Friday, June 08, 2007

Racing again


Orange Slingshot
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker.
Expecting a quiet boating session where I could do some testing I was surprised to find half-a-dozen other model sailors at the lake. It turned out I’d managed to arrive at the start of one of the heats in the Slingshot contest.

Since it was my newly painted model I had planned to test I thought I might as well give it a go.

Heat 1: 4 laps in I clipped a buoy on the far corner of the lake. This flipped the boat. A couple of laps later someone else hit me and flipped themselves. To cap it all the first recovery pole I took wasn’t long enough to get the boats and I had to wait for a few laps until the vessels drifted nearer the bank. I did manage a couple more laps before the end of the race.

Heat 2: Well in the lead I’m approaching the back markers and looking for a chance to overtake. On a corner I take the chance to run inside another boat, clip it and flip over. Recovery takes a few moments but the model won’t start.

The trick as far as I can tell is to stay out of trouble. The eventual winner didn’t do anything spectacular, in fact much of the time he was at the back of the pack, but he kept going.

After a night indoors the Slingshot has dried out and seems unaffected by its soaking. Better luck next time ?

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