This past week, 6.7.2015.

Over the past week has seen Donald win his first yacht race against the Tuesday/ Thursday racers!, (The TT Men.)

Yeah Yeah. Great feeling!.

Public side 

Another of the members has refurbished the notice board, which has stood the ravishes of time since the landing stage was redesigned in 2006, the wet weather this year up to now is enough to test any structure  

landing side.

Our Commodore Alan went to the Kirklees show at the weekend and said he was surprised at the attendance there.

He had a good time and sent us some pictures.

Perhaps we could have a stand there next time!.

We have had a few new members in the last couple of weeks, so if you see them on the landing stage I know you will give them a warm welcome as always!.

Next events.

1100      19th July   Sunday    Steering Comp             Landing stage

Sunday 19th July   Colwyn Bay Model Boat Show    New challenge this year!, open to Individuals or as a Club team                                See exhibition Secretary for details.

2000      22nd July   Wednesday         Club night                    Clubhouse

1900      29^th July     Wednesday         Club 500 Racing         Landing Stage

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That's it for today folks!.

Frequency Board!.

 Will sailors if they are not on 2.4 ghz please check with others or use the frequency board before launching their boats,this is important!, it's on your membership form and on the cards provided, failure to do this can lead to serious problems.

 Al the comm!.

With the speed of brushless motor driven boats these days, someone else driving your boat on the same frequency as you doesn't bear thinking about!, someone else might be thinking the same as you, "everyone is on 2.4 ghz these days so I don't need to bother with the frequency board" don't ass-u-me! you can see what that spells as well.

Duckie.

Here endeth the lesson.

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Talking of fast boats here is the latest build from Alan Higham, here in the week to test it.

Turned out to be a little down in the nose at speed, a little bit of lead in the back sorted that out. 

As its built of balsa wood, it's very light and the strong winds we have been having lately was blowing it about all over the place.

By the way it's driven by a brushless fan!, can't wait to see it go when the conditions are more favourable

Looks good on the water, but as I said under power it tended to dig it's nose in, soon sorted by

 Team Higham.

On the work front

Mike was at it again with his tool box out, fitting an angle iron strip under the new ramp, always makes a good job of anything he does, doesn't he!.

Al the Comm, supervising and visualising someone on the same frequency coming up that ramp with someone else's boat at speed and taking my hat off!.

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Next events 

 1000     7th June      Sunday            Fiesta Racing                 Landing stage

2000     10^th June     Wednesday      Club night                      Clubhouse

1900     17^th June      Wednesday      Club 500 Racing           Landing stage

1100      21^st June     Sunday             Steering Comp               Landing stage

2000      24^th June     Wednesday     Club night                     Clubhouse     

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That's all for now folks!.

Scratchbuilt Narra Boat, 2015.

Scratchbuilt Narra Boat, 2015.

Been to the lake today, as well as the usual yachtsmen there was this nice scratchbuilt Narra Boat, designed and completely scratchbuilt by Andrew Heywood one of our newer members and though I'm a bit biased with Narra boats I think you will agree with me he's made a fine job of it, sit's well on the water and even the load of bags of stone look very authentic!.

This will be just the job for our event at Bugsworth this year won't it!.

Had lunch in the Cafe with Alan le Comm, Colin and George Taylor and the usual chat putting the world to rights.

Alan still not managed to get his mini "J" class working so it will be back to the drawing board for him when he get's home, think the trouble is the Crystals in the boat when he bought it, no doubt it will be alright next time he comes to the lake!.

Quite a bit warmer today but not a lot of wind, usually the way isn't it, can't seem to get them both at the same time!.

Have you checked out the "For sale" section lately?, there are some good bargains on there at the moment!.
And how about the "Wanted" Section!.

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Click here for worlds largest container ship.

New builds at the lake.

Over the past week or so there have been quite a few new builds on the lake, so I thought i would give you a run down of them.

First of all there was Mark Jarvis with his tug.

Mark

Mark's Tug

Tranny Bag

But of more interest to me personally was the tranny Bag that Mark had, I'd ask one of the other members about one of these the back end of last year and he had said they were about £30+ (I think), but Marks bag from Hobby King was only £7+ and the postage which makes it very interesting.

Mark advised to make sure you order from their UK warehouse and not the International warehouse as the postage would cost more than the Bag.

I've ordered one myself and will publish my findings and bring it to the next meeting, when I get it of course.

Next new boat on the lake was Eric Presleys 10 hatch coaster, very nice build as usual by Eric, and I know about this Model Slipway kit as I've had one for a few years!.

Sits nice on the water, this was the first time out so Eric was still working on the weight to get it onto the waterline and stop the cavitation at the stern, hence the roll of lead on the deck just at the back of the hatches.

Next on the table was Rob's Tornado 80, he had had this one at the lake a few days previously to test it for water tightness and brought it back with a refit of a brushless motor, receiver and better batteries, which balanced the boat better and brought the bow up more!.

 As you can see its a bit nose heavy on this picture.

Name's Bond, James Bond!.

As the following video shows, its alright now and going like a bomb, not too much speed at the moment as Rob's getting used to the speed of this craft.

                            

Last but not least another flyer, This is another new member with a boat that he's taken the i/c engine out and installed a big water jet propulsion unit run by a big brushless motor.

 And here it is, too fast to get a video of it with my small camera, perhaps next time!.

I thought you couldn't had a reverse on a water jet boat, but this is how you do it with this servo controlled scoop!, still what I know about these high tech things I could get on the back of a stamp, there again they are too dear to be writing of them these days.

The last club meeting if you didn't manage to get there was a talk by Michael Street on the trials and tribulations of getting his Submarine to float right and rise and submerge properly, will try to get a picture on the water for you next time he's out.

Good talk and plenty of chances to ask questions on this subject and the In's and Out's of  Ni Cad batteries!.

There again catch Michael at the lake if you want to know anything else about this subject as it's not my thing.

The small boat and transmitter on the kitchen shelf there is the boat to be used by all entrants in the Commodores challenge this year, see the tab at the top above the Red Boat to see the details of this event.

Well that's it for another day, off for a wash and brush up and down to the lake with the faithful hound for a bit of lunch and check out the scene on the water today!.

Next Event

1000hrs 14th September,  Sunday,    Commodore’s Challenge   Landing Stage

 See Tab at top of Blog for details of this years challenge!.

Haydock Show weekend, Home and Away.

23rd August 2014.
 Not able to attend the Haydock Show, I went down to the lake today and met one of our newer members John Jones (and his Grandson) sailing his new Fire boat, completely scratchbuilt and all the white metal fitting remodelled in brass, 850 motor and 20 Amp ESC, working lights and folding mast!.

                           

Later on in the afternoon met up with my old mate Lawrence, we were at one time Commodore and Vice Commodore and have always got on very well since our time doing that.

We both happened to have our Fiesta's there and had a good sail together until the cool wind got to our old bones and we retired to the Cafe for a hot drink!.

A nice pleasant afternoon and had a chat with a couple of potential Members!.

At Haydock Show  

The Haydock show was well attended and by the looks on the photos sent by our roving reporter Bob Abell everyone seems to be enjoying themselves.

 A general view.

Howard and Trevor, just out of focus I think thats Geoff

Bob Dunkerley

John, Alan and Lawrence.

Also there with their own stand was Paul Thomason and Bob Abell, advertising Pauls plans and Bob's builds of same all in the name of charity!.

Fund raising posters, all on the Model Boats magazine Forum, just in case you haven't seen it before.

 Both seem to be enjoying the occasion, meeting with friends from the club and friends from off the MB Forum corresponded with but perhaps this was the first time in person

Left to right is "The Long build", "Kimmo and Wife" and lastly "The Invisible Man",
nice to put a face to a name isn't it!. All meeting Bob and Paul for the first time and viewing their efforts in the wood so to speak.

Well thats all for now, unless someone sends me more pictures of the event,in which case I will do an update, watch this space!.

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Next Event

2000hrs 27^th  August  Wednesday  Club night               Clubhouse
                                                         Venetian Sail/BBQ     

Etherow at Ellesmere 2014

We had another successful weekend at Ellesmere to start the year off with a bang!.

Some of our models getting a lot of attention.

Paul Thomason from Model Boats magazine forum, Geoff Abell and Duckie

It was only a small room we were in but as we were there on a cancellation I suppose it was a case of first up best dressed!, still as I said we had lots of interest and an earlier booking next year might see us with a better location?.

On the Saturday, Bob Abell and myself made a bee line for the Cafe before the rush and got one of these cholesterol  builders and very nice too, we had intended to do the same on the Sunday but surprise surprise the cafe only had a limited menu that day as something had been overworked the day before and had broken down!, still we had a nice bowl of soup and a sandwich before the rush.

Then it was back to the boats and the viewing and there in a side room was our newest member Paul Blyth who I think had only joined our club at the Poynton show and there he was with two beautiful Warships,

Paul

Couldn't get any better pictures of his boats for the people round them, sorry about that Paul.

having said that here is his awards for his efforts, a Gold and a Silver!!, and a member of Etherow!!

 Well done, Paul.

Charlie Amazed, how do they do it?, he said!.

This is Duckie talking (as usual) to a Member of the Irish MBC and yes they were there for the weekend and he was telling me he was building 5 Viking longboats ready for the 1,000 festival of the Vikings visiting Ireland and their club was going to have a re-enactment for it.

There were members from Jersey MBC with a stand there as well.

A general view from off the bridge after visiting the trade stalls, which were the same as last year.

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My Video taken on the Saturday.

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For someone else's view on the show for a change 

Click here

Well thats it for the show, 

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Here are the results of the first Fiesta racing competition of the season,

Fiesta report 2/3/2014

Hi to all

Fiesta report for 2/3/14, We had good day, with wind for a change ? the weather was OK. Six turned up to sail, with one new sailor Andy.

The results are :-

TREVOR RADFORD 1^ST, DAVID LEE 2^ND, TERRY 3^RD, HARRY 4^TH, ANDY 5^TH, GEORGE 6^TH.

Thanks to all for coming to sail.

See you all next month David Lee.

Thanks for that Dave, should be more next month if no Shows on the same day!.

Peter.

Video to follow so keep looking back here for that.

Duckie

Message from Exhibition Secretary 2014

I hadn't realized that the Ellesmere Show was only two weeks away until I got this email from Gordon the Exhibition Secretary, and as you will be able to read the weather is in a small part effecting us, but not in the serious way of those poor people in the south!.

Here is his email in full  

Sods law rears its ugly head as usual when you are trying to organise something! With the terrible weather last night putting a block on having a quick talk to members about the above show, can you please put a reminder about it to those who wish to go and show boats/have a sail/ or just simply attend, on the main blog page please.

The show is on Sat/Sun the 1/2nd March at the Boat Museum, Ellesmere Port. For those showing boats the venue is open on Friday P.M. for setting up, or Saturday 8.00am to 10.00am. If you arrive after that time the back gates will be shut and you will have to go in the main entrance, and PAY.

I have put together the attached for anyone who intends to show their stuff, can you cut and paste it somewhere?

Lastly and this is where sods law really gets in the way, I am going into hospital next Monday and don't know what state I will be in for the next 2/3 weeks or so, consequently may/may not be fit for the next meeting, or even the show itself, so Geoff Garside has ‘kindly’ offered to stand in for me (his arm is recovering well after I twisted it behind his back) and will be flourishing lists round at the next meeting for names of members who will be showing models, as I am hoping over the next few months to generate a data base of those who like to show off their skills, and get some idea of the standard of the models, so if we are short on space, or looking for particular classes of model – I will know who to call upon.

Cheers,

Gordon

Here is some very good advice from Gordon on showing your models to the best advantage and showing the club stand at it's best. 

                                             

Please take a minute to read this if you intend to exhibit a model

·         Most exhibitions use tables that are 2ft wide (often doubled up) so where possible models around 4ft long, or less, are best.

·         Please only bring models that are worth putting on show, probably two maximum (bring as many as you want to actually sail) and not ‘stand-off’ models! They may look fine on our lake but people are seeing them close up and your detailed workmanship (or lack of it) reflects on our Club!

·         Take time to clean it and check it over beforehand, nothing looks worse than a boat out of the attic covered in dust and fingerprints, or with bits missing, or hanging loose.

·         If you have clothing with the club logo please wear it, also your membership badge must be worn.

·         Try to engage the public as they walk past and look at the models. The best way is to ask them a short question – it’s very difficult for them to ignore you that way. For example - Have you ever built anything like this? You look puzzled, can I help? Can you see the detail here? Are you local? Etc. etc.

·         Attending a display stand and maybe having to stand around all day can be both boring and very tiring. Try not to look uninterested – with arms folded leaning against a wall,  or clustered together in a group chatting and ignoring the public – They have paid to be there!

·         Ensure at all times that at least one member is on the stand, especially when there are young children about, to them our boats are toys – and even some adults can’t understand the words ‘please do not touch’!

·         We all need to have a break and a coffee/lunch, but try to keep it as unobtrusive as possible and don’t leave cups, lunch boxes, etc.  lying around amongst the display.

Lastly enjoy the day, arrange between yourselves times to go off and see the rest of the exhibition, or time to have a sail.

Gordon Longworth – Exhibition Secretary.

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I was at the lake on Thursday 13th, and after the previous night when the club meeting was cancelled at short notice due to the weather , it was dry and just enough wind to please the sailors!, also met a couple of newish members who you can see in the members gallery so you will know them next time to see them.

Then it was off to the Cafe for a warm up and bite to eat and the usual chat with the members, catching up with the news and upcoming events, a nice day out!.

I'm sure you will join me in wishing Gordon a speedy recovery after his hospital visit.

That's all for now folks.

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Next club meeting, 22nd Jan 2014

Hi Folks, been a bit busy since the Christmas holidays, but now settled back into the routine again.

If you missed the last club meeting as I did, we missed an impromptu auction I believe which raised about £300+, very nice!.

Well you are in luck again as Mike the Social sec phoned me to let you know that the next club meeting will be another Auction!, this time it is the Tools, kits and Boats of the late Ron Gill who sadly passed away recently.

Mrs Gill also has some Campervan equipment and a nearly new dishwasher she wants to sell, if you are interested in these type of non boat related things, if you contact Mike Hodgson  he will be able to confirm what is available and put you in touch with Mrs Gill.

Well, all being well I will certainly be at the next meeting and I'm sure the newer members will benefit from these auctions, as there are always bargains to be had there.

Next Meeting 22nd January 2014

Auction!.

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Hope you all had a great Christmas and New year and are getting over the festivities and hangovers, see you at the next meeting!.
As you can see the header picture has been changed by John (the other moderator) to reflect the weather, hopefully it won't be too long before we are back to the Spring Header!.

Food for thought.

Poynton TMS show 7th/8th December.2013

The club was out in force again on the weekend of 7th & 8th of December 2013, I wasn't able to attend but got these nice pictures for you from Chris the Commodore. The club was certainly showing their expertise and modelling skills and with the club banners on show there was no doubt where we are from.

I attach 5 photos for the club website showing our two stands at the Poynton TMS show 7th/8th December.

 

Kind regards

Chris, Commodore.

Club well advertised, Roy and Andy.

 Plenty of boats on show.

The warship guys great models making a nice show.

And the Lifeboats too

Andy and George relaxing before the rush!.

Nice showing for the club and Andy tells me there was even a signing up over the weekend so welcome to you Paul Blyth and may you have many happy hours sailing on our beautiful waters.

Well done the guys who attended and made such a good showing for the club again!.

Thats all folks.

December Sunday 2013

This past Sunday saw Pepe and I at the lake again, where there was a selection of new boats on the bench, new to me that is!
There was a nice launch with an outboard motor being sailed by Robb and a nice model Stingray sailed by his mate, who I'm ashamed to say don't know his name, that will be rectified the next time I see him!.
There was also the Higham brother's there with Alan sailing one of his small fast boats and experimenting with different size batteries, they were all very fast and I didn't see a lot of difference in the changes really, but there again I was more interested with the videoing of the boats.
Here is the finished video for your viewing.



As you can see on the video there are lots of leaves about on the water and as my good friend Bob the Builder said mention to the newer members not to reverse too much in the leaves as they can spin your props off if jammed up, good advice guys, I know I'd done it myself in the past especially with Kort nozzles!.

Well Christmas is nearly upon us again and everywhere is looking very festive and tomorrow its our club Christmas Dinner again but with a change of venue this year, so I hope to see you all there, well the one's that are going, if everyone was there I don't think the club would all fit in the place!,

Perhaps this is the band for the night?.

What it's all about really.

Well that's it again, hope to see some of you there tomorrow and perhaps your new years resolution could be to send me some pictures and write up's of your favourite boats. 

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2000hrs  11^th December    Wednesday  Club night           Clubhouse  AGM

Thursday   1100hrs     27th December, Frostbite Day Sail.

Yacht sailing at Etherow 31st October 2013.

 

Yacht sailing at Etherow today, 31st October 2013.

A nice autumn day with the colours in the trees looking wonderful!, the sun was out and the rain stayed off whilst I was there

The usual crowd of sailors today with most of them yachtsmen , check out the video.

                            

This Sunday is the "Judging of boats", which to the newer guys is boats or dioramas made during the past year that members have decided to enter.

There is another chance to enter if you can't make it on Sunday, and that is on the following club night.

The Judges are the winners of last years sections, so they know what to look for, and they are guided by our modeller extraordinaire George Barrett!.

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The boat "Ellie" that Bob the Abell is building with the chap on Model Boats magazine forum that I've posted on an earlier post

See Here

Bob has just received the electrics diagram for it, you may find it useful!, it was drawn by Dave Milbourn... Ex owner of Action Electronics.

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Next events 

Sunday  1100hrs     3^rd  November , Judging of boats.

 8^th 9th or 10^th November

 Model Boat show. Warwick , Coach trip!
Pick up 0800hrs at Morrison's, Denton
0815hrs Wickes, Stockport.
Price £22

2000hrs  13^th November    Wednesday  Club Night           Clubhouse

    Includes Judging of boats, only need to show boat one of the dates.

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Thats all for now folks, hope to see you there on Sunday