Are you a mainsheet ratchet fan? I admit that I am, but at our club opinion is pretty passionately divided !!
In my transmitter collection, the Futabas have a ratchet as standard and the Spektrums have a ratchet you can switch on and off from outside the front cover (nice!).
However, I always thought that Radiomaster has no ratchet capability. It turns out that is probably true for my Radiomaster Pocket,… but if you have a Radiomaster with AG01 or AG02 CNC machined gimbals (eg Boxer or TX15 ) there is a ratchet in there. You do have to go inside to switch it on/off or adjust it though.
Ratchet and gimbal tension are both screw adjustable on a simple (crude!) pair of spring friction levers inside. You might also need a little “hack” if you find your ratchet adjustment spring sticks on the adjustment screw thread.
This little video (below) is a tour of the whole AG01 Gimbal joystick. (worth watching if you have a Radiomaster). If you skip forward to minute 4’15” you will arrive at the video section about adjusting the ratchet and gimbal tension – with the “hack” !!
When we launched the Datchet Radio Sailing website in late 2023, we had an eye on trying to reduce the inhibitors people often feel when they get into radio sailing.
A few “Beginners Guide” manuals were created as downloads, mainly for radio transmitters, but also the likes of installing new winches (very popular!), diagnosing problems in the electrics, installing new transmitters and so on.
The response has been amazing. In a few days time, the radio transmitter global downloads of the manuals are going to reach a total of 1000. It’s 985 downloads as I type (August 2025). Of those, about half are for the Radiomaster – interesting.
The beginners guide on how to fit a new winch has, alone, been downloaded 255 times. How to install a new transmitter has been downloaded 72 times.
The Futaba and Flysky manuals are about equally popular as each other – Futuaba slightly more so.
I have a Spektrum in the workshop ready to install on a Proteus IOM. I had a plan to produce a manual for that also (one day … takes a lot of time). In the meantime, there is a link to an excellent radio sailing manual for the Spektrum DX6 on a US based website. If anyone wants to give a hand with that, don’t hesitate to get in touch.
We had something of an “ah ha” moment here the other day when the Domestic Steering Committee (a seamstress of note), reminded me that transmitters and snugs are a 3-dimensional design challenge not easily thought of or seen in 2D…
We went back to the snug and transmitter inventory and tried all combinations of transmitters and snugs to see if basically it really is “choose anything you want”. If you’re a Flysky or Futaba user, you might get an “ah ha” moment too.
First up, when I use my Radiomaster Pocket I realise now I’ve always tended to use it without a cover. The transmitter is so ridiculously robust I suppose it felt best to use it in the open air. It was anyway so small it is lost inside a snug.
The second really important thing is that my fabulous Catsails snug is a terrific cover and will basically take anything you want to pop in there with ease – with a Spektrum it can easily accommodate the stubby aerial at any angle you prefer.
It’ll be interesting to see what SailboatRC come up with in their forthcoming snug design.
What’s the Thing About a 3D Snug Design?
It’s in the implementation….
The Steering Committee’s head seamstress pointed out there are differing approaches here to creating a 3D space for the transmitter. Catsails are basically using what a dressmaker thinks of as “darts”… apparently… there’s a single seam with different material sizes each side of the seam causing a ‘compartment’ effect.
The Rooster…
That brings us to the Rooster…. with a different approach to creating a 3D shape based upon multiple seams. They are creating the 3D space more by design with seams along the edges of the 3D space. (see photo at the top of this article)
Can you see there are four seams on the Rooster?? Taped flat on the outside (the Catsails outside seam is “piped”) and also miraculously also flat on the inside for comfort maybe…
In sewing, this is apparently called “flat felling” or “flat locking”. Just so you know…
Given the two people that will have had a big hand (sic) in designing the Rooster snug, it suddenly comes as no surprise to me now that the Rooster 3D space is a really great fit on Flysky and Futaba, like it was designed for them. Like a glove….. My lovely Spektrum is a better fit in the Catsails snug. The antenna stem is something of a compromise inside the Rooster. Enjoy choosing!
Datchet Radio Sailing - Making It All Much Easier !! 