Category Archives: Boat

Our Trial Sail Program – and The New F6 Marblehead !!

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If you are thinking of taking up any new sport, new pastime, new hobby … well, you need to try it first, don’t you agree?! It can sometimes be a little tricky to arrange in radio sailing.

For quite a while, Datchet has had a very smart International One Metre Class loan boat available for newcomers to try.

Today we are making a huge leap with our Trial Sail program. We are adding a 2023 F6 demonstrator Marblehead to the program, supplied by the UK builder K7Yachts!! As I write, well… it’s brand new! Our demo boat is finished in smart blue and looks fantastic. It’s the same hull shape as the 2023 UK Champion.

Why are we adding a Marblehead? To start with, the Marblehead is beautifully suited to our 475 acre lake and our ‘wave’ conditions. They are very fast on these waters and our fleet is extremely active. We race them every alternate Sunday through our 10 month formal season, plus Open Meetings etc.

It’s an interesting time in Radio Sailing. Builder lead times for One Metres is extremely long and measured usually in years. You can get a Marblehead from K7 in months not years. Here is the thing that surprised me – contrary to popular belief, a new Marblehead fitted up for at least Club Racing comes in at a substantially lower cost than the bill for my new One Metre.

Interested ?? See the “Trial Sail” tab on the main menu bar of this website – just below the website banner photo. Contact us by email at the email address shown on our Contact page.

And really, you ought to try one – racing with them is amazing!!

How to Cut Your Deck Patches on a Computer !!

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As a newcomer, I must say that I am pleased to cut my patches, so far, with a scissors… ..and it had never occurred t me that you might be able to do it online.

Interested??

Here is a short conversation that came up on the Datchet Radio Sailing WhatsApp Group. (I used to think I was good with Tech until I met these Guys!) :-

Person A : Anyone got any experience of laser cutting/ engraving devices??
I want to cut deck patches etc and maybe some balsa wood so don’t think I need much laser power, but a big enough bed is more likey to be important to me. Anything else I should be thinking about..?? 

Person B: Using a vinyl cutter is a simpler and better solution for cutting deck patches .

Person B : Laser cutting with a small CNC/Laser 3018 cutter is a slow process, even cutting balsa wing ribs, for example. Very smelly, as well. Cut patches with a vinyl cutter.

Person A: Any recommendation for a vinyl cutter model to pick ?

Person B: I use silhouette cameo. Easy set up and you can transfer files between friends.

https://www.silhouetteamerica.com/featured-product/cameo

Person A: Does the Cameo handle the roll of patch material or do you need to cut it into manageable sheets first ?

Person B: The cutting mat is 12” sq (American!) as standard with a 12 x 24 also available. I stuck the leading edge of my roll onto the cutting mat and allow it to move with the cutting mat. Your maximum size is governed by the physical size of the cutting mat.

Person C! : I use an old Roland CM24, that I got on eBay. It has a 600mm wide bed and can cut any length you like off a roll.

“Antenna Frame” Anyone??

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When I read up about my transmitter’s working range, of course it’s all about airplanes and drones. “1.5km range”, I think it said.

Honestly, if the boat is further away than about 150m, frankly we’re on the limits of my eyesight! I’m sure most folks would pay no attention to the layout of the onboard antenna (two wires that stick out of the onboard receiver). I’d forgive anybody who thought it doesn’t really matter. I did notice though that when we initially rigged my new IOM at the Datchet club, the first thing PH told me to do was walk a really long way away and see if I could waggle the sails via the mainsheet joystick. The “voice of experience”, I suddenly thought to myself.

Did you know, the theory is that the two antenna wires should lie at right angles to each other?? The IOM I had been borrowing from a totally amazing man at Chipstead had this simple idea.

Aboard my new K2, the builder has integrated something into his proprietary pot that ties the antenna at right angles. Very neat actually, … job done.

For the F6 Marblehead, GH suggested looking at two potential antenna frames on the Sailsetc website. We chose this one….

You might miss it at first glance. The frame is that little black moulding at the top of the photo. The two “arms” at right-angles are hollow – you can thread the wires inside them easily. It weighs about the same as a sheet of Kleenex. I’d guess its is 3D printed. Very neat. It simply sits inside the pot and grips the edge. It is shaped for the standard 60mm Sailsetc “pot” that the majority of us have. You thread the antenna wires through the 90 degree “V”… then what? I just wound my antenna tails around the pot rather than thread them back over the frame. It keeps it jolly tidy in there, plus at least some of the wires’ length lies at 90 degrees.

https://www.sailsetc2.com/index.php/aerial-arc.html