Jeez, Dick. Don’t go and have another stroke…[:D].I have to agree that Will’s description is entirely “on the mark”, and the good news is that sailing the rc versions of these things is almost as exciting. I would suggest you get prior approval from your doctor before trying one [:D][:D]
As far as racing rules go,Will, quite frankly we’ve sort of done all of above in our attempts to find format(s) suitable to this emerging hobby. In lighter air below about 6-7 mph, we tend to run reach-reach courses in the interest of keeping things moving in a lull. This course is also simpler in terms of RoW, as everyone is pretty much going the same direction. Stronger air allows us to run windward/leeward courses. A properly designed model will point upwind as well as the full sized versions. When out west at Ivanpah (http://www.iceboat.org/RCBoats/ivanpah04/12k-1.jpg ) we sailed r/r courses in the light morning air. When the wind picked up, several rc guys were sailing their big boats, so we didn’t try w/l, although we probably would have gone with FISLY rules if we had. Sort of “When in Rome, do as the Romans do”. The full size boats are now running w/l courses with offset marks, although I’ve heard they used to run mostly r/r courses. Our recent North American Fall Regatta (http://www.baycityrclandsailors.com/id25.html)saw us following typical iceboating rules. All races are now scored by order of finish of a predetermined number of laps, rather than counting # of laps within a time frame. There are some other considerations (http://www.ircssa.org/ircssanews.html) we employed to help ensure successful racing.
Regards,
Bill K
ODOM #217
FWIW I was based in Detroit and lived on Lake St Claire for a couple of years and we had our own private ice rink usually getting started about this time of year. We would take 5 gal buckets of the hottest water we could get and two people would go out on the ice… while one sloshed and later poured it out of the bucket, the 2nd would push a homemade mop with a terry cloth towel on it and leave behind us the most beautifully perfect sheet of ice you could ever wish for. If you want a perfect surface to attempt a record you are bound to improve your performance with perfect surface.
I grew up on a lake just outside Milwaukee and m dad used to “flood” a rink in front of our house as well. We had a lake pump that we used to pump water into out sprinkler system to water the lawn. We would put the pump away for the winter so that it would not get damaged by the freeze. If we got a bad freeze on the lake, my dad would pull the pump out of the basement and pump a bunch of water out onto the ice. The weight of the water would cause the ice to sink. It would form a nice shallow bowl shape that would hold the water that we pumped onto it. He would keep pumping until it flooded an area large enough for a full sized hockey rink.
We even had lights installed on our flagpole that would light up the rink so that we could play at night.
But I would say you would want a much bigger surface of ice than that for any sort of record attempt. Bill K hit a speed of 33 mph two winters ago. At that speed, you would go from end to end on a full size hockey rink in 4 seconds. when you consider the fact that you need to accelerate up to speed and turn when you get to the other end, you are going to need a lot more space than that…
But I do agree with one thing - you want as nice a surface as possible for a record attempt.
You also want a warm day. 35 to 40 degrees is ideal as the surface of the ice will have a thin layer of water on it that will cut down on the friction even more.
But the real key is wind! Give me a nice windy day and I could care less what the temperature is…
NOTE: Bill Korsgard’s video on r/c ice boat sailing near Madison Wisconsin has been posted on the KNOWITALLVIDEO web location. Filmed in late November of 2002 it is a dramatic look at the fun of fast ice boat sailing when the weather gets cold and the water gets hard.
