A fellow member at my mid-week Club carefully records the winds each time he sails.
(Note to Self : “do the same”….)
The results of his journal, including Club Racing and Open Meetings, are pretty interesting:-
Total number of days attempted to race ……………………. 146 Total number of days abandoned due to lack of wind ……….3 Number of days sailed with a A rig…………………………………..101 Number of days sailed with a B rig…………………………………….14 Number of days sailed with a C rig……………………………………..26 Number of days sailed with a D rig………………………………………2
“This means a smaller rig was used 30% of the time. What is interesting is that the C rig was used more than the B rig, almost twice as much. I have a theory, and the figures would seem to support it, that the winds nowadays are such that it’s a case of all or nothing. I also think, and again this is only my opinion, the step from an A rig to a B rig is too small but the step from an A to a C is better. So if you are looking for a new rig to complement your A rig to enable you to sail more and enjoy the blows, perhaps your choice should be a C rig.”
My thanks to Roy o’D, of Chipstead RSC, for this intriguing analysis.
Have you just started radio sailing? You’ll be wondering how on earth the boat picks up radio signals from the unit you hold in your hands. Well, the answer is that the boat has an onboard “receiver”. This article is written to be a “quick guide” to your receiver.
The receiver in the photo above is very common. It’s the Futaba R3006 model which, I think means it can handle up to six channels. Look closely and you’ll see six rows of pins (numbered in blue, if you look closely) in that cream colour recess. For radio sailors, we generally only use two channels, so if the receiver has six channels, or eight channels etc, it is really only a passing interest for us.
This little radio receiver needs power which it receives from your onboard battery – in this photo via that little red plug in the background. When you first get your transmitter and receiver, they need to be “paired” if the factory didn’t already pair them before shipment, It’s just like “pairing” your mobile phone to your car. There’ll be clear instructions in the transmitter manual on how to pair devices.
Now each of those little rows of pins also corresponds to joysticks and controls on your transmitter. Each has its own channel. You will see in the photo that only two rows of those pins are plugged. The top row, channel one, is always for your rudder and talks to the left-right movement of the right hand joystick. We plug the winch for the sheets into the third row of pins, which corresponds to the up-down movements of the left joystick.
What about aerials? See those two little grey wires sticking out of the left side of the unit in the photo? That’s your aerials, right there. They are only around 10cms long each. They say that they are most effective when the two wires are at right angles, but really if you can arrange that then great, but in radio sailing probably “don’t worry”. We all have them inside our hulls – we don’t wind them up the rigging or anything like that.
They say that in drones the range can be 1500metres which amazes me. As we normally sail around maybe 200-250 metre ranges you’d think we’d be fine. You do sometimes see boats going out of range though. If batteries are low, then there are going to be realistic limits.
When you buy a new transmitter, most likely you will select to buy one with a matched transmitter. If you buy previously used kit, just make a point to ask the pervious owner if he is including the transmitter (often not), and including the receiver. It’s not expensive, so you just want to know before you buy.
Datchet Radio Sailing - Making It All Much Easier !! 