Getting the Club 500 back on the water, sort of.

For no apparent reason, there have been a few Club 500 boats appearing at our weekly sailing sessions - prompting me to extract mine from storage for a bit of a run. I always liked the 500, it's a good looking boat and fun to sail. Speedy and offering a bit of a challenge, but able to work on our limited water.

First problem, the radio is 26mHz and I can't find a transmitter. Pity, I fancied having a go at the frequency peg thing again. Still, swapping the receiver for a 4.2 version solved that.

Inside, the motor was a bit rusty, but with a charged battery it turned over. On the water, the charge lasted for about 30 seconds but proved everything worked.

The NiMH batteries enjoyed a few hours on a charge>dischage cycle and this brought a bit of life into them, but still not very much. Anyone any suggestions before I buy more?

The last run produced more of a problem. The motor should be held down with elastic bands, but these have long since perished. I didn't worry as the rusty casing seemed to be working. Until it wasn't. Then the motor spun itself up the power wires and dismantled the coupling. Not a fun noise, but it looks easily fixable. Then I can go back to sailing. 

Return of the orange top

Sinking Club 500 racing boats seem to be a bit of a theme at the moment, but for a change I have some good news.

First - after a couple of days drying out in the garage helped by occasional blasts from the hair dryer, everything in the boat is working again. Even the receiver, a part that normally dies when brought into contact with water, is fine. The motor looks a touch rusty but it's only surface stuff on the casing.

Next, walking by  a skip at the bottom of the road I spotted an thick polystyrene off-cut. No one was around so I salvaged it from under the rubble and now big chunks are fixed inside the hull. If the boat is going submarine again, I want to keep as much water out as possible !

This work has altered the trip though. The model is a bit more nose-heavy and needs careful handling in turns or it pirouettes rather than carves through the water. Maybe a little adjustment to the steering will stop this happening in races.

Finally, we have had some fishermen removing carp from the water. Among other things they dredged up was the boat top I lost back in March. It's time on the bottom has left it muddy but otherwise undamaged. A quick clean up in the sink and it will be as good as new. I just hope I don't need to use it again in a hurry !

Errol saves the day

Racing is dangerous. We've all seen Formula 1 cars flying apart after a little touch with the track side wall or another competitor. It's no less hazardous (OK, perhaps a little bit) in the world of model boats and Club 500 racing.

On Thursday I was testing my newly mended boat on the lake. There was another 500 doing some laps and while we weren't racing properly, we did try and keep pace with each other.

Also afloat was a grey boat of some description. It's owner was pootling around for pleasure but often crossed our paths. Not that this was really a problem - we just steered around or slowed to let him out of the way. This was fine for a few minutes and then during an evasive manoeuvre, I clipped a buoy. Not a full bodied thump, just a glancing blow. Enough to roll my boat over.

For a couple of minutes it stayed upside down and afloat. Too far from the bank of course for reaching with any of  the poles available, but at least on the right side of the waters surface. This continued for a while and then the model rolled over. It stopped with a serious list but at least the propeller was submerged. Sadly the electric were dead and any hope of driving to shore was lost.

Then things got worse. The boat rolled forward and sank. Not completely, the back end and spoiler stuck above the surface. I couldn't watch at this point and assuming my model was lost, went and packed up my stuff including a now surplus boat box.

This wasn't the end though. The boat stayed floating like this. Attempts to reach it with poles failed, as did a member with a fishing rod and lure - mind you is was glad when he stopped as those hooks looked a bit big and I was worried he might catch another club member !

Finally Errol, our resident water rat, ignored our suggestions and pushed out the rescue boat to go on a salvage mission. It's not a big boat as you can see, and it had no oars. The idea is that you haul the seafarer from the bank using a rope. This should stop solo use of the boat and hopefully keep people out of trouble.

As it was Errol used his hands as paddles and quickly grabbed the orange casualty. It was full of water and he said it was difficult to get on board. Emptying it out a lot helped, but even when I got it back on the bench I recon to have poured 4 or 5 pints out.

What saved the model (apart from Errol) was the slab of polystyrene under the lid. This kept just enough above the water to trap some air.

The results looks promising. The speed control is fine and the steering servo looks savable. Only the receiver appears to be borked and I'll even withhold judgement on this until it has had a few days to dry out. The motor has been sprayed with WD40 so it might survive - if not replacement is reasonably easy. Once I've done this though, there's a lot more polystyrene going in this hull - and those of the people watching I suspect !

Sharks fin

The Club 500 racing rules say that all boats must have a number on the top so that laps can be counted.

No matter that I already have the number in massive size on the bow deck. The rules say number on a fin so number on a fin it has to be. The fin was even provided by the top bloke who organises our racing. He must have spent ages making the things. They even came with sticky foam pads on the bottom.

However kind it was to supply the fin, it looked a bit rubbish. Very square. Not at all sporty. And (my fault) the boat didn't fit in the box with it on.

So, the foam was replaced with some Velcro - which the rules do allow. I even put a little bit in the boat box so the number can be stuck in there when not required.

Then I rounded off the top edge. It looked better but I wasn't happy. Staring at it, inspiration struck. If I could cut another curve, I could turn the fin into, a fin. A proper, sexy, sharks fin. One that would scare my opponents out of the lake.

Drawing around the edge of a tin gave me the curve and I thought it looked fab. Then I remembered that we race anti-clockwise. So if I can't fin another number 9 sticker, then the fin will have to be fitted back to front !

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.

Club 500

The better weather recently has seen me back out on the water with the Club 500 model racing boat. It's a bit faster than the Slingshot I'm used to so a few practise laps are in order before the start of the season if I hope to do anything on the leader board.

Batting the boat around a couple of weeks ago I hit a buoy. The top flipped off and only the receiver wire being taped to it allowed retrieval. The collision had caused the motor to jump backward and away from the propshaft. The model was dragged back to the bank, repaired and headed back out again.

A few minutes later, I was hit by another practising 500. This time the top flipped off, tantalisingly floated for long enough to get the long reach pole to the water, and then sank before we managed to get a hold of it. It seems that Club 500 tops don't float, despite being made of plastic.

Despondent, I returned home. Eventually I gave Model Slipway a ring. The very helpful lady on the other end of the 'phone was great - she checked her stock and since they had some slight seconds of the orange tops available, offered to send me one for the cost of postage. Result !

The new top has been fitted and now has a slab of polystyrene fitted in the top. A quick test in the sink shows this will be sufficient to keep it on top of the water in future. As an added insurance, a bit of wire has been tied to the top and attached firmly in the boat. Next time, the top will float and be easy to tow back to the bank !

With the model on the bench I got on with decorating the hull so it stands out in a pack of racing models. I had considered some fancy paint job but in the end decided I couldn't be bothered. These boats aren't about looks, although I think they look smashing, they are about racing. Some white vinyl stripes, numbers and stars will do for me. The result looks striking - probably better than the painted version would have.

First run of the Club 500

Last weekend my Club 500 got it's first outing. Due to work pressure I couldn't stay for the race in the afternoon, but at least I could give it a test run and see how it went on the water.

The result, it goes really well. The boat is up on the plane almost immediately and top speed is impressive. I reckon the centre of gravity is pretty well sorted as there's no hint of diving in the turns. There are some problems with radio reception at the extreme edges of the lake but this could be the slightly bent aerial on my transmitter. Some adjustment of the receiver aeriel helped a bit but I definitely need to more work on this. Perhaps if I feed it through the spoiler to get more height, this will help.

Steering is good but the boat tail-slides across the water and since our lake isn't very big, the M-pattern course is going to be a real challenge. As you can see from the video, I need a lot of practise !

The skill seems to be to slow down on the chicane and only use top speed on the straights - exactly as you'd expect. Another plan might be to drop the top speed on the ESC and accept I'll be slow on the back straight but stuff everyone on the difficult bits. As it was, I was glad to be the only racer on the water.

First flight of the 500

Remember to charge your batteries - that's what I should have done. Instead, I plonked (sorry, carefully launched) the Club 500 boat on the pool in the garden with only the delivery charge inside them.

On the plus side this proved that everything worked, the boat sits on the water OK and I need to think about extra waterproofing to keep the wet stuff from creeping under the top.

Sadly though the only burst of top speed was for about 10 feet and then I was out of juice. It looks like this is going to be a pretty nippy boat though. She gets up on the plane almost instantly. The turning circle is pretty good too, I recon we can do a 180 degrees in about 4 feet when dead slow.

Maybe I'll enter the docking competition instead of the racing !

Centre of gravity

If I want my Club 500 racing model boat to run well, it seems that I need to pay attention and not rush the construction. We I doing this a few years ago I could have enlisted the help of a colleague, one Richard Newey who could have asked his son Adrian for some advice. As it is I have to work this stuff out myself.

Anyway, at my multi-million dollar research facility I tried the battery tray in the boat. There seemed to be an inordinate amount of clearance above the prop shaft. Since the battery is the heaviest component this would raise the centre of gravity and make the vessel less stable than it needs to be.

You could argue that a lack of stability is a good this as it makes the boat agile. The Eurofighter is a hopeless lump of metal without a bucket load of computers as it is very unstable but that aids it's dogfighting abilities. I don't think I want an unstable boat though. In my experience, smoothness makes the difference between winning and losing races. Overall speed matters but if you keep your turns tidy then you won't do badly. Tortoise and Hare etc.

Anyway, I lopped about 12mm off the bottom of the legs and stuck it in the hull so the bottom just clears the shaft. Running some epoxy around the bottom has fixed it firmly. Let's hope it makes a difference.

Motor damping

The motor in the 500 should be glued down but I didn't fancy just sitting it on the plastic mounting. Damping out as many vibrations as possible. That's what they do in high performance motor cars so I suppose it's what I ought to do in my racing boat.

The damping is provided by a sheet of rubber bought from the local bike shop for a couple of quid. I could do three boats with the amount I bought so it's a good deal. Ask for giant puncture repair strip if you fancy obtaining the same stuff.

The rubber is self adhesive on one side and ribbed (stop sniggering at the back) on the other. That ought to stop the motor rotating around it's axis. Retaining the motor is now down to a few fat elastic bands which hook over those wire handles. I better follow a postman to see if I can replenish my supply.

Club 500 hull

The first job on the Club 500 boat is to trim the top and bottom of the hull and then join them together. According to the instructions I have to trim the lower part between 3 and 15mm from the top. For the life of me I couldn't work out how to mark this accurately, there are no straight lines to work with, the lump of plastic is half a metre long and slippery.

In the end after half an hours messing around with masking tape, I gave in. Looking at the top, the overlap was huge so maybe the bottom didn't need to be either hugely accurate or particularly neat. Looking at the two with the aid of a nice big mug of tea, it seemed that if the top was parallel to a bulge that runs around the hull (there will be a technical term to describe it but I don't know what it is) then that should work OK.

The only pen I could find that would work on the surface plastic film was a chisel tip permanent marker. A bit of digging around on the bench turned up a screwdriver, which when taped to the pen gave me a suitable separation. The line around the hull was wobbly but with some scissors I managed to cut along it reasonable straight.

To fix the upper and lower sections the instructions suggest Araldite. I've been reading the reviews reproduced on the Model Slipway website and one of these helpfully suggests that epoxy glue will result in a firm but brittle ring. This makes sense to me and I can see why it's a bad idea - one racing "incident" and the joint will develop cracks that will let in water. We have a similar problem with the Slingshots which can leak around this seam after a while.

So I took the two parts into the garage, turned the unit on it's back and filled the gap with shower sealant left over from some DIY. This should remain flexible forever and keep the water out. It's a bit like icing a cake with something  smelly but the join seems good and strong.

Club 500

The project I'm engaged in at work has stalled. There is a lot to do and I can do precisely bugger all of it while I wait for other people to do stuff. Frustrating and annoying. It's not like I can even randomly surf the web to waste time thanks to our draconian IT department.

So I'm having the day off. It's either that or go around murdering people.

And on that day off, I will eshew the jobs I should be doing and having a go at a model that's been on the bench for a few weeks - A club 500 racing boat.

For several years our boat club has raced Slingshots, but these are no longer made and the spares will run out eventually yet the members have developed an appetite for competitive sailing. Well, charging around in circles and occasionally passing each other when not parking the boat in a muddy bank.

The new class is to be the nationally recognised Club 500. By placing bulk orders with Model Slipway we have managed to get the price down for a bargain 35 quid a kit. Everything in the photo is included. All I have to do is stick it together, add radio, speed control and a servo. First race is in a couple of weeks. Not time enough to finish the model but since two evenings are enough to build it to running condition then I reckon a day should get me to the start line.

The model is formed from thermo moulded plastic. There's quite a lot of trimming to do but I've seen the results of other members efforts and they look great.