Tag Archives: radio marblehead

Winter Racing? Got Cold Fingers??

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Racing your boat through the winter? Great !!

I’ve always enjoyed racing through the year plus you get your money’s worth from the membership fee – ha!! Basically at Datchet, our formal scored series run February to November, but if you fancy racing with someone in December and January you can just turn up. Use the WhatsApp group to find someone to race with!

I do find though that the fingers can get cold on those little joysticks! I know the transmitter covers are called “snugs”, but honestly there’s snug and … SNUG !!

The first gloves I tried were quickly discarded. I found the leather was too thick to let you feel the joysticks properly. So now I’m on my second pair of Cycling Glove Liners.

The first part I bought were beautiful merino wool gloves. However, I found holes in the finger tips very quickly.

Now I am using glove liners made of 80% polyester and 20% elastane. Finger tip feel is simply perfect, they fit like a second skin – and they don’t seem to wear into holes. Very warm inside the transmitter snug.

If you go on to cycling clothing websites like Wiggle, you will find loads to choose from and they are miles cheaper than Merino wool.

Christmas present?

How They Weigh a One Metre ?

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When you come into Radio Sailing, you hear a lot about weights. It’s a hot topic, just like it is in dinghy and keelboat racing.

As an aside : when I ordered a new Dragon keelboat, I remember going to the builder (who had lots of Olympic golds, world titles and the rest of it) and asking what weight he thought the boat would come out at. He said 1700kg is the rule. I naturally asked, “Yes, but what weight do you think you can build mine to?”… “1700kg” came the reply. And he did. Amazing.

So in at least One Metres and Marbleheads, owners and builders have the same keen interest in weights as my Dragon Builder.

I was keen to see my new IOM weighed. The photo above shows the setup. A digital scale with fine graduations plus a wooden IOM standing bracket. Easy enough to see how the Measurer does his job now.

In fact, here is my boat being weighed. Note hatches and onboard battery are inside the weight limit.

Thinking of my Dragon story above, I thought you’d be interested to see how accurate my IOM builder was. “He’s 21Gms over!”, you proclaim !!

Well, I thought that too, so I asked him. I take it that lots of people do. I received a well practiced answer. He says that they target 20gms over because they find that scales around championships do vary. So if you weigh in at a Championship and it looks like you are 20gms over, you can always pop the corrector out.

OK – so he was 1gram over !!….

Ever Seen Your Boat Being Measured ??

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If you’ve bought yourself a nice second hand boat to start, to get your race certificate sent off to the super class registrar at MYA and get it transferred to your name.

But what if you need to get measured? Got a new boat maybe? Got a boat without a certificate? Well, find yourself a qualified measurer – we have two at Datchet Radio Sailing.

A lot of us, even as newcomers, will have IOMs. I was fascinated as a newcomer to hear that there are tanks or boxes for the measurement process. Do you know what they look like? The one above is just being filled with water.

If your builder supplies a compliance certificate for the hull, then the main work is measuring the rigs. Interestingly, to get your certificate your boat need not go in the tank. However, be aware that when you measure in at a Championship, a tank test might be needed. So if someone offers you a test now, my recommendation is accept the offer straight away and see what is going on.

My understanding is that here are basically four tests the measurer look for.

1/Does it float freely in the tank, which I believe is an overall length test.

2/ You can check the fore and aft trim easily… move your correctors about for your desired trim. Is this measurement or just what you’d want? Im not sure. Someone will write in and tell me.

3/ Does it float -a depth test

4/There is a cunning window on the side of the tank to see how much draught the hull is taking. See that black line? I think the hull has to float above it. (Again if I am wrong, please write in!!)

Fascinating. If you are offered a tank test, take it!!