It looks like Dragon Force RG65 may be available soon.
This site lists free shipping and says “Mid June” for available stock:
http://www.atomik-rc.com/Joysway-Dragon-Force-RTR-RC-Sailboat.html
I’m tempted . . .
Peter E.
Jim Linville got one when he was in the UK for the 36R vane regatta a few weeks ago. He showed it to me yesterday, and he left for CA today from the S1m Nats in NH with it (among lots of other goodies) in the back of his van. It does indeed look interesting.
Bill
I saw it as well yesterday lots of neat bits, aluminum keel, CF spars, Ball raced gooseneck/vang but the one concern is the electronics (servos) they don’t look like any thing “standard” and it has a really blunt bow…
Even when the fender is fixed in place, I agree, it’s still not the sharpest bow!
You can see some good pictures of all the ‘neat bits’ put together at:
http://dragonforce65.com/photos/
and being put together at:
http://abersochboatyardservices.co.uk/Dragon%20Force%20Gallery.php
There is also an interesting video at:
http://www.rcyachts.org.uk/epages/Store3_Shop2540.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/Store3.Shop2540/Categories/Dragon_Force_65
I hope there links are of interest
Cheers
Phil
TRYC members in Dallas have bought 5 of these, and will use it as our entery level boat going forward 
Chuck LeMahieu
Here are a couple DFs match racing in 18-20mph winds in A rig at Dallas on 1/1/2014 at the RG65s US nats site
Sailed the 2 boats in 60 combined races sailing way overpowered (yet they handled it nicely) in winds up to 25-28 mph, never had one breakdown, servo failure, and the boats stayed fairly dry
The DFs are tough little boats!!! ( we should have been in B rig after 20MPH or so)
[video=youtube_share;eNhKujZFEB8]http://youtu.be/eNhKujZFEB8[/video]
Some better pics of our DFs in action:
I see there are a few DF’s registered for the White Rock Cup. Will be interesting to see how they do.
There sure is a lot of chatter about them online, and I love it. If you have raced anything, be it box cars
To unicycles. You have to study the rules, brainstorm a little, and Yes you do have nitpicking about what
is legal or not. A good competitor takes advantage of the rules, and yes, looks for loopholes.
That is the spirit of racing, full stop. Otherwise it is just a social. Sail on.
Hi,
we have the first direct comparisons between DFs and regular RGs here in Germany.
The DF is good for a RTS boat but performs much worse than a conventional RG. The DFs are to heavy and they are significantly underpowered. The jib is much smaller than given in the specs. It looks like they are not well balanced with a full rigg and the manufacturer had cut down the jib to compensate for that. In addition, quality of the sails is usually poor.
Even good skippers have no chance against a real RG in light and moderate winds. It might be better in strong winds when a RG has to shorten sails (which is build in in a DF). Here the direct comparison is still missing.
The DF might be a good choice for sailing it as a one-design, it is no alternative to a “real” RG (at least without major modifications).
Hew hamilton , Brig North and myself , have entered DFs in the One design "contest’ of the nats … all of us are good to excellent skippers so we will see if we can make some noise against Tony G, Gary B, Eric R and others in the open RG’s… doubt it… but ya never know …
Hi Joachim,
I would like to congratulate the gentleman @ Joysway for their approach to providing what reports suggest that it is a very good RTS - RG65 at a reasonable price. Very rarely is there a boat that will be good in all the wind ranges as you know.
What amuses me is that the talk suggesting that the Dragon Force RG 65 is a “class within a class”. Certainly it is a mass produced boat where D.F RG-65 share the same design concept by default (not aware there offering custom builds) however, this is one of the first commercial RC yachts available that has been well thought out by RC sailors (not greedy Chinese manufacturers trapping your wallet) designed to sail in a established class.!!! = growth !!!
I hate to see the RG-65 class suffer through stiff lips calling it “not a real RG-65” as I understand it fits within the rules? The DF will no doubt help people interested in the hobby to jump-in and as they become more interested they may well be inclined to later scratch build a RG-65 to suit their competitive desires.
We should not be scaring people away but rather welcoming them with friendly open arms and we would all have more fun sailing with more skippers…
Dam it ! … I just convinced myself to go an buy Dragon Force RG-65 now :lol::lol:
Cheers Alan
Hi Alan,
perhaps my post was a bit misleading. I do not think that the class will suffer, but it is unfair to a “newbie” to make him believe that the DF is a “real RG65” (which for me means “competitive”). Yes, she fits into the class rules, but she is not competitive at all. In the beginning, I was willing to buy one, just to have a second boat which I could give to an interested newcomer - but the difference in performance is too big. From my experience, a MicroMagic performs better.
Btw, I do believe that the design itself is a good one - but it is build by those “greedy chinese manufacturers” as you called them. I estimate that the original design was made for a deplacement of less than 1 kg, but the DF weighs significantly more than 1kg. The hulls are blown (is it the right term?) which is cheap but results in robust but heavy hulls. The keelfin is rather thick, resulting in high drag. The bulb is made of some relatively lightweight alloy - which makes big volume at rather low weight requiring quite a long fin and giving high drag and big wetted surface. The sails are too small and poorly sewn (most of them are full of wrinkles), and the RC-setup is far from being usable. And the mast position seems to not carefully chosen (looks like it is too much in the front, this might be the reason for the cut down jib). All this is because it has to be cheap.
I have seen already a lot of frustration when newbies came with a DF to RG65 race (even if they were well experienced RC sailors!). The DF is good for a newbie. He can get a RTS boat performing not too bad at a reasonable price. And he well be happy when fighting with other DFs. But it is really not a “real” RG65 - So it will stay a class in the class at the end …
Unfortunately, I have not the time to make a copy of the design, laminate is glass/epoxy, using a full rig and a standard keel, just to test what is possible with this hull design. I think it would be really interesting …
Hi Joachim,
I understand your point of view as a competitive RG-65 skipper however, most newbies they don’t buy such a boat thinking it’s going to be a “top of the line” competitive racing boat, most have never sailed before and it’s a big enough buzz to have it sailing in the right direction and around a few cans in friendly racing.
First and foremost newbie’s don’t have the knowledge & skills to build a boat so they want something that is off the shelf and not going to break their wallet & they expect it to sail correctly & reliable with no breakages. I understand the quality of fittings is very good. (btw: The hull is a blown molded ABS)
Not sure how much the boat can be improved but seems RX/TX are first things replaced, then if one wants to become a little more serious appears sails and keel fin/bulb as most likely upgrades …but sounds like one hell of solid platform and fittings to start working with and as you say the hull design is a good one.
How competitive can a DF be ? seems the English aren’t doing too bad [u]seeing these race results[/u] goes to show lot of the skill and fun is in the thumbs & not just the boat…!
Cheers Alan
The boat is based on Mark dicks “Ice” design you can see the simlilarities.
The fin is extruded aluminum, so more heavy than a normal Rg65 carbon fin , but not far behind the curve. bulb is a nice shape, but isnt lead it’s alloy, so again not so much weight low.
In 'swing rig" type air it wont keep up as well, but in the top of A and up it keep up just fine if well handled to “competitive” Rg65s it weighs about 1300 Grams
which put it right in the sweet spot for a lot of the boats sailed in the US in various conditions.
Overall , it is very well balanced and is completely ready to go when delivered (even with stand!) so it makes it very easy for Noobs to get on the water.
Hi Everyone,
I’m pretty new to radio sailing. I have a Dragon Force as my first RC sailboat. I see it as a learning boat; it’ll teach me a bit about racing, tactics, tuning and all those good things.
Here in the UK we’re lucky. We now have Dragon Force races, including Opens, which are run as one design events. The rules are quite strict on what can be modified (not much) and they’re on our RG65 UK website if you want to take a look. Many clubs now have Dragon Fleets with regular club regattas.
In my own club I am one of four new members since the beginning of October, all DF skippers. I really don’t care if this boat is a lot slower than a full on RG65; it’s accessible and I certainly wouldn’t be sailing now if the entry point had been an Argon !! (Nice boat, but a big commitment)
We also have about 8 skippers in our club who have been sailing IOMs for years and one or two who sail RMs who’ve bought Dragons. They seem to enjoy them on our Dragon Wednesday afternoons - everyone wants to win !!
Is it a lot slower? Last week I went to the mixed fleet open at Southport where Dragons were invited along to a RC Laser event. There was plenty of wind that build during the day and it was interesting because in the end, the Lasers had dropped down to D rigs and we were on the B, maybe C border and we were not slower than the Lasers.
If we can encourage fleets of boats that are essentially the same, that introduce people to the sport and give some of those people the ability and ambition to move on, I think that’s a totally good thing.
Take care
Joanne
PS Joachim. I am building a NeKst too :o)
Just a brief addendum to my previous post …
Have you seen these results? (Not trying to upstage you Alan, but …)
UK Nats:
http://huntingdonryc.wordpress.com/
Take care
Joanne
Oh Windard …don’t start posting carbon porn of RG-65’s please ! … makes me wanna build one :mischievo but I will start with the “off the shelf” version first, just to satisfy my itching.
Surprised the bulb is not lead!? but an easy up grade that will improve drag resistance & righting moment vs larger alloy bulb … even shaving lead bulb to minimum size and embedding shavings at the bottom of keel fin void would be even better, I’ve done this on AC 120 & works very well.
Love the up-stage Joanne 
it’s great news that motivates to get DF RG-65 to start. You sound the ideal example as new comer into RC sailing scene … and hooked already in building your first boat !!! bravo & wishing lots of fun and success.
Cheers Alan
Please forgive me if I’ve got this all wrong, but isn’t this a case of
“All crows are black birds, but not all black birds are crows”?
Dragon Force happens to comply with RG65 regs. as does the Fiesta, but that doesn’t mean that either of them pretends to be a contender for outright honours in RG65 other than perhaps at a club racing level.
However, both have a place racing against their own kind, so it’s not a question of Dragon Force being a competitive RG65 up against the carbon dreams, it has it’s own place in exactly the same way that Fiestas, Micro Magics, RC Lasers, Victorias and plenty of other boats do. As such it provides an entry level to new sailors, so let’s not denigrate it simply because it complies with a class in which there are some carbon dreams.
If you want a carbon Dragon Force, that’s easy, buy an ICE (and I’m sure Mark will love you for it) but please, let’s not confuse the two.
One final point about what is a mass produced boat to a very nice design - out of the box, viable, ready to sail, it costs less than some IOM keel fins
It’s not a case of either / or, some will (and do) go for both, A DF and an RG65 development boat.
Take care
Joanne
I bought into the DF class because it is a one design class, NOT to race against the RG65s. If there are “open” RG65s, so be it, but that’s not who I expect to race with.
I don’t want to get into another IOM type class where it is an arms race every year, and if not, you always question your boat if it does not do well. I want to know my boat is pretty much the same as the next guy, yet still have a decent sailing boat.
Got my sheets all tangled here now (old age)… am I right in that the RG-65 community thinking is that DF model is a sub-class of RG-65 class then ?
And dam it Lucy … if I rock up to RG-65 regatta with ICE design boat, and compete with low cost ABS version against a expensive carbon models… and ABS finishes higher on the leader board than the carbon, that it would be frowned upon ???
Update: ok ok the penny has finally dropped :blkeye: ! I’ve just found out that there is the Open RG65 class boats (open hull design, paneled sails, carbon goodies etc) and there is the option of one design DF with proposed “Restricted rules” (same hull design, non-paneled sails, out-box specs) naturally there is the option of upgrading the standard DF boat to Open specs …so DF can have best of both worlds (aber lesser performance) … make a lot sense and sounds like like of fun…sheet it on !