Tag Archives: sailing

Datchet Club’s 50th Anniversary….!!

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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Onshore there was meant to be a charity walk around the Reservoir (about 3 miles) but amazingly permission was withdrawn by the landlord – pity!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!!

Sunday M Racing – “A Bit of a Day”…!!

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(Photo – Graham and Phil run their F6s downwind)

We had six members in today, though two were on Worlds Team GBR IOM Training. I must say, they were simply fabulous to watch. Extremely close, tweaking their way to performance. Great.

If you bring your IOM, you obviously cannot race your `Marblehead !! That left four of us. Chris had phoned to say the Ramsgate weather forecast looked horrid and he couldn’t face the two hour drive each way in the rain !! Dave L called in but didn’t seem to be sailing – but great to see him!!

In the region, the morning was indeed rainy horrid, but Datchet was in a little micro climate of its own – we were on B Rigs (good choice) and pretty much the rain dried up by the end of the bacon rolls and tea session. There were supposed to be some 30mph gusts around, and sure enough as we were in for lunch the sun shone through and up the breeze went – sizeable waves too. Then by the end of Kit Kat bars, it subsided and IOM training continued.

So we had some breezy parts. Seven races I think. Richard lost his rudder post inside the hull which caused some spectacular goings on. You’d be surprised how much water a Marblehead can take in and still float. Saved by our alert Commodore suddenly shouting, “that boat is coming in right NOW…” There was gallons aboard. So Dr Hetem has said Marblehead in surgery as I type. Dr H’s managed to trip over a post and do a spectacular parachute type body-roll mid race… resulting in his TX battery pack popping loose. While GH sorted the battery, RJ – with his buoyancy aid invisible beneath his Rooster Robe obviously – had to nip out on the far end of the pontoon to sort the boat out. That left our Sailing Secretary HM, to suddenly lose control in a blowy bit – rudder all wonky. It drifted gently down to the Clubhouse – amazingly on-target at the main pontoon. This turned out to be a connector at the receiver and the rudder was fine!! On top of all that, NB lost his IOM jib tack (long story) just before lunch – and chose a blowy moment for that too. ….So a bit of a day.!!

Our IOM Team GBR heroes hard at it below….Congrats to NB for winning the DF95s at Chipstead yesterday !! Good for the Acersail stats!!

Receiver Range Test Comparison – Radiomaster ELRS versus Futaba with Antenna Frame (from SailsEtc)

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We have had lots of Club chatter over the months/years about radio range, losing signal to the boat and so on… the merits of different transmitter brands etc. Remember, you can lose radio contact with the boat for SO many reasons.

You’ll all know that Flyers in free sky find they get simply massive radio range and quote exciting numbers stated in whole kilometres – 10 km not being unusual.

What range do we need in radio sailing? 100m maximum I should think. Nonetheless, “who gives the strongest signal and furthest range” continues to intrigue us.

We have had Club members trialling ceramic antenna based receivers (no dangly wires) from Spektrum and Radiomaster ELRS. These dinky little receivers are great in a sailboat “pot” with zero wires from a space management viewpoint. They were though designed/optimised for indoor car racing – all very different. The Futaba equivalent wire-free receiver actually states a maximum 70m range, so I’ve not bothered to test it.

A unique combination of circumstances came up this morning. Two identical, carbon fibre hulled F6 Marbleheads, one with Radiomaster TX15 and ELRS (ER3Creceiver). The other rigged with Futaba T10J and their cable antenna F3006SB receiver…. fitted in a SailsEtc antenna frame that tucks it neatly at the pot top,… wires at 90 degrees as recommended by Futaba. …Plus no rain!! …Plus a spouse who was willing to help by watching boats out of the kitchen window (very rare treat!). All batteries were fully and equally charged. Transmitter power/strength settings, transmission packet rate, were as they were to-of-the-box and new.

We sail on dead flat reservoir water, so with a solid surface beneath us, not free sky. Clear line of sight to the boats, no obstructions. Today’s tests, Positions 0-5, were similar really – carried out on a dead flat street, 200metres long, with line of sight to the boats. Then the next two measurement points I had to turn 90 degrees at the the road junction and walk along that street (measurement points 6 and 7). Measurement points 6 and 7 therefore lost line of sight, and gained a couple of houses in the way of the signal…. they were quickly more challenging to the radio, but I wanted to see which brand gave up first, and was it actually a “close thing”?? Measurements stated for position 6 and 7 were direct back to position 0, as the bird flies.

Measurements were taken via What3Words and a website named grid reference finder.

Conclusions

  1. Nearly exactly the same range for Radiomaster ELRS and Futaba, around 200m. Easily enough for radio sailors and probably double what we might usually need.
  2. Radiomaster lasted maybe 10% further (20m) than the Futaba.
  3. Both lost signal by 240m. (Needs to be tested in a straight line at the reservoir.)
  4. Despite being an indoor wire-free receiver, the RM ERC3i unit performed very well against the Futaba.
  5. If I had patience I would test the Futaba again without the antenna frame. It would be interesting to see if dangling free wires into the pot (carbon fibre hull remember) makes any real impact on range.
  6. Telemetry range was disappointing in both cases. Radiomaster gave up at around 50-60metres. Futaba lost telemetry signals at around 30metres. I believe the flying community call it “Fly By Telemetry”.
  7. Good job we radio sailors are not interested in ranges of 10km away. No chance….