. We work with them on evading and turning on the pump. Another big thing we do; we do NOT sink the new members for at least 2 full seasons. This club has been doing that for a long time before I joined. I meet with a guy during our last maker fair, he told me that he got into the hobby several years ago through a friend. He purchased an almost complete ship and another kit that he started working on. He took his completed boat to his first battle and was sunk in 2 minutes. He said because of that, he was done, it wasn't fun. Keep that in mind when thinking about retention. I got very lucky with the crew that I meet and helped me get into the hobby. They were very patient with me and all of my questions. For that I would like to thank Phil, Mark, Mikey and the rest of MNCC. It did help that they were local to me and we try to get together for regular build sessions. I think it might also help get prospective members that are lurking on this site, if we (active battlers) all put our location (at least somewhere close) on the locations map. That might help someone else that is close to a captain and then they might be able to ride share.
Nobody wants to travel. I bring up going to 4 hours to Dallas and they have a heart attack.. then ask them to go 21 hours to Nats.... Only the few hardcore (less than 60 in the US I believe) are willing to go to a Nats on even a semi-annual basis. Budget builder is a Budget traveler...
They will allow you to purchase on the day of the event just use your .. smartphone and paypal its not a problem. Getting the IRC membership same day.... not so easy.
