Rubbish racing

See that propshaft ?

The one that should have a propeller on the end of it ? Yes, that is why I had to retire from the Club 500 racing at the first event of the year. I was going well in the second heat and suddenly nothing. The boat drifted to the side and wouldn't re-start. A fellow member who was digging his model out of the bank shouted over that it was making a noise but not moving. I picked it up and looked underneath expecting to see weed around the prop. Seeing no prop at all sealed a rubbish day.

In the first heat I managed a whole lap, then there was a bump with another boat (racing incident, no need for the stewards to get involved, honest) and the thing stopped moving. A stiff breeze returned the boat to the side and with it back on the bench I found that the motor had moved back in the collision and lost its grip on the propshaft coupling. A matter of seconds to fix, but no useful laps on the board.

Before this I did manage to finish a race with the Slingshot. OK, so I was off the pace by a long way, 2 laps down on the leader at the end of 4 minutes, but I finished. Race 2 comes along and I decide to use my new battery. That will give the boat some grunt. It did bu since I'd forgotten to glue some Velcro to it, the heaviest item in the boat wasn't fixed down and slid all over the place. It didn't seem worth putting it on the water to be honest. At least that way it wouldn't sink. Sometimes you have to be happy to take the boat home.