Tag Archives: travel

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Onshore there was meant to be a charity walk around the Reservoir (about 3 miles) but amazingly permission was withdrawn by the landlord – pity!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

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….

Wind-Focussed Weather Apps….!!

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We will all have our favourite weather app, won’t we?

Do you find that you look at more than one weather app to judge what the wind is going to be at your sailing venue? What rig shall we go out on?? Well, this article is aimed at you !!

I recall a few weeks ago at Datchet, Rob V telling me he had abandoned the BBC App as it was simply never right!! I have huge sympathy for that … but some days it does seem to be correct 🙂

Many years ago, we used to have an anemometer at the top of the slipway which told us exactly what was happening there at the moment, but there again it gave you a reading – not a forecast. Chipstead SC have a smashing online weather station at the side of the lake… but there again it’s not in the middle of the lake!! So what to do??

During lockdown, the main Datchet Club ran a Members’ Zoom tutorial on this subject. It turns out we have a meteorologist member in the main Club who hosted the session. Extremely interesting, it was.

Did you know that the world of weather forecasting is basically a wholesale-retail model? At the wholesale level, which is where all the data comes from, there are really only half a dozen suppliers of weather data worldwide. I think we were told that for using truly global data there are only two suppliers. These suppliers are currently at the level predicting wind in a 1km grid section… and trying get even finer resolution. Huge compute power is the limiting factor.

The other suppliers are basically the lower cost alternatives. As I recall, UK Met Office is one of the big players. You may recall a kerfuffle a few years ago when the BBC decided to stop using the Met Office data and signed with someone cheaper.

A friend has recently completed an RYA Advanced Race Officer course. The chatter there was an about a weather app called “Predict Wind”. Have you seen it? I’m using the free version, but the key thing is that you get to see all the wholesale layer of information on one screen – and you can make up your own mind what the breeze will be.

(this morning’s data above…)

I like to view average speed, direction and the expected gust speed. The photo above shows you the screen I use for this. Average speed at the top, then direction and gust predictions below that. You can just see the top three rows of the gust forecast and have to scroll down to see the rest.

Each row you can see is labelled P, G, U, A, S etc. I think this indicates the wholesale source of the wind data. Someone like the BBC or Apple will use just one of those rows that you can see. In fact if you look at the BBC app and Predict Wind simultaneously, you can work out which one it is.

Even on the morning of the forecast (the screenshot above is for this morning…), you can see how much forecaster opinion varies, but at least when you see them all together you can make a few decisions of your own. Some days, they all agree, then you really know what’s coming !!

Give it a try and let us know what you think!