The website has a scrolling ‘news feed’ of items (see below) listed in date order, most recent first. You might prefer to access information from the general list of topics shown under “Categories” which appear to the right or beneath the ‘news feed’ depending on what device you are using. There is also a “search bar” facility, plus you can subscribe by email. If you’d like a demonstration sail, please click the Trial Sail item on the main menu bar above.
It was our host Club’s 50th Anniversary celebrations this weekend!! Good to feel part of it with them. They combined a few onshore celebrations with the 2026 Club Championships out on the water. Racing was greeted by a misty 5mph breeze, but looked pretty intense !!
Onshore there was meant to be a charity walk around the Reservoir (about 3 miles) but amazingly permission was withdrawn by the landlord – pity! Still we had the ladies run a Hospice shop – great jigsaws on sale!
The upstairs had been properly decorated and was looking great for the Championship prize giving not to mention the Bake Off Competition!
As it happens, five key members of Datchet Radio Sailing were competing away from home, leaving us somewhat depleted. The cool misty day would not have helped either – it wasn’t all that alluring!!
To make up for it, Graham brought a couple of stunning boats from his personal collection – with Howard and Richard there to give a hand, plus Phil consulting on the phone!. By the way, Richard 30 years a member and Howard even more than that !
The first was this amazing radio gaff rig cutter – quite a size actually. Superb craftsmanship as you’d expect – one of four built to the 15 metre rule for a group at Frensham. Technically very interesting to sail as there were three radio channels – main and jib sheets being on separate channels of the left joystick. (RJ thinking about some areas where the radio can help out – the joystick for jib sheet goes in different directions on starboard and port!)
Was this the first time a gaff rig had been seen at Datchet ?? Maybe!
The second boat was a converted Vane Ten Rater built to the old rule. That’s the one that stole my heart today – a gorgeous complete rebuild and running on radio now. Stunning and a whopping size. Stupidly I didn’t get photos of that as I had my IOM on the water on “rescue” duty in case we lost the gaff cutter … which happened a few times on saturday!! A small matter if the mainsheet not staying on the winch drum as intended!!
The IOM Rankings just finished at West Lancs. We had four Datchet team members enter – Craig, Nigel, Austin and Harry. Actually couldn’t see Harry on the results I dont think so maybe he didn’t go – jolly long way!!
Craig, Nigel and Austin all finished in the top third of a hot fleet – Craig says both he and Nigel lost a race each to weed in Ranking 1. Cross!! There’ll be a story to Ranking 2 as well I expect.
Peter Stollery doing well too.
Note Tony Edwards in the secret new Robot boat going well 🙂
Meanwhile, David L was down at Gosport for the Vane Marbleheads – great photos on MYA Downwind (16 entries) , but results awaited.
Even beginners to our sport encounter this debate pretty quickly. LiPos versus LiFes…
I was a little alarmed and disturbed to find my lovely 1800mah LiPos had all suddenly become puffy at the same time. Just two years old…The plastic covering on each battery seemed to be puffed with air/gas not fluid.
Pity – but I’ve realised now I’ve always been anxious about them in the house. They had an easy life – 18C-20C controlled temperature storage, not all that many charges, and always kept in double explosion bags. They have only ever been charged on a LiPo specific intelligent charger at 1amp max, and it cuts off when they’re full.
Mostly I’ve been confident about having them in the house, until hilarious friends email me YouTubes of Teslas catching fire……
So how to best dispose of puffy or leaky Lipos??
I thought perhaps puffiness with just air in there, no fluid,… was possibly OK… but see below. However, everyone agrees that LiPos can’t go in the household waste, not at the supermarket battery collection points either (not for Lithiums). If Waitrose caught fire, I’d never hear the end of it. They need to go to the official battery disposal place at the town dump.
You can’t just take them to the dump though. Best advice I could find was;-
1/ Deplete them totally.
I found they would go to zero current if attached to a receiver for 12-15 hours each. Alarmingly, instead of reducing the gas inside there, they actually expanded further. Blimey. I thought they were going to go “pop”… Like little balloons.
2/ Immerse them in salt water OUTSIDE for 48 hours.(see photo)
I found the most distant corner of the garden.
This is meant to neutralise the connectors and chemicals. Well, HUGE surprise – the water around these apparently “probably still OK” batteries turned a pile milky blue – lots of sediment in the bottom of the jar. So there really was something leaky in there… I threw that down a street drain.
3/ Now they are safe to go to the dump…..
UPDATE : Waitrose do indeed take Lithiums (see their website) – they just ask you to tape over the terminals before you pop them in the collection point.
I’m going to replace them with Hacker 1300mah LiFe’s, same weight to within a gram, same XT60 connectors. More on that later when they go through trials. I have maybe another 6 LiPos in the explosion bag from different manufacturers. I shall be really watching and inspecting them closely.
Datchet Radio Sailing - Making It All Much Easier !! 