DragonForce RG65?

RG65 Class General Discussion (RG65)
1

I have not heard of this ‘class’ before. It looks like a special one-design boat using cheap junk from China. The assembly manual has the usual un-technical language you get from an English translation of the Asian document.

Has anyone bought and tried this boat? I had a look at the assembly manual, and it did not impress me. It looks like a cheap import aimed at non-modelers.

The radio system provided in the kit is a proprietary Transmitter-receiver set that isn’t compatible with your current 2.4 GHz stuff, (it uses a 4 AA-cell TX?) as are the servos. so if you have to replace anything, you’re sunk.

I think I would rather build a better boat from a domestic modeler, like the Round Ranger.
Any thoughts?

2

You should read this: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1838428

Thread started before the boat was available, and ends with what today’s sailors think about it.

Quite a mythbuster. Not bad for the price, sails well, lots of people have bought one, and good results against other RG65’s. It has made more people aware to the RG65 class thatn ever before. I thinks that is good for the hobby. Oh, and there are some subclass rules if you want to sail it only against similar boats (you can change electronics)

3

What can be pretended for 138£.
The ABS hull will suffer with the UV.

CD

4

It comes painted thus protected. lots of Victoria’s and Micro magics out of the same stuff out there.

5

Question of time !
ABS is a simple and cheap product, but …
I lost an ABS grey basket in my lab, it was close to the window North oriented after two years it became brittle and cheaping in pieces.
Very little protection expected from external paints or car waxes.
Interesting and probably expensive process : http://www.mcclarinplastics.com/abs.html
CD

6

As mentioned earlier the ABS hull is used in many RC boats, seems to work fine. And if after two years of sitting in the sun the hull cracks…buy a new one, $55.00 US.

7

well I guess it all depends on what you want. quality, or value…

if you want quality, then you going to pay several hundred dollars…and have to source all your parts and build a boat from scratch. if you want value, then you get one of the many boats made in china.

Heck there are styrene hull soling one meters going on 10+ years with only a coat of rattle can to protect them…

if you think about a model sailboat. in a given year it may get used 6-8 months. and of that time, maybe 2-3 per month in the sun… so thats 25 days a year. put some rattle can finish on the hull, it will protect it for a long time…

now the other variable is how capable is the “newb” to building a competitive boat. Maybe he wants to sail but can’t build so he’s stuck with a mass produced kit which cna be assembled on a kitchen table. OR spending 500+ on a built boat.

Economy sucks so for someone to drop $500 on a hobby they they may not like. is a hard pill to swallow.

I can see the benefits of an entry level, cheap easy to assemble boat that is capable. So long as the folks buying it are not deluding themselves into thinking that it will out perform a purpose built/custom RC yacht…

Its hard to get people into RC sailing. cost, time commitment, learning the physics, and learning t he rules are all big stumbling blocks…

Heck every year at out club we get 2-3 guys that come out, like the hobby, and then go out and buy a cheap vela, or some other boat they we don’t sail. they come out a few times, and since we don’t have the knowledge base on that boat we really can’t help them tune their boat. since we have no idea how fast/slow its supposed to be. so they end up wasting a couple hundred bucks, when maybe spending 100 bucks more would have gotten them into a Vic, Soling, or even a used RG and sail and race and compete and learn with us…

8

That is exactly why I think the DF65 is a great idea! It’s cheap, but it’s an RG65! You can compete with other RG65’s, so you get the benefit of sharing experiences with the already active class.

9

Every year when we raced Vic’s at our club at least one guy would show up with a box stock Victoria, look at the Vic’s we were racing with carbon rigs, different sails and go away never to be seen again. Then we get a guy who comes out when we are racing IOM’s asks how much they cost and those guys run away. When racing Solings we get interest in them but most people these days don’t have the time or skills to assemble one. We got a few new Soling sailors by having one available for sale.

Then the Dragon Force shows up and we decided to have it as a class at the club this year, Wick Smith (a member in our club) decided to be a dealer and has sold 40 of them so far. Not all sold to club members but we have already gained a few new members. Now when someone shows up and does the normal “How fast do they go” or “How much does it cost” we can sell him a boat in the box ready to sail with a few hours work for $175.00. We plan on having a spare boat at the pond every race day for people to play with. Our hope is that we can get them RC sailing with the Dragon Force and then maybe they would want to have one of the higher cost, more complicated classes in our club. We had our first Dragon Force play day last Saturday, we had a great time, the boats sailed really well and no one had any issues at all. Not one boat leaked a drop and all were sailing when we left after four hours of sailing in top of A rig conditions. Everyone was quite pleased.

Would I be happier if they were American made…yep. But that ain’t going to happen for $175.00.

10

From the west system website
“UV protection
Protection from sunlight is a primary consideration in the selection of a finish coating.
The ultraviolet portion of sunlight (UV) is the primary catalyst in the degradation of
epoxy and other plastics. The following factors affect a coating’s ability to provide UV
protection.”

http://www.westsystem.com/ss/assets/HowTo-Publications/Final-Fairing-and-Finishing.pdf

IMHO Unpainted epoxy turns just as yellow as plastic and degrades.
" Question of time ! "
CH

11

Have to agree the DF is a good boat for the money. As others have said, we have many people asking how to get into the hobby & finally we have something that is cheap enough & we know will sail well that we can happily recommend to themThe DF has caused a huge surge in RG65 interest in the UK & I for one am very pleased about it.

12

OK, UV are degrading, more or less fast, a lot of things !
One of my Class M (glass/epoxy) is 15 years old and is still in perfect shape. A friend of mine bought one cheap ABS hull and after two years started cracking. Of course since is cheap is always possible to buy another one !
Probably a wooden one is not so expensive if selfmade !
CD

13

I agree claudio. wood is dirt cheap…IF the newbie HAS building skills.

I’m just not seeing that many new guys who have really good build skills.

my victoria is going on on 4 years old…no degregation, but I’ve got primer and base and clear rattle can finish. I have an old cr914 that I picked up used and some ABS part were not painted and they crumbled in my hand…

so UV degredation is a real threat but paint is still pretty cheap insurance…

14

Its fun to go back and read some of these threads old threads.

Is the Df cheap? yup, price is still all -in all done $180 ready to race with electronics installed for under$180

How well does it sail? it is already the largest hull registered in RG65 USA in less than a year of being available in the US. Clubs everywhere are getting behind this , and even older established clubs with dying classes ar getting into RG65s because of the Dragon Force!

We’ve started a Dragon force race series down in Texas, and have had 18+_ boats for every regatta we’ve sailed and both clubs in Dallas and Houston are experiencing unprecedented growth due to this brilliant boat!