We, the IRCWCC had it on the ballot but voted it down. Some felt is was too difficult to have it on their boats and most were unreliable.
Our club strongly, ....No....STRONGLY sudgests putting floats on, as our POND slopes down at a steep angle (10 feet from shore you are over your head almost) to a depth of 14-15 feet deep so waiding out for your model is not a option usually. To go with this we also have a PUSH rule so that a non-mobile ship can be pushed in by a team mate to a shallower area after which its 5 min timer continues (it does not run during the pushing). I was recently a little lax and thought myself immune and removed my float for some testing only to have my ship go down and man would the float have helpped. We have access to a row boat but with no float it is still a 15 foot drop to the bottom to try and find something, and not being the fittest anymore I cannot swim like a fish either. I have re-installed the float and added another and have a 3rd option also, 1 a back hatch floats off and is attached inside the hull, 2, a regular fishing float on a line is on deck to float off, 3 my superstructure floats off and it has a line to the ship also, so a 3-way float system, even if some fail there should be one that makes it out of that bunch to make finding and getting back your ship that much easier.
Here is a better picture of the simple floats I use, they can be under a float off deck piece or in a smoke stack or under a float off turret cover. The line is 50lb test line and the knots are carefully tied to maintain strength and a snap swivel is on the connection end to make install/removal easier and the floats are relatively small so they do not get in the way, the system is designed to be dead simple and work. PS the knots are then soaked with superglue to ensure they do not come off/undone:cry: http://ontarioattackforce.multiply.com/photos/album/18/Items_By_Bryan#20 Bryan
When using sites like photobucket,etc please tell RCNC forum to resize the image by right clicking on the image, click properties, and setting the width to 600px
There is just over ten feet of line in that cup. As I fed it in, it naturally coiled. When it is time to deploy, the line will come out tangle free every time.
Sorry about over doing it on the pixles. I did crop the photos to half their orginal size before posting.
I am confident that Lumpy's float system will be put to the test this week end. We are having a sailing this weekend, and it will be my first time as a Captain. It will also be Lumpy's shake down cruise from the rebuild.
I agree, floats are a great idea. I don't use one now, but I guess I should. I need to find a way so one of life boats float up and work all the time. I know I am a little behind but it's a great subject. Thanks
Welll the other captains were very nice and only made passes (But held their fire) to prove to me that I am dead meat on the high seas. I will just have to wait until the next sailing to see how the float system works.
I've got a new float to show off. It's the aft torpedo mount on destroyer Z-25, "Der Zee-Monster". I built it using 1" wood dowel and 1/4" wood dowel for the float itself, then mounted it to the deck with a short length of .110 carbon fiber through a 3/32" hole drilled in the float. It proved very reliable in the last battle, deploying within seconds both times I sank. It also stayed on deck until I sank, despite the storm of ball bearings around it. The nicest part about this float, though, is how easy it is to re-wind the float string afterwards. Since the string is simply coiled around the base of the torpedo mount, I simply spin the torpedo mount and the string winds itself up. Once wound, I still have just enough slack that I can pose the torpedo launcher at any angle I want.
Smart move on the torpedo mount, I like the ease of just spinning it to coil the line. When I first got my Kumano years ago it had the forward turret (balsa) as the float with line attached. We weren't sure how well that worked (in case it tipped over) so we nixed that and drilled a hole in the smoke stack and shoved a bobber down it. So far, the Kumano has never sunk (then again I never got around to battling it)... but I do know it's a pain in the rear to stick that line back down it. I wish I had kept the turret as the float!
Looks like you have the line attached to the deck. I had attached mine to the bottom of the hull, with the spool of line as deep as I could put it to prevent it from cauing stability problems. I used a line strong enough that I could pull the ship up from the bottom with it. One of the ponds I use, they do not want folks wading out into it because they are afraid that the silt on the bottom will act like quick sand!
It was originally attached to the deck. I have since drilled a small hole through the deck (underneath the torpedo mount) and tied it into a structural brace. I will probably change out the line, the dental floss I am currently using is both weak and occasionally sticks. I actually had it fail once recently because the wax-coated dental floss stuck to itself.
