Seems to have gone quiet around here, tumble weeds blowing down the street!
After the initial burst of activity and many arguments about rules it seems the class may be coming of age in a strange way. I notice more intelligence in design and construction and the class does seem to have pockets of appeal especially in areas of the US.
The UK has gone extremely quiet, I am not sure the International class committee is functioning on any level? I am supposedly a member but haven’t heard from the group in months.
I think there may be the beginnings of activity in Europe…but AUS and NZL are very quiet indeed.
I have deliberately stepped back from the class to see where it all went, not sure if the current situation is good or bad.
I join the above questions.
Polish footy skippers are also concerned about the situation in the hitherto most active countries.
We also would like to know if everything is in order.
The Footy class is alive and active in the New York metropolitan area, although there have not been a lot of posts on this forum lately. We have an active group of skippers sailing them every Thursday at our Old Farts Regatta in Orangeburg, NY. Last month the Paderewski Model Yacht Club, in central Connecticut, sponsored a well-attended race, with participation by Footy legends Scott Spacie and Bill Hagerup.
There has been a lot of speculation regarding the Pool Shark design. Carl Hansen has been sailing one for several weeks now in our fleet. It appears fast, and has won an occasional race, but has not yet established a reign of terror. But it is too soon to draw any conclusions, as most of our races are decided by wind shifts and starts.
Not involved in the racing scene myself, but won over by the appeal of these little yachts. I built one plank on frame from line drawings of a Hastings fishing boat minus the counter stern. It ended up as a cruising gaffer and I’m quite happy with it, although it’s a bit more demanding to sail than my larger boats.
Brett, I think the relative quiet is probably 3 things:
The rules have stablilized and seem to be working very well.
This is the sailing season for those of us “up over” so the forums quiet down a bit.
Angus has been in hospital without internet access!!
Overall, it’s a good thing, I think…indications that the class is maturing. There are new people and new boats coming on the scene in the USA regularly, and a fair amount (though I’d like more) of regatta activity.
The bad news, if it is indeed bad, is that the Committee seems to rely on Angus, and to a lesser extent on me, to prod them into action. Clearly there’s nothing keeping any of us from communicating with the group about any aspect of Footy activity. That is , in fact, what you and I have tried to encourage from the start. So any of you committee members who are concerned about being out of touch…get in touch…but don’t just write to me or Angus…write to the group.
Unfortunately, it will probably be a while before Angus is able to actively take the helm again. But he is in reasonably good health and, for Angus, reasonably good spirits…and he assures me that he is not dead! So the Committee should look to the future of becoming a more self-governing group…which I think will ultimately make it a stronger organization.
I am happy to report that footy activity in italy is steadly growing.
After an experimental “public-relations” show off activity during 2009, this year a real footy cup has been presented by “MCP modellismo che passione” model club.
The trophy is based on several races organized on northen italian lakes, and on next sunday ( 6 june ) we plan to have not less than eight boats on the starting line.
I feel confident that we will reach ( and may be, even exceed ) the 10 boats for race level.
Italian modellers favourites are :
Bill’s boats ( razor anche cobras )
Papaya ( the level of details shown on free plans have been very appreciated )
507 ( there is a small fleet of them in Rome )
Kitty ( even if it seems to be a bit undercanvassed for our sunny weather )
Up to now many, italian footies have been ‘second boats’ of serious aggressive professional yacht modellers , but I am currently receiving many e-mails from persons that are approaching model boat activity for the very first time.
Thes kind of “toy boat” guys are - most probably - the most suited to have a funny and relaxed environment has we have seen elsewhere ( liverpool ).
About ten days ago the web site http://www.footy.it has been released to publish results of racing activity, and during the next future, to show a nice gallery of pictures.
Location for next sunday race will be a wondeful alpine lake , and I will post ( I hope ) pictures of the event on the forum
It does seem like the Footies are all but dead. I know of about a dozen models in my club, but I have only seen them once! It appears that the Footies are competing with the 1Metres, and have lost so far. People bring their 1Ms to regattas, and after they go the 5 heats they will pack up and run off. In the meantime, we have proposed to sail Footies on Wednesday evenings, but no sailing has happened so far, AFAIK. It’s the only day I work late. :disapprov
From my experiences, people (“Americans”) prefer bigger to smaller. Bigger is better and more fun, and Footies are so small even grownups are afraid of them, that they might break if you turn too fast or get a gust.
I take my boats to the local MDA camp about once a month and let the kids have at it. Otherwise, I go to the park myself with whatever hull is in the works, or the reliable K-2.
We are a small group, with only 3 Footy sailors. One hasn’t had a Footy out this year, one has two but isn’t doing any development, while I’m still working on my Glass Petrel II, trying to get the rig worked out.
She doesn’t seem to nose-dive any more except when I ware ship, but she doesn’t seem to tack very well, stalling to a dead stop, requiring reverse rudder while she blows backwards, and then taking off fairly well. She’ll go upwind without any rudder input, but I think I need to move the mast forward slightly.This is with 100 cm squared sail area in 10-15 Km/h winds. Even in 30 km/h winds she’s quite managable—except for the tacking.
The rig is a bit unconventional, with a rigid fore-edge to the jib and a rigid jib-boom at a fixed angle to the jib-stay. The jib pivots on a pin, 3 cm behind the forward edge of the jib, and another at the mast head. A rigid main boom turns the mast without the need for a vang, and all spars are carbon tubes. The sails are made of Micafilm and seem to be strong enough for 30-35 Km/h winds. I have 3 rigs. AAA -56 cm above the deck, A rig–42 cm, and B rig–30.4 cm above deck (built to the old storm-rig rule.) The hull was carved to my own CAD design out of pink insulating foam, fibreglassed, then the foam dissolved out with acetone. Both keel fin and bulb are removable and replaceable.
This design is obviously at odds with current thinking about Footys----but what is the use of copying other’s designs and letting them have all the fun.
Watching this 12’ skiff nationals video on my phone ( m.youtube.com/watch?gl=US&client=mv-google&hl=en&v=k2PvV820Qpk ) has me wondering what changes to Footy rules are needed to make a quantum jump in performance. Maybe a open rules Footy challenge for best time (video) to simply go 50 feet,
A little history - the nick name ffastffrank was given to me by Tom S. who taught me to sail on a Jolly boat with trapezee? which lead to watching a movie on 18 footers in Aus back in the 70’s. Then in 70’s on to iceboats, kite sailing on ice skates & home made skate boards, converted iceboat to land yachting on roads in our neighborhood and finally to wind surfing. No, it has nothing to do with chasing skirts.
I kind of like the idea, Frank…ablolutely no restrictions, other than hull length? What do you guys think? Sounds like fun to me, and a way that people all over the world could compete against each other!
The video shows the secret lies in the movable ballast (crew) & large sail with lots of vertical lift to prevent diving. So at least another channel to control a movable weight. We should also allow a second radio if skipper wanted a crew (so to speak) to help control additional channel(s) possibly making it a team effort or a club vs. club or country effort.
Forgive the impertinence of a nooby, but doesn’t the existing rules kind of allow for this now? The way I read them, they state 2 channels only with no restriction on servos? Of course there is the little moving appendages rule… It would be easy and inexpensive to slap in a pic and a couple of zigbees. This would allow the skipper to control a virtually unlimited number of surfaces on 1 channel as well as receive telemetry data from the boat. I for one think it would be cool as hell to cram a boat full of the latest tech and race it heads up or virtual…
As far as Footy activity… I am a bit let down that I cannot find one other person in all of E. Washington that sails the little buggers, but am hopeful that I can con a friend or two into the hobby. I guess the best way to find more activity is to make more activity, so off I go…
Speaking of Footy activity, anyone in the Boston Area want to come join me at Storrow Lagoon on the Charles River Esplanade?
and speaking of pushing the Rules I had and Idea which probly isn’t legal but here goes anyway. You know how you have to fit the boat in the box in "racing trim"to be legal? well what about making the whole hull in two separate sections that could fit in the box at the same time? I guess to be in “Racing Trim” you have to be able to literally take it out of the box and drop it in the water but, there is nothing else that specifically prohibits this idea other than being in “Racing trim”. one might say: "yeah, its in racing trim but we just have to bolt the stern section to the bow section(think nesting dinghy). Thant way you could basically make almost an RG65 fit into the footy box?
No! No! A thousand times NO to discussion of major rules changes. We have a nice fleet going now in NJ, and I would guess that at least half would drop out if we made such major changes.
We had a boating festival here in Cleveland, OH, and I must’ve written down footy.rcsailing.net 50 times on Saturday. Later I printed up some paper cards with the address on it so we could just year them off and give them out to the dads and boys that were interested; about another 50 on Sunday.
Let’s try to redirect this a bit. I don’t want to see the thread turn into a rules debate.
John, you are correct that your idea would not be legal under the current rules.
Walt, there are no change proposals to worry about at the moment.
Botbldr, the current rules would allow a skiff like the video to be built, but it would not perform well because the ballast can’t be moved.
Now let’s get back to Frank’s original idea. He suggested a special event outside of the Footy rules to test the limits of our imaginations and building/sailing skills. 50 feet in a straight line with a 12 inch LOA hull. The boats are not intended to race in sanctioned events, unless they happen to conform to the current rules, and the boats, therfore, could not be registered. It’s just a unique event for unique boats…a Speed Challenge.
I think it sounds like fun. I’m going to try something outrageous…which may be outstanding or may sink like a stone. Frank, I’m in…even if it turns out to be just the two of us.
Bill
p.s. Good work Tomo…great idea.
John, the concern I’ve heard is that parking is a problem…if the logistics could be worked out, I’m sure there would be interest.