For Christmas in family: The Opti-Footy
Born to a request of my sailing club of “real” boats to introduce toddlers to the great principles of sailing , the Opti-Footy is used primarily as a teaching tool . So, with this tool, the children understand very quickly that front wind a boat is not moving, that downwind must shock sheet, etc … and that not enough peak tensioned creates a bad wrinkles in the mainsail … A Opti-Footy session proves to be more effective than a theoretical course of the same duration … and much more fun.
Another advantage of the thing, by very light air, beginners kids bored on their boats … a small meeting Opti-Footy before sailing has a strong tendency to motivate young troops …
The Opti-Footy has quickly seduces children who love it and monitors sailing club . For the oldest , coaches quickly saw the value of the formula to instill in their students the challenges of strategic positions boats , reading of the water and the effect of a lifted or a refusal on vessel position .
Coaches have also be used to explain the positions and “Match Race” rules .
For children and adults , the Opti-Footy therefore delight young and old.
Design / construction:
Given the “club” use by people who are not necessarily for modellers , it was necessary to design a robust and reliable model , appropriate economic and easily repairable .
The plans were extrapolated from the real plans of the " Optimist " , adapted to the Footy class, the freeboard was increased slightly and the hollower hull , deck plan is the exact reproduction of the existing model, an “Optimist” has a length / width ratio of 1 to 2, the Opti- Footy fits perfectly into the Footy gauge.
The hull is 3mm Depron and is very simple to build (6 items cut : bottom, 2 sides , aft transom , forward transom and the central couple) , the rig is carbon tube 3 and 4 mm , requiring no piercing, the Z was made with stainless steel hook 2.7mm for slate , the keel and the rudder are made of aluminum. The radio transmitter / receiver T2M 2.4GHz 2-way, rudder servo : micro servo Power HD- D65HB , sail servo : Hitec HS- 82MG on cassette , sailing made with plastic bag.
performance :
Although the Opti-Footy was not designed for the purpose of performance, it appears that it is doing pretty well . But not as good as a model of competition , the Opti-Footy is doing very honorably a game against pure racing models which makes it an introduction to boat regatta.
Its control is very easy, the boat is very responsive and because it is very weighted , it is very tolerant , which was the goal in this case for the sailing club.
Plans:
The plans will be released when I have a little time to put them to own ! But if many of you ask me , I 'll make sure to send them before Christmas …
Jean-François Bessière
French Footy Registrar